Космические первопроходцы – The Lunokhod programme

An overarching event during the cold war was the so-called “Space Race” between the United States and Soviet Union, culminating in the famous Apollo 11 landing on the moon on the 20th July 1969. It was, and still often is, regarded that the Americans won the race due to this event, however the Soviets managed to achieve many things before and after the Americans. These include first artificial satellite in orbit (Sputnik 1, 1957), the first manned space flight (Yuri Gagarin, 1961), the first probe to successfully land on the moon and transmit images (Luna 9, 1966), and the first rover to land and move on the lunar surface (Lunokhod 1, 1970). Many of these things deserve an article on their own, let alone the Soviet plan to put their own cosmonaut on the moon, but today I wish to focus on the Lunokhod program.

Figure 1: A diagram of the Lunokhod mission program. (Wikimedia Commons, 2026).

The Lunokhod (Луноход), or “Moonwalker”, program can be traced back to the start of its development in 1969 and were planned as part of the Soviet manned mission program. The Lunokhod rovers would be landed a few weeks prior to the crewed mission in order to survey the surface and ensure it was safe for a crewed landing. Of course, with the Americans making the landing first, the Soviets cancelled their own missions and instead decided to use the rovers as exploratory vehicles and scientific platforms. The scientific instruments they carried varied between each mission, but the general chassis featured a hinged lid with the solar array for charging during the day, eight wheels on a tub-shape chassis and a Polonium-210 (210Po) heater to keep the internals warm during the lunar nights when the solar array was closed. Each rover was 170 x 160 x 135 cm in size (L x W x H) and weighed 840 kg.

Figure 2: The front of the Lunokhod 2 replica in the NPO Lavochkin Museum, Russia. (Wikimedia Commons, 2026).

A total of at least four vehicles were completed before the project was closed. These are Lunokhod 201, Lunokhod 1, Lunokhod 2, and Lunokhod 3. Lunokhod 201 had a short but explosive life. Launched on the 19th February 1969, 201 was destined for the moon. Unfortunately, just a few seconds after launch the rocket disintegrated and worse still, the 210Po radioactive heat source was spread across a large area of Russia.

Lunokhod 1 had a much happier existence. Launched on the 10th November 1970 with Luna 17, it entered lunar orbit on the 15th and landed on the lunar surface in the early hours of the 17th in the Mare Imbrium (figure 4). During its life on the moon between 1970 and late 1971, the rover travelled 10,540 meters (6.22 miles), took more than 20,000 images, 25 panoramas, and 25 lunar soil analyses.

Figure 3: A replica of Lunokhod 1. (Wikimedia Commons, 2026).

Figure 4: The Mare Imbrum, where Lunokhod 1 landed. (Wikimedia Commons, 2026).

Figure 5: One of the panoramas taken by Lunokhod 1. (Wikimedia Commons, 2026).

Lunokhod 2 launched on the 11^th January 1973 as part of Luna 21, arriving in orbit of the moon on the 12^th followed by landing at 23:35 hours on the 15^th in the Le Monnier crater (figure 6). Lunokhod 2 only operated between January and May/June that year, but compared to Lunokhod 1, Lunokhod 2 lapped it figuratively several times over. It covered 37 kilometres in distance (23 miles), took over 80,000 images, 59 panoramas, and traversed the entirety of the crater and up to the rim, where it’s suspected the lid brushed the surface and covered the solar array which then covered the radiators when it was closed during the nights resulting in the rover overheating. Up until Curiosity, Lunokhod 2 had travelled the second furthest of anything on the moon other than Opportunity. It was also the last robotic rover to be placed on the moon until NASA’s Sojourner in 1997.

Figure 6: The Le Monier crater where Lunokhod spent its life on the moon. (Wikimedia Commons, 2026).

Lunokhod 3 was never given the chance to beat the record set by Lunokhod 2, as a lack of material and funding resulted in it remaining grounded and placed in the museum where it is seen today.

Figure 7: A rear angled view of Lunokhod 3. (Wikimedia Commons, 2026).

That’s not quite the end of our story of the Lunokhod rovers, however. Let me flash you forwards a decade and take you to the fateful day of the 26^th April 1986. In the early hours of the morning, Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant’s number 4 reactor detonates, and over the following weeks the Soviets attempt to keep it quiet and clean it up. However, the open reactor and extreme radiation means humans are unable to clear the graphite and radioactive material off the roof.

Brains turn to robots, which are slightly more expendable than humans, or at least can be more resistant to the radiation in any case. East German bulldozer robots are too heavy and will collapse the roof, so the Lunokhod designers are called in and two weeks they came up with a design. Designated STRs, they use the same principle as the Lunokhod rovers and bear some resemblance. As the Lunokhod rovers were designed to withstand the radiation given in space, they were already the most suitable thing to the maximum estimate of 34,500 Rontgen (300 Sievert/30,000 Rad) radiation coming from the reactor room.

Figure 8: One of the STR rovers on the reactor hall roof. (chernobylx.com, 2026)

On the 15^th July, the two robots arrived at the site and were put to work. Equipped with bulldozers and remote cameras, they could push the highly radioactive material off the roof and down to the reactor and other parts of the building below. While they worked for a while, they could not withstand the extreme radiation coming from the reactor, which was far higher than even space radiation, and so would eventually fail and result in the liquidators coming back in again.

Figure 9: The robots in 1986 and how they are found today. (chernobylx.com, 2026)

In summary, the Lunokhod program is just one part of the fascinating space race and the Soviet lunar programs. The achievements of the rovers is still vastly impressive and no doubt have lasting impact in space design today.

Berengar Needham is currently a student on the MA Museum Studies program at the University of Leicester.