LZhM Credit - © Mark Wade

Laboratory-living module. Three story lunar surface residence and laboratory for Vulkan-launched Lunar Expedition.

Atop the landing stage was a four-lobed first story. Clockwise from the landing leg with the ladder to the surface, this consisted of cylindrical chambers containing: the airlock; crew washroom and kitchen; sample storage area; and control room. At the junction of the four cylinders was the crew dining and meeting table. Atop this was a two storied cylinder. On the lower story was the laboratory; atop this was the crew quarters. Total floor space devoted to work activities was 25 square meters, with 35 square meters devoted to crew quarters. The LLM would have been braked close to the lunar surface with the Block R stage, the descent stage itself only performing final descent and landing maneuvers. The crew would land in an LEK near the LLM and take up residence in it for up to a year.

Crew Size: 3. Length: 9.70 m (31.80 ft). Maximum Diameter: 11.30 m (37.00 ft). Habitable Volume: 160.00 m3. Mass: 21,500 kg (47,300 lb). Payload: 6,300 kg (13,800 lb). Electrical System: Solar thermal. Electric System: 8.00 average kW. Associated Launch Vehicle: Vulkan.

• 1975 January 1 - Vulkan Lunar Base - Program: Lunar L3. Launch Vehicle: N1, RLA-150.

  Mishin and Barmin, using budget provided by the Ministry of Defence, had designed a lunar base for launch by the N1 in 1969-1974. After the cancellation of the N1, Glushko pleaded with the Military-Industrial Commission for the work to be taken from Barmin and be given to NPO Energia. Glushko's alternative, Vulkan-launched base was elaborated within his bureau. Bushuyev developed spacecraft for the base. Prudnikova developed a modular lunar city, with living modules, factory modules, a nuclear reactor power module, and a lunar crawler with a 200 km radius of action. The project work was only finally cancelled after the Apollo-Soyuz flights.

• 1977 December 1 - Glushko uninterested in further lunar base work - Launch Vehicle: N1, N1F Sr.

  Bushuyev tells Chertok that the lunar base work did not interest Glushko. The VPK Military-Industrial Commission was only interested in duplicating the American shuttle, not in any other ventures in space. With the N1-Sr booster, Russia could have had a six man lunar base established with 8 to 10 launches in the late 1970's. Bushuyev died on 26 October 1978, having seen his dream completely tossed away.

• 1978 January 1 - Vulkan Lunar Base rejected - Launch Vehicle: RLA-150, Energia.

  An expert commission led by Keldysh examines the plan for a lunar base launched by the Vulkan booster. The plan is completely rejected. NPO Energia was told to quit dreaming and devote itself only to projects with national economic importance, like Buran. This put a definitive end to Glushko's lunar base projects studied in 1976-1978. But he just waited and started design work again on a lunar base using the Energia launch vehicle after the first Buran launch in 1988.

• Chertok, Boris Yevseyevich, Raketi i lyudi, Mashinostroenie, Moscow, 1994-1999.. ISBN: 5217024976. Russian language autobiography in four volumes of one of Korolev's chief assistants. NASA is in the process of translating the work - the pdf is for the first volume only, up to WW2. Accessed at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20050010181_2005010059.pdf. -right click to download pdfs! More at amazon.com...

• Semenov, Yu. P., S P Korolev Space Corporation Energia, RKK Energia, 1994. ISBN: 1896522815. Dual English/Russian language picture book of the history of the Energia Corporation. Many unique photos and drawings of Korolev's rockets and spacecraft. Republished by Apogee books in 2000. More at amazon.com...