Soviet Landers on the Moon and Planets

Mikhail Marov Academician, Russian Academy of Sciences Vernadsky Institute, Moscow

Alvin Seiff Award Ceremony San Jose, June 17, 2013

The Main Milestones (with Recipient Participation) The Moon

• Luna 9 – first soft landing on the Moon• Luna 16, 20, 24 – first automatic lunar soil return• Luna 17, 21 – first lunar rovers Lunokhod 1,2

Venus

• Venera 4,5,6 – first descending/in situ measurements in the Venus atmosphere

• Venera 7,8 – first landing on the Venus surface and direct measurements on the surface

• Venera 9-14 – first b/w and color surface images

Mars

• Mars 3 - first soft landing on Mars• Mars 6 - first in situ measurements in the

atmosphere

Luna 9 - The first lunar soft lander, Feb 3, 1966

Luna 13 – Dec 24, 1966

Venera 4 - Inside the Venusian Atmosphere Oct 18, 1967

CO2 >90%N2 < 2.5%O2 0.4-1.6%H2O 0.05-0.70 %

Last T - 262 CLast P - 18 barAltitude - 24 km…

Derived @ surface: 442 C 90 bar

Venera 5 and 6 follow up in May 1969 – both cease at 27 bar, 18 km

New Robotic Lunar Rovers and Sample Return Spacecraft

Rover Sample Return

Luna 16

Luna 17

Used new Proton-K launcher

Robotic Lunar Rovers and Sample Return

Rover Launch History1969, Feb 19 Launch failure1970, Nov 10 Luna 17/Lunokhod 11973, Jan 8 Luna 21/Lunokhod 2

Sample Return Launch History1969, Jun 14 Launch failure1969, Jul 13 Luna 15, crashed1969, Sep 23 Launch failure1969, Oct 22 Launch failure1969, Feb 6 Launch failure1970, Sep 12 Luna 16, success1971, Sep 2 Luna 18, failed at landing1972, Feb 14 Luna 20, success1974 Nov 2 Luna 23, damaged on landing1975, Oct 16 Launch failure1976, Aug 9 Luna 24, success

First Lunar SampleReturn – Luna 16

First Robotic Lunar Rover - Lunokhod 1

Robotic Lunar Rovers and Sample Return

Lunokhod 1 Panoramas Lunokhod 2 lander

Robotic Lunar Rovers and Sample Return

Luna 16

First landing on Venus Dec 15, 1970, Venera 7

1970Venera 7 launch Aug 17, 19702nd launch fails Aug 22, 1970

Venera 7 lands Dec 15, 1970

Venera 7 s/c

Venera 7 capsule

1972Venera 8 launch Mar 27, 19722nd launch fails Mar 31, 1972

Venera 8 lands Jul 22, 1972

Entry System Deployment

First landing on Mars Dec 2, 1971, Mars 3

Descent Sequence

Lander Deployed

Mars 2 crashedMars 3 lander fails 2 min after landing

First Mars Lander Mars 3

First Direct Atmospheric Measurements with Mars 6 Lander

Launched two orbiters and two flyby/landersVirtual copies of the Mars 3 spacecraftExcept for a crucial substitution of a transistorAll spacecraft plagued with onboard failures

Mars 4,5 Mars 6,7

Acknowledgements

I acknowledge the decision of the Alvin Seiff Award Committee and am proud to receive this prestigious award.

Slides in this presentation are partially taken from Wes Huntress and Mikhail Marov talk The Soviet Robotic Lunar & Planetary Exploration Program based on the author’s book Soviet Robots in the Solar System, SPRINGER_PRAXIS, 2011, presented at the Conference SSE@50, Oct 25-26, 2012.

I am grateful to Mike Wright for his suggestion to submit this presentation and to deliver it during the Ceremony.