Space exploration of the moon. The Moon - studied and mysterious Human exploration of the moon

Date of writing: 05.03.2024

Reading time: 40 minutes

The Moon is the only satellite of the Earth and the second brightest object in the earth's sky. This is the first and currently the only celestial body on which man has set foot. For many centuries, the Moon has attracted the attention of mankind as the celestial body closest to our planet, and it continues to attract attention now. Not long ago, water in the form of ice was discovered on the Moon, which in some way will facilitate the possibility of creating a habitable base on it. But even now, when we know almost everything about the Moon, it continues to hide many mysteries.

Is the moon habitable?

In 1968, a catalog of lunar anomalies was published, containing a total of 579 different observations made by NASA specialists. These publications marked the beginning of new debates about the presence of life on the Moon, while back in the 18th century, astronomer William Herschel noticed unusual lights, lines and geometric shapes on our satellite and attracted the attention of scientists to them. Since then, various anomalous phenomena on its surface have been observed with enviable regularity.

Already today, during almost 10 years of systematic observations of the lunar surface with an 800x telescope, the Japanese Yatsuo Mitsushima has repeatedly filmed passages of unknown dark objects on a video camera. The materials he received are sensational: the diameter of the photographed objects is on average almost 20 kilometers, and their speed of movement is estimated at 200 km/s.

During the preparation of its lunar program, the United States, using spacecraft, took detailed photographs of its surface for the purpose of study. NASA specialists were able to take more than 140,000 pictures. Most of them are of excellent quality, and the optical resolution of the photographic equipment made it possible to find on the Moon something that earthlings, in fact, were completely unprepared for. It is for this reason that negotiations between astronauts from the surface of the Moon were often very emotional. Many newspapers reprinted the words of astronaut Aldrin Houston: “What is that there? What the hell is the matter? I would really like to know what is it there? There are some big objects here, they are huge! Large spaceships are behind the crater, on the opposite side." It was this message, transmitted to Earth before the transition to an encrypted communication signal, that was subsequently never refuted by NASA and served as indirect evidence of the theory that there is life on the Moon.

After this, many books were published that, with varying degrees of scientific approach, talked about the possible habitability of our satellite. So, after studying the photographs taken by Ranger 7 after its successful landing at one of the craters, and after analyzing the photographs taken by the astronauts, George Leonard (who later wrote the book There Is Someone Else on Our Moon) came to conclusions that Even some NASA experts share this opinion. According to Leonard, there are a large number of mechanisms on the surface of the Moon, most of which are destroyed, but some are still working. Some objects on the surface change their shape, appear and disappear again.

Thus, in the King crater there are many mechanical devices, which the author of the book called “X-Drones”, since their shape resembles the Latin letter “X”. These “excavators”, measuring one and a half miles in size, excavate the walls of the crater, breaking the rocky soil and throwing it out in jets to the surface. George Leonard believes that some kind of pipeline, almost three miles long, was laid from the ridge of King Crater, the ends of which were covered with identically shaped caps. Similar structures were observed by the Japanese Mitsui. Thus, a number of lunar researchers are confident that the Moon was either inhabited before or is inhabited now. Well, people have always believed in miracles, that's their right.

Goals of human exploration of the Moon

Let's leave the right to look for life on the Moon to science fiction writers and enthusiasts and return from heaven to earth. The rapid development of space technology, coupled with the natural resources available on the Moon, seriously allows us to talk about the possible colonization of our closest satellite. This goal is achievable and justified. The Moon is very close to the Earth (only 3 days of flight), its landscape is quite well studied, the entire surface of the celestial body was photographed. The Moon also has a whole range of industrial metals that are important for human civilization - iron, titanium, aluminum. In addition, the surface layer of the lunar soil, the so-called regolith, accumulates an isotope rare for the Earth - helium-3. In the future, it may become the main source of fuel for developing thermonuclear reactors.

Currently, active developments are underway in the field of industrial production of metals, helium-3 and oxygen from lunar regolith, and reserves of water ice have been found here. The deep vacuum and the presence of cheap solar energy open up new horizons in the development of industries such as metalworking, foundry, and electronics. Conditions for creating microelectronics and metal processing on our natural satellite are more favorable than on Earth. On our planet, a large amount of oxygen in the atmosphere deteriorates the quality of welding and casting and makes it difficult to obtain ultra-pure alloys and microcircuit substrates in large volumes. In addition, the Moon is of interest as a place to locate dangerous and harmful industries.

According to a number of scientists, helium-3 is the future of earthly energy, cost per kg. This isotope is valued at a million dollars, and its reserves on the Moon are estimated at millions of tons. Helium-3 can be used to start thermonuclear reactions. According to experts, in order to provide energy to the population of the entire Earth, 30 tons of helium-3 are required annually; the cost of delivering it from the Moon to Earth will be tens of times less than the cost of energy currently generated at nuclear power plants.

The Moon is also attractive for scientific research in the fields of astronomy, planetary science, cosmology, space biology and other disciplines; studying the lunar crust could help find answers to important questions about the formation and further development of our Solar System. Low gravity and the absence of an atmosphere make it possible to build observatories on the Moon equipped with optical and radio telescopes, which will be able to obtain clearer and more detailed images of the distant regions of the Universe. The Moon is also interesting as an object of space tourism. Its bizarre, impressive landscapes can attract a significant amount of funds for its further development. The development of tourism will require the development of infrastructure, and this in turn will ensure a larger-scale penetration of mankind to the Moon.

Russia's lunar program

As part of the development of the Russian space program until 2040, exploration of the moon (2025-2030) and flights to Mars (2035-2040) are envisaged. The modern task of lunar exploration for Russia is, first of all, the construction of a lunar base. Therefore, such a large-scale program must be carried out within the framework of cooperation between many countries. The first stage of lunar exploration involves the launch of the Luna-Glob lunar satellite (2012). The satellite’s task is to fly around the Moon and identify the most suitable points for landing lunar rovers and selecting locations for engineering and scientific complexes that will become the basis of a future lunar base. Additionally, he must complete the task of exploring the core of the Moon using special devices - penetrators. On this issue, joint work with Japan is possible, since their specialists have been developing penetrators for a long time and quite successfully.

