History of the discovery of the moon. Why do we see the moon in different forms? American lunar program

Less than a year and a half passed from the launch of the first satellite of the Earth 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 mass ratio of the Earth / Moon exceeds all other satellites of the planets and is 81/1 - the closest such indicator is only 4226/1 at the Saturn bundle /Titanium.

Due to the fact that volcanic activity on the Moon quickly faded away (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 of age and composition of meteorites on the surface of which can reach and even surpass the age of the solar system itself. All this, in addition to the very closeness of the Moon to us, caused an 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 will be discussed today.

First steps

The first exploration of the Moon started rather badly both in the USSR and in the USA: only the fourth of the 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 on our account, so very little was known about the conditions of open space. Adding to this limited technical difficulties that did not allow at that time to stuff spacecraft with heaps of sensors as it can be done now (so one could sometimes only guess about the causes of the accident) - and one can imagine in what conditions spacecraft designers sometimes had to work.

Discussion of the failure of the Luna-8 station from the book Korolev: Facts and Myths by Ya. 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 these two satellites: Sputnik-1 had only a radio transmitter, while several scientific instruments were already installed on Luna-1. With the help of them, 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 conducted to create an artificial comet: at a distance of about 120 thousand km from the Earth, a cloud of sodium vapor weighing about 1 kg was released from the station, which was recorded as an object of the 6th magnitude.


The Luna-1 station assembled with the "E" block - 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 Luna-1 station

Initially, Luna-1 was supposed to be smashed against its surface, however, during the flight preparation, the signal delay 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 that worked a little later than necessary led to a miss of 6 thousand km - which well, "rocket science" has never been easy...

On March 3, 1959, the American Pioneer-4 spacecraft was sent along the same flight trajectory with a set of second space velocity. His goal was to study the Moon from a flyby trajectory, but a miss of as much as 60 thousand km led to the fact that the photoelectric sensor could not fix the Moon and it was not possible to photograph it, however, the Geiger counter found that the lunar neighborhood does not differ in the level of radiation from the interplanetary medium.


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

On September 12, 1959, the Luna-2 station was launched. For her, in addition to hitting the moon, an additional task was set - to deliver the pennant of the USSR to the moon. By that time, the systems of orientation and orbit correction were not yet ready, so the impact was assumed to be serious - at a speed of more than 3 km / s. The developers of the device went for two technical tricks: 1) 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 part of the pennants to extinguish the speed relative to the Moon.

2) Another solution was to use a 25 cm long aluminum tape on which the inscriptions were applied. The tape itself was placed in a strong case filled with a liquid with a density similar to that of the tape, and this case, in turn, was placed in a less durable one. At the moment of impact, the outer body was crushed and extinguished the impact energy. The liquid served as an additional shock absorber and made it possible to be sure of the safety of the tape. This whole structure was placed on the third stage of the rocket, which brought the station to the trajectory of departure 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 cosmonautics historians will be able to answer this question.

By October 7, 1959, the first images 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 it already had a full-fledged orientation system for the Sun and Moon, providing an accuracy of 0.5 degrees when shooting. The station was the first to use a gravity assist:


The flight path of the Luna-3 station - this trajectory was calculated under the leadership of Keldysh in order to ensure the passage of the station over the territory of the USSR when it returns to Earth. The next gravitational 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 already transmitted to Earth. To avoid the risk of the device failing before returning to the 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 at the moments when the device flew by 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 communication 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 interference. But subsequent photos were already much better:

As a result, with the help of these 17 images, we managed to build a fairly detailed map:

High-resolution photographs of the visible side of the Moon were obtained 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 for it, which managed to transmit 4300 images of the Moon in the last 17 minutes of flight before the collision .

The process of approaching the moon (video sped up)

The filming was carried out until the very collision, but due to the high speed of the station relative to the moon, the last image was taken from a height of about 488 meters and was not transmitted to the end:

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

Better pictures of the far side of the moon were obtained by the Zond-3 station launched on July 18, 1965. Initially, this station was being prepared together with Zond-2 for a flight to Mars, but due to problems, the launch window was missed and Zond-3 went around the Moon. To test the new communication system, the 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 after that it was carried out only on February 3, 1966 by the Luna-9 station, which 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 rather intricate:

The complexity of the landing system did not go unnoticed: from the landing station of 1.5 tons, an ALS of only 100 kg in weight remained, 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 speed even turned out to be a positive factor - a slow communication channel was enough 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 shoot one photograph. The television camera had an angle of view of 29° vertically, in addition to which the design of the device provided for its inclination by 16° relative to the vertical of the terrain - so that it could capture both the distant panorama and the nearby surface microrelief:

A full panorama of the moon is just a click away. Additional photos of the station device can be seen, and the camera itself, which was shooting, looked like this:

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

The Americans managed to land the Surveyor-1 descent module by June 2 (4 months after our station). It was equipped with many sensors:

The device itself carried out landing from a flight trajectory, therefore, instruments for this purpose were installed on it: the main engine (it was dropped at an altitude of 10 km), steering motors and an altimeter / speed sensor. Landing legs were made of aluminum honeycombs to soften the impact during lunar landing. Among the target equipment of the vehicles were a television camera, a sensor for analyzing the light reflected from the surface (to determine the chemical composition of the soil) and sensors for determining the 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 in the process of braking near the Moon, and the rest 5 sat down and completed their tasks of exploring 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-ray spectrometer, a magnetometer, a meteorite detector, an instrument for studying the solar wind and the infrared radiation of the Moon. Also, studies of the gravitational anomalies of the Moon (mascons) were 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 a flight stage and its design. This migratory stage was also used in stations from Luna-4 to Luna-9 inclusive.

