Presentation at the Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics

November, 21th - Members of the first and only Russian team
participating in the Google Lunar X-Prize made their first formal
presentation at the Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics in Moscow. The
team's formation was announced just two months ago.

Nikolay Dzis-Voynarovskiy, Nikolay Romanov, Sergey Sedykh and Pavel
Sharov spoke at length about the objectives and status of the
Selenokhod project. Afterwards, they answered questions from experts,
journalists and the general public who were visiting the museum.

Two Russian cosmonauts, Alexander Serebrov and Oleg Kononenko, along
with the space hardware expert and operator of the two Soviet
“Lunokhod” lunar rovers, Vyacheslav Dovgan, were honored VIPs at the
event. Together, they shared their space experiences with the audience,
while emphasizing the importance of Selenokhod project for Russian
society. Museum director Yuriy Solomko also participated.

Lunokhod operator Dovgan was able to demonstrate the recently upgraded
mock-up of the proposed Selenokhod lunar rover -- it now features a new
video camera -- by navigating it across the museum floor. At the same
time, he talked about Soviet lunar operations in the 1970s. Meanwhile,
the audience could see pictures of the ”Luna-16” probe and “Lunokhod-1”
in the background mixed together with plasma panels which displayed
futuristic images of what Selenokhod's camera will record as it travels
across the lunar surface in the not too distant future.

Media coverage was extensive with 9 TV channels present, along with
various newspaper reporters, bloggers and other online personnel. At
the end of the show, everybody had an opportunity to drive Selenokhod,
and to experience firsthand the thrill -- and complexity -- of
operating a lunar rover.

All of this live space-related activity went on amidst the Museum's
impressive collection of Russian space hardware. Everyone was very
impressed by this very memorable event – especially the kids – and very
enthusiastic as a result. Team Selenokhod is really starting to make
its presence known in Russia.