The second stage of development involves the delivery of a scientific laboratory - a lunar rover - to the surface of the Moon to carry out a wide range of various scientific experiments; at this stage, India, China and European countries can be involved in cooperation. It is assumed that India, as part of its own Chandrayaan-2 program, will create a rocket and a flight module, and also provide a launch site. In turn, Russia will take over the development of the landing module, lunar rover and scientific equipment. In the future, an automatic base will be built on the lunar surface, which will allow solving a number of issues in the interests of the manned lunar program. And only after 2026 will people fly to the Moon again, and from 2027 to 2032 a research base “Lunar Test Site” will be created here, which will be ready to receive astronauts on a permanent basis.

Lunar exploration is the study of the Earth's satellite using spacecraft and optical instruments.

Initially, the only method for humanity to study the Moon was the visual method. Galileo's invention of the telescope in 1609 allowed significant progress in the study of the Moon using optical instruments. Galileo himself used his telescope to study the mountains and craters on the lunar surface. Research on the Earth's satellite using spacecraft began on September 13, 1959, with the landing of the Soviet automatic station Luna-2 on the surface of the satellite. In 1969, a man landed on the Moon, and the study of the satellite from its surface began.

Currently, several space powers have plans to resume manned flights to the lunar surface and create lunar bases.

Antiquity and the Middle Ages

The moon has attracted the attention of people since ancient times. In the II century. BC e. Hipparchus studied the movement of the Moon across the starry sky, determining the inclination of the lunar orbit relative to the ecliptic, the size of the Moon and its distance from the Earth, and also identified a number of features of the movement.

The theory obtained by Hipparchus was subsequently developed by the astronomer from Alexandria Claudius Ptolemy in the 2nd century AD. e., writing the book “Almagest” about it. This theory was refined many times, and in 1687, after Newton’s discovery of the law of universal gravitation, from a purely kinematic one, describing the geometric properties of motion, the theory became dynamic, taking into account the motion of bodies under the influence of forces applied to them.

The invention of telescopes made it possible to distinguish finer details of the lunar relief. One of the first lunar maps was compiled by Giovanni Riccioli in 1651, he also gave names to large dark areas, calling them “seas,” which we still use today. These place names reflected the long-standing idea that the weather on the Moon was similar to that on Earth, and the dark areas were supposedly filled with lunar water, and the light areas were considered dry land. However, in 1753, Croatian astronomer Ruđer Bošković proved that the Moon does not have an atmosphere. The fact is that when stars are covered by the Moon, they disappear instantly. But if the Moon had an atmosphere, the stars would fade out gradually. This indicated that the satellite had no atmosphere. And in this case, there cannot be liquid water on the surface of the Moon, since it would instantly evaporate.

With the light hand of the same Giovanni Riccioli, craters began to be given the names of famous scientists: from Plato, Aristotle and Archimedes to Vernadsky, Tsiolkovsky and Pavlov.

XX century

Since the beginning of the space age, our knowledge of the Moon has increased significantly. The composition of the lunar soil became known, scientists received its samples, and a map of the reverse side was compiled.

The Moon was first reached by the Soviet automatic interplanetary station Luna-2 on September 13, 1959. The first glimpse of the far side of the Moon was possible in 1959, when the Soviet probe Luna 3 flew over it and photographed a part of its surface invisible from Earth. Optical telescopes placed here would not have to break through the dense earth's atmosphere. And for radio telescopes, the Moon would serve as a natural shield of solid rocks 3,500 km thick, which would reliably cover them from any radio interference from the Earth. The world's first soft landing on the Moon took place on February 3, 1966, by the Soviet space probe Luna 9, which also transmitted images of the surface of another celestial body for the first time.

In the early 1960s, it was obvious that the United States was lagging behind the USSR in space exploration. J. Kennedy said that a man would land on the Moon before 1970. To prepare for a manned flight, NASA completed several AMS programs: Ranger (1961-1965, surface photography), Surveyor (1966-1968, soft landing and terrain surveys) and Lunar Orbiter (1966-1967, detailed surface imaging Moon). Also in 1965-1966 there was a NASA project MOON-BLINK to study unusual phenomena (anomalies) on the surface of the Moon. Work was performed by Trident Engineering Associates (Annapolis, Maryland) under contract NAS 5-9613 dated June 1, 1965 from Goddard Space Flight Center (Greenbelt, Maryland).

The successful American manned mission to the Moon was called Apollo. The world's first flyby of the Moon took place in December 1968 on the manned Apollo 8 spacecraft. After a rehearsal flight in May 1969 to the Moon without Apollo 10 landing on it, the world's first lunar landing took place on July 20, 1969 on Apollo 11 (the first person to set foot on the lunar surface on July 21 was Neil Armstrong, the second - Edwin Aldrin; third crew member Michael Collins remained in the orbital module); the last sixth - in December 1972. Thus, the Moon is the only celestial body visited by man, and the first celestial body whose samples were delivered to Earth (the USA delivered 380 kilograms, the USSR - 324 grams of lunar soil).

During the emergency flight of Apollo 13, there was no landing on the moon. During the last three flights of the program, lunar electric vehicles controlled by landing astronauts were used. Three additional flights under the program (Apollo 18...20), which were in a high degree of readiness, were cancelled. There are conspiracy theories about the so-called. “lunar conspiracy”, that the landings on the Moon were only staged, but were not actually carried out, or that the above was deliberate disinformation, and the Apollo program was curtailed due to the discovery of an alien presence on the Moon.

Due to the emerging gap from the United States, two Soviet lunar manned programs - lunar flyby L1 and lunar landing L3 - were terminated at the stage of testing unmanned flights of spacecraft without achieving the target result. Also, the world’s first detailed project of the lunar base “Zvezda”, developed as a development of the L3 program, and the proposed subsequent projects of the lunar expeditions L3M and LEK were not implemented. Among the numerous lunar landing and lunar orbital stations “Luna”, the USSR provided automatic delivery to Earth of lunar soil samples on the Luna-16, Luna-20, Luna-24 AMS and carried out research on the lunar surface also using two radio-controlled self-propelled vehicles - Lunokhods, Lunokhod-1, launched to the Moon in November 1970 and Lunokhod-2 - in January 1973. Lunokhod-1 operated for 10.5 Earth months, Lunokhod-2 - 4.5 Earth months ( that is, 5 lunar days and 4 lunar nights). Both devices collected and transmitted to Earth a large amount of data about the lunar soil and many photographs of details and panoramas of the lunar relief.

