People have always been interested in space. The moon, being closest to our planet, has become the only celestial body that has been visited by man. How did the exploration of our satellite begin, and who won the palm in landing on the moon?
Natural satellite
The moon is a celestial body that has accompanied our planet for centuries. It does not emit light, but only reflects it. The Moon is the Earth's satellite closest to the Sun. In the sky of our planet, it is the second brightest object.
We always see one side of the Moon due to the fact that its rotation is synchronized with the rotation of the Earth around its axis. The Moon moves around the Earth unevenly - sometimes moving away, sometimes approaching it. The great minds of the world have long puzzled over the study of its movement. This is an incredibly complex process, which is affected by the oblateness of the Earth and the gravity of the Sun.
Scientists are still arguing about how the Moon was formed. There are three versions, one of which - the main one - was put forward after receiving samples of lunar soil. It has been called the giant impact theory. It is based on the assumption thatMore than 4 billion years ago, two protoplanets collided, and their breakaway particles got stuck in near-Earth orbit, eventually forming the Moon.
Another theory suggests that the Earth and its natural satellite were formed due to a gas and dust cloud at the same time. Proponents of the third theory suggest that the Moon originated far from the Earth, but was captured by our planet.
Starting Moon Exploration
Even in ancient times, this celestial body haunted mankind. The first studies of the Moon were carried out back in the 2nd century BC by Hipparchus, who tried to describe its movement, size and distance from the Earth.
In 1609, Galileo invented the telescope, and the exploration of the moon (albeit visual) moved to a new level. It became possible to study the surface of our satellite, to see its craters and mountains. For example, Giovanni Riccioli made it possible to create one of the first lunar maps in 1651. At that time, the term "sea" was born, denoting the dark areas of the surface of the moon, and craters began to be named after famous personalities.
In the 19th century, photography came to the aid of astronomers, which made it possible to conduct more accurate studies of the features of the relief. Lewis Rutherford, Warren de la Rue and Pierre Jansen at various times actively studied the lunar surface from images, and the latter created its "Photographic Atlas".
Exploring the Moon. Rocket attempts
The first stages of study have been completed, and interest in the Moon is getting hotter. In the 19th century, the first thoughts about space travel to the satellite were born, with which the history of the exploration of the moon began. Forfor such a flight, it was necessary to create an apparatus whose speed would be able to overcome gravity. It turned out that the existing engines are not powerful enough to gain the necessary speed and maintain it. There were also difficulties with the motion vector of the devices, since after takeoff they necessarily rounded off their movement and fell to the Earth.
The solution came in 1903, when the engineer Tsiolkovsky created a project for a rocket that could overcome the gravitational field and reach the target. The fuel in the rocket engine was supposed to burn out at the very beginning of the flight. So, its mass became much less, and the movement was carried out due to the released energy.
Who's first?
The 20th century was marked by large-scale military events. The entire scientific potential was directed to the military channel, and the exploration of the moon had to be slowed down. The unfolding of the Cold War in 1946 forced astronomers and engineers to think again about space travel. One of the questions in the rivalry between the Soviet Union and the United States was the following: who will be the first to land on the surface of the moon?
The championship in the struggle for the exploration of the Moon and outer space went to the Soviet Union, and on October 4, 1957, the first artificial satellite of the Earth was launched, and two years later the first space station Luna-1, or, as it called, "Dream".
In January 1959, AMS - an automatic interplanetary station - passed about 6 thousand kilometers from the moon, but could not land. "Dream" fell into a heliocentric orbit, becomingartificial satellite of the sun. The period of its revolution around the star is 450 days.
The moon landing failed, but very valuable data were obtained on the outer radiation belt of our planet and the solar wind. It was possible to establish that the natural satellite has an insignificant magnetic field.
Following the Soyuz, in March 1959, the United States launched Pioneer-4, which flew 60,000 km from the Moon, hitting the solar orbit.
The real breakthrough happened on September 14 of the same year, when the Luna-2 spacecraft made the world's first "lunar landing". The station did not have cushioning, so the landing was hard, but significant. This was done by Luna-2 near the Sea of Rains.