On August 10, 1966, five vehicles of the Lunar Orbiter series were sent to the Moon. Like the Soviet stations, they used film for filming. Since they were already launched as part of the preparations for the Apollo program, the cartography of the Moon primarily included images 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 for 36 potential landing sites, images were taken with a resolution of 2 meters.

The device itself was quite large: with a total 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 camera had two lenses for simultaneous wide-angle shots 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 the mascons were also seen). They threatened the safety of the astronauts, since landing without taking them into account, according to calculations, could lead to a deviation of 2 km instead of the standard 200 m. from your goal.

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

The next Soviet spacecraft to reach 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 goal: it flew the first living creatures that flew around the moon 3 months before Apollo 8 - these were two turtles, fruit flies, and several plant species. After flying around the moon, the descent vehicle splashed down in the waters of the Indian Ocean:

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

Two more successful launches of this ship 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 to do it. However, in the process of deceleration, the Moon lost contact with it. As a result, Luna-16, launched on September 12, 1970, became the first automatic station to deliver samples of lunar soil:

On September 20, the lander weighing 1880 kilograms reached the surface of the moon. The sample was obtained using a drill that within 7 minutes reached a depth of 35 cm and took 101 grams of lunar soil. Then the return vehicle weighing 512 kg was launched from the Moon and already on September 24 the samples on the 35 kg 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 was able to obtain soil samples from a depth of 1.6 m. A small portion of the lunar soil was transferred to NASA in December 1976. The Luna-24 station was the last for the next 37 years to carry out a soft landing on the Moon - until the landing of the Chinese Jade Hare.

Lunokhods and the final 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 worked 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 earth, 537 measurements of the physical and mechanical properties of the lunar soil were made, and 25 times - chemical ones.


Remote control for Lunokhod

On January 8, 1973, Lunokhod-2 was launched, which had the same design. Despite the failure 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 canceled.


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

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

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, and cameras for shooting the surface of the moon. One of the main tasks of the apparatus was the study of mascons. Due to the failure of the control system and the entry into an undesignated orbit, it was decided to abandon the task of cartography of the moon. During the flight, additional data on the magnetic field of the Moon were obtained 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 worked 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.

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    For 50 years, researchers and scientific groups from all over the world have wanted to know detailed information about this or that planet. This is not accidental, because many people 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 is no secret that the Moon is a natural satellite of our planet. It is one of the brightest in the 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 has been visited by man.

    The Earth and the Moon are often referred to as paired celestials. This is due to the fact that their mass and size are quite close. Explorations have been carried out on the Moon many times. It has been proven that there is a force of attraction. On the surface of a natural satellite, a person can easily turn over a small car.

    Many are interested in what the Moon really is. It revolves around the earth. Depending on the position of a natural satellite, you can see it in completely different ways. 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 so-called This concept exists today. But in fact, these are petrified areas through which lava used to erupt. According to research, this happened many billions of years ago. Consider below what the lunar soil is called.

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

    Regolith color

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

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

    The thickness of the soil on the moon

    The uppermost layer of the Moon is regolithic. Soil research is important for creating blueprints and further building bases. It is believed that the 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 in it. Thanks to the information given in the article, we can conclude that the thickness of the regolith layer on the Moon differs depending on the territory under study.

    Unfortunately, it is currently not possible to explore the entire surface of the Moon. Nevertheless, methods already exist that make it possible to study a sufficiently large territory of a natural satellite.

    Chemical composition

    Lunar soil contains a large number of chemical trace elements. Among them are silicon, oxygen, iron, titanium, aluminum, calcium and magnesium. Information about was obtained thanks to the methods of remote and It is worth noting that there are several ways to study the lunar soil. Their main problem is the division of attention on the age of the regolith and its composition.

    The negative impact of moon dust on the human body

    Scientists at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration studied the pros and cons of the 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 are activated once every two weeks. Scientists have also proven that regular inhalation of moon dust can lead to serious illnesses.

    On the surface of the lungs there are special fibers on which all the dust collects. In the future, the body gets rid of it with a cough. It should be noted that too small particles 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 a natural satellite.

    The negative impact of dust, which creates storms on the surface of a 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 due to the inhalation of lunar dust, which was 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.

    Dark Side Exploration

    Most recently, China presented its plan to explore the surface of the moon to the world. According to preliminary data, two years later, 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 a natural satellite.

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

    Organic matter in the composition of the lunar soil

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

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

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

    First flights to the moon

    In January 1959, the Soviet Union carried out an automatic interplanetary station "Luna-1" on a flight path to the Moon. This is the first device to reach the second space velocity.

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

    Less than a month later, the third automatic interplanetary station was launched into space. Her weight was over 200 kilograms. Solar panels were located on its body. Within half an hour, the station automatically took more than 20 pictures of the Moon with the help of a built-in camera. Thanks to this, mankind first saw the reverse side of the natural satellite. It was in October 1959 that people learned what the Moon really was.

    Magma on the surface of a celestial body

    During one of the latest studies of the Moon, channels with solidified magma were revealed under its upper layer. Scientists say that thanks to such a find, you can find out the real age of our natural satellite. It should be noted that the chronology is currently 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 a 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 underground channels is more than four billion years. This discovery is an impetus for further research of the natural satellite.