After the last Soviet station Luna-24 delivered lunar soil samples to Earth in August 1976, the next device, the Japanese Hiten satellite, flew to the Moon only in 1990. Then two American spacecraft were launched - Clementine in 1994 and Lunar Prospector in 1998.

XXI Century

After the end of the Soviet space program “Luna” and the American “Apollo”, exploration of the Moon using spacecraft was practically stopped. But at the beginning of the 21st century, China published its program for the exploration of the Moon, which included, after delivering the lunar rover and sending soil to Earth, then expeditions to the Moon and the construction of inhabited lunar bases. This is believed to have caused the remaining space powers to re-launch lunar programs as a new "lunar race for second place." Plans for future lunar expeditions were announced by Russia, Europe, India, Japan, and President George W. Bush announced on January 14, 2004 that the United States was beginning a large-scale detailed Constellation program with the creation of new launch vehicles and manned spacecraft capable of delivering to the Moon of people and large manned lunar rovers, with the aim of establishing the first lunar bases. The Constellation Lunar program was canceled after 5 years by President Barack Obama.

On September 28, 2003, the European Space Agency launched its first automatic interplanetary station (AMS), Smart-1. On September 14, 2007, Japan launched its second lunar exploration station, Kaguya. And on October 24, 2007, the PRC also entered the lunar race - the first Chinese lunar satellite, Chang'e-1, was launched. With the help of this and the next stations, scientists are creating a three-dimensional map of the lunar surface, which in the future may contribute to an ambitious project of colonization of the Moon. On October 22, 2008, the first Indian satellite, Chandrayaan-1, was launched. In 2010, China launched the second AMS Chang'e-2.

Apollo 17 landing site. Visible are the descent module, ALSEP research equipment, car wheel tracks and foot tracks of astronauts.

On June 18, 2009, NASA launched the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS). The satellites are designed to collect information about the lunar surface, search for water and suitable locations for future lunar expeditions. On the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 flight, the automatic interplanetary station LRO completed a special task - it photographed the landing areas of the lunar modules of earthly expeditions. Between July 11 and July 15, LRO took and transmitted to Earth the first-ever detailed orbital images of the lunar modules themselves, landing sites, pieces of equipment left behind by expeditions on the surface, and even traces of the cart, rover, and earthlings themselves. During this time, 5 of the 6 landing sites were photographed: expeditions Apollo 11, 14, 15, 16, 17. Later, the LRO spacecraft took even more detailed photographs of the surface, where not only the landing modules and equipment with traces of the lunar vehicle are clearly visible, but also walking tracks of the astronauts themselves. On October 9, 2009, the LCROSS spacecraft and the Centaurus upper stage made a planned fall onto the lunar surface into the Cabeus crater, located approximately 100 km from the lunar south pole, and therefore constantly located in deep shadow. On November 13, NASA announced that water had been discovered on the Moon using this experiment.

Private companies are starting to explore the Moon. The global Google Lunar X PRIZE competition was announced to create a small lunar rover, in which several teams from different countries are participating, including the Russian Selenokhod. In 2014, the first private lunar flyby AMS (Manfred Memorial Moon Mission) appeared. There are plans to organize space tourism with flights around the Moon on Russian ships - first on the modernized Soyuz, and then on the promising universal PTK NP (Rus) being developed.

The United States is going to continue exploration of the Moon with automatic stations GRAIL (launched in 2011), LADEE (launched in 2013) and others. China launched its first lunar lander, Chang'e 3, with the first lunar rover in December 2013 and its first lunar flyby with a return vehicle in 2014, and is further planning a lunar soil return vehicle by 2017 in anticipation of manned flights around 2025 and construction of a lunar base by 2050, Japan announced future robotic exploration of the Moon. India is planning a 2017 mission of its Chandrayaan-2 orbiter and a small rover delivered by the Russian Luna-Resurs spacecraft, and further exploration of the Moon up to manned expeditions. Russia first launches a multi-stage program for exploring the Moon with automatic stations “Luna-Glob” in 2015, “Luna-Resurs-2” and “Luna-Resurs-3” with lunar rovers in 2020 and 2022, “Luna-Resurs-4” upon return soil collected by lunar rovers in 2023, and then plans manned expeditions in the 2030s.

It is possible that the Moon may contain not only silver, mercury and alcohols, but also other chemical elements and compounds. Water ice, molecular hydrogen found by the LCROSS and LRO missions in the lunar crater Cabeus indicate that the Moon does have resources that could be used by future missions. Analysis of topographic data sent by the LRO spacecraft and Kaguya gravitational measurements showed that the thickness of the crust on the far side of the Moon is not constant and varies with latitude. The thickest sections of the crust correspond to the highest elevations, which is also typical for the Earth, and the thinnest are found in subpolar latitudes.

Conclusion

The 47 years that have passed since the first spacecraft landed on the Moon have brought science many new and sometimes unexpected things. Scientists - astronomers, geologists, geophysicists, geochemists - are now summing up the results of intense lunar expeditions. Having been steadily moving away from the Earth for billions of years, in recent years the Moon has become closer and more understandable to people. One can agree with the apt remark of one of the prominent selenologists: “from an astronomical object, the Moon has turned into a geophysical one.”

The curtain was lifted on the secrets of the early youth of the Moon, the Earth and, apparently, all the planets of the terrestrial group, and at the same time the outline of their distant future was outlined. Much has become clearer, but much remains hidden in the “fog” of ambiguity - after all, there is still little data, and discoveries, as often happens, have given rise to many new questions.

Selenologists have no doubt that the activity of the Moon, both magmatic and tectonic, was short and related only to the early stages of its evolution, but there is still heated debate about the cosmic “overture” - the origin of the Moon. The chronology of the emergence of the lunar seas has been reliably reconstructed, but the nature of the mascons “buried” in them is unclear. It turned out that a long-lasting “seismic ringing” is generated in the upper inhomogeneous layers of the Moon, but the disappearance of transverse waves in the middle of the lunar radius remains a mystery. No magnetic dipole has been discovered on the Moon, but the high remanent magnetization of lunar rocks indicates that one existed a long time ago.

