Red Sky At Dawn:
In this propaganda poster, Lunokhod is imagined as a smug chain-smoker sporting a pair of platform shoes and a jaunty cap. He’s also a deep shade of communist crimson, unlike the white-grey Lunokhods of reality. It’s an image I often think about whenever I read the insufferably twee twitter accounts of @philae2014 the EU’s comet lander, or @MarsCuriosity, NASA’s WAL-E -esque Mars robot. Whilst they anthropomorphicise those scientific instruments as curious, childlike characters, the Soviets decided some sort of cigarette-wielding lad-about-town, a real Muzhnik, was the best way forward. You’d feel safer leaving your kids with Philae or Curiosity, but you know it’d be Lunokhod you’d invite on a night out. It’s a strange choice to modern, western eyes, but proof that even in robotic space travel, there’s a craving for humanising detail. We want to connect with these charismatic robots. American visitors to Moscow remarked that Lunokhod models were an extremely popular contemporary hit at the “Children’s World” toy shop.