    Sale of land plots on the Moon

    Recently, a large number of agencies have appeared that offer to buy samples of lunar soil or even acquire a land plot on another planet. An agent who can provide you with such services can be found in absolutely any country. It's 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 is it just 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 argue that after some time, humanity will be able to seamlessly surf the expanses of space and travel to one or another celestial body. For this reason, according to agents, buying a land plot 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 ownership and informed all states about it. The next step was to register your 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. In this state, there are a huge number of laws that allow you to issue any document for a certain amount. Thus, Dennis Hope is selling not the right to property, but the most ordinary beautifully designed waste paper. Based on this, no one person can claim land on the moon. This is confirmed by the bill adopted on January 27, 1967. After analyzing all the information that is given in our article, we can conclude that buying a land plot on the moon is a waste of money.

    Summing up

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

    V. D. Perov, Yu. I. Stakheev , PhD in Chemistry

    SPACE VEHICLES EXPLORE THE MOON (on the 20th anniversary of the launch of Luna-1)

    Title: Buy the book "Spacecraft Explore the Moon": feed_id: 5296 pattern_id: 2266 book_

    Since the most ancient times of human history, the Moon has always been an object of interest and admiration for people. She inspired poets, amazed scientists, awakened their creative aspirations. The connection of the Moon with tides and solar eclipses has long been noticed, and the mystical and religious interpretations accompanying these phenomena have had a serious impact on the daily life of man. Since primitive times, the change of lunar phases, the repeated "aging" and "birth" of the Moon were reflected in the folklore of different peoples, and affected the cultural development of mankind.

    And although the nature of the moon remained unsolved for millennia, close interest and intense reflection led philosophers of antiquity sometimes to startling conjectures. So, Anaxagoras assumed the Moon was stone, and Democritus believed that the spots on the Moon were huge mountains and valleys. Aristotle showed that it has the shape of a ball.

    Already the ancient Greeks understood that the Moon revolves around the Earth and rotates around its axis with the same period. Aristarchus of Samos, 1900 years before Copernicus, proposed the heliocentric theory of the solar system and calculated that the distance to the moon is 56 times greater than the radius of the globe. Hipparchus found that the lunar orbit is an oval inclined by 5 degrees to the plane of the earth's orbit, and estimated the relative distance to the moon at 59 earth radii, and its angular size at 31. Truly telescopic precision.

    Since 1610, when Galileo saw through his telescope valleys, mountains, plateaus and large bowl-shaped depressions on the Moon, the “geographical” stage of studying this celestial body began. By the end of the XVI century. more than 25 maps of the Moon have already been compiled, of which the most accurate were the maps compiled by Hevelius and J. Cassini. By analogy with the earth's seas, Galileo gave the names of "seas" to the dark regions of the moon. The view that large craters are volcanic in origin arose intuitively in the 17th century, perhaps by analogy with the Italian volcano Monte Nuovo (located north of Naples), whose cinder cone appeared in 1538 and grew to a height of 140 m, demonstrating to Renaissance scientists an example of a crater-forming event.

    The assumption of a volcanic origin of lunar craters lasted until 1893, when Gilbert's classic work appeared. Since then, various geological interpretations of lunar landscapes have systematically emerged. In the 1950s and 1960s, scientists approached directly to unraveling the sequence of lunar phenomena using the classical geological principle of superposition, which made it possible to construct a scale of relative times and create the first geological map of the Moon. At the same time, an attempt was made to link the sequence of lunar events with absolute chronology. Some researchers assumed an age of 3–4 billion years for the lunar seas, others (as it turned out later, less successfully) - several tens or hundreds of millions of years.

    In 1960, the monographic collection Luna appeared, written by a team of Soviet scientists who had been studying the Earth's natural satellite for many years. It comprehensively and critically presented the data accumulated by that time on the movement, structure, figure of the Moon, information on lunar cartography, the results of optical and radar studies of the atmosphere and the surface cover of the Moon, discussed the role of both endogenous (internal, lunar) and exogenous (external , cosmic) factors in the formation of various features of the lunar relief and the physical properties of the outer surface of our satellite. The collection, as it were, summed up the “pre-cosmic” period of lunar exploration.

    In January 1959, the launch of the automatic station "Luna-1" marked the beginning of a qualitatively new stage in the research of our natural satellite. Not only circumlunar outer space, but also the solid body of the Moon became available to direct, immediate experiment. The launch of Soviet spacecraft to the Moon was also a qualitatively new stage in the development of the entire world astronautics. The solution of scientific and technical problems related to the achievement of the second cosmic velocity, the development of flight methods to other celestial bodies, opened up new horizons for science. Experimental methods of geophysics and geology were placed at the service of planetology. Cosmonautics made it possible to solve problems that were inaccessible to traditional methods of astronomy, to test a number of theoretical positions and the results of remote intentions, and to obtain new unique experimental material.

    The second half of the 1960s in the study of the Moon is characterized by the commissioning of automatic stations (AS) capable of delivering scientific instruments to its surface or conducting long-term studies in the circumlunar space, moving along the orbits of an artificial satellite of the Moon (ASL). A stage of systematic, painstaking work has begun to study both the global characteristics of the Moon and the features characteristic of its individual regions.

    American specialists have also achieved great success in the study of the Moon. The US lunar space program was built largely as a counterbalance to the successes of the Soviet Union's cosmonautics. At the same time, according to many American scientists, too much attention was paid to issues of prestige. In the arsenal of American scientists there were a variety of apparatus for conducting experiments. These include automatic devices that, following the Soviet stations, landed on the lunar surface and were put into orbits of artificial moon satellites. However, the program of experiments carried out with their help was mainly focused on obtaining the data necessary to create manned Apollo complexes and ensure astronauts landing on the moon.