In many of their basic characteristics, the Earth and the Moon are similar and, apparently, are “cosmic relatives.” This primarily concerns their formation and the initial stage of evolution, the similar chemical composition of these celestial bodies and the layered structure of their interiors. However, in many ways this “kinship” turned out to be very distant. The Earth is full of “tectonic storms”, the Moon is passive and non-seismic. The “tectonic life” of the Earth and even the nature of its surface are largely determined by internal reasons, while on the Moon they are mainly of external - cosmic - origin.

Various stages of the “planetary life” of the Earth left on it new forms of fauna and flora, new mountain ranges, cracks, drifting continents, and earthquake cataclysms. The chronology of the evolution of the Moon is associated with meteorite impacts and, in addition, is limited to the first 1.5 billion years, and since that time tectonic “calm” has been established on the Moon.

Do earthlings really need to explore the Moon? Have they not spent their efforts in vain on space flights unprecedented in the history of mankind - after all, it is clearly unprofitable to develop lunar “mineral resources”? No, not in vain! The Moon rewarded inquisitive and brave astronauts and organizers of space flights, and with them all the people of the Earth. Through the “cratered, dusty lunar window” many earthly problems became clearer. For example, the oldest “stone” in the solar system was found and its age was determined. The pages of the “pre-geological” history of the Earth have been slightly opened, since the surface of the Moon, untouched by winds and waters, demonstrates the appearance of the most ancient relief of the Earth.

The Moon is an ideal model for studying the role of cosmic factors in planetotectonics. Knowledge of the patterns of tidal moonquakes will help to carry out seismic prediction of earthquakes. Based on lunar data, geophysical observation methods and models for their interpretation can be improved.

The study of the structure of the Moon continues - the pendulums of seismometers tremble sensitively, and under the microscopes of scientists there are soil samples from the southern outskirts of the Sea of Crisis, delivered by Luna-24. The joint analysis of the Earth and the Moon lays the foundations for a new stage in comparative planetology. Current and future flights of spacecraft to the terrestrial planets should complement and clarify the patterns concerning the origin, internal structure and evolution of the planets and their satellites.

Bibliography:

1) “Planet Earth. Encyclopedia". Fiona Watt, Felicity Brooks, Richard Spurgeon;

2) textbook “Astronomy 11th grade” by N.P. Prishlyak;

3) https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%97%D0%B5%D0%BC%D0%BB%D1%8F;

4) http://schools.keldysh.ru/school1413/astronom/NikLSite/luna/fizich.htm;

5) http://www.krugosvet.ru/node/36284 ;

For 50 years, researchers and scientific groups from all over the world have wanted to know detailed information about a particular planet. This is no coincidence, because many dream of finding out the origin and significance of other planetoids and celestial bodies. What is lunar soil and what does it look like? You can find out this and much more by reading this article.

General information about the Earth's satellite

It's no secret that the Moon is a natural satellite of our planet. It is one of the brightest in the earth's sky. The distance between the Earth and its natural satellite is more than 300 thousand kilometers. Surprisingly, the Moon is the only object outside the Earth that humans have visited.

The Earth and the Moon are often called celestial pairs. This is due to the fact that their mass and size are quite similar. Research has been carried out on the Moon several times. It has been proven that there is a force of gravity there. On the surface of the natural satellite, a person can easily overturn a small car.

Many people are interested in what the Moon really is. It revolves around the Earth. Depending on the position of the natural satellite, you can see it completely differently. The Moon makes a full circle around the Earth in 27 days.

Each of us has seen darker or bluer areas on the Moon. What is it really? Many years ago it was believed that this was the so-called. This concept still exists today. But in fact, these are fossilized areas through which lava previously erupted. According to research, this happened many billions of years ago. Let us consider below what the lunar soil is called.

In 1897, an American geologist first used the term "regolith". Today it is used to determine lunar soil.

Regolith color

Regolith is lunar soil. It has been studied for many years. The main question that scientific researchers from all over the world are trying to answer is whether it is possible to grow anything on such soil.

What kind of soil? Each of us can safely say that the moon has a silver-yellow color. This is exactly how we see it from our planet. However, this is not at all true. According to researchers, the lunar soil has a dark brown color close to black. It should be noted that to determine the color of the soil on the territory of the natural satellite, you should not rely on photographs taken there. It's no secret that cameras slightly distort the real color.

Soil thickness on the Moon

The uppermost layer of the Moon is regolithic. Soil studies are important for creating drawings and further construction of bases. It is believed that lunar soil arises from the filling of old craters with newly formed ones. The thickness of the soil is calculated by the ratio of the depth of the so-called sea and its loose part. The presence of stones in the crater is associated with the content of rock formations. Thanks to the information provided in the article, we can conclude that the thickness of the regolith layer on the Moon differs depending on the area being studied.

Unfortunately, today it is impossible to explore the entire surface of the Moon. Nevertheless, methods already exist that make it possible to study a fairly large area of the natural satellite.

Chemical composition

Lunar soil contains a large number of chemical microelements. Among them are silicon, oxygen, iron, titanium, aluminum, calcium and magnesium. The information was obtained using remote sensing methods and it is worth noting that there are several ways to study lunar soil. Their main problem is the division of attention into the age of the regolith and its composition.

Negative effects of lunar dust on the human body

National Aeronautics and Space Administration scientists have been studying the pros and cons of planned exploration and relocation to the Moon. They proved that lunar dust is extremely dangerous for the human body. It is known that the so-called ones are activated once every two weeks. Scientists have also proven that regular inhalation of lunar dust can lead to serious illnesses.

On the surface of the lungs there are special fibers on which all the dust collects. The body then gets rid of it by coughing. It is worth noting that particles that are too small do not attach to the fibers. The human body is not adapted to the negative effects of lunar dust due to its small size. Scientists believe that this factor must be taken into account when developing and building bases on the surface of the natural satellite.

The negative impact of dust, which creates storms on the surface of the natural satellite, was confirmed by the Apollo 17 lunar expedition. One of the astronauts who was part of it, after some time spent on the Moon, began to complain of poor health and fever. It was found that the deterioration in health was associated with inhalation of lunar dust, which ended up on board along with the spacesuits. The astronaut did not encounter complications thanks to the filters installed on the ship, which cleared the air in the shortest possible time.

Exploring the dark side

Just recently, China presented to the world its plan to explore the surface of the Moon. According to preliminary data, after two years a new astronomical device will be installed on the natural satellite, which will allow a number of studies to be carried out. The peculiarity is that it will be located on the dark side of the Moon. The device will study the geological conditions on the surface of the natural satellite.