Exploring the lunar expanses
The first landing paved the way for further research. Following Luna-2, Luna-3 was sent, flying around the satellite and photographing the "dark side" of the planet. The lunar map has become more complete, new names of craters have appeared on it: Jules Verne, Kurchatov, Lobachevsky, Mendeleev, Pasteur, Popov and others.
The first American station landed on the Earth's satellite only in 1962. It was the Ranger-4 station that crashed on the far side of the moon.
Further on, the American "Rangers" and the Soviet "Moons" and "Probes" attacked space in turn, either making telephotos of the lunar surface, or smashing into smithereens about it. The first soft landing pleased the station "Luna-9" in 1966, and "Luna-10" became the first satellite of the moon. Having circumnavigated this planet 460 times, the "satellite's satellite"interrupted communication with Earth.
"Luna-9" was broadcasting a telecast filmed by a machine gun. From the TV screens, the Soviet viewer watched the filming of cold desert expanses.
US followed the same course as the Union. In 1967, the American station "Surveyor-1" made the second soft landing in the history of astronautics.
To the moon and back
For several years, Soviet and American researchers have achieved incredible success. The mysterious night luminary for many centuries excited the minds of both great minds and hopeless romantics. Step by step, the Moon became closer and more accessible to humans.
The next goal was not just to send a space station to the satellite, but also to return it back to Earth. The engineers faced new challenges. The apparatus flying back had to enter the earth's atmosphere at a not too steep angle, otherwise it could burn out. Too large an angle, on the contrary, could create a ricochet effect, and the device would again fly into space without reaching the Earth.
Difficulties with angle calibration have been resolved. A series of vehicles "Zond" from 1968 to 1970 successfully made flights with a landing. "Zond-6" became a test. He had to perform a test flight, so that later astronaut pilots could carry it out. The device circled the Moon at a distance of 2500 km, but when returning to Earth, the parachute opened too early. The station crashed and the astronauts' flight was cancelled.
Americans on the Moon: the first moonwalkers
Steppe turtles, that's who first circled the moon and returned to Earth. The animals were sent into space on the Soviet Zond-5 spacecraft in 1968.
USA clearly lagged behind in the development of the lunar expanses, because all the first successes belonged to the USSR. In 1961, US President Kennedy made a loud statement that by 1970 there would be a landing on the moon. And the Americans will do it.
For the implementation of such a plan, it was necessary to prepare a reliable ground. The images of the lunar surface taken by the Ranger spacecraft were studied, the anomalous phenomena of the Moon were studied.
For manned flights, the Apollo program was opened, which used the calculations of the flight trajectory to the Moon, made by Ukrainian Yuri Kondratyuk. Subsequently, this trajectory was named the Kondratyuk Track.
Apollo 8 made the first test manned flight without landing. F. Borman, W. Anders, J. Lovell made several circles around the natural satellite, making a survey of the area for a future expedition. T. Stafford and J. Young on "Apollo 10" carried out the second flight around the satellite. The astronauts separated from the spacecraft module and stayed 15 km from the Moon separately.
After all the preparations, the Apollo 11 was finally sent. The Americans landed on the Moon on July 21, 1969 near the Sea of Tranquility. Neil Armstrong took the first step, followed by Edwin Aldrin. The astronauts stayed on the natural satellite for 21.5 hours.
Further studies
After Armstrong and Aldrin to the Moon5 more scientific expeditions were sent. The last time astronauts landed on a moon was in 1972. In the entire human history, only in these expeditions did people land on other space objects.
The Soviet Union did not leave the study of the surface of the natural satellite. Since 1970, radio-controlled "Lunokhods" of the 1st and 2nd series were sent. The rover on the Moon collected soil samples and photographed the relief.
In 2013, China became the third country to reach our moon with a soft landing on the Yutu rover.
Conclusion
The Earth's natural satellite has long been a fascinating object of study. In the 20th century, the exploration of the moon turned from scientific research into a heated political race. A lot has been done to travel on it. Now the Moon remains the most studied astronomical object, which, moreover, has been visited by man.
