Posted on 03/17/2010 1:31:32 PM PDT by smokingfrog
An astronomer at the University of Western Ontario has found a Soviet moon rover in recently released images from a NASA satellite.
Phil Stooke combed through data and images of the moon's surface from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter that NASA released Monday.
Stooke compared the images to his own recently published reference book on moon geography, The International Atlas of Lunar Exploration, and pinpointed the location of the Soviet rover Lunokhod 2.
"The tracks were visible at once," said Stooke, in a statement.
The location of the rover was already known through laser ranging experiments, but there's no telescope on Earth or in Earth orbit powerful enough to actually see it.
"We knew within a few kilometres where it was. The laser beam spreads out a bit. It's not a pinpoint on the moon," Stooke said in an email.
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is taking pictures of the moon from its orbit about 50 kilometres above the surface. Its one-year mission is to produce a comprehensive moon map.
The Soviet Union landed Lunokhod 2 on the moon in January 1973, a month after the last American moonwalk. As the name suggests, it was the second of two solar-powered robotic rovers the Soviets sent to the moon. Record-setting trip on lunar surface
The Lunokhod rovers were the first remote-controlled vehicles to travel on an extraterrestrial body and still hold the record for longest rover trip at 35 kilometres. (The Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity have travelled 7.7 kilometres and 19.5 kilometres, respectively.)
Lunokhod 2's mission was to collect images from the moon, observe X-rays from the sun, study the moon's soil and measure its magnetic fields.
"The value here is partly the visual identification, but also the tracks, which will allow a detailed route map to be drawn >snip
(Excerpt) Read more at cbc.ca ...
Photo at link.
But no dead cosmonauts?...................
Saw a show on the largely unknown Soviet portion of the moon race. One good segment dealt with this rover and it was truly an amazing achievement.
Wow, from above can’t see the wheels. Wonder if is on cinder block and someone stole the wheels.
That is remarkable!
The space race was amazing and I remember the US sie had its own propoganda going- I grew up thinking John Glenn was the first man in space- not the first man to ORBIT the earth. That little detail was left out and no mention at all that a Russian man was first into space - I didnt leanr that until i was in college
There goes the neighborhood.
Russians built them or Captured German scientists and Engineers?
“Russians built them or Captured German scientists and Engineers?”
As did we. LOL
Anyone remember the old HBO antennas?
ping
Maybe he can find Obama’s Birth Certificate.
Looks sorta like a floater I have in my right eye.
Are there space aliens out there that have joined gangs that steal and fence wheels from Earth-made wheeled vehicle? That would make for a funny cartoon.
“I grew up thinking John Glenn was the first man in space- not the first man to ORBIT the earth.”
The first man to *orbit* the Earth was either Yuri Gagarin or Gherman Titov. Both flew in 1961. Glenn flew in 1962. Gagarin is generally credited as the first man to orbit the Earth, but he landed west of where he launched, making it a fractional orbit. Titov was the second cosmonaut launched, and made 17 orbits, so he did orbit the Earth. So Glenn was only the first *American* to orbit the Earth (or else the first astronaut, as the Soviets had cosmonauts).
Of course, they've had their share of tragedy, as we have. Komarov's (reputed) final words in his fatal parachute malfunction accident were truly heart-rending.
Glenn was the first AMERICAN to orbit the earth, after two earlier sub-orbital flights IIRC.
The first manned mission in space, by Russian Yuri Gagarin, (sp?)was an orbital flight.
I searched for Komarov’s final words but could not find them in the accounts of the crash. Do you have access to his final words?
We can’t “race” anyone now. The climate and Islam is a much more important endeavor for NASA now.
His last words picked up on the ground were: “This is Rubin calling. Separation beginning...” The reference was to the separation of the compartments. Then the cosmonaut’s voice got lost in background noise. Next, disaster struck: the main parachute failed to open, and the descent capsule hit the ground at tremendous speed, crumpling up and catching fire.
I’d be interested, too.
/space fan
Yup, stealth technology came from a Soviet mathematician’s overlooked journal article.
You must be a youngster.
I remember watching Yuri Gagarin’s and Alan Shepard’s flights in the 4rth grade. Gagarin’s was orbital, the first, and Shepard’s was suborbital. Gagarin was the first man in space (that we know of).
This was concurrent with practicing hiding under our desks when the hydrogen bomb warnings came.
John Glenn was a hero turned traitor who starred in the goobermint docudrama “Elderly Traitor ‘Rats In Space”, his first orbital flight as an American all but forgotten and heavily overshadowed by his treason.
Let Lunokhod 2 know that the Cold War is long over; we can work together now. (Yes I know it’s a machine, still...)
Duck and cover
Then kiss your ass goodbye!
Been there done that.
That’s the Munster’s Moonmobile!
Do they have drag races on the Moon?
If the stories are true a German was the first to orbit in 1945, using an A-10 Rocket he went into sub orbital flight landing in the sea of Japan where he was picked up by the Japanese and flown home over the pole in a modified Condor plane. He was interviewed at age 90 in Der Stern magazine.
Move over sonny! I think I was in the 8th grade when Glenn went up.
drool!
“Russians built them or Captured German scientists and Engineers?”
As did we. LOL”
You are right I think we got the better ones!
“For all their problems and crappy society in general, the Soviet Union had some amazing scientists and engineers. Obscure math and physics journals from that era still turn up the occasional gem overlooked for decades. The fruits of a culture that considers chess a spectator sport.”
Yes and in Medicine also.
“Maybe he can find Obama’s Birth Certificate.”
LOL!