    The question of the expediency of the direct participation of man in flights to the Moon and planets at this stage in the development of astronautics has always caused a different controversy. Space is an environment where human existence is associated with the use of bulky and complex equipment. Its cost is very high, and ensuring reliable operation is not an easy task. After all, when flying far from the Earth, almost any failure in the systems puts the crew on the brink of death. The days have not yet been erased from memory when the whole world watched with bated breath as American astronauts fought for their lives, placed in the most difficult conditions by an accident that led to malfunctions in the systems of the Apollo 13 spacecraft on its way to the moon.

    From its first steps, the Soviet lunar space program was oriented towards the consistent and systematic solution of the urgent problems of selenology. Its rational construction, the desire to correctly correlate scientific goals and means for their implementation brought great success and led the Soviet cosmonautics to many outstanding priority achievements, while maintaining an acceptable level of material costs, without excessively straining the country's economic resources and without harming the development of other areas of science and technology. , sectors of the national economy.

    This was largely determined by the fact that the Soviet space program was based on the use of automatic research tools. The high level of development of the theory of automatic control, great success in the practice of designing automata for various purposes, the rapid progress of radio electronics, radio engineering and other branches of science and technology have made it possible to create spacecraft with wide functionality, capable of performing complex operations and operating reliably in extreme conditions for a long time. time.

    The flights of Soviet automatic space reconnaissance made it possible for the first time in the practice of world cosmonautics to solve such cardinal tasks as making an Earth-Moon flight, obtaining photographs of the far side of the Moon, launching an artificial satellite of the Moon into orbit, performing a soft landing on the surface and transmitting the lunar landscape to telepanoramas, delivering to Earth samples of lunar soil using an automatic device, the creation of mobile laboratories "Lunokhod" with a variety of scientific equipment for long-term complex experiments in the process of moving over long distances.

    The pamphlet brought to the attention of readers tells about the main types of Soviet automatic lunar stations and their equipment, gives brief information about the scientific results obtained with the help of space technology, and provides some information about future directions in the exploration and exploration of the Moon.

    THE FIRST AUTOMATIC MOON SCOUTS

    The Soviet automatic stations of the first generation, delivered to the area of ​​the Moon with the help of Soviet space launch vehicles, include AS "Luna-1, -2, -3" (see Appendix). At this stage, Soviet cosmonautics solved such problems as the flight of a spacecraft near the Moon ("Luna-1"), its targeted hit in a given region of the lunar hemisphere facing the Earth ("Luna-2"), its flight and photography of the far side of the Moon ("Luna-3").

    The stations were launched onto the Earth-Moon route, starting from the surface of the Earth, and not from the orbit of its artificial satellite, as has become customary at the present time. After the end of the work of the propulsion system, the station undocked from the last stage of the launch vehicle and then made an uncontrolled flight. At the same time, in order to ensure movement along the desired trajectory, it was necessary to maintain extremely accurate movement parameters at the end of the active section of the launch vehicle, reliable and accurate functioning of all systems, especially the automation of the propulsion system and control system.

    The flights of the first automatic stations to the Moon were a new outstanding achievement of the young Soviet cosmonautics, a convincing demonstration of the possibilities of science and technology of the Soviet Union. Just over two years have passed since the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite into near-Earth orbit, and Soviet scientists and designers have already solved a fundamentally new task - putting an automatic device on a flight path in a heliocentric orbit.


    Rice. 1. Automatic station "Luna-1"

    In order for the station to become the first artificial planet, it needed to achieve a speed exceeding the second space one and overcome the earth's gravity. This task was achieved thanks to the creation of a powerful launch vehicle, characterized by high design perfection, equipped with a highly efficient propulsion system and an improved control system. The complexity of the problem of creating a missile system of this class is illustrated by the difficulties that American specialists encountered at a similar stage of space research. Thus, for example, out of nine launches of the first automatic devices of the Pioneer series intended for the study of the Moon and near-lunar space, only one was completely successful.

    Let's consider what the first Soviet reconnaissance interplanetary routes were like, how their flights to the Moon were carried out.

    The Luna-1 station (Fig. 1) was a spherical sealed container, the shell of which was made of an aluminum-magnesium alloy. Inside the container were placed electronic blocks of scientific equipment, radio equipment, chemical current sources. A magnetometer was installed on the body of the container to measure the parameters of the magnetic fields of the Earth and the Moon, proton traps, sensors for detecting meteor particles, and radio antennas. In order for the station equipment to operate under acceptable temperature conditions, the container was filled with neutral gas, the forced circulation of which was provided by a special fan. Excess heat through the shell of the container was radiated into space.

    After the launch, upon reaching a speed exceeding the second space velocity, and after turning off the engine, the station separated from the launch vehicle and, as mentioned above, flew autonomously.

    On January 4, 1959, the Luna-1 station approached the Moon at a distance of 5000–6000 km, and then, having entered a heliocentric orbit, became the first artificial planet in the solar system.

    AS "Luna-2" had a similar design with "Luna-1" and equipment similar to it. On September 14, 1959, it reached the surface of the Moon west of the Sea of ​​Clarity at a point with selenocentric latitude +30° and longitude 0°. For the first time in the history of astronautics, a flight was made from Earth to another celestial body. To commemorate this memorable event, pennants with the emblem of the Soviet Union and the inscription “Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. September. 1959".

    The implementation of the flight of the station in a precisely specified region of the Moon is a task of extreme complexity. It is today, twenty years later, when automata have already visited Venus and Mars, made flights to Mercury and Jupiter, when even a person more than once left traces on the “dusty paths” of our natural satellite, hitting the Moon with a “shot” from the Earth seems a simple matter. But at that time, the first flight of an automatic station to the Moon was rightfully perceived by the world community as an outstanding scientific and technical achievement.

