Mission Details
| Mission Name: Luna 17 |
| Mission Type: Lunar Lander |
| Operator: Soviet Union (Roscosmos) |
| Launching State: Soviet Union/Russia |
| Location: Sea of Rains |
| Latitude: 38.238 |
| Longitude: -34.997 |
| Launch Date: 10 November 1970, 14:40:01 UT |
| Landing Date: 17 November 1970, 06:28 UT |
| Objects on or Related to Site: Luna 17 Lunokhod 1 |
| Image Source: NASA |
Description
Luna 17 was designed to deliver a robotic rover called “Lunokhod 1” to the lunar surface. The rover was to travel to various locations under the real-time control of operators on Earth and conduct tests on the lunar soil for 3 lunar days (about 3 Earth months).
Read more:
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/luna-17/in-depth/
Heritage Consideration
This mission deployed the first robotic rover onto the surface of the Moon. The rover, Lunakhod 1, operated for 11 lunar days, the equivalent of 322 Earth days. It traveled more than 10 km across the lunar surface, during which it transmitted more than 20,000 TV images and 206 high-resolution panoramas, performed 25 soil analyses with its spectrometer, and used a penetrometer to test the soil’s mechanical characteristics at more than 500 locations.
Object on or Related to Site
| Object Name: Luna 17 | |
| Cospar: 1970-095A | |
| Norad: N/A | |
| Location: Precise location unknown or undisclosed. | |
| Launch Date: 10 November 1970, 14:40:01 UTC | |
| Landing Date: 17 November 1970, 06:28 UTC | |
| Deployment: N/A | |
| End Date: N/A | |
| Function: N/A | |
| Image Source: NASA |
Description
Information needed.
Object on or Related to Site
| Object Name: Lunokhod 1 |
| Cospar: 1970-095A |
| Norad: N/A |
| Location: 38.316,-35.004 |
| Launch Date: 10 November 1970, 14:40:01 UTC |
| Landing Date: 17 November 1970, 06:28 UTC |
| Deployment: N/A |
| End Date: N/A |
| Function: N/A |
| Image Source: NASA |
Description
Luna 17 carried Lunokhod 1, the first in a series of robot lunar roving vehicles whose conception had begun in the early 1960s, originally as part of the piloted lunar landing operations.
This was the second attempt to land such a vehicle on the Moon after a failure in February 1969.
The descent stage was equipped with two landing ramps (in case one was blocked by a boulder) to enable the rover to disembark onto the Moon’s surface. The 756-kilogram rover stood about 1.35 meters high and was 2.15 meters across. Each of its eight wheels could be controlled independently for two forward and two reverse speeds. Its top speed was about 100 meters per hour, with commands issued by a five-man team of “drivers” on Earth who had to deal with the 5-second delay. The set of scientific instruments was powered by solar cells (installed on the inside of the hinged top lid of the rover) and chemical batteries.
After two midcourse corrections en route to the Moon, Luna 17 entered lunar orbit and then landed on the lunar surface at 03:46:50 UT on 17 November 1970 at 38°17′ north latitude and 35°deg; west longitude, about 2,500 kilometers from the Luna 16 site in the Sea of Rains. The Lunokhod 1 rover rolled over one of the ramps and onto the lunar surface at 06:28 UT.
