How much did the Soviets know about the locations and strengths of the mascons?the US conducted an intentional reconnoitering before the landing missions. Did the Soviets gather open source data from those, did they do their own detailed mapping, or did they just expect it wouldn’t be an issue for the first small landers?
Hard to say, but as they didn't have anything in low lunar orbit, which is how the Americans found out they were a problem, it seems highly likely they were dependent on US data.
They were more focused on surface explorations using Lunokhods and sample returns with Luna probes.
Some proposals for more extended stays included crewed observations from orbit, using a separate craft, over a period of weeks.
How much did the Soviets know about the locations and strengths of the mascons?the US conducted an intentional reconnoitering before the landing missions. Did the Soviets gather open source data from those, did they do their own detailed mapping, or did they just expect it wouldn’t be an issue for the first small landers?
Hard to say, but as they didn't have anything in low lunar orbit, which is how the Americans found out they were a problem, it seems highly likely they were dependent on US data.
They were more focused on surface explorations using Lunokhods and sample returns with Luna probes.
Some proposals for more extended stays included crewed observations from orbit, using a separate craft, over a period of weeks.
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