Soviet Lunokhod 1 Postage Stamps

Could NOT resist! I do not know who is more to blame - Carol Lynn Hazlett or Eric Ostendorff! I honestly cannot believe you can even find these - much less buy them so inexpensively. I will treasure these! Thanks to the seller!

Nikos' Blog!

My pal Nikos Giannakopoulos​ has a great blog and just did a wonderful review of the Parallax ELEV-8 Quadcopter.

The blog is here - https://gianakop.wordpress.com/ By the way - it is in Greek - just like the New Testament! ;-)

This guy is a wonderful educator and robotics innovator! Check his blog out - you will be impressed.

Lunar Rover

The United States Lunar Rover is documented in this video program. More great stuff!

The section on how they fit the Rover in the allotted space is incredible!  

Another Video of Lunokhod 1 - Луноход I

Best video I have found yet on the Lunokhod1 - Луноход 1 - Great simulations open this video... 

Великие открытия / Вячеслав Довгань, пилот лунохода
or Great Discoveries / Vyacheslav Dovgan, Moonwalker Pilot

As you may know from earlier posts Lunokhod (Луноход in Russian) is translated Moonwalker.

This video gives a view of how the space program was followed with pride by folks in the Soviet Union at a time parallel to when I was growing up in the U.S. watching our space program unfold. 

The images literally bring tears to my eyes because of all they communicate about that period of time - the joy of discovery - the respect for ingenuity, science and engineering - and also the underlying fear and suspicion of our adversaries on the other side. AMAZING stuff!

Video of Lunokhod 1 - Луноход I

How is your Russian? Some great images here of Lunokhod 1 - Луноход I - This rabbit hole is deep!

Some other great images...

Infographic on Distances Driven on Other Worlds

In light of the post below, this Distances Driven on Other Worlds (Infographic - shows manned and robotic) from Space.com found here - http://www.space.com/79-distances-driven-on-other-worlds.html is extremely interesting. Compare the USSR's Lunokhod 1 and Lunokhod 2 with some of our more modern rovers - These Soviet robots posted amazing achievements even by today's standards!

The First Robotic Rover

Thanks to my robotics' friend Carol Lynn Hazlett for pointing me to the fascinating story of the very first robotic rover in space the Lunokhod 1. I had so much fun looking this one up! According to a Wikipedia article here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunokhod_1

Lunokhod 1 (Луноход, moon walker in Russian; Аппарат 8ЕЛ № 203, vehicle 8ЕЛ№203) was the first of two unmannedlunar rovers landed on the Moon by the Soviet Union as part of its Lunokhod program. The Luna 17 spacecraft carried Lunokhod 1 to the Moon in 1970. Lunokhod 1 was the first remote-controlled robot "rover" to freely move across the surface of an astronomical object beyond the Earth. Lunokhod 0 (No.201), the previous and first attempt to do so, launched in February 1969 but failed to reach orbit.

The most interesting thing I found though was the link to the Lunar and Planetary Department at Moscow University  here - http://selena.sai.msu.ru/Home/Spacecrafts/Lunokhod1/lunokhod1e.htm It had these great photos.

What a great piece of history! Thanks for the fun chance to learn something new Carol! 

Space rovers are covered at Wikipedia in general here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rover_(space_exploration)

Edit - Carol just pointed me to this also (even earlier mission!) - http://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/soviet-union-first-moon