Back to the Moon

Though the U.S. has called off its program of lunar exploration, Russian interest in the moon shows no sign of waning. Last week, only a month after the final visit of American astronauts to the moon, the Soviets successfully landed their second unmanned lunar rover in two years. Looking like an old-fashioned washtub sitting atop eight small wheels, Lunokhod (moonwalker) 2 rolled down the gangplank of its lander and parked itself in a mountainous region at the edge of the Sea of Serenity, only about 100 miles from Apollo 17's Taurus-Littrow base.

Under the direction of the same earth-bound "driver" who successfully operated Lunokhod 1 for more than 10 months (according to a local joke, he is a former Moscow cabbie), the 1,848-lb. vehicle promptly began reconnoitering the area. In the span of about half an hour, said Tass, it crawled about 30 yds., taking a small crater "in its stride." Its protruding lobster-like TV eyes gave the ground team "a good view of the moonscape." Then, after completing this initial exercise, the robot was given a day's rest so that it could soak up the sun and recharge its solar-powered batteries.

Nearly 200 Ibs. heavier than Lunokhod 1, which it closely resembles, the remarkable machine is apparently equipped with sophisticated gear to analyze the soil that it picks up. In addition, the robot carries a cosmic-ray counter, a "telescope" that can look for distant X-ray sources in the heavens and a French-built laser reflector, which -like similar reflectors left behind by Apollo-should enable scientists to measure the distance between earth and moon with extreme accuracy.

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