Soviet crewed lunar programs
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The Soviet-crewed lunar programs were a series of programs pursued by the Soviet Union to land humans on the Moon, in competition with the United States Apollo program. The Soviet government publicly denied participating in such a competition, but secretly pursued two programs in the 1960s: crewed lunar flyby missions using Soyuz 7K-L1 (Zond) spacecraft launched with the Proton-K rocket, and a crewed lunar landing using Soyuz 7K-LOK and LK spacecraft launched with the N1 rocket. Following the dual American successes of the first crewed lunar orbit on 24–25 December 1968 (Apollo 8) and the first Moon landing on July 20, 1969 (Apollo 11), and a series of catastrophic N1 failures, both Soviet programs were eventually brought to an end. The Proton-based Zond program was canceled in 1970, and the N1-L3 program was de facto terminated in 1974 and officially canceled in 1976. Details of both Soviet programs were kept secret until 1990 when the government allowed them to be published under the policy of glasnost.
Soviet cosmonauts neither orbited nor landed on the Moon.
Early concepts
As early as 1961, the Soviet leadership had made public pronouncements about landing a man on the
Soyuz-A-B-C and N1
In its preliminary Moon plans, Korolev's design bureau initially promoted the
UR-500K / LK-1 and UR-700 / LK-3
Another main space design bureau, headed by
R-56
The R-56 which was developed between April 1962 and June 1964 was considered for involvement with the lunar program.[3][4]
Reaction to Apollo
In the early stage of the Soviet and US crewed lunar program, U.S. President
The Soviet government issued a response to the American Apollo challenge after three years. According to the first government decree about the Soviet crewed Moon programs (Decree 655-268, ' On Work on the Exploration of the Moon and Mastery of Space '), adopted in August 1964, Chelomei was instructed to develop a Moon flyby program with a projected first flight by the end of 1966, and Korolev was instructed to develop the Moon landing program with a first flight by the end of 1967.[7]
Following the change in Soviet leadership from Khrushchev to Leonid Brezhnev in 1964, the Soviet government in September 1965 assigned the flyby program to Korolev, who redesigned the cislunar mission to use his own Soyuz 7K-L1 spacecraft and Chelomei's Proton rocket.
Korolev organized full-scale development of both programs, but died after surgery in January 1966.[8] According to a government decree of February 1967, the first crewed flyby was scheduled for mid-1967, and the first crewed landing for the end of 1968.
Moon flyby UR-500K(Proton)/L1(Zond) program
Launched by a 3-staged Proton rocket, the L1 (Zond) was a spacecraft from the
Moon landing N1/L3 program
The crewed landing plan adopted a similar method to the single launch and lunar orbit rendezvous of the Apollo project.
For mission safety, weeks before the crewed mission, an LK-R uncrewed L3 complex and two
The N1 rocket would then carry the L3 Moon expedition complex, with two spacecraft (LOK and LK) and two (
The L3 complex to be placed in LEO by the N1 was 93 tons (compared to Saturn V's 137 tons). The mass of the LOK and LK was 40% of the Apollo complex, but was equivalent to the L3 complex without Block G.
The booster for the LEO toward the Moon for the Apollo vehicle was provided by the last stage of the Saturn V, while for the Block D, LOK and LK, this was to be provided by Block G of the same L3 complex.
During the L3 complex's journey to the Moon, there would be no need to undock and re-dock the orbital and landing craft as was done in Apollo, because the cosmonaut would transfer from the LOK to LK by a 'spacewalk'. On the Apollo missions, the transfer was done using an internal passage.
Once in orbit, the LK with Block D would separate from the LOK and descend toward the surface of the Moon using the Block D engine. After Block D exhausted its fuel, the LK was to separate and complete landing using its own Blok E engine.
On the Moon, the cosmonaut would take Moon walks, use Lunokhods, collect rocks, and plant the
After a few hours on the lunar surface, the LK's engine would fire again using its landing structure as a launch pad, as with Apollo. To save weight, the engine used for landing would blast the LK back to lunar orbit for an automated docking with the LOK. The cosmonaut then would spacewalk back to the LOK carrying rock samples.
The LK would then be cast off, after which the LOK would fire its rocket for the return to Earth.
