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Soviet and Russian Lunar Exploration Brian Harvey Soviet and Russian Lunar Exploration Soviet and Russian Lunar Exploration Brian Harvey Soviet and Russian Lunar Exploration Published in association with PPraxisraxis PPublishiublishingng Chichester, UK Brian Harvey 2 Rathdown Crescent Terenure Dublin 6W Ireland SPRINGER±PRAXIS BOOKS IN SPACE EXPLORATION SUBJECT ADVISORY EDITOR: John Mason, M.Sc., B.Sc., Ph.D. ISBN 10: 0-387-21896-3 Springer Berlin Heidelberg New York ISBN 13: 978-0-387-21896-0 Springer Berlin Heidelberg New York Springer is part of Springer-Science + Business Media (springer.com) Library of Congress Control Number: 2006935327 Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers. # Praxis Publishing Ltd, Chichester, UK, 2007 Printed in Germany The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a speci®c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Cover design: Jim Wilkie Project management: Originator Publishing Services, Gt Yarmouth, Norfolk, UK Printed on acid-free paper Contents Acknowledgements...................................... ix Prologue ............................................ xi List of ®gures ........................................ xv List of tables and maps .................................. xix List of abbreviations and acronyms ........................... xxi 1 Origins of the Soviet lunar programme ...................... 1 The 1956 Leningrad conference .......................... 3 Introducing the father of the Soviet moon programme: Mikhail Tikhonravov ..................................... 4 Soviet space programme before Sputnik..................... 7 The postwar mobilization .............................. 9 References ........................................ 13 2The ®rst moon probes ................................. 15 1958 proposals for moon rockets ......................... 17 An upper stage: enter Semyon Kosberg ..................... 19 A tracking network .................................. 21 Only hours apart: the moon race, autumn 1958 ............... 22 First Cosmic Ship ................................... 25 Thebigredlie?.................................... 28 Second Cosmic Ship ................................. 30 The Automatic Interplanetary Station ...................... 34 First moonshots .................................... 42 References ........................................ 43 vi Contents 3 Planning the lunar landing .............................. 45 Vostok Zh: a conceptualstudy .......................... 45 The Soyuz complex .................................. 47 Joint ¯ight to the moon proposed by Kennedy, agreed by Khrushchev 52 Revising the Soyuz complex ............................ 54 Soviet decision to go to the moon, August 1964 . .............. 56 Changing ways to go ................................. 59 Korolev's N-1.................................. 60 R-56............................................ 61 UR-700.......................................... 62 The ®nalroute decided ............................... 65 Russia's three ways to go .............................. 66 References ........................................ 67 4 The soft-landers and orbiters ............................ 69 Origins .......................................... 69 New lunar rocket ................................... 70 Ye-6 lunar lander ................................... 72 The tracking system.................................. 75 Luna 4 and the 1963, 1964 rounds of launchings. .............. 77 Introducing Georgi Babakin ............................ 79 Return to the moon ................................. 81 Lunar farside photography ............................. 82 Korolev dies: the Mishin succession ....................... 87 `A major step toward a manned landing' .................... 88 The landers: a summary ............................... 94 Now for lunar orbit ................................. 96 The lunar photography missions ......................... 101 Ye-6SandYe-6LF.............................. 106 Finally, communications tests ........................... 106 Orbiters, in conclusion ................................ 108 References ........................................ 108 5 The ®rst cosmonauts to the moon ......................... 111 The rocket for circling the moon: the UR-500K Proton .......... 111 The rocket for the landing: the N-1 ....................... 116 Building the N-1.................................... 120 A spaceship to circle the moon .......................... 128 Zond's ancestor: Soyuz ............................... 129 The spaceship to circle the moon: the L-1, Zond. .............. 133 The spaceship for orbiting the moon: the Luniy Orbitalny Korabl, LOK 141 The spaceship to land on the moon: the Luniy Korabl,LK........ 143 Russia: the moonwalk ................................ 149 Tracking ......................................... 153 The cosmonaut squad ................................ 154 Contents vii Russia's moon team: selection for around-the-moon and landing mis- sions .......................................... 163 L-1 selection for around-the-moon mission (October 1968) ........ 164 Moon-landing team .................................. 164 Final cosmonaut selection for landing mission ................ 168 Cosmonauts selected to land the LK on the moon ............. 169 Alexei Leonov, the ®rst man on the moon ................... 171 Returning to Earth: the Soviet lunar isolation unit ............. 179 References ........................................ 181 6 Around the moon.................................... 183 L-1 Zond 5 ....................................... 184 Soyuz ¯ies again .................................... 186 Last try: Zond 6 .................................... 188 Climax.......................................... 190 The mission ....................................... 192 What now? ....................................... 196 Soyuz 4±5 rehearse lunar docking, spacewalking ............... 199 N-1onthepad.................................... 205 `Like Stalingrad, but without the Stuka dive bombers' ........... 207 Russia's last challenge ................................ 209 Winding down the L-1 Zond around-the-moon programme ........ 215 Testing the LK and the LOK . .......................... 219 Cancellation of the moon-landing programme................. 222 Redirection: the N1-L3M plan. .......................... 222 Fourth ¯ight of the N-1 ............................... 225 The plotters move: cancellation of the N1-L3M programme ....... 227 A realalternative: space stations ......................... 230 The race that never was ............................... 232 References ........................................ 236 7 Samplers, rovers and orbiters ............................ 239 Luna 16 ......................................... 240 The genius of Okhotsimsky. .......................... 243 Designing a lunar rover ............................... 247 Into the Sea of Rains ................................ 252 `Lunokhod, not Lunostop' . .......................... 258 Now to the lunar highlands . .......................... 262 Along the rille of Le Monnier Bay ........................ 264 Moon orbiters ..................................... 272 Orbits of Luna 19, 22 . .......................... 274 Return to the Sea of Crises. .......................... 275 Ye-8 series: scienti®c outcomes ....................... 278 Winding down the programme of automatic lunar exploration ...... 279 Achievements of the Soviet automatic programme for lunar exploration 284 References ........................................ 285 viii Contents 8 Return to the moon .................................. 287 After N-1: a new Soviet moon programme? .................. 287 Moonbase Galaktika,1969............................. 288 Moonbase Zvezda, 1974 ............................... 289 The Soviet/Russian lunar programme after 1976 . .............. 290 The revival? Luna Glob ............................... 291 Looking back at the old moon . .. ....................... 293 References ........................................ 295 9 List of all Soviet moon probes (and related missions) ............. 297 Where are they now? Location of Soviet moon probes ........... 298 In lunar orbit .................................. 300 Returned to Earth from the moon's surface .............. 300 Returned to Earth after circling the moon . .............. 300 10 Bibliographical note and bibliography ....................... 301 Bibliographical note.................................. 301 Bibliography ...................................... 303 Index .............................................. 309 Acknowledgements The author would like to thank and acknowledge all those who assisted with this book. In particular, he would like to thank: Dave Shayler, whose creative ideas helped to shape this book; Rex Hall, for his comments and advice on the Soviet cosmonaut squad and making available his collection for study; Phil Clark of Molniya Space Consultancy,
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