Another point in the plan is the location of the radio telescope. Today, radio transmissions from Earth are not available on the dark side of the satellite.

Organic substances in the lunar soil

After one of the Apollo missions, it was discovered that the lunar soil brought from the expedition contained organic substances, namely amino acids. It is no secret that they are the ones who participate in the formation of proteins and are an important factor in the development of all living organisms on Earth.

Scientists have proven that lunar soil is not suitable for the development of all forms of life known to us. There are four versions of the appearance of amino acids in the composition of lunar soil. According to scientists, they could end up on the Moon, delivered from Earth along with astronauts. According to other versions, these are gas emissions, solar wind and asteroids.

After conducting a number of studies, scientists have proven that, most likely, amino acids entered the lunar soil due to pollution from the Earth, and this also contributed to this on the surface of the natural satellite.

First flights to the moon

In January 1959, a project was carried out in the Soviet Union that placed the Luna-1 automatic interplanetary station on a flight path to the Moon. This is the first device to reach escape velocity.

Already in September, the automatic interplanetary station Luna-2 was launched. Unlike the first, it reached the celestial body, and also delivered there a pennant with the image of the coat of arms of the USSR.

Less than a month later, the third automatic interplanetary station was launched into space. Her weight was more than 200 kilograms. There were solar panels on its body. Within half an hour, the station automatically took more than 20 photographs of the Moon using its built-in camera. Thanks to this, humanity saw the other side of a natural satellite for the first time. It was in October 1959 that people learned what the Moon really was.

Magma on the surface of a celestial body

One of the latest studies of the Moon revealed channels with frozen magma under its upper layer. Scientists claim that thanks to such a find it is possible to find out the real age of our natural satellite. It is worth noting that today the chronology is unknown.

The thickness of the lunar crust is 43 kilometers. Recent studies of the Moon have shown that it is all riddled with underground channels. Scientists suggest that they formed almost immediately after the appearance of the natural satellite. Almost all channels are filled with solidified magma. At their locations there are higher gravitational fields. According to preliminary data, the age of the underground channels is more than four billion years. This discovery is an impetus for further research on the natural satellite.

Sale of land on the Moon

Recently, a large number of agencies have appeared that offer to buy samples of lunar soil or even acquire a plot of land on another planet. An agent who can provide you with such services can be found in absolutely any country. It is no secret that celebrities and politicians love to buy land on other planets and celestial bodies. In our article you can find out whether it is worth buying a plot on the Moon or whether this is another invention of scammers.

Today there are a large number of agencies that offer anyone who wants to purchase a plot on the Moon or a lunar passport. They claim that after some time, humanity will be able to easily navigate the expanses of space and travel to one or another celestial body. It is for this reason, according to agents, that buying a plot of land today is profitable and convenient.

The sale of land plots on other planets and celestial bodies began 30 years ago. Then the American Dennis Hope found shortcomings in international laws and declared himself the owner of all celestial bodies that revolve around the Sun. He applied for registration of the property and informed all states about it. The next step was to register our own agency. More than 100 owners of land plots on the Moon are registered on the territory of the Russian Federation.

In fact, Dennis Hope's agency was registered in Nevada. This state has a huge number of laws that allow you to issue any document for a certain amount. Thus, Dennis Hope is not selling the right to property, but the most ordinary, beautifully designed waste paper. Based on this, not one person can lay claim to a plot of land on the Moon. This is confirmed by the bill adopted on January 27, 1967. After analyzing all the information provided in our article, we can conclude that buying a plot of land on the Moon is a waste of money.

Let's sum it up

The Moon is Scientists have been exploring it for many years. During this time, they found out that the Moon is identical in size to our planet, and lunar dust is unusually dangerous to health. Today, purchasing land plots on the territory of a natural satellite is quite popular. However, we do not recommend making such a purchase, as it is a waste of money.

Less than a year and a half passed from the launch of the first Earth satellite to the start of exploration of the Moon by spacecraft. And this is not surprising since the Moon is the closest object to the Earth and a very unusual object for the Solar System: the Earth/Moon mass ratio exceeds all other planetary satellites and is 81/1 - the closest such indicator is only 4226/1 for the Saturn cluster /Titanium.

Due to the fact that volcanic activity on the Moon quickly disappeared (due to its relatively small mass), its surface is very ancient and is estimated at almost 4.5 billion years, and the absence of an atmosphere leads to the accumulation on the surface of meteorites whose age and composition can reach and even exceed the age of the solar system itself. All this, in addition to the proximity of the Moon to us, aroused active scientific interest among people and a desire to explore it: the total number of spacecraft sent to study it (including failed missions) already exceeds 90 pieces. And it is about all their diversity that we will talk today.

First steps

The first explorations of the Moon started out rather poorly in both the USSR and the USA: only the fourth of a series of vehicles launched to the Moon (Luna-1 and Pioneer-3, respectively) were even partially successful. This was not surprising since lunar exploration started at a time when both they and we had a couple of successful satellite launches to their credit, so very little was known about the conditions of outer space. Add to this the limited technical difficulties that at that time did not allow spacecraft to be stuffed with heaps of sensors as can be done now (so one could sometimes only guess about the causes of the accident) - and one can imagine the conditions under which spacecraft designers sometimes had to work.

Discussion of the failure of the Luna-8 station from the book “Korolev: Facts and Myths” by Y. K. Golovanov, a journalist who almost became an astronaut:

The first artificial satellite of the Earth (left), and the Luna-1 station (right)

The same spherical shape, the same four antennas... but in fact there was little in common between the two satellites: Sputnik 1 only had a radio transmitter, while Luna 1 already had several scientific instruments installed. With their help, it was first established that the Moon does not have a magnetic field and the solar wind was recorded for the first time. Also during its flight, an experiment was carried out to create an artificial comet: at a distance of about 120 thousand km from Earth, a cloud of sodium vapor weighing about 1 kg was released from the station, which was recorded as an object of 6th magnitude.

The Luna-1 station is assembled with block “E” - the third stage of the Vostok-L launch vehicle, with the help of which the Luna-2 and Luna-3 stations were also launched.

Film dedicated to the Luna-1 station

Initially, Luna-1 was supposed to be crashed onto its surface, but during the preparation of the flight the delay of the signal from the MCC to the device was not taken into account (at that time radio command control from the ground was used) and the engines fired a little later than necessary led to a miss of 6 thousand km - which Well, “rocket science” has never been a simple matter...

