The Lunokhod

Obverse

a relief image of the National Coat of Arms of the Russian Federation and a semicircular inscription above it along the rim: ‘РОССИЙСКАЯ ФЕДЕРАЦИЯ’ (RUSSIAN FEDERATION) framed with paired diamonds on both sides, under the coat of arms there are the chemical symbol of the metal and fineness on the left and fine metal content and the mint trade mark on the right, at the bottom in the centre, in three lines, there is an inscription: ‘БАНК РОССИИ’ (BANK OF RUSSIA), the coin denomination: ‘3 РУБЛЯ’ (3 RUBLES), and the year of issue: ‘2022 г.’ (2022).

Reverse

a relief image of the robotic lunar rover Lunokhod?1 on the lunar surface against the background of coloured images of the Earth and the Sun; and the relief inscription on the left around the circumference ‘ЛУНОХОД’ (LUNOKHOD).

Authors

Designers: E.V. Kramskaya (obverse), A.A. Dolgopolova (reverse).
Sculptor: A.A. Dolgopolova (obverse, reverse).
Mint: Saint Petersburg Mint (СПМД).
Edge: 300 corrugations.

Discover more

On 10 November 1970, the unmanned spacecraft Luna-17 was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome using the launch vehicle Proton-K. It delivered the world’s first robotic lunar rover Lunokhod-1 to the Moon. The first three stages and the upper stage of the rocket fired to place the spacecraft into a trajectory towards the Moon. Luna-17 was launched to the Moon from an Earth parking orbit.

The spacecraft Luna-17 was designed to deliver the robotic lunar rover Lunokhod 1 onto the lunar surface and conduct research on the Moon. It was totally controlled from the Earth and was built at Lavochkin Design Bureau No. 301 (currently – Lavochkin Science and Production Association controlled by the State Space Corporation Roscosmos).

After examining the landing place and deploying the ramps, the spacecraft received a relevant command and at 09.28 (Moscow time) Lunokhod-1 moved down the ramp from the landing platform to the lunar surface. This opened a new era in the exploration of the natural satellite of the Earth by unmanned spacecraft.

In the course of the work programme, in 116 motion sessions, Lunokhod-1 travelled a distance of 10,540 metres on the lunar surface, examining in detail an area of 80,000 m2. The maximum travel speed was 2 km/h. Over this time, the lunar rover downlinked to the Earth 200 telephotometric panoramas and about 20,000 slow-scan images. The shooting provided stereoscopic images of the most interesting features of the relief enabling a detailed exploration of its structure.

Source: https://www.roscosmos.ru