Soviet Lunar Lander Problem?

For a Timeline, I working on the Moon race is going to be much Closer.
The Soviets take Kennedy Moon speech seriously and start building the N1 sooner.
Sergei Korlev has better health and does not die in 1966.
The Soviet are able to do the first space craft around the moon in 1968.
In June of 1969, It look like the USSR will win the Moon race.
A Soyuz 7K-LOK and a LK lander are on route to the Moon with Cosmonauts Alexey Leonov and Oleg Makkarov.

Leonov space walks to the LK Lander.
Something is wrong with the Lander.
He has to return to the Soyuz and they return to earth, having not made the Moon Landing.

Apollo 11 will become the first space craft that lands on the moon on July 20 1969.

My Question is what kind of problem with the lander would cause Leonov to abandon the Landing.

I have 4 possibilities.

1: the Hatch on the LK will not open.
I don't like this option.
I see Leonov tearing the Hatch off someway and landing with the interior open to space if necessary. :D

2: The LK engines will not fire.

3: The Batteries do not have enough power to allow the landing.
Concern about the weight of landers, the battery are not protected enough from the cold of space and lose power. By the time Leonov get in the lander, there is not enough power.

4 There is a problem with the Life support in LK lander.
It has leak oxygen and there is not enough on board the lander to allow Leonov to make the landing.

Which of these choices would best explain why Leonov would have to abort the landing?

Are they realistic?
If not, what would make them realistic?

Are there any better choices as to what could cause Leonov to abort the landing?

Thank You.
 
if this scenario is even possible in the terms of the Soviets getting such a head start, I would actually love to your first option, where he says "to hell with this, we're going" and goes to the surface regardless of the problem. And then in all actuality dies in the process.

Then with the Soviets using the few seconds of usable footage to prove the landing took place, they bring back Makkarov and using a body double for Leonov they declare a victory in the Race for the Moon. "Leonov" then dies soon after in some horrifyingly convenient accident.

Not to be outdone, Apollo lands on the moon in July with less fanfare as they've been beaten again by the Soviets, then you see a further advancement of the planned Apollo extra-curricular activities and then a subsequent Mars Mission (which the Soviets could not afford in most scenarios).

The Fallout of learning the truth if the USSR were to collapse while Makarrov and the Apollo crew were still alive would be a spectacle to behold. :D

I had actually planned for something similar to this in my Timeline in one of my earlier planning sessions for it. Not sure if i'll use it or not.
 
1: the Hatch on the LK will not open.
I don't like this option.
I see Leonov tearing the Hatch off someway and landing with the interior open to space if necessary. :D

I think that one would actually be really funny, although the Soviets will probably just fake a moonwalk, or maybe they have some faked footed on hand just in case.
 
IIRC, in most manned spacecraft the internal atmosphere is a vital part of their structural integrity.

I doubt an exposed to vacuum lander (lunar landers being VERY fragile anyway) could structurally withstand landing.

Not to mention the change in mass and handling characteristics would throw the landing calculations way out of whack.
 
IIRC, in most manned spacecraft the internal atmosphere is a vital part of their structural integrity.

I doubt an exposed to vacuum lander (lunar landers being VERY fragile anyway) could structurally withstand landing.

Not to mention the change in mass and handling characteristics would throw the landing calculations way out of whack.

you could have an air problem, with say a leak or a problem with a carbon dioxide filter (apollo 13 ish) that would only allow enough time to make it to the moon but not back... it need not necessarily be the hatch. but you do have a great point of why he simply cant rip it off.
 
you could have an air problem, with say a leak or a problem with a carbon dioxide filter (apollo 13 ish) that would only allow enough time to make it to the moon but not back... it need not necessarily be the hatch. but you do have a great point of why he simply cant rip it off.

Thanks. Remember that the American LEM which was apparently somewhat more robust than the Soviet Lander was basically an aluminum foil balloon.

Literally, several sections were foil thickness and of course made of aluminum.
 
check out time line - 2001: a Space Time Odyssey

here has Komarov problem with LK-Lander
Here Some Information about L3-Complex Mission

The Hatch on the LK will not open, is death sentence for Cosmonaut he has to leave the LK for return to Soyuz LOK by EVA !
the LK had no Life Support, the Space Suit of Cosmonaut support him on this mission
there were only oxygen bottles to replace the Air in LK after two EVA, thats all.

Thanks for the links
It good to know that the LK had no Life Support,
that removes one of my opitions.

As for the Hatch, I saw it as the Cosmonaut being unable to open it to get in.
 
I live in Huntsville Alabama and at a Church event on Sunday Night, I talk to a retired employee of Nasa (He ask that I not post his Name).
He was involved in the Apollo Soyuz mission and was part of the group that went to the Soviet Union to work on the Flight.

He told me that when he was in Russia, He ask question about the Soviet Lunar program. He was told that Russia never had a Lunar Program.
He ask some more questions and was taken aside and told to quit asking questions about that, since no one was allowed to talk about it.

He told me three things that relate to this question.

1. Alexey Leonov was the Most by the book pilot, he had ever seen.
There is no way that Leonov would have ever have try to tear open a Hatch.

2. He was shock at how few tools were on the soviet Space craft.
There was nothing that could have been used to force a hatch open.

3. The Soviet did not have the same kind of problem solving system that the American had in their Space Program. If anything had gone wrong, they would have been order back to earth and they would try to change things for the next flight.

So as much fun as the image of Leonov tearing off the jammed hatch and landing exposed to space, It is ASB according my ex NASA employee.
But if anyone else want to use it, have fun.

Of the four possible malfunctions, he said the most likely one was the engine not working.
He ran off the top of his head, three cases of Soviet Space Craft engines not working.
None of them were on Man space flights but some of them were on craft that would latter carry men.
I was not able to write down which mission had the engine problems.
But unless someone come up with a reason against it happening, For my time line, I going with the engine not working on LK and Leonov having to return to the Soyuz.
Thank you for your help
Patrick
 
I live in Huntsville Alabama and at a Church event on Sunday Night, I talk to a retired employee of Nasa (He ask that I not post his Name).
He was involved in the Apollo Soyuz mission and was part of the group that went to the Soviet Union to work on the Flight.

He told me that when he was in Russia, He ask question about the Soviet Lunar program. He was told that Russia never had a Lunar Program.
He ask some more questions and was taken aside and told to quit asking questions about that, since no one was allowed to talk about it.

He told me three things that relate to this question.

1. Alexey Leonov was the Most by the book pilot, he had ever seen.
There is no way that Leonov would have ever have try to tear open a Hatch.

2. He was shock at how few tools were on the soviet Space craft.
There was nothing that could have been used to force a hatch open.

3. The Soviet did not have the same kind of problem solving system that the American had in their Space Program. If anything had gone wrong, they would have been order back to earth and they would try to change things for the next flight.

So as much fun as the image of Leonov tearing off the jammed hatch and landing exposed to space, It is ASB according my ex NASA employee.
But if anyone else want to use it, have fun.

Of the four possible malfunctions, he said the most likely one was the engine not working.
He ran off the top of his head, three cases of Soviet Space Craft engines not working.
None of them were on Man space flights but some of them were on craft that would latter carry men.
I was not able to write down which mission had the engine problems.
But unless someone come up with a reason against it happening, For my time line, I going with the engine not working on LK and Leonov having to return to the Soyuz.
Thank you for your help
Patrick

Interesting.
 
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