LK Lander - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

LK

Description
Role:	Lunar Lander
Crew:	1 to 2
Dimensions
Height:	5.20 to 5.8 m
Diameter:	4.50 m
Volume:	5 m³
Weights
Total:	5,560 to 6,525 kg
Rocket engines
RCS Coarse (N₂O₄/UDMH) x 4:	390 N
RCS Fine (N₂O₄/UDMH) x 4:	98 N
RCS Impulse	245 kgf-sec
RD-858 (N₂O₄ ) x 1:	20104 N
RD-859 (N₂O₄ ) x 1:	20055 N
Performance
Endurance:	Up to 30 days

The LK (Lunny Korabl—"lunar ship") was a Soviet lunar lander and counterpart of the American Lunar Module (LM). The LK was to have landed up to two cosmonauts on the Moon. It completed development and was test flown successfully in Earth orbit, but never reached the Moon because development of the N1 rocket

N1 rocket

N-1 was a heavy lift rocket intended to deliver payloads beyond low Earth orbit, acting as the Soviet counterpart to the NASA Saturn V rocket. This heavy lift booster had the capability of lifting very heavy loads into orbit, designed with manned extra-orbital travel in mind...

, required to take it to the Moon, was unsuccessful.

Korolev's N1-L3 plan

Korolev's final plan for a manned landing adopted the same method of lunar orbit rendezvous

Lunar orbit rendezvous

Lunar orbit rendezvous is a key concept for human landing on the Moon and returning to Earth.In a LOR mission a main spacecraft and a smaller lunar module travel together into lunar orbit. The lunar module then independently descends to the lunar surface. After completion of the mission there, a...

as Project Apollo

Project Apollo

The Apollo program was the spaceflight effort carried out by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration , that landed the first humans on Earth's Moon. Conceived during the Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Apollo began in earnest after President John F...

. The Lunar expedition spacecraft L3 consist of LOK Lunniy Orbitalny Korabl (Soyuz 7K-L3)

Soyuz 7K-L3

The Soyuz 7K-LOK, or simply LOK was a Soviet spacecraft designed to launch men from Earth to circle the moon and developed in parallel to the 7K-L1. The LOK would carry two cosmonauts into orbit around the Moon, acting as "mother" spacecraft for the LK Lander, which would land one member of the...

Command Ship (a variant of the Soyuz

Soyuz

Soyuz is Russian for "Union", and was often used as an abbreviation for the "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" during the Communist era. In English, the term is left untranslated in the names of several Soviet-related concepts...

) and LK Lander. L3 would carry a two-man crew atop a single three-stage superheavy N-1 booster. A fourth stage, the Block D

Block D

Blok D is an upper stage used on Soviet and later Russian expendable launch systems, including the N1, Proton-K and Zenit. There were plans to use it for some other rockets as well ....

, would push toward the Moon the L3 (LOK+LK) as fifth stage.

Lunar orbiting

The Block D engine would also slow the L3 into lunar orbit. Following the coast to the Moon, one cosmonaut would spacewalk from the LOK to the LK (Lunniy Korabl) lander and enter it. He would then separate the Block D stage and the LK from the LOK before dropping toward the Moon using the Block D engine.

Lunar landing

An earlier unmanned probe of the Luna programme

Luna programme

The Luna programme , occasionally called Lunik or Lunnik, was a series of robotic spacecraft missions sent to the Moon by the Soviet Union between 1959 and 1976. Fifteen were successful, each designed as either an orbiter or lander, and accomplished many firsts in space exploration...

, a Lunokhod would be used to select a suitable area, and then act as a beacon for the LK. A backup LK would then be launched to the landing sight. The third step would see a manned LK landing with a single cosmonaut.

Earth return

After a day on the lunar surface the LK's engine would fire again, using its landing leg structure as a launch pad. To save weight, the engine used for landing would also blast the LK back to lunar orbit for an automated docking with the LOK. The cosmonaut would then spacewalk back to the LOK carrying the Moon rock samples, and the LK would then be cast off. After this, the LOK would fire its rocket for the return to Earth. The LK's docking port was a latticework of 96 hexagon-shaped holes arranged in an isometric grid, each as a potential docking port for the snare-shaped probe of the LOK to fit in without precise alignment of the two craft.

Testing

The LK was tested unmanned in Earth orbit three times, as Cosmos 379

Cosmos 379

Kosmos 379 was a test of the LK Lander . Earth orbit simulated propulsion system operations of a nominal lunar landing mission. Kosmos 379 entered a 192 to 232 km orbit. After three days fired its motor to simulate hover and touchdown on the moon, because of the burn in earth orbit the apogee...

, Cosmos 398

Cosmos 398

Kosmos 398 was the second unmanned test flight of the Soviet LK lander, using the T2K version. It followed the same program as Kosmos 379, launching on February 26, 1971 into a 276 km by 196 km orbit.-Mission parameters:*Spacecraft: LK lander...

and Cosmos 434

Cosmos 434

Kosmos 434 was the final unmanned test flight of the Soviet LK Lander. It performed the longest burn of the three unmanned LK Lander tests. It finished in a 186 km by 11,804 km orbit. This test qualified the lander as flightworthy. The LK was the only hardware system of the Soviet lunar...

