August 20, 2014

луна́

mosaic compiled by CA Wood of screen shots from Luna movie

A remarkable documentary movie made by Pavel Klushantsev in 1965 has emerged on the Internet. This is a great example of what Ian Steadman, the New Statesman writer of an excellent article about the movie Луна́ (Moon), calls retrofuturism. The 51 minute video starts with discussions (in Russian) of the landscape of the Moon, explained by Soviet scientists, with emphasis on both impact and volcanic origins of craters. The second half of the video, the source of these screen shots, is a combination of animation and studio shots of how the Soviets envisioned their future exploration of the Moon. They believed that the dust would be so deep that snowshoes (dustshoes) might be needed to safely cross some surfaces. The cosmonaut rappelling down a crevice is a far more dangerous activity than NASA would ever allow, and the multi-legged rover suggests that the Soviets anticipated a Moon much rougher than it turned out to be. The last line of stills shows habitats, including a spherical cave formed by an explosion (nuclear?), and a device for accelerating rockets off the lunar surface. The video is fun, showing a Moon that should have/might have been. If it had happened I might be sitting now in one of the habitats writing a blog about what the home planet looked like today.

Chuck Wood

Yesterday's LPOD: Two Gaping Holes

Tomorrow's LPOD: Blocks of Rocks

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