Posted on 03/17/2010 1:31:32 PM PDT by smokingfrog
An astronomer at the University of Western Ontario has found a Soviet moon rover in recently released images from a NASA satellite.
Phil Stooke combed through data and images of the moon's surface from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter that NASA released Monday.
Stooke compared the images to his own recently published reference book on moon geography, The International Atlas of Lunar Exploration, and pinpointed the location of the Soviet rover Lunokhod 2.
"The tracks were visible at once," said Stooke, in a statement.
The location of the rover was already known through laser ranging experiments, but there's no telescope on Earth or in Earth orbit powerful enough to actually see it.
"We knew within a few kilometres where it was. The laser beam spreads out a bit. It's not a pinpoint on the moon," Stooke said in an email.
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is taking pictures of the moon from its orbit about 50 kilometres above the surface. Its one-year mission is to produce a comprehensive moon map.
The Soviet Union landed Lunokhod 2 on the moon in January 1973, a month after the last American moonwalk. As the name suggests, it was the second of two solar-powered robotic rovers the Soviets sent to the moon. Record-setting trip on lunar surface
The Lunokhod rovers were the first remote-controlled vehicles to travel on an extraterrestrial body and still hold the record for longest rover trip at 35 kilometres. (The Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity have travelled 7.7 kilometres and 19.5 kilometres, respectively.)
Lunokhod 2's mission was to collect images from the moon, observe X-rays from the sun, study the moon's soil and measure its magnetic fields.
"The value here is partly the visual identification, but also the tracks, which will allow a detailed route map to be drawn >snip
(Excerpt) Read more at cbc.ca ...
“Russians built them or Captured German scientists and Engineers?”
As did we. LOL”
You are right I think we got the better ones!
“For all their problems and crappy society in general, the Soviet Union had some amazing scientists and engineers. Obscure math and physics journals from that era still turn up the occasional gem overlooked for decades. The fruits of a culture that considers chess a spectator sport.”
Yes and in Medicine also.
“Maybe he can find Obama’s Birth Certificate.”
LOL!
If you look closely at the photo, you’ll see a billboard with “Where’s the birth certificate?”.
“For all their problems and crappy society in general, the Soviet Union had some amazing scientists and engineers.”
Yeah. The threat of getting shot did wonders as an incentive to get them to perform.
“If the stories are true a German was the first to orbit in 1945, using an A-10 Rocket he went into sub orbital flight landing in the sea of Japan where he was picked up by the Japanese and flown home over the pole in a modified Condor plane. He was interviewed at age 90 in Der Stern magazine.”
Never heard that one before.
Or is it?
Nazis in Space? A projected documentary
The space race was one of the more exciting elements of the cold war between the United States and Soviet Russia. It was a duel of scientific accomplishments to see which nation could dominate space. The first to launch a satellite was the USSR and they were the first to place a man into space, Soviet test pilot Yuri Gagarin. Not long after his orbital flight an elderly man came forward with a bizarre story.
He declared that the Soviet Cosmonaut wasn’t the first to orbit. The feat was done decades before and not by the USA or the USSR. What other nation had trumped the two superpowers in space? According to Herr Raul Streicher, Nazi Germany sent up a man in February of 1945! He knew this because he was the Nazi astronaut. At first people saw this as an old man’s fantasy. How could the Germans do such a thing without advanced computers or complex rockets? It sounds too insane to be fact.
It wasn’t till the year 2000 that the prestigious German Magazine Der Stern investigated the claim and re-interviewed an 85 year old Raul Streicher. They began to put the pieces together and the more they researched the question the more evidence came forward that it just might be true.
The program came as a result of Adolph Hitler’s desire to bomb the United States of America. He believed that a rocket could go into space fly over the US, drop a bomb or bombs, and continue on to land in Japan, then part of the Axis Alliance. This wasn’t a quest for new science or prestige but a desire for revenge. The vehicle was a large two stage rocket called an A-10. It was a beefed up version of the infamous A-4 that is better known to the world as the V-2. The craft had large swept back wings and it was designed to slowly fly back to earth as an airplane.
100 of Germany’s finest Luftwaffe Aces were selected to be part of Projektil Amerika. Adolph Hitler himself oversaw the operation making the final cut from 100 pilots to just two. He used horoscopes to pick his astronauts rather than skill or background.
Because of the shortage of materials, the project was delayed. A large space launch center was developed in the forests outside of Wowelsburg. Raul Streicher and Martin von Dulen were the selected as the first to go into space. On the flip of a coin, Dulen, would go first.
He was set in the pressurized and sealed cabin. It had complete life support and an ejection system. A radio beacon was all that was carried on this ground breaking flight, this was to trace its path across the heavens. On February 18, 1945, the A-10 was launched. The main rockets fired successfully but, three minutes into the flight something went terribly wrong and the rocket exploded, killing Martin von Dulen.
An investigation was launched as a second A-10 was readied. The problems with the engine pumps was solved and Raul Streicher readied himself for the historic flight. On February 24, 1945 he took his place in the rocket cockpit and was blasted off. This time everything worked as planned, he flew into weightless space and circled half the globe, it is believed he flew over the United States, across the Pacific Ocean and splashed down in the sea of Japan. He ejected from the pod as the landing system had yet to be developed. He was recovered by the Imperial Japanese Navy. The test of the system was a success.
Raul Streicher was then placed in a large four engine German plane and flown back to German, over the North Pole, to receive a medal from Hitler and plan for the next, and more destructive flight. Only German reversals on the battlefield ended the plan to bombard New York. The flight wasn’t really an orbital one but more of a sub-orbital skip into space. Still, if true, this would have been a monumental undertaking. Could this story have any merit?
