An Arch of Our Own
May. 20th, 2025 07:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_sky_callsAs the Munakhod 7 was on its way to the Northwest Crater Arch, another Munakhod rover, number 8, was being fitted with a KFA-1000 high resolution camera and being prepped for launch. It’s objective would be the Farside Crater Arch. Only three hours after Munakhod 7 had taken its close-up pictures of the Arch, Munakhod 8 had launched. As the Amerikanski Mun Truck was arriving at the Northwest Crater Arch, Munakho8 was beginning its descent to landing.
Orbital observations by the Zenit 4MKM and Soyuzkarta 3M observational satellites in orbit had determined that, while the Amerikanskis had landed at the Farside Crater Arch a year before, their second generation lander craft had left nothing of consequence behind. No descent stage debris. No scientific packages. They had landed, looked around, maybe planted a flag, and left. Under the current interpretation of The Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Mun, Minmus, and Other Celestial Bodies, merely having visited a site was insufficient to claim a sphere of influence. There needed to be an ongoing presence. A powered science package delivering data would accomplish this requirement. A mere flag would not.
And so, the Soviets would put a rover there to lay what claims they can.
And none of this landing kilometers away and driving closer nonsense. The Munakhod 8 landed only a few dozen meters away from the base of one leg of the arch, having to maneuver during the descent to avoid striking the arch on the way down, so precise was the terminal trajectory guidance.
The expectation is that the Amerikanskis will, in short order, begin landing rovers near the various Soviet sites to spy on them as the Soviets have been doing to them.
Orbital observations by the Zenit 4MKM and Soyuzkarta 3M observational satellites in orbit had determined that, while the Amerikanskis had landed at the Farside Crater Arch a year before, their second generation lander craft had left nothing of consequence behind. No descent stage debris. No scientific packages. They had landed, looked around, maybe planted a flag, and left. Under the current interpretation of The Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Mun, Minmus, and Other Celestial Bodies, merely having visited a site was insufficient to claim a sphere of influence. There needed to be an ongoing presence. A powered science package delivering data would accomplish this requirement. A mere flag would not.
And so, the Soviets would put a rover there to lay what claims they can.
And none of this landing kilometers away and driving closer nonsense. The Munakhod 8 landed only a few dozen meters away from the base of one leg of the arch, having to maneuver during the descent to avoid striking the arch on the way down, so precise was the terminal trajectory guidance.
The expectation is that the Amerikanskis will, in short order, begin landing rovers near the various Soviet sites to spy on them as the Soviets have been doing to them.
