Russian Moon Rover landing did happen!

[ZenOps]

http://www.calgaryherald.com/technology/Canadian+finds+long+lost+moon+rover+NASA+images/2690499/story.html

At least there is now some visual evidence that the Russians did land a rover on the moon, with new ultra high resolution pictures from the LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter)

"The Russian rover, Lunokhod 2, made a 35-kilometre trek on the moon 37 years ago."

It appears to be a greyish blob about 5 pixels high (much like the Apollo base pictures) but the tire tracks are at least noticable.

The US has never had the capacity to independantly verify that the USSR actually landed anything on the moon up until now.

Our technical capacity in the year 2010 - we can take 5 pixel high pictures of things we dropped on the moon 40 years ago. Wow, we really are progressing fast now :(

[creeper]

The Russians had lots of 'firsts' in the space race. First space craft, first animals, first man, first woman, first un-manned craft on the moon.

Didn't think that was a disputed event. Certainly wouldn't garner the same type of responses as the "Did they really land a man on the moon" posts.

[ZenOps]

It wasn't a disputed event. Just completely unverifyable independantly. With any luck - the USSR or China will be able to verify the Apollo missions (or at least some sort of object on the surface of the moon) sometime before 2050.

The USSR also had no clue where their rovers actually dropped (latitude and longitude) on the moon up until today. They had an idea within a few hundred kilometers - but nothing for certain.

It was basically "A shot in the dark". There is a whole documentary about how they almost lost a rover to the terrain because they picked a bad spot to drive it into, and because of the 8 - second delay in receiving images.

[scat19]

cool

[mazdavirgin]

Originally posted by ZenOps
Our technical capacity in the year 2010 - we can take 5 pixel high pictures of things we dropped on the moon 40 years ago. Wow, we really are progressing fast now :(

That has nothing to do with our technology but more a fundamental fact of physics. You need a very large main mirror which means that it takes up pretty much all the space in the satellite and doesn't add anything to the scientific endeavors. Being able to see the moons surface in high detail is mostly scientifically irrelevant.