    The creators of space technology and the specialists preparing the flight of the Luna-2 station faced many difficult questions. After all, the solution to the problem of a “simple hit” on the Moon required that the automatic control system withstand the final speed of the launch vehicle with an accuracy of several meters per second, and the deviation of the real speed from the calculated one by only 0.01% (1 m / s) “diverted” the station would be 250 km away from the supposed meeting point with the Moon. In order not to miss the Moon, it is necessary to maintain the angular position of the launch vehicle's velocity vector with an accuracy of 0.1°. At the same time, an error of only 1 “shifted” the landing point by 200 km.

    There were other difficulties, and one of them was the organization and conduct of the preparation of the launch vehicle for launch. The Earth and the Moon are in a complex mutual motion, so for a flight to a given area of ​​the Moon, it is very important to accurately maintain the moment of launch. So, a miss of the same 200 km is obtained when the start time deviates by only 10 s! On its flight, the second Soviet space rocket with the Luna-2 station on board took off with a deviation from the set time of only 1 s.

    The first space "photographer" was the automatic station "Luna-3". Its main task is to photograph the far side of the Moon, which is inaccessible for research from Earth. In this regard, the trajectory of the station had to satisfy a number of specific requirements. First, care should be taken to ensure optimal shooting conditions. It was decided that the distance between the AU and the Moon when photographing would be 60–70 thousand km, and the Moon, the station and the Sun should be approximately on the same straight line.

    Secondly, it was also necessary to ensure good conditions for radio communication with the station when transmitting images to Earth. In addition, in order to carry out scientific experiments accompanying the main task of the flight, it was necessary that the station existed in space for a longer time, that is, that during the flight near the Earth it would not enter the dense layers of the atmosphere.

    For the movement of the Luna-3 station, they chose the trajectory of a flyby of the Moon, taking into account the so-called "perturbation" maneuver, in which the change in the initial trajectory of the apparatus occurs not due to the operation of the onboard engine (the station did not have it), but due to the influence of the gravitational field itself Moon.

    Thus, even at the dawn of cosmonautics, Soviet specialists realized a very interesting and promising method for maneuvering automatic vehicles during interplanetary flights. The use of a "perturbative" maneuver makes it possible to change the flight trajectory without using onboard propulsion systems, which ultimately makes it possible to increase the weight allocated to scientific equipment due to the saved fuel. This method was subsequently repeatedly used in the practice of interplanetary flights.

    On October 6, 1959, Luna-3 passed near the Moon at a distance of 7900 km from its center, went around it and entered the elliptical satellite orbit with an apogee of 480,000 km from the center of the Earth and a perigee of 47,500 km. The impact of the lunar gravitational field reduced the apogee of the trajectory by about one and a half times compared to the initial orbit and increased the perigee. In addition, the direction of movement of the station has changed. It approached the Earth not from the side of the southern hemisphere, but from the northern one, within the line of sight of communication points on the territory of the USSR.

    Structurally, the Luna-3 station (Fig. 2) consisted of a sealed cylindrical body with spherical bottoms. Solar panels, antennas of the radio complex, sensitive elements of scientific equipment were installed on the outer surface. The upper bottom had a camera porthole with a lid that opens automatically when photographing. In the upper and lower bottoms there were small windows for the solar sensors of the attitude control system. The orientation system micromotors were mounted on the lower bottom.


    Rice. 2. Automatic station "Luna-3"

    The on-board service equipment, including the station's blocks and devices, scientific instruments and chemical current sources, was placed inside the case, where the required thermal regime was maintained. The removal of heat generated by operating appliances was provided by a radiator with shutters to regulate heat transfer.

    The station's camera had lenses with a focal length of 200 and 500 mm for shooting the Moon at various scales. Photographing was carried out on a special 35-mm film that can withstand high temperatures. The captured film was automatically developed, fixed, dried, and prepared for image transmission to Earth.

    The transmission was carried out with the help of a television system. The negative image on the film was converted into electrical signals by a high resolution translucent cathode ray tube and a highly stable photomultiplier tube. The transmission could be carried out in slow mode (when communicating at large distances) and fast (when approaching the Earth). Depending on the transmission conditions, the number of lines into which the image was decomposed could vary. The maximum number of lines is 1000 per frame.

    To perform photography, after the AS, moving along the trajectory, reached the required position relative to the Moon and the Sun, an autonomous orientation system was put into action. With the help of this system, the erratic rotation of the station that arose after separation from the last stage of the launch vehicle was eliminated, and then, with the help of the Sun's sensors, the AS was oriented in the Sun-Moon direction (the optical axes of the camera lenses were directed towards the Moon). After reaching the exact orientation, when the Moon came into the field of view of a special optical device, the command to photograph was automatically given. During the entire photography session, the orientation system kept the equipment constantly pointing at the Moon.

    What is the scientific significance of the results of the flights of the first messengers to the Moon?

    Already at the first stage of lunar exploration with the use of automatic space devices, the most important scientific data in terms of planetology were obtained. It was found that the Moon does not have a noticeable magnetic field of its own and a radiation belt. The lunar magnetic field was not registered by the equipment of the Luna-2 station, which had a lower sensitivity threshold of 60 gamma, and, thus, the strength of the lunar magnetic field turned out to be 100–400 times less than the strength of the magnetic field near the Earth's surface.

    An interesting conclusion was that the Moon still has an atmosphere, albeit an extremely rarefied one. This was evidenced by an increase in the density of the gaseous component as it approached the Moon.

    With the help of an "artificial comet" - a cloud of sodium vapor ejected into space and glowing under the influence of solar radiation - the study of the gaseous medium of interplanetary space was carried out. Observation of this cloud also made it possible to refine the parameters of the station's movement along the trajectory.