On March 3, 1959, the American apparatus Pioneer-4 was sent along the same flight path with a set of second cosmic speed. His goal was to study the Moon from the flyby trajectory, but a miss of as much as 60 thousand km led to the fact that the photoelectric sensor could not detect the Moon and photographing it failed, however, the Geiger counter established that the lunar environs did not differ in the level of radiation from the interplanetary medium.

Assembly of the Pioneer-3 apparatus - a complete analogue of the Pioneer-4

On September 12, 1959, the Luna-2 station was launched. In addition to hitting the Moon, she was given an additional task - to deliver the USSR pennant to the Moon. At that time, the orientation and orbit correction systems were not yet ready, so the impact was expected to be serious - with a speed of more than 3 km/s. The developers of the device used two technical tricks: 1) the pennants were placed on the surface of two balls with a diameter of about 10 and 15 cm:

When “touching” the Moon, the explosive charge inside these balls detonated, which allowed some of the pennants to reduce their speed relative to the Moon.

2) Another solution involved the use of aluminum tape 25 cm long on which inscriptions were applied. The tape itself was placed in a durable housing filled with liquid with a density similar to that of the tape, and this housing, in turn, was placed in a less durable one. At the moment of impact, the outer casing was crushed and absorbed the impact energy. The liquid served as an additional shock absorber and made it possible to be confident in the safety of the tape. This entire structure was placed on the third stage of the rocket, which put the station on a flight path to the Moon. The fact that the station and the last stage hit the Moon was recorded, but nothing is known about how well the pennants were preserved. Perhaps in the future an expedition of astronautics historians will be able to answer this question.

By October 7, 1959, the first photographs of the far side of the Moon were obtained using the Luna-3 station, which launched on October 4, like all other missions of the Luna program, from Baikonur. It weighed 287 kilograms and was already equipped with a full-fledged orientation system for the Sun and Moon, providing an accuracy of 0.5 degrees when shooting. The station used gravity assist for the first time:

The flight trajectory of the Luna-3 station - this trajectory was calculated under the leadership of Keldysh in order to ensure that the station would fly over the territory of the USSR when it returned to Earth. The next gravity assist maneuver will be performed only by Mariner 10, flying near Venus on February 5, 1974.

The method by which the shooting was carried out was interesting: first, the pictures were taken using photographic equipment, then the film was developed and digitized using a traveling beam camera, after which it was transmitted to Earth. To avoid the risk of the device breaking down before returning to Earth (the flight to the Moon and back took more than a week), two communication modes were provided: slow (when the device was near the Moon, far from the receiving station) and fast (for communication when the device was flying over over the USSR). The decision to duplicate the communication systems turned out to be absolutely correct - the station was able to transmit only 17 of the 29 pictures it took, after which the connection with it was interrupted and it was no longer possible to restore it.

The world's first photograph of the far side of the Moon. The photo was of mediocre quality due to signal transmission interference. But subsequent photos were much better:

As a result, using these 17 images, we were able to construct a fairly detailed map:

High-resolution photographs of the visible side of the Moon were taken by Ranger 7, launched on July 28, 1964. Since this was the only purpose of this device, as many as 6 television cameras were installed on board, which managed to transmit 4,300 images of the Moon in the last 17 minutes of flight before the collision .

The process of approaching the Moon (video accelerated)

The shooting was carried out right up to the collision, but due to the high speed of the station relative to the Moon, the last image was taken from a height of approximately 488 meters and was not fully transmitted:

Ranger 8 and Ranger 9 were launched for exactly the same purpose (February 17 and March 21, 1965, respectively).

Better images of the far side of the Moon were obtained by the Zond-3 station launched on July 18, 1965. Initially, this station was prepared together with Probe 2 for a flight to Mars, but due to problems, the launch window was missed and Probe 3 went around the Moon. To test the new communication system, photographs received by the station were transmitted to Earth several times.

Photo taken by Zond-3

Soft landing and soil delivery

The task of a soft landing on the Moon was much more difficult and was only accomplished on February 3, 1966 by the Luna-9 station, launched on January 31. The device had a rather complex design:

Due to the fact that nothing was known about the surface of the Moon, the landing process was quite intricate:

The complexity of the landing system did not go unnoticed: from the landing station of 1.5 tons, there remained an ALS weighing only 100 kg, which on the surface looked something like this:

Since the illumination on the Moon changes extremely slowly (the Moon rotates only 1° relative to the Sun in 2 hours), it was decided to use an optical-mechanical imaging system that was much more reliable, lighter and consumed less energy. Its slow operating speed even turned out to be a positive factor - a slow communication channel was sufficient for data transmission, so the ALS could get by with omnidirectional antennas.

The first photograph of the lunar surface was a circular panorama with a resolution of 500 by 6000 pixels; it took 100 minutes to take one photograph. The television camera had a viewing angle of 29° vertically, in addition to which the design of the device provided for its inclination by 16° relative to the vertical of the area - so that it could capture both a distant panorama and nearby surface microrelief:

Click on the full panorama of the Moon. Additional photographs of the station's structure can be seen, and the camera itself filming looked like this:

At the moment, enthusiasts from NASA are going to look for the flight block and the remains of the station's inflatable shock absorber using photographs of LRO (the device itself is too small to be seen - in LRO photographs it should look like 2 * 2 pixels).

The Americans managed to land the Surveyor-1 lander by June 2 (4 months after our station). There were many sensors installed on it:

The device itself carried out landing from the flight trajectory, so instruments for this purpose were installed on it: the main engine (dropped at an altitude of 10 km), steering engines and an altimeter/speed sensor. The landing supports were made of aluminum honeycomb to soften the impact during landing. Among the target equipment of the devices were a television camera, a sensor for analyzing light reflected from the surface (to determine the chemical composition of the soil) and sensors for determining surface temperature. Starting from the third apparatus, a sampler was also installed with which trenches were made to determine the properties of the soil. Of the 7 Surveyors sent to the Moon before February 1968, two crashed while braking near the Moon, and the remaining 5 landed and completed their tasks to explore the Moon.

