I watched a show on the Science Channel called “Tank on the Moon” last night, about the USSR’s Lunokhod robotic rover program, and learned just how much today’s rovers on Mars owe a debt to these Soviet lunar rovers. Built during the 1960s in secret, Lunokhod 1 landed on the moon in 1970 and operated for four months. The feat of launching, landing, and successfully operating a remotely operated rover on another celestial body wouldn’t be repeated again for nearly 30 years, with the Sojourner rover on Mars.
After watching the show, I felt like my own collection of LEGO rovers was incomplete, and felt inspired to build one. However, I soon remembered a wonderful LEGO version of Lunokhod 1 by Japanese builder Kei-Kei over on CUUSOO.
(Kei-Kei’s presentation is even what I would’ve done myself, with the Classic Space baseplate and Star Wars planet standing in for Earth in the background. I may still build one of my own, but this one’s too good to not highlight here on TBB.)
Head on over to CUUSOO to support this excellent project.