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LUNOKHOD-1
(1) Lunokhod-1 consists of two main parts - an instrument bay and a wheeled chassis. Its total weight is 756 kilogrammes.
(2) The hermetically sealed instrument bay is a truncated cone made of magnesium alloys to ensure sufficient strength and lightness of weight.
(3) Its upper part is used as a cooling radiator in the thermo-regulating system. It is covered by a double-function lid. When lunar night sets in, the lid covers the radiator to keep the heat inside the bay, and during the lunar day the lid opens and the solar battery cells on its inner side recharge the storage batteries feeding power to the on-board equipment.
(4) The front of the instrument bay has portholes for television cameras, an electric drive for a moving pencil-beam antenna serving to transmit television pictures of the moonscape back to Earth, a low-directivity antenna to receive radio commands and send back telemetric information, and also scientific instruments and an optical corner reflector.
(5) There are four telephoto cameras along the port and starboard, two on each side. In each pair one camera is linked with a local vertical finder. On each side there are also four rod antennas to receive radio commands from the Earth on another frequency band. There is also an isotope heat source to heat the gas circulating inside the vehicle. Next to the heat source is an instrument to determine the physical and mechanical properties of lunar soil and a mechanism to lift and lower the ninth wheel.
(6) The instrument bay contains the transmitting and receiving radio complex, the rover's remote control instruments, a power supply system, switching and automation units, the instruments of the temperature control system and the electronic data converters of the scientific equipment.
(7) The on-board radio complex receives commands from the space communications centre and transmits information from the moon rover to Earth. It includes receivers and transmitters, automatic devices, two television systems, on-board telemetric data converters and antennas. A number of systems in the radio complex are used not only while the rover operates on the Moon, but also while it is on a flight path from the Earth.
(8) Each of the two television systems is assigned specific missions of its own. One of them, a slow-scan system, has two cameras installed in the front part of the hull. Its function is to send back to Earth pictures of the terrain necessary for the mission-control crew operating the moon rover.
(9) A slow-scan system, unlike its broadcasting counterpart, is expedient for a moon mission, since one of the key factors is the slow change in scenery as the rover moves on, and the rate of one picture scanned every 3 to 20 seconds, depending on the terrain and speed, is
quite sufficient as it involves no loss of information. The resolution of the television cameras and their angles of vision are sufficient to obtain the entire video-information on the go to keep the vehicle running.
(10) The other system is designed to get panoramic scans of the terrain around the vehicle and to take pictures of the sky, the Sun and the Earth for the astro-navigation of the rover. The system consists of four panoramic telephoto cameras installed in such a way that two of them scan the terrain on the right and left sides within a little more than 180 degrees in a horizontal plane and 30 degrees in a vertical plane. The other two cameras produce pictures of the terrain and outer space within 360 degrees in a vertical plane and 30 degrees in a horizontal plane. The four cameras are identical in design and their pictures are of high
quality.
(11) As there are sharp changes between day and night temperatures
on the Moon and also between the temperatures of the machine parts exposed to the sun's rays and those in the shadow, the rover was provided with a thermo-regulating system.
(12) The desired temperature is maintained both by passive and active methods of thermo-regulation. The passive methods include reducing the heat exchange between the various parts of the structure and the environment by using shield-vacuum insulation and external coatings with special optical properties. The active methods maintain the desired temperature of the equipment inside the instrument, bay.
(13) The external part of the bay's lid is employed as a radiator to dissipate heat into outer space. The heat exchange between the radiator and the instruments is achieved by the forced circulation of a
heat-carrying gas driven by fans.
(14) During the lunar night when the temperature is low, the equip-mentlin the instrument bay needs heating. Shutters cut off the circulation of gas in the cooling circuit and direct it into the heating circuit where its temperature is raised by an isotope source. Besides, at the end of the lunar day, the rover's lid is closed on command from the Earth to reduce heat dissipation from the radiator's surface at night. The thermo-regulating system runs on its own, keeping the temperature
within the prescribed limits.
(15) As to the power supply system, it consists of solar and chemical buffer batteries and automatic control instruments. A solar battery is the main source of power. Its cells are installed on the inside of the moving lid of the instrument bay and the driving mechanism of the lid is remote-controlled from the Earth. The lid can be fixed at any angle from zero to 180 degrees for the maximum use of solar energy.
(16) The instrument bay is mounted on an eight-wheel chassis to ensure the movement of the automatic laboratory on the Moon's surface - a major breakthrough in space research.
(17) The light, self-propelled chassis is able to traverse rough terrain and can operate trouble-free for a long time with minimum power consumption. The geometry of its running gear, the specific pressure on the ground, the traction characteristics, the elastic suspension and the bearing surface of its wheels make for a steady movement on loose soil.
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