Nov 10: Surveyor 6 Hops on the Moon, Luna 17 Launches Rover

Host 1 Welcome to This Day in Space and Astronomy. On this day, November 10th, while we are jumping into a pretty fascinating stack of sources to bring you a deep dive into robotic lunar pioneers.

Host 2 Oh, absolutely. Declassified mission logs, geological research. It's a great lineup.

Host 1 It really is. I mean, we are moving from this wild historic landing all the way to, basically the very first extraterrestrial joyride

Host 2 it is such a great story so our first stop is 1967 with NASA's Surveyor 6

Host 1 right the lander

Host 2 yeah to touch down at 0101 universal time in the moon's Sinus Medii which translates to the central bay

Host 1 though I should definitely note the time zone quirk here

Host 2 oh right

Host 1 yeah if you were in the eastern United States it was technically still the evening of November 9th

Host 2 right Space time zones always mess with the dates a bit but you know after discovering the ground was basalt and sending back like thousands of images the lander did something wild

Host 1 yeah on November 17th

Host 2 exactly it actually fired its thrusters for two and a half seconds hopping 10 feet up and eight feet west

Host 1 and then it took stereo pictures of its own original footprints

Host 2 yep

Host 1 which is I mean it's just like a hiker stepping back to inspect their own boot prints in the mud

Host 2 That is exactly what it was like.

Host 1 But so tell me how did this strange little maneuver actually help human exploration? Why take the risk?

Host 2 Well it proved humans could safely land in similar terrain you know scientists back then were terrified of lunar dust acting like quicksand

Host 1 oh wow really

Host 2 yeah plus they wore the exhaust might crater the ground and swallow the whole module so this wasn't a stunt it proved they could safely leave the surface

Host 1 because up to that point nothing had ever taken off from another world

Host 2 exactly LROC scientists even call it perhaps the only spacecraft to land twice on the moon.

Host 1 That is so cool.

Host 2 It really is. And, you know, once we proved we could land and hop safely, I mean, the immediate next challenge was finding a way to drive.

Host 1 Right. Which brings us to 1970 with the first extraterrestrial joyride.

Host 2 Exactly.

Host 1 The Soviet Union launched Luna 17 at 1444 universal time and it carried the Lunakhod one rover to Mare Imbrium the Sea of Rains.

Host 2 A completely alien environment for a remote control rover.

Host 1 Yeah and the design of this thing I mean I just marvel at it was this tub shaped 756 kilogram vehicle

Host 2 basically the size of a breakfast table

Host 1 right on eight wheels but engineer Randall Lindemann points this out and it blew my mind it had zero autonomous behavior none

Host 2 zero computers making choices

Host 1 five humans on earth literally drove it by joystick using TV pictures with up to a 20 second lag maxing out at like 100 meters per hour

Host 2 Can you even imagine?

Host 1 You had to predict every single move blind.

Host 2 But I mean, the legacy of that mission is huge.

Host 1 Yeah.

Host 2 It operated for 11 lunar days and covered 10.5 kilometers.

Host 1 Which is incredible.

Host 2 It really pioneered remote controlled extraterrestrial rovers literally decades before we drove anything on Mars.

Host 1 Just amazing pathfinders. Well, also on this day, this day, just real quick, in 1968, the Soviet Zond 6 launched Turtles and flies around the moon and in 2009 Russia launched the Poisk meaning search or explore module to the ISS.

Host 2 Lots of incredible history today. But you know the final thought I'd leave you with to mull over is just to imagine the sheer anxiety of driving a one of a kind breakfast table sized robot on the moon with a 20 second joystick delay.

Host 2 That is nerve wracking.

Host 1 Thanks for tuning in. See you back here tomorrow.