9 Comments

It’s interesting that photography was their first priority on emergency from the lander. I wonder if they were to take a contingency sample, as Apollo did.

Was there a Soviet analogue to the Lunar Receiving Laboratory?

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No Soviet equivalent that I am aware of.

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Nice write-up, Nick. I bought The Soviet Reach for the Moon when it was published. I've posted the link to the electronic copy in several places. At the time it was the first publication widely available with decent photos and information about the L3 lunar program. I noticed you also referenced the “Russian Spacesuits” by Abramov and Skoog book. It's my Go-To reference on the subject. Loved the illustrations you gave us in this edition of the Substack. I'm very much interested in more information about the lunar surface activities. There was no reference to placement of any scientific experiments like the Apollo ALSEP equipment. Is this true? Anyway, great edition. Thank You, Sir!

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The weight constraint for the first planned landing were insanely tight. Just a few seconds to land. So only the most basic equipment was planned.

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That crewed Lunokhod raised my eyebrows. Nice!

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Yes indeed! It's well established though, and features in (I think) every version of the mission I have seen. They were REALLY worried about a cosmonaut on his own getting injured.

At one point they were looking at attaching a cable to the cosmonaut, and winching him back in if he got injured! More likely to be injured by being pulled through the hatch in my opinion...

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Nick - one more note. Do you have any information about the cameras they would have used on the moon, both still photography and tv? Thanks!

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Here is a lot of information on Soviet space cameras generally: http://mentallandscape.com/V_Cameras.htm

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No details specific to this, but the development of TV systems for space was covered previously.

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