On March 31, 1966, the Luna-10 station was launched, which by April 3, for the first time in history, entered the orbit of our satellite. It had a gamma spectrometer, a magnetometer, a meteorite detector, and an instrument for studying the solar wind and infrared radiation of the Moon. Studies of gravitational anomalies of the Moon (mascons) were also carried out. The total duration of the mission was about 3 months. For the same purpose, the Luna-11 and Luna-12 stations were launched (August 24 and October 22, respectively).

General view of the station with the transfer stage and its design. This transfer stage was also used in stations from Luna-4 to Luna-9 inclusive.

Since August 10, 1966, five devices of the Lunar Orbiter series have been sent to the Moon. Like Soviet stations, they used photographic film for filming. Since they were launched already as part of the preparation of the Apollo program, cartography of the Moon primarily included photographs of future landing sites for the Lunar Modules. Their operation time was less than two weeks, the images had a resolution of up to 20 meters and covered 99% of the entire lunar surface, and images were taken for 36 potential landing sites with a resolution of 2 meters.

The device itself was quite large: with a total structure weight of only 385.6 kg, the span of the solar panels was 3.72 meters, and the directional antenna was 1.32 meters in diameter. The photographic equipment had two lenses for simultaneous wide-angle and high-resolution shots. This system was developed by Kodak based on the optical reconnaissance systems of the U-2 and SR-71 aircraft.

Additionally, they had micrometeorite detectors and a radio beacon to measure gravitational conditions near the Moon (with which mascons were also spotted). They threatened the safety of the astronauts, since a landing without taking them into account according to the calculations could lead to a deviation of 2 km instead of the standard 200 m. A painstaking study of the orbits of the devices made it possible to measure the influence of the mascons and increase the accuracy of the landing - Apollo 12 was already able to land with a deviation of only 163 meters from your goal.

On July 19, 1967, in parallel with the Surveyor and Lunar Orbiter programs, Explorer-35 was launched, which operated in lunar orbit for 6 years - until June 24, 1973. The device was intended to study the magnetic field, the composition of the surface layers of the Moon (based on the reflected electromagnetic signal), register ionizing particles, measure the characteristics of micrometeorites (by speed, direction and rotational moment) and also study the solar wind.

The next Soviet spacecraft aimed at the Moon was Zond 5, launched on September 15, 1968. The device was a Soyuz 7K-L1 spacecraft launched by a Proton launch vehicle and was intended to fly around the Moon. In addition to testing the ship itself, it also had a scientific purpose: it carried the first living creatures to fly around the Moon 3 months before Apollo 8 - these were two turtles, fruit flies, and several species of plants. After flying around the Moon, the descent module splashed down in the waters of the Indian Ocean:

Apart from problems with overloads during landing, the flight went well, so the next probe, Zond-6 (launched on November 10, 1968), landed not in the sea, but in the regular landing area on the territory of the USSR. Unfortunately, he suffered an accident during the parachute descent stage: they were shot at an altitude of about 5 km instead of the calculated moment right before touching the ground, and all biological objects on board (which were sent to fly around the Moon in this flight) died. However, film with black and white and color photographs of the Moon has been preserved.

Two more successful launches of this spacecraft were made: Zond 7 and Zond 8 (August 8, 1969 and October 20, 1970, respectively) with successful returns of the descent vehicles.

On July 13, 1969 (three days before the launch of Apollo 11), the Luna 15 station was launched, which was supposed to deliver samples of lunar soil to Earth before the Americans had time to do so. However, during the braking process, Luna lost contact with her. As a result, the first automatic station to deliver samples of lunar soil was Luna-16, launched on September 12, 1970:

On September 20, the 1,880-kilogram lander reached the lunar surface. The sample was obtained using a drill, which within 7 minutes reached 35 cm in depth and removed 101 grams of lunar soil. Then the return vehicle, weighing 512 kg, was launched from the Moon, and already on September 24, samples on a 35-kilogram descent vehicle landed on the territory of Kazakhstan.

Also, for the purpose of delivering lunar soil, the Luna-20 and Luna 24 stations were sent (launched on February 14, 1972 and August 9, 1976, delivering 30 and 170 grams of soil, respectively). Luna 24 managed to obtain soil samples from a depth of 1.6 m. A small portion of lunar soil was transferred to NASA in December 1976. The Luna-24 station became the last spacecraft for the next 37 years to perform a soft landing on the Moon - until the landing of the Chinese “Jade Hare”.

Lunokhods and the final stage of the first stage of research

Launched on November 10, 1970, the Luna-17 station delivered the world's first planetary rover: Lunokhod-1, which operated on the surface for 301 days. It was equipped with two television cameras, 4 telephotometers, an X-ray spectrometer and an X-ray telescope, an odometer-penetrometer, a radiation detector and a laser reflector.

During his work, he traveled more than 10 km, transmitted about 25 thousand photographs to the ground, 537 measurements were made of the physical and mechanical properties of lunar soil, and 25 times - chemical ones.

Lunokhod remote control

On January 8, 1973, Lunokhod-2 was launched, which had the same design. Despite the breakdown of the navigation system, he managed to travel more than 42 km, which was a record for planetary rovers until 2015, when this record was broken by the Opportunity rover. The flight of Lunokhod-3, planned for 1977, was unfortunately cancelled.

Photos of Lunokhod-3 in the museum of the NPO named after S. A. Lavochkin

On October 3, 1971, the automatic interplanetary station Luna-19 was launched into lunar orbit by the Proton-K rocket, which operated for 388 days. Its weight was 5.6 tons and it was built on the basis of the design of the previous Luna-17 station:

The scientific equipment included a dosimeter, a radiometric laboratory, a magnetometer mounted on a 2-meter rod, equipment for determining the density of meteorite matter, as well as cameras for photographing the lunar surface. One of the main tasks of the apparatus was the study of mascons. Due to the failure of the control system and entering an incorrect orbit, it was decided to abandon the task of cartography of the Moon. During the flight, additional data was obtained on the magnetic field of the Moon and it was found that the density of meteorite particles near the Moon does not differ from their concentration in the range of 0.8-1.2 au. from the sun.

On May 29, 1974, the Luna-22 station was launched with the same scientific program; the station operated for 521 days. These stations made it possible to clarify the gravitational fields of the Moon, and to simplify the landing of the Luna-20 and Luna-24 stations for soil sampling.

