— Ch. 1 · Origins And Development History —
Lunokhod programme.
~5 min read · Ch. 1 of 7
In mid-1968, engineers built a one-hectare test facility near Simferopol in Crimea. This site covered 120 meters by 70 meters and contained more than 3,000 cubic meters of soil. The ground included 54 craters up to 16 meters wide and around 160 rocks of various sizes. Workers surrounded the entire area with gray and black painted bricks. They called this place a lunodrom or Moondrome. It served as a training ground for testing Lunokhod chassis designs. Cosmonauts practiced controlling the rovers there before any mission launched. The facility supported all Soviet lunar programs alongside the Evpatoria Deep Space Tracking Facility. At least four complete vehicles were constructed with serial numbers 201, 203, 204, and 205. The original goal was to support human expeditions on the Moon. Weeks before a crewed flight, an uncrewed lander would send two automated rovers ahead. These machines acted as radio beacons for precision landings. They also provided visual evaluations of potential landing sites.
Engineering Design And Technology
Georgy Babakin led the design team at the Lavochkin design bureau. Alexander Kemurdzhian designed the metal chassis itself. Each rover stood about 1.3 meters high and weighed roughly 756 kilograms. The vehicle measured approximately 2.3 meters long and 1.6 meters wide. Eight wheels each had independent suspension, motors, and brakes. Electric motors sat inside pressurized containers within every wheel hub. A special fluoride-based lubricant allowed mechanical parts to function in a vacuum. Solar panels charged batteries during the lunar day while a polonium-210 heater kept components warm during nights. The lid covered the instrument bay and opened to expose the GaAs solar array. Controllers used television cameras and panoramic telephotometers to navigate. A cone-shaped antenna and helical antenna handled communications with Earth. The rover moved at speeds of approximately 2 kilometers per hour.