[FPSPACE] Could the Soviets have tried to FAKE a

[David Anderman]

In the December 1984 issue of Astronomy, Peter Pesavento suggesting one
conspiracy: launch of a crew aboard the July N1 to lunar orbit, followed
by launch of the Luna 15 lander a week or so later.

One angle would be for the lander to bring a soil sample up to lunar
orbit, the Soyuz LOK would rendezvous with the lander, a cosmonaut would
retrieve the sample, and return to Earth. In the wake of a failed Apollo
11, this would have been rather impressive. Also, if Luna 15 only needed
to reach lunar orbit rather than return to Earth, the soil sample could be
somewhat larger than 100 grams.

Open to question is if the Soviets would have implied that the N1 crew
actually landed on the Moon to gain the sample. I would imagine that the
lack of surface photos, the lack of a lander that could support a crew,
the probability that the hoax would be revealed by US systems would make
this unlikely.

One unanswered question is why the Soviets conducted parallel manned and
robotic lunar programs when they were so strapped for cash.

DWA