Launch schedules
As of 1967, the L1/L3 launch schedules were:
UR-500K(Proton)/L1(Zond) program
- 2P: Develop Block D stage (February or March 1967)
- 3P: Develop Block D stage (March 1967)
- 4L: Uncrewed lunar flyby (May 1967)
- 5L: Uncrewed lunar flyby (June 1967)
- 6L: Crewed lunar flyby (June or July 1967)
- 7L: Crewed lunar flybys (August 1967)
- 8L: Crewed lunar flybys (August 1967)
- 9L: Crewed lunar flybys (September 1967)
- 10L: Crewed lunar flybys (September 1967)
- 11L: Crewed lunar flybys (October 1967)
- 12L: Crewed lunar flybys (October 1967)
- 13L: Reserve spacecraft
N1/L3 program
- 3L: Develop LV & Blocks G&D (September 1967)
- 4L: Reserve
- 5L: LOK/LK uncrewed (December 1967)
- 6L: LOK/LK uncrewed (February 1968)
- 7L: Crewed LOK/uncrewed LK (April 1968)
- 8L: Crewed LOK/uncrewed LK (June 1968)
- 9L: Crewed LOK/uncrewed LK with LK lunar landing (August 1968)
- 10L: First crewed lunar landing (September 1968)
- 11L: Reserve
- 12L: Reserve
Korolev's death in 1966, along with various technical and administrative reasons, as well as a lack of financial support, resulted in both programs being delayed.[9]
Cosmonauts
In 1966, two cosmonaut training groups were formed. One group was commanded by
After Komarov's death in Soyuz 1 in 1967, Gagarin was taken out of training and the groups were restructured. Despite the Soyuz 1 setback, the Soviets successfully rehearsed the automated docking of two uncrewed Soyuz craft in Earth orbit in 1968 and with the crewed Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 joint mission in early 1969 tested the other key mission elements.
A total of 18 missions were related to the N1-L3 project.
Later developments
After the US Moon landing in 1969, the justification for the Soviet lunar landing program largely evaporated, although development and testing continued into the early 1970s. In 1970–1971 the LK was ready after three uncrewed test flights in LEO (
Four N1 test launches in 1969 (twice), 1971, and 1972 were failures, despite improvements after each crash. The second launch, on 3 July 1969 (an attempt to upstage Apollo 11 by 13 days), resulted in the destruction of the rocket and the entire launch complex, which delayed the N1-L3 program for two years.
In an automatic Moon flyby, these first two launches of the N1 carried the
The complete L3 lunar expedition complex with the 7K-LOK and LK for the Moon flyby and landing was prepared for a fifth launch, using a modified N1 rocket in August 1974. If this mission and the next had been successful, it would have led to the decision to launch up to five Soviet crewed N1-L3 expeditions in 1976–1980. To gain technical and scientific interest in the program, the modified multi-launched N1F-L3M missions were planned to have significantly more time on the Moon's surface than Apollo.
However, N1-L3 (as well as N1F-L3M) program was canceled in May 1974, and Soviet crewed space efforts subsequently concentrated on the development of space stations and on several designs and ground preparatory processes for a Mars mission, which continues to the present day, but has unclear objectives.[10]
A Moon base,
The launch pad and MIK of N1 were redesigned for the Energia-Buran shuttle program. Five LKs and three LOKs remain, at least, with some kept in the designer's and producer's company museums. Nearly 150 engines produced for first stages of N1F were kept by the manufacturer (Kuznetsov Design Bureau), then sold for use on other launchers beginning around 2000.
Gallery
-
LOK (Soyuz 7K-L3)
-
LK Lander - Lunniy Korabl ascent from Moon
-
LOK (Soyuz 7K-L3)(drawn to scale). Command ships for the Moon voyage
-
Apollo LM(drawn to scale). crewed Moon landers
See also
- Apollo program
- Moon exploration
- First on the Moon - a 2005 Russian mockumentary
- Soviet space program
- For All Mankind- American science fiction drama based on the alternative history premise of the Soviet Union successfully reaching the moon prior to the United States
References
- ISBN 978-1-4419-8150-9.
- ^ JBIS: Journal of the British Interplanetary Society. British Interplanetary Society. 1998.
- ISBN 978-0387218960.
- ^ Hendrickx, Bart (2011). "Heavy Launch Vehicles of the Yangel Design Bureau – Part 1" (PDF). Journal of the British Interplanetary Society. 64: 2–24. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 November 2015. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
- ^ "Address before the 18th General Assembly of the United Nations, September 20, 1963". JFK Library. 20 September 1963. Retrieved 16 November 2021.
Finally, in a field where the United States and the Soviet Union have a special capacity – in the field of space – there is room for new cooperation, for further joint efforts in the regulation and exploration of space. I include among these possibilities a joint expedition to the moon. Space offers no problems of sovereignty; by resolution of this Assembly, the members of the United Nations have foresworn any claim to territorial rights in outer space or on celestial bodies, and declared that international law and the United Nations Charter will apply. Why, therefore, should man's first flight to the moon be a matter of national competition? Why should the United States and the Soviet Union, in preparing for such expeditions, become involved in immense duplications of research, construction, and expenditure? Surely we should explore whether the scientists and astronauts of our two countries – indeed of all the world – cannot work together in the conquest of space, sending someday in this decade to the moon not the representatives of a single nation, but the representatives of all of our countries.
- PMID 31292553.
- ISBN 978-1-78021-000-1.
- ISBN 978-1-61530-039-6.
- ISBN 978-0-9847163-0-2.
- ^ Franchetti, Mark (3 July 2005). "Russia plans first men on Mars". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 7 February 2008.
- ^ LEK Lunar Expeditionary Complex Archived 2013-12-08 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ DLB Module Archived 2014-01-07 at the Wayback Machine
External links