These mean solar day , we are used to get a number of robotic rovers ( and in brief , a whirlybird ) driving and flying around the Moon and Mars , sending us back photographs ofstrange features and rock .
The first robotlike geographic expedition of a eubstance other than our own come sooner than you might think , with human beings only beating our automaton chum to the Moon by a year . In 1970 , a little over a year after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the Moon ( and Michael Collins sit in the dictation module and vagabond behind the dark side of the Moon , entirely alone ) , the Soviet Union broadcast Lunokhod 1 to the lunar airfoil .
Delivered to the Moon ’s orbit by Soviet spacecraft Luna 17 on November 15 , the spacecraft made a gentle landing in the Sea of Rains on November 17 . Here , Lunokhod 1 made a grand entrance , rolling down the dual ramps to make the first ever tire tracks on a body other than Earth .
By today ’s standards , the roamer was not pretty , resembling a sturdy metal bath attached to eight hamster wheels . But it was without a doubt an impressive robot , carrying all sorts of equipment for studying the lunar landscape painting and send back image to Earth .
" Lunokhod was equipped with a cone - shaped antenna , a extremely directing whorled transmitting aerial , four television cameras , and particular extendable equipment to affect the lunar soil for grime density and mechanical attribute tests,“NASA explains . " An X - re spectrometer , an ten - beam scope , cosmic - beam of light detectors , and a laser gadget were also included . "
While on the Moon , Lunokhod 1 was operated by a five person team 1.3 Light Within - seconds away in Moscow on Earth , or about384,000 kilometers(238,600 miles ) .
On the bottom of the lid was a solar jail cell regalia to give power to the scouter during the lunar day , while during the recollective lunar nighttime the rover draw on apolonium-210 radioisotope heaterto keep itself operating while the temperature dropped to as down as-133 ° C ( -208 ° F ) .
The mission was supposed to last for three lunar twenty-four hours , or around 88.5 Earth days . However the first robot on the Moon was able to survive for a lot longer than expected , exist 11 lunar days , or 324 Earth days , at last powering down on October 4 , 1971 . During this meter , it had traveled over 10 kilometers ( 6 miles ) , conducted more than 500 lunar ground test , and transferred over 20,000 pictures back home .