    Photographing the far side of the Moon, made by the Luna-3 station, for the first time made it possible to see about 2/3 of the surface and detect about 400 objects, the most notable of which were given the names of prominent scientists. The surprise was the asymmetry of the visible and invisible sides of the moon. On the reverse side, as it turned out, the continental sheet with a high density of craters prevails and there are practically no sea areas, so characteristic of the well-known, visible side.

    On the basis of the photographs obtained, the first atlas and map of the far side of the Moon were compiled and a lunar globe was made. Thus, a major step was taken on the path of "great geographical discoveries" on the moon.

    The first flights to the Moon were of great importance for the development of cosmonautics, and, in particular, for the creation of interplanetary automatic stations, the accumulation of experience and the development of technical means and methods for long-term interplanetary flights. They undoubtedly contributed to the foundations of the future success of the Soviet Union in the study of our closest neighbors in the solar system - the planets Venus and Mars.

    SOFT LANDING AND ARTIFICIAL SATELLITES OF THE MOON

    The first probing, exploratory, flights to the Moon not only brought many interesting and valuable scientific results, but also helped to formulate new areas of research for our nearest space neighbor. On the agenda was the question of studying the global properties of this cosmic body, as well as conducting research to identify regional features of the structure of the lunar surface.

    To solve these problems, it was necessary to create space vehicles capable of delivering scientific equipment to various regions of the Moon or conducting long-term studies in the circumlunar space from the orbits of its artificial satellites. A whole range of scientific and technical problems arose related to ensuring greater accuracy in launching spacecraft to the flight trajectories necessary for this, with monitoring and controlling their movement, with developing methods and creating means for orienting spacecraft on celestial bodies and compact, reliable and efficient rocket launchers. engines that allow reusable switching on and allow adjustment of thrust over a wide range (for correcting the trajectories of movement and braking during a soft landing or transition to the ISL orbit).

    The stations of this generation included AS Luna-9, -13, which carried out soft landings on Luka, as well as Luna-10, -11, -12, -14, launched into circumlunar orbits (see Appendix). They included a liquid-propellant jet engine and fuel tanks, a container with scientific equipment and systems to ensure its operation, as well as radio equipment for transmitting commands from Earth to the NPP and information from the NPP to Earth, automatic devices that ensure the operation of all units in a certain sequences.

    Depending on the flight mission (soft landing on the Moon or insertion of the station into a circumlunar orbit), the set of service systems and their mode of operation, the composition of the scientific equipment and its layout varied.

    The Soviet station "Luna-9" became the first spacecraft in the history of mankind to make a soft landing on the moon. The complex of devices that ensured the delivery of the container with the equipment to the lunar surface included a corrective braking propulsion system, radio devices and control system units, and power supplies.

    The AS propulsion system consisted of a single-chamber rocket engine and control nozzles, a spherical oxidizer tank, which is the main power element of the station, and a torus-like fuel tank. The engine used a fuel consisting of a nitric acid oxidizer and an amine-based fuel. The components were fed into the combustion chamber by a turbopump unit. The LRE developed a thrust of 4640 kg at a pressure in the combustion chamber of about 64 kg/sq. see. The propulsion system provided a two-time inclusion, necessary for carrying out the correction of the trajectory during the flight and braking before landing. During the correction, the engine worked with a constant thrust, and during landing, its value was regulated in a wide range.

    Automatic devices providing operations during the entire flight were installed in a sealed compartment, and the blocks needed only during the flight to the Moon (before landing operations were performed) were placed in special compartments that were dropped before braking began. Such a layout scheme made it possible to significantly reduce the mass of service systems before landing and significantly increase the mass of the payload.

    The final stage of the flight (Fig. 3) began 6 hours before landing - after the transfer of data to the AU to set up the control system. Two hours before the encounter with the Moon, radio commands from the Earth were used to prepare the systems for deceleration. The order of further operations was developed by the on-board logic devices of the control system, which also provided the orientation of the station based on the operation of optical sensors for tracking the Earth and the Sun (in this case, the axis of the engine was directed to the center of the Moon).

    After the radio altimeter registered that the altitude of the AU above the surface was about 75 km, the LRE started braking. When the rocket engine was launched, the discharged compartments were separated, and the stabilization of the AU was carried out with the help of control nozzles using the exhaust gas of the turbopump unit. The magnitude of the thrust of the engine was regulated according to a certain law, so that the required landing speed and the station's exit to a given height above the lunar surface at the end of deceleration were achieved.

    Due to the fact that by the time of the Luna-9 flight there were no exact data on the properties of the lunar surface, the landing system was calculated for a wide range of soil characteristics - from rocky to very loose. The landing container of the station was placed in an elastic shell, which was inflated with compressed gas before landing on the moon. Immediately before contact with the Moon, the spherical shell with the container enclosed in it was separated from the instrument compartment, fell to the surface and, after bouncing several times, stopped. At the same time, it broke up into two parts, was thrown back, and the AS descent vehicle ended up on the ground.



    Rice. 3. Scheme of the flight of the automatic station "Luna-9"

    The descent vehicle of the AS "Luna-9" is close to a ball in shape. Outside, four lobe antennas are attached to it, as well as four whip antennas with brightness standards suspended on them (for assessing the surface albedo at the landing site) and three dihedral mirrors. A television camera was located at the top of the container.

    In flight, the antennas and mirrors were folded. The upper part of the descent vehicle is covered with petal antennas (at the same time, it had an ovoid shape). Its center of gravity was located in the lower part, which ensured the correct position on the ground - in almost any landing conditions.

    4 minutes after landing, at the command from the programming device, the antennas opened, and the equipment was brought into working condition. The open lobes were used to transmit information, while the whip antennas were used to receive signals from the Earth. During the flight, radio signals were received and transmitted through petal antennas.

