Thirty Years Have Passed Since a Self-Propelled Apparatus, Moon Rover-2, Was Brought to the Moon

Thirty years ago, on January 16, a self-propelled apparatus, Moon Rover-2, was brought to the Moon from the territory of this country. The automatic station, Luna-21, brought it to the area of the Sea of Clearness on January 16, 1973. This space expedition was the most successful in the "lunar program" of the Soviet Union. During the four months of its work on our closest space satellite, the Moon Rover-2 covered the path of 37 kilometers and transmitted to the Earth 86 panoramas and more than 80,000 photographs of the Moon's surface. That was much more than the Moon Rover-1 did in 1970, two and a half years before it.

At that time our automatic stations were brought to the Moon by Proton rocket-carriers, "the rockets of the 20th century," designed by outstanding scientist Vladimir Chelomei. Space stations for the exploration of the Moon were designed in the Lavochkin firm by talented designer of space equipment Georgy Babakin.

The work carried out by the Moon Rover-2 has made a considerable contribution to the knowledge of our closest natural satellite - the Moon.