Meet the Very First Rover To Land On Mars 59
toygeek writes "Before Curiosity, before Opportunity, before Spirit, and before Sojourner, the very first robot to land on Mars was this little guy, way back in December of 1971. Called PrOP-M, the rover was part of the Soviet Union's Mars-3 mission, which had the potential to deploy the first ever mobile scientific instruments onto the Martian surface. Article also contains Russian video on early rovers."
Re:Close but no cigar (Score:5, Insightful)
You've got to remember that here we are 40 years later and the Russians have yet to land a man on the Moon.
You make it sound as though it has been a Russian initiative for 50 years to land a cosmonaut on the Moon, but it only was so from 1961-1974. After 74, there was no such initiative for a manned lunar landing, so here we are 40 years later and for the last 38 of them the Russian's haven't been trying. You'd be just as correct to say that for the last 40 years the US had been unable to land a man on the Moon. So let's not overplay Russian space failures and US successes... (after all, the US has killed far more astronauts with its program than the Russians). Instead let's celebrate the successful cooperation the US and Russians have had in space.
Re:What incredible workmanship (Score:2, Insightful)
And how many other projects failed for poor workmanship or planning? I never said it impeded the overall Soviet space program; that is your own inflation of what I said. I simply noted that it was poor craftsmanship. What you've failed to grasp is that the Soviets managed their space program the same way they managed their military assets in World War II: they relied on quantity to carry the day; three T-34s for every one higher quality Panther or Tiger. For every successful mission you list above, there were quiet failures. Unlike NASA, the Soviets were prepared to take losses in stride.