    The mass of the descent vehicle is about 100 kg, the diameter and height (with open antennas) are 160 and 112 cm.

    To obtain images of the lunar landscape, an optical-mechanical system was installed on AS Luna-9, which includes a lens, a diaphragm that forms an image element, and a movable mirror. Swinging in the vertical plane, which was created with the help of a special profiled cam, the mirror carried out a line scan, and its movement in the horizontal plane provided a frame panoramic scan. Both of these movements were produced by one electric motor with a stabilized rotation speed. Moreover, the camera's scanning device had several modes of operation: transmission could be carried out at a speed of one line per 1 s with a full panorama transmission time of 100 minutes, but an accelerated view of the surrounding area could also be used. In this case, the panorama transmission time was reduced to 20 minutes.

    The vertical angle of view of the camera was chosen to be 29° - 18° down and 11° up from the plane perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the camera. This was done in order to obtain predominantly an image of the surface. Since the vertical axis of the descent vehicle, when it landed on a horizontal platform, had an inclination of 16°, areas of the surface fell into the field of view of the TV camera starting from a distance of 1.5 m, and therefore the lens was focused to obtain a sharp image from 1.5 m to "infinity". ".

    The temperature regime of the descent vehicle was ensured by the effective protection of the container from the influence of the external environment and the removal of excess heat into the surrounding space. The first task was solved with the help of thermal insulation available on the body, the second - with the help of an active thermal control system. The internal volume of the sealed instrument compartment was filled with gas, and when it was mixed, the heat from the equipment was transferred to special tanks with water. When the temperature rose above the required rate, an electrovalve opened, water evaporated into a vacuum and heat was removed from the radiators. To eliminate overheating of the camera, a heat-insulating screen was installed on its upper part, while the outer surface was covered with gilding.

    Luna-13 (Fig. 4), the second Soviet station that landed on the Moon, had a similar design. Its task included the first direct instrumental study of the physical characteristics of the lunar surface, for which a soil penetrometer, a radiation density meter, radiometers, and a system of accelerometers were used.

    The ground penetrometer consisted of a plastic case, the lower part of which was an annular stamp with an outer diameter of 12 cm and an inner diameter of 7.15 cm, as well as a titanium injector with a lower part made in the form of a cone (the angle at the top of the cone was 103°, the base diameter 3.5 cm). The ground gauge was fixed at the end of the remote mechanism, which is a folding multi-link that opens under the action of a spring and ensures the removal of the instrument at a distance of 1.5 m from the station.



    Rice. 4. Automatic station "Luna-13"

    After the device was installed in the working position, a command was given to start a solid rocket engine with a given thrust and operating time, placed in the indenter body. The depth of immersion of the indenter into the soil was recorded using a sliding contact potentiometer. The evaluation of the mechanical properties of the lunar soil was carried out on the basis of the results of laboratory studies of terrestrial soil analogues, as well as experiments in a vacuum chamber and on board an aircraft flying along a trajectory that allows simulating the acceleration of gravity on the Moon.

    The radiation densitometer was designed to determine the density of the surface layer of the soil to a depth of 15 cm. The density meter sensor was mounted on an external mechanism and laid on the ground, and the readings received were sent to an electronic unit located in the hermetic housing of the station and transmitted to the Earth via telemetry channels. The density meter sensor included a source of gamma radiation (radioactive isotope), as well as counters for measuring the registration of "lunar" gamma quanta: gamma radiation from the source, falling on the ground, was partially absorbed by it, but partially scattered and fell on the counters. In order to eliminate the direct impact of the source radiation on the counters, a special lead screen was placed between them and the isotope source. The decoding of the sensor readings was carried out on the basis of ground calibration of the device, using various materials in the density range p(ro)=0.16-2.6 g/cu. cm.

    The heat flux from the lunar surface was measured by four sensors located so that at least one of them was never obscured by the station itself and its inlet was not directed to the Sun or the sky. The radiometer sensors were mounted on hinged brackets, which were folded during the flight and opened when the station's lobe antennas were opened (after landing on the lunar surface).

    The dynamograph was a system of three accelerometers oriented along three mutually perpendicular directions. The accelerometers were located on the instrument frame inside the descent vehicle; their signals, corresponding to the duration and magnitude of the dynamic overload, arrived at the integrating and storage device and were transmitted to the Earth using a radio telemetry system.

    The flight of the Soviet AS "Luna-9" began a new stage of selenology - the stage of conducting experiments directly on the surface of the Moon. The complex data on the lunar surface obtained by the Luna-9 station put an end to disputes about the structure and strength of the upper soil layers. It was proved that the surface of the Moon has sufficient strength not only to withstand the static weight of the apparatus without significant deformation, but also to "stand" after its impact when landing on the lunar surface. An analysis of the panoramas revealed the nature of the structure of the lunar soil and the distribution of small craters and stones on it. It is very important that for the first time it became possible to consider surface details with dimensions of 1–2 mm, and the random displacement of the station made it possible to obtain a stereo pair to the first panorama; when analyzing a stereo image, it was possible to more accurately understand the surface topography. It turned out that it is smoother than previously thought from ground-based observations.

    The Luna-13 station brought the first objective quantitative data on the physical and mechanical characteristics of the lunar soil obtained by direct measurements. The new information was not only of great scientific importance, but was also used later to calculate the structural elements of much larger next-generation stations capable of carrying drilling equipment, the Luna-Earth rockets that brought lunar soil to Earth, and the Lunokhod automatic laboratories. .


