/sci/ - Science & Math

>>15249050
They had an idea that could have pulled it off using the Soyuz 11A511, but it would have taken a lot of flights to pull off.

Soyuz-A was a very early version of the Soyuz capsule. That would dock nose-to-nose with Soyuz-B, which was a large hypergolic tug stage with a refueling rig on the far end. Soyuz-V tankers would be launched to load propellant onto Soyuz-B 4-5 tons at a time. Then they'd ditch the refueling attachment and Soyuz-B would push A up into a high inclination orbit. Because everything had to serve the military, this was proposed as a means of performing manned inspections (and maybe demolitions) of American satellites in higher orbits, but if you tanked up Soyuz-B all the way it had the delta-V to push Soyuz-A onto a lunar trajectory. Soyuz-A/B/V was proposed for an Apollo 8 style fly-by, but the whole project was canceled when Moscow saw just how many automated refueling missions would be required. They did not have confidence that Soviet computer systems would be up to the job.

The N1's LK-lander was lifted into LEO by a Soyuz for its initial testing so it could have been delivered to the moon by Soyuz-B if you could get them docked. Soyuz-B was also proposed as an alternate means of getting a Lunokhod rover to the lunar surface, and the LK needed one of those to use as a landing beacon. One Soyuz-B could drop a Lunokhod onto the moon to scout out a landing site, a second would deliver the lander to LLO, and a the crew would arrive on a third. Depending on what source you're asking each Soyuz-B would need 3-5 refueling launches to fill up its tanks. Since Soyuz was flying ~40 times a year at this point, it'd be technically possible to get to the Moon with just the standard Soyuz if you could find a way around the garbage standards of automation. You'd just need to use a lot of R7s to do it.