The Soviet Lunokhod (“Moonwalker”) Moon rover is under discussion in the comments on the “Congratulations, Opportunity” post. As I was looking at the photos of Lunokhod on the Wikipedia here, I was struck by how familiar it looked. It’s been bothering me all day. Then this afternoon I remembered this little toy, standing among all the other weird little objects surrounding our big TV:
It’s Lunokhod: our very own tiny (about 2 inches long) model of the Russian rover that was wandering the Moon at the same time as the Apollo program! Lunokhod is nuclear powered, it looks like one of those tubs you put apples in at apple picking time, and its technology was resurrected to aid in the clean up after the Chernobyl disaster. Plus it’s been hiding in plain sight on my entertainment center.
Lunokhod, the Tank on the Moon, is now this blog’s second official mascot.
(That Canon of mine, while deficient in speed in autofocus and writing to memory, takes a pretty nice macro photo. Image by Pam Bliss. The model Lunokhod is a capsule toy from Japan, and appears courtesy of Wolfie.)
I’ve been thinking for the last couple of days… I was pretty sure I’d sent you a Lunokhod capsule toy at some point in the last few years, but I wasn’t completely sure. Glad you re-discovered it!
Now just How Cool is that…
Wolfgang, my opinion of you, already very high, just shot through the mesosphere. Coolest. Toy. Ever. Given.
I’ll see if I can find another one for you!
A belated thanks to Wolfie for our Lunokhod– I was pretty sure that was where it came from, but was waiting for him to confirm. I know more about Lunokhod now than I did when I first saw it, but I always knew it was intensely cool.