Solar system and AWS

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Less than a year and a half has passed. And this is not surprising since the Moon is the closest object to the Earth and a very unusual object: the Earth/Moon mass ratio exceeds all others and is 81/1 - the closest such indicator is only 4226/1 for the ligament /.

Due to the fact that volcanic activity on the Moon quickly disappeared (due to its relatively small mass), its surface is very ancient and is estimated at almost 4.5 billion years, and the absence leads to the accumulation of age and composition on the surface of which can reach even exceed the age of the solar system itself. All this, in addition to the proximity of the Moon to us, aroused active scientific interest among people and a desire to explore it: the total number of spacecraft sent to study it (including failed missions) already exceeds 90 pieces. And it is about all their diversity that we will talk today.

First steps

Discussion of the failure of the Luna-8 station from the book “Korolev: Facts and Myths” by Y. K. Golovanov, a journalist who almost became an astronaut:

The first spacecraft that was able to conduct direct exploration of the Moon and reach the second cosmic speed was the Luna-1 station, launched on January 2, 1959. Outwardly, it strongly resembled Sputnik 1.

The same spherical shape, the same four antennas... but in fact there was little in common between the two satellites: Sputnik 1 only had a radio transmitter, while Luna 1 already had several scientific instruments installed. With their help, it was first established that the Moon does not have a magnetic field and was recorded for the first time. Also during its flight, an experiment was carried out to create an artificial comet: at a distance of about 120 thousand km from Earth, a cloud of sodium vapor weighing about 1 kg was released from the station, which was recorded as an object of 6th magnitude.

The Luna-1 station is assembled with block “E” - the third stage of the “Vostok-L”, with the help of which the Luna-2 and Luna-3 stations were also launched.

Film dedicated to the Luna-1 station

On March 3, 1959, the American Pioneer-4 spacecraft was sent along the same flight path with a set of second cosmic speed. His goal was to study the Moon from the flyby trajectory, but a miss of as much as 60 thousand km led to the fact that the photoelectric sensor could not detect the Moon and photographing it failed, however, the Geiger counter established that the lunar environs did not differ in the level of radiation from the interplanetary medium.

On September 12, 1959, the Luna-2 station was launched. In addition to hitting the Moon, she was given an additional task - to deliver the USSR pennant to the Moon. At that time, the orientation and correction systems were not yet ready, so the impact was expected to be serious - at a speed of more than 3 km/s. The developers of the device used two technical tricks: 1) the pennants were placed on the surface of two balls with a diameter of about 10 and 15 cm.

When “touching” the Moon, the explosive charge inside these balls detonated, which allowed some of the pennants to reduce their speed relative to the Moon.

By October 7, 1959, the first photographs of the far side of the Moon were obtained using the Luna-3 station, which launched on October 4 like all other missions of the Luna program from . It weighed 287 kilograms and already had a full-fledged lunar orientation system installed on it, providing an accuracy of 0.5 degrees when shooting. The station used gravity assist for the first time.

The world's first photograph of the far side of the Moon. The photo was of mediocre quality due to signal transmission interference. But subsequent photographs were much better.

The process of approaching the Moon (video accelerated)

Ranger 8 and Ranger 9 were launched for exactly the same purpose (February 17 and March 21, 1965, respectively).

Better images of the far side of the Moon were obtained by the Zond-3 station launched on July 18, 1965. Initially, this station was prepared together with Zond-2 for a flight to, but due to problems the launch window was missed and Zond-3 went around the Moon. To test the new communication system, photographs received by the station were transmitted to Earth several times.

Soft landing and soil delivery

The task of a soft landing on the Moon was much more difficult and, after a series of failures, was accomplished only on February 3, 1966 by the Luna-9 station, launched on January 31. The device had a rather complex design.

Due to the fact that nothing was known about the surface of the Moon, the landing process was quite intricate.

The complexity of the landing system did not go unnoticed: from the landing station of 1.5 tons, only 100 kg of weight remained.

At the moment, enthusiasts from NASA are going to look for the flight block and the remains of the station's inflatable shock absorber using photographs (the device itself is too small to be seen - in LRO images it should look like 2 * 2 pixels).

The Americans managed to land the Surveyor-1 lander by June 2 (4 months after our station). There were many sensors installed on it:

The next Soviet spacecraft aimed at the Moon was Zond 5, launched on September 15, 1968. The device was a Soyuz 7K-L1 spacecraft launched by a launch vehicle and intended to fly around the Moon. In addition to testing the ship itself, it also had a scientific goal: it carried the first living beings to fly around the Moon 3 months earlier - these were two turtles, fruit flies, as well as several species of plants. After flying around the Moon, it splashed down in the waters of the Indian Ocean.

Two more successful launches of this spacecraft were made: Zond 7 and Zond 8 (August 8, 1969 and October 20, 1970, respectively) with successful returns of the descent vehicles.

Lunokhods and the final stage of the first stage of research

Launched on November 10, 1970, the Luna-17 station delivered the world's first: Lunokhod-1, which operated on the surface for 301 days. It was equipped with two television cameras, 4 telephotometers, an X-ray spectrometer and an X-ray telescope, an odometer-penetrometer, a radiation detector and a laser reflector.

On January 8, 1973, Lunokhod-2 was launched, which had the same design. Despite the breakdown of the navigation system, he managed to travel more than 42 km, which was a record for planetary rovers until 2015, when this record was broken by the Mars rover. The flight of Lunokhod-3, planned for 1977, was unfortunately cancelled.

The scientific equipment included a dosimeter, a radiometric laboratory, a magnetometer mounted on a 2-meter rod, equipment for determining the density of meteorite matter, as well as cameras for photographing the lunar surface. One of the main tasks of the apparatus was to study mascons. Due to the failure of the control system and entering an incorrect orbit, it was decided to abandon the task of cartography of the Moon. During the flight, additional data was obtained on the magnetic field of the Moon and it was found that the density of meteorite particles near the Moon does not differ from their concentration in the range of 0.8-1.2 from the Sun.

Quite remarkable was the Explorer 49 satellite, which was launched on June 10, 1973. Its huge antenna consisted of 4 elements 230 meters long. But although it was launched into the orbit of the Moon, it was not intended for its research - it studied galactic radio emission at frequencies of 25 kHz and 13.1 MHz (the Explorer-38 satellite was previously launched for the same purposes).

This completed the first stage of lunar exploration, in which there were actually only two participants - the USA and the USSR. To be continued…