Have you seen the Lunokhod 2 rover This has been the question on the minds of scientists and astrologers in Russia and around the world for nearly 37 years since Lunokhod 2 landed on the moon in 1973. This 37 year old mystery of the lost Lunokhod 2 rover has been solved by a Canadian, Phil Stooke a Professor at the University of Western Ontario. "The discovery was hardly like winning the 1960s race to the moon," Mr. Stooke said with amusement.
Phil Stooke followed the tracks that were left behind on the celestial body from the Lunokhod 2 where it eventually drove into a crater and was unable to come out. Soil accidentally covered its heat radiator, which caused it to overheat and stop working all together.
Russian rover Lunokhod 2 was the second of the two unmanned lunar rovers that have landed on the moon by the Soviet Union. Lunokhod landed on the moon a month after the last American moonwalk. Its mission was to collect images, x-ray the sun, study soil and measure magnetic fields. In its one year in operation it produced a very comprehensive moon map. Phil Stooke states, "The mystery surrounding the Lunokhod 2 rover has been persisting for at least 37 years. That small machine, which the Soviet Union sent at the time to travel on the Moon, completed a 35-kilometer trek on the surface, making it the longest rover trip on another celestial body in the history of space exploration."
Source: Picture by NASA
