LRO Photographs Soviet Lunar Landers From the '70s

braindrainbahrain writes "Photographs of the Sea of Crises on the Moon taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter show the Soviet lunar landers Luna 20, Luna 23 and Luna 24, which landed on the Moon in the 1970s. In addition to the landers, it is possible to see the tracks made by the Lunokhod lunar rover! The Soviet Lunokhod lunar rover predates the first successful Mars Rover by some 30 years. (Note: Very cool old-style artists' drawings of the Soviet craft at the Wikipedia links above.)"

An advanced precursor civilization

[CottonThePirate]

Does anyone else look at these with the same awe as the pyramids. Like "Look what those primitive people could do with only boatloads of cash". It makes me sad the state of our local space exploration.

Re:An advanced precursor civilization

[Vellmont]

It makes me sad the state of our local space exploration.

I suspect you aren't paying much attention to space exploration. Does having two working rovers on Mars for the past several years, a mission to Titan, a probe soon orbit Mercury, more probes sent to Jupiter, multiple orbiters currently circling Mars, multiple different space telescopes, a probe currently en-route to Pluto, and a slew of other missions listed here [nasa.gov] "make you sad"?

If it does, I suspect you don't understand what space exploration is about.