Luna-16 (return stage)
Automated lunar sample return
On display
The mission profile included landing in the Sea of Fertility, drilling 35 centimetres into the soil, sealing the sample in a return capsule and launching the ascent stage straight from the lunar surface — with no orbital module, on a ballistic trajectory to Earth.
The capsule with 101 grams of regolith landed in Kazakhstan on 24 September 1970. Automated return cost incomparably less than a crewed mission and showed that the Moon's scientific tasks could be solved by machines.
On display is the return stage with the capsule and the soil sampling device.
