Does anybody know the scale of the first image?
How big of an area are we looking at? More importantly, how big is the object in question - that would certainly rule out it being any piece of a
busted space craft (...from earth).
Ok... from what I can tell, the Luna-13 probe was 2.5 meters across. I'm not sure if that's with booms extended or not - let's assume it's with
booms extended since pictures of the probe make it appear to be much smaller than 2.5 meters (I could be wrong on this).
So, cut that distance in half, the object appears to be about the same distance away from the probe as an extended boom (roughly 1 meter). So, it's
rather close.
I'm going to venture a guess and say the boom width is about 3 inches across, which (again, ventured guess), makes this thing roughly 8-12 inches in
width... so, it could be anything... which makes this whole exercise kinda pointless.
Maybe it's a Moon Dreidel?
Does anybody here speak/read russian? Here's the firms website that designed/built the Luna 13 probe (not actually this company, the original is
defunct, but this company is as close to the original as possible and still works on luna space craft).
www.laspace.ru...
Can we try emailing/contacting them in reference to the image/artifiact in question to see if they can say whether it may have come off of the luna 13
probe?
I would, but I don't speak rusky..
edit to add: here's the link to the actual contact us page:
www.laspace.ru...
I sent them a request for info in English... figured it was worth a try.
the post of endless edits: I hit submit (or what I think was submit) and I got an error message! Bummer! There are phone numbers though! Again, if
somebody speaks Russian, give 'em a call!
More Updates!!
Their form on the Museum FAQ page works - so using babelfish, I translated my query to Russian (and trusting babelfish is halfway correct), and asked
them for any information they may be able to add regarding the pulley/auger looking object at about 250 degrees in the panorama image I linked them
to.
I'll keep you guys updated with any information I get back from them.
[edit on 2-4-2009 by memoir]
[edit on 2-4-2009 by memoir]
Let's don't mistake a
convenient explanation with a right one, there's a huge distance between the two, and an exact match has to be exact: i remember that we analyzed all
the components of the lander and there were no parts like the one that we see in the photo: the explanation that it was a part of the lander is the
most logical of course, but let's find an exact match before putting this one to rest 
If there's some gravity there could be some atmosphere, and some weather too! Of course not like
the weather systems on Earth! But that's another story! But you can check it out here.... 
