Canadian astronomer spots Soviet Lunokhod 2 rover on moon

[gedaliah_atl]

An astronomer at the University of Western Ontario has found a Soviet moon rover in recently released images from a NASA satellite.

Phil Stooke combed through data and images of the moon's surface from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter that NASA released Monday.

Stooke compared the images to his own recently published reference book on moon geography, The International Atlas of Lunar Exploration, and pinpointed the location of the Soviet rover Lunokhod 2.

"The tracks were visible at once," said Stooke, in a statement.

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/03/17/tech-moon-rover-picture.html#ixzz0iX9eBLo2

http://blogs.discovery.com/.a/6a00d8341bf67c53ef01310fb158e5970c-800wi

 

[jinglesassy]

Didnt the Lunokhod rovers take 30 seconds for a signal to get there and back to earth? Anyway i wouldnt of ever saw that

 

[Turbinator]

It takes approximately 1.26 seconds for a radio signal (witch travels at the speed of light) to get from Earth to the Moon, one way.

 

[jinglesassy]

It takes approximately 1.26 seconds for a radio signal (witch travels at the speed of light) to get from Earth to the Moon, one way.

Yeah but didnt with the lunokhod rovers take 30 seconds for the signal to reach the moon and back?

 

[DaveS]

Yeah but didnt with the lunokhod rovers take 30 seconds for the signal to reach the moon and back?

No. That would be physically impossible. As Turbinator writes, radio signals travel at the speed of light which is about 300 000 km/s in a perfect vacuum.

And the average distance to the moon from Earth is about 368 000 km. So it's easy math to calculate the time it takes a radio signal to travel from Earth to the moon: 368/300 = 1.22 s. To get the round trip number we simply double the single time with 2: 1.22x2=2.44 s.

 

[Lunar_Lander]

Is that place also the crater that decided the fate of the mission? As far as I know, Lunokhod 2 drove into a crater which caused dust to lay on its solar panel, which finally led to the end of the mission.

 

[SiberianTiger]

Is that place also the crater that decided the fate of the mission? As far as I know, Lunokhod 2 drove into a crater which caused dust to lay on its solar panel, which finally led to the end of the mission.

Quite probably so.

---------- Post added at 13:46 ---------- Previous post was at 13:45 ----------

Yeah but didnt with the lunokhod rovers take 30 seconds for the signal to reach the moon and back?

Having such a lag, it would be hard to drive it in real time. And they drove it following a live picture.