It is known that the Germans were thinking of space travel as far back as the 1930s. It is known that a Dr. Eugen Sangor did design an orbital space bomber that could reach a projected speed of 1,000 miles per hour. The silver bird, was his designation for the craft, and it had many of the same capabilities as the A-10. We know that drawings of the large A-10 did exist and there were four tests of a winged V-2 that might have been linked to the project. The A-10 plans indicated that it was to be a manned weapon where the pilot would set the controls and be ejected. The pilot could be rescued by Nazi Agents or U-boats for another attack. Still, could this be real or a fantasy of an old man?
A Documentary film could be made of this story. It would take more research to see if it is even possible. Maybe a team could go to Wowelsberg, Germany and see if there is any evidence of a space launch site. Maybe the records of the Imperial Japanese Navy might have an account of a German pilot picked up from the Sea of Japan in 1945. Perhaps the elderly German could submit to a lie detector test? The plans for the A-10 do exist; the specifications could be run though a NASA computer to see if it could make such a flight and take the stress of re-entry? The lives of Streicher and Dulen could be researched. Were they Aces? Were they even in the German air force? The A-4 was tested with large wings and footage of those tests do exist. Computer graphics could be used to re-enact the possible Nazi trip into space. It is possible that this flight (if it even happened) would have taken photographs to be of use on future missions. Do these images exist in German archives? Hitler did hint at wonder weapons coming in the last months of the war. Most chalk such talk as propaganda only but what if it was true? Did American Radar pick up anything odd in February of 1945? Perhaps the flight went from west to east, flying over the Soviet Union. Maybe there is some record in Russian files. Maybe a search of Nazi records might uncover other hints at such a space mission.
Fact or fantasy, it is a good yarn and one that would make a good documentary for History and Discovery Channel.
ping!
Uhh No! That is the car from “The Great Race”. Tony Curtis’s arch enemy “Professor Fate” Jack Lemmon.
hubba hubba!
How interesting! Thanks so much for this.
I can’t imagine that Von Braun wasn’t all over this. He wanted to go to the moon since he was a kid. Maybe he was?
I know there’s an obscure bomber that the Nazis were working on. They called it the NY Bomber. I think they flew one about 100 miles or so of NYC as a test flight. They never really had a long range bomber during the war—and this one would have been really “long range”. And I don’t remember what happened after that—maybe the war ended but I was thinking they flew it around late ‘44. I read this in some aviation mag back in the 70s. They had a picture of it.
Wonder why some of these ex-Nazi scientists have never discussed or mentioned the German manned rocket project before? Maybe the Russians got them and told them to shut up? Maybe we got some and told them to shut up?
I think you’re right, this would make a really interesting documentary. I’m surprised there’s nothing on the web about this.
Thanks for the ping, Bamahead.
I gave up the list, so am pinging to Clive.
The Germans had a big six engined bomber they flew from France to about 50 miles of New York freaking out a lot of people but Nazi records do not show this flight—but German aircraft company who built the ship do. The Space flight might have been done with SS in charge and they would have kept it quiet. They were planning to build and A-Bomb that’s why they had there engineers design bombers to reach Amerika to blast New York. The space flight was in preparation for a space plane to be called the Silver Bird. Rumor?Maybe? But could it be true or possible. The A-10 rocket designs did have a place for a pilot? With computers we have now we could see if such a thing was possible—it would be a fun show to watch.
Wow...I’ve never talked with anyone before who heard about the NY Bomber. I was thinking I musta dreamed it—it was so long ago that I read that article.
I don’t know why the A-10 wouldn’t have been possible. They had the V-2 and those worked. I’m sure they would have just expanded that technology some to accommodate a person rather than a warhead. Sure would be interesting to know. Wonder if the plans are hidden away in some dusty box some where in Russia? I’m sure they wouldn’t want to disclose they weren’t first.
Given their continued success with the V-2, I’m starting to wonder if there may be something really to this. That German mag you specified earlier—the article isn’t on line, is it?
From what I understand—from what I’ve read—the Germans somewhat gave up on the Atomic bomb (at least didn’t spend as much attention to it as they did originally because they couldn’t get it to work out). I know they were still producing heavy water and sent their notes, journals, etc, to Japan just before the end of the war. So I’m sure they were still giving it some attention—just not expedient. Or maybe that was just propaganda claiming they were no where near coming up with an atomic bomb and they were closer than the public was lead to believe.
I wish I would hit the lotto—I’d love to do this documentary!
Der Stern is on line with the story BUT ITS IN GERMAN. Pravda covered this and had some accounts they lifted from the German Magazine. Russians are paranoid about Germans (can’t say I blame them). The Germans are said to have tested an atomic bomb—using Jews from a concentration came as “test dummies” (this part of the story I can believe—sounds like some hideous thing they would do). They had them build a mock town, let families like there, fed them well and even gave them a movie house. For a few days and weeks it must have been like heaven. Then they detonated the bomb blasting the village and killing all—some died days later of radioactivity. At least that’s what some say.
Amazing...thanks so much.
I would really have to think if the Germans did successfully detonate an atomic bomb, they would have rushed the next one to the eastern front.
I would think that if the Nazis had an a-bomb they would have used it on Moscow, but I think the talk was to blast London, Amsterdam and Paris. Then New York and Washington Dc.
Hmmm...Moscow? I was thinking more tactical...that they would have used it against the on-coming Red horde. But dropping on their capital would probably have worked too. I would have thought Moscow would have been a primary target rather than London, Paris, Amsterdam, etc. After Moscow, I could see the others being the targets.
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