If you look closely at the photo, you’ll see a billboard with “Where’s the birth certificate?”.
“For all their problems and crappy society in general, the Soviet Union had some amazing scientists and engineers.”
Yeah. The threat of getting shot did wonders as an incentive to get them to perform.
“If the stories are true a German was the first to orbit in 1945, using an A-10 Rocket he went into sub orbital flight landing in the sea of Japan where he was picked up by the Japanese and flown home over the pole in a modified Condor plane. He was interviewed at age 90 in Der Stern magazine.”
Never heard that one before.
Or is it?
Nazis in Space? A projected documentary
The space race was one of the more exciting elements of the cold war between the United States and Soviet Russia. It was a duel of scientific accomplishments to see which nation could dominate space. The first to launch a satellite was the USSR and they were the first to place a man into space, Soviet test pilot Yuri Gagarin. Not long after his orbital flight an elderly man came forward with a bizarre story.
He declared that the Soviet Cosmonaut wasn’t the first to orbit. The feat was done decades before and not by the USA or the USSR. What other nation had trumped the two superpowers in space? According to Herr Raul Streicher, Nazi Germany sent up a man in February of 1945! He knew this because he was the Nazi astronaut. At first people saw this as an old man’s fantasy. How could the Germans do such a thing without advanced computers or complex rockets? It sounds too insane to be fact.
It wasn’t till the year 2000 that the prestigious German Magazine Der Stern investigated the claim and re-interviewed an 85 year old Raul Streicher. They began to put the pieces together and the more they researched the question the more evidence came forward that it just might be true.
The program came as a result of Adolph Hitler’s desire to bomb the United States of America. He believed that a rocket could go into space fly over the US, drop a bomb or bombs, and continue on to land in Japan, then part of the Axis Alliance. This wasn’t a quest for new science or prestige but a desire for revenge. The vehicle was a large two stage rocket called an A-10. It was a beefed up version of the infamous A-4 that is better known to the world as the V-2. The craft had large swept back wings and it was designed to slowly fly back to earth as an airplane.
100 of Germany’s finest Luftwaffe Aces were selected to be part of Projektil Amerika. Adolph Hitler himself oversaw the operation making the final cut from 100 pilots to just two. He used horoscopes to pick his astronauts rather than skill or background.
Because of the shortage of materials, the project was delayed. A large space launch center was developed in the forests outside of Wowelsburg. Raul Streicher and Martin von Dulen were the selected as the first to go into space. On the flip of a coin, Dulen, would go first.
He was set in the pressurized and sealed cabin. It had complete life support and an ejection system. A radio beacon was all that was carried on this ground breaking flight, this was to trace its path across the heavens. On February 18, 1945, the A-10 was launched. The main rockets fired successfully but, three minutes into the flight something went terribly wrong and the rocket exploded, killing Martin von Dulen.
An investigation was launched as a second A-10 was readied. The problems with the engine pumps was solved and Raul Streicher readied himself for the historic flight. On February 24, 1945 he took his place in the rocket cockpit and was blasted off. This time everything worked as planned, he flew into weightless space and circled half the globe, it is believed he flew over the United States, across the Pacific Ocean and splashed down in the sea of Japan. He ejected from the pod as the landing system had yet to be developed. He was recovered by the Imperial Japanese Navy. The test of the system was a success.
Raul Streicher was then placed in a large four engine German plane and flown back to German, over the North Pole, to receive a medal from Hitler and plan for the next, and more destructive flight. Only German reversals on the battlefield ended the plan to bombard New York. The flight wasn’t really an orbital one but more of a sub-orbital skip into space. Still, if true, this would have been a monumental undertaking. Could this story have any merit?
It is known that the Germans were thinking of space travel as far back as the 1930s. It is known that a Dr. Eugen Sangor did design an orbital space bomber that could reach a projected speed of 1,000 miles per hour. The silver bird, was his designation for the craft, and it had many of the same capabilities as the A-10. We know that drawings of the large A-10 did exist and there were four tests of a winged V-2 that might have been linked to the project. The A-10 plans indicated that it was to be a manned weapon where the pilot would set the controls and be ejected. The pilot could be rescued by Nazi Agents or U-boats for another attack. Still, could this be real or a fantasy of an old man?
A Documentary film could be made of this story. It would take more research to see if it is even possible. Maybe a team could go to Wowelsberg, Germany and see if there is any evidence of a space launch site. Maybe the records of the Imperial Japanese Navy might have an account of a German pilot picked up from the Sea of Japan in 1945. Perhaps the elderly German could submit to a lie detector test? The plans for the A-10 do exist; the specifications could be run though a NASA computer to see if it could make such a flight and take the stress of re-entry? The lives of Streicher and Dulen could be researched. Were they Aces? Were they even in the German air force? The A-4 was tested with large wings and footage of those tests do exist. Computer graphics could be used to re-enact the possible Nazi trip into space. It is possible that this flight (if it even happened) would have taken photographs to be of use on future missions. Do these images exist in German archives? Hitler did hint at wonder weapons coming in the last months of the war. Most chalk such talk as propaganda only but what if it was true? Did American Radar pick up anything odd in February of 1945? Perhaps the flight went from west to east, flying over the Soviet Union. Maybe there is some record in Russian files. Maybe a search of Nazi records might uncover other hints at such a space mission.
Fact or fantasy, it is a good yarn and one that would make a good documentary for History and Discovery Channel.
ping!
Uhh No! That is the car from “The Great Race”. Tony Curtis’s arch enemy “Professor Fate” Jack Lemmon.
hubba hubba!
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