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Found: 1970s Soviet Moon Rover, Lunokhod 1

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This contraption looks like it'd fall apart trundling over a particularly rough bit of carpeting, but it's actually much more durable than it seems. It's Lunokhod 1 and the Soviets drove it around the moon in 1970.

Lunokhod 1 was abandoned after it ran out of power up there, and the Russian space bosses didn't have a precise record of its coordinates—so it's remained lost for 40 years.

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However, astrophysicist Tom Murphy has tracked down the lunar clunker, thanks to NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter photographing other Soviet space waste on the moon's surface and giving him a good idea of where to look. Tom targeted a laser pulse in its direction—confirming it's location thanks to the bounced-back photons picked up by the Apache Point Observatory.

Now we have a precise point on the moon to aim at, it opens the doors to all sorts of science involving gravity, planetary wobbles and the moon's course through space. [Spectrum Boing Boing]