News

Lunokhod-1 49th anniversary

November 2019 saw the 49th anniversary of the Soviet automatic Luna-17 Moon station beginning its work on the Moon surface and Lunokhod-1, the first ever in human history remote-controlled self-propelled robot to land and work on another world. NII-885 and other enterprises’ employees (branches of Russian Space Systems, part of Roscosmos) took part in creating most important systems enabling this achievement of the Soviet science and technology.

NII-885 and Special Design Bureau of Moscow Power Engineering Institute contributed a lot into creating the ground complex to control Moon stations. Space tracking stations were designed as part of the Moon program and installed near Simferopol and at Kamchatka peninsula employing RS-10-2M and TNA-400 antenna systems respectively.

Russian Space Systems holding chief scientific officer to create special ground complexes Evgeni Molotov: “Initially, the program to research Moon surface with the Lunokhod moving vehicle emerged from the LZ to create a transportation means for the cosmonauts on the Moon surface. Later it transformed into a separate program. The Saturn-MS control and measurement station modification was designed and put into operation in 1968 in Simferopol meant to control the Lunokhod.”

The employees designed and manufactured Lunokhod key systems – slow-scan television and radiotechnical, as well as ground control point. The television allowed mirroring lunar surface in the direction of vehicle motion. The topographical mapping was conducted with the help of data received by panoramic cameras, which were activated during the stops.

The slow-scan television system worked for 120 hours (11 lunar days). With the testing time included during the three lunar days it worked for 200 hours with the expected life according to the technical specifications of 150 hours. More than 20,000 frames were transmitted from Moon to Earth.

RSS continues to design telemetry systems, communication and control systems that can be used in the future Russian and international missions to study Moon. During the recent years the holding specialists have carried out a large-scale modernization of the Russian spacecraft ground control complex: the Vostochny control and measurement point, the ground control complex modernized including deep space communication means complex, which is successfully used as part of ExoMars project. RSS engineers are constantly refining onboard telemetry systems manufacturing technologies, and are ready to design, and manufacture such instruments for the perspective Moon spacecraft.