. The first test was done on November 24, 1970, the second on February 26, 1971, and the third on August 12, 1971. All three LKs were launched with the Soyuz-L

Soyuz-L

The Soyuz-L , GRAU index 11A511L was a Soviet expendable carrier rocket designed by OKB-1 and manufactured by State Aviation Plant No. 1 in Samara, Russia. It was used for tests of the LK Lunar lander in low Earth orbit, as part of the Soviet lunar programme.The Soyuz-L was essentially a two stage...

rocket. The first flight imitated the planned working cycle of the Block E

Block E (rocket)

Block E is the propulsion unit of Soviet lunar module LK, developed in 1960s as a part of the manned lunar landing program.-External links:* - short technical description...

rocket block. The second and third flights were intended to test the LK's behavior under several flight anomalies. All three flights went well, and the LK was considered ready for manned flight.

Cancellation

The success of Project Apollo

Project Apollo

in putting American astronauts on the Moon

Moon

The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...

in 1969 meant that the United States won the Moon race, although plans were being drawn right up until the early 1970s. Four N1 launches were attempted but all were failures, despite engineering improvements after each failure. The second launch attempt on July 3, 1969, just 13 days prior to the launch of Apollo 11

Apollo 11

In early 1969, Bill Anders accepted a job with the National Space Council effective in August 1969 and announced his retirement as an astronaut. At that point Ken Mattingly was moved from the support crew into parallel training with Anders as backup Command Module Pilot in case Apollo 11 was...

, was a catastrophic failure which destroyed both the rocket and the launch complex. Subsequently, the Soviets decided to concentrate on the development of space stations, achieving several firsts in the process, and also a long-term Mars program, which continues to the present day.

Lunniy Korabl compared to Lunar Module

Because the translunar payload capacity of the N1 rocket was only 70% that of the American Saturn V

Saturn V

The Saturn V was an American human-rated expendable rocket used by NASA's Apollo and Skylab programs from 1967 until 1973. A multistage liquid-fueled launch vehicle, NASA launched 13 Saturn Vs from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida with no loss of crew or payload...

, the LK was created to be more efficient and less bulky than the Lunar Module (LM):

It had a different landing profile
It was lighter at only 1/3 the weight of the LM
Initially the LK was to have carried a single cosmonaut. A later variant would have a two-man crew; the LM carried two
It had no docking tunnel like the LM's; the cosmonaut would space walk from the LOK (Soyuz 7K-L3)
Soyuz 7K-L3
The Soyuz 7K-LOK, or simply LOK was a Soviet spacecraft designed to launch men from Earth to circle the moon and developed in parallel to the 7K-L1. The LOK would carry two cosmonauts into orbit around the Moon, acting as "mother" spacecraft for the LK Lander, which would land one member of the...

Command Ship to the LK and back.
To leave lunar orbit and begin descent, the LK used the same braking stage, the Blok D, which put the LK-Soyuz stack into lunar orbit; the LM used its landing stage engine (though later Apollo missions also used the SPS engine to help deorbit the LM)
The final deceleration, from a velocity of 100 m/s at an altitude of 4 km above the lunar surface, was done with a Block E
Block E (rocket)
Block E is the propulsion unit of Soviet lunar module LK, developed in 1960s as a part of the manned lunar landing program.-External links:* - short technical description...

stage, capable of multiple restarts. This allowed the same Block to also serve as the ascent stage to return the LK to lunar orbit; the LM's landing stage had a dedicated engine for landing
After landing the LK landing gear structure was designed to serve as a mini-launch complex for the upper stage's lift-off; the Apollo LM lifted off with a separate ascent engine.
The LK Block E had both primary, and reserve engines allowing for optimal reassurance of ascent; the Apollo LM lifted off with a single ascent engine, and had no backup or reserve. A failure of the LM ascent engine would guarantee a critical mission failure.

Current location

There are five remaining LK in various stages of completion. They are located at Moscow Aviation Institute

Moscow Aviation Institute

Moscow Aviation Institute is one of several major engineering higher education establishments in Moscow .Although the school is currently offering a wide range of majors and research...

, Orevo Research and Educational Facility of Bauman University at Moscow, at the RKK Energia plant at Korolev, Tambov Arsenal, and the A. F. Mozhayskogo Academy in St Petersburg. . The LK located at the Moscow Aviation Institute was temporarily displayed at Disneyland Paris.

Popular Culture

The "Valiant 11" lunar lander found in a museum in the game Fallout 3
Fallout 3
Fallout 3 is an action role-playing game released by Bethesda Game Studios, and the third major installment in the Fallout series. The game was released in North America, Europe and Australia in October 2008, and in Japan in December 2008 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360...

bears a very strong resemblance to the Soviet LK.

Appearance in the movie Apollo 18
Apollo 18 (film)
Apollo 18 is a 2011 American science fiction horror film directed by Gonzalo López-Gallego and produced by Timur Bekmambetov and Ron Schmidt. The film's premise is that the officially canceled Apollo 18 mission was actually launched in December 1973 but never returned, and as a result the United...