    Fig 5. Automatic station "Luna-10"

    Artificial satellites of the moon of this period had a significant mass according to the then concepts and were equipped with numerous scientific instruments. For example, the mass of the ISL - "Luna-10" was 245 kg, while the mass of the descent vehicle of the "Luna-9" station was about 100 kg. The increase in the mass of AS with ISL compared to others is explained by the fact that much less fuel is required to perform the maneuver of transferring a spacecraft to a lunar orbit than in a soft landing on the Moon, and therefore, due to fuel "savings", more instruments can be placed on such an AS .

    Artificial satellites of the Moon had on board scientific instruments, radio equipment, power supplies, etc. The necessary thermal regime was maintained with the help of a special thermal control system. The composition of the scientific equipment of the ISL could include a wide variety of devices. At the Luna-10 station (Fig. 5), for example, the following were installed: a magnetometer to clarify the lower limit of the Moon's magnetic field, a gamma spectrometer to study the spectral composition and intensity of gamma radiation from rocks that make up the surface of the Moon, devices for recording corpuscular solar and cosmic radiation, charged particles of the earth's magnetosphere. ion traps for studying the solar wind and the lunar ionosphere, sensors for detecting micrometeorites along the Earth-Moon flight path and in the vicinity of the Moon, an infrared sensor for detecting the thermal radiation of the Moon.

    The scientific onboard equipment of the Luna-11 station included instruments for recording gamma and X-ray surface radiation (which made it possible to obtain data on the chemical composition of lunar rocks), sensors for studying the characteristics of meteor showers and hard corpuscular radiation in the circumlunar space, instruments for measuring long-wave space radio emission.

    One of the main tasks of the third Soviet ISL, the Luna-12 automatic station, was to carry out large-scale photographs of the lunar surface, carried out from various altitudes of the ASL orbit. The area covered by each image was 25 square meters. km, and on them it was possible to distinguish surface details with dimensions of 5-20 m. The photo-television device automatically processed the film and then transmitted the images to the Earth. In addition to photographic experiments, the station continued the research begun on the flights of previous stations.

    Automatic vehicles in circumlunar orbits are an effective tool for revealing the global features of the structure of the Moon, the characteristics and properties of its surface, and studying the circumlunar environment. For example, fundamental research carried out from the orbits of artificial satellites of the Moon includes the determination of the global characteristics of the chemical composition of lunar rocks. Elucidation of the composition of the rocks that make up the surface of the Moon provided the key to verifying geochemical ideas about the evolution of celestial bodies.

    A number of methods have been proposed for remote analysis of the chemical composition of the lunar soil. Among them are the registration of neutrons arising from the interaction of cosmic rays with surface matter, the measurement of X-rays excited by solar radiation, and some others. A scintillation gamma spectrometer was installed at the Luna-10 AS, which measured the spectrum of lunar gamma radiation. During its work on board this ISL, nine spectra of gamma radiation were obtained in two energy intervals of 0.15-0.16 and 0.3-3.2 MeV, and at 39 points on the lunar surface, the radiation intensity was measured in the energy interval 0 .3–0.7 eV.

    A comparison of the obtained spectra with the calibration ones, as well as with the spectra of terrestrial materials, showed that the surface of the Moon on a global scale is composed of rocks that have a basalt character. As a result, the assumptions that the surface of the Moon has a granitic or ultramafic composition, and that it is lined with a layer of chondrite meteorites or tektites, were discarded. Thus, an important argument was obtained in favor of the igneous origin of lunar rocks.

    Photographic survey of the lunar surface was used for astronomical selenodetic and selenographic study of the Moon in the course of cartographic work. The images obtained (with different resolutions) of surface details made it possible to study the characteristics of the lunar relief, the distribution and structural features of tectonic structures, and the sequence of lava eruptions in sea areas.

    Several magnetographic sections of the near-lunar space, made with the help of ISL magnetometers, made it possible to reveal the presence of a weak magnetic field caused by the interaction of the Moon with the solar wind. Plasma experiments marked the beginning of the study of the distribution of charged particles and the conditions for their existence in the circumlunar space as part of the general laws inherent in the process of interaction of the solar wind plasma with the planets of the solar system.

    An analysis of the change in the motion parameters of the ASL, carried out by ground-based radio engineering complexes during the flight of spacecraft in various orbits, made it possible to carry out a preliminary determination of the gravitational field of the Moon. It turned out that the perturbations of the motion of the station due to the non-centrality of the gravitational field of the Moon are 5–6 times higher than the perturbations caused by the attraction of the Earth and the Sun. The asymmetry of the field on the visible and reverse sides of the Moon was established.

    Systematic long-term observations of changes in the parameters of the orbit made it possible to significantly refine the ratio of the masses of the Moon and the Earth, the shape of the Moon and its motion.

    Flights of the ISL brought a significant amount of information about the conditions for the passage and stability of radio signals transmitted from the Earth to the NPP and back. Very interesting information was obtained about the characteristics of the reflection of radio waves by the surface of the Moon, which made it possible not only to reveal the change in the characteristics of the reflection of radio waves, but also to estimate the permittivity and density of matter in various regions of the Moon.

    BEHIND THE MOONSTONE. LUNORODS

    By the 1970s, a new generation of "lunar" spacecraft was being created in the Soviet Union, which made it possible to solve a wide range of scientific problems. The constructive construction of these automatic stations was based on their division into stages, the first of which (landing) was a unified autonomous rocket unit that provides trajectory correction during the Earth-Moon flight, access to selenocentric orbits with a wide range of orbital parameters, maneuvering in the circumlunar space and, finally, landing in various regions of the lunar surface. As a payload, the stage could carry various equipment.

    The creation of new generation stations has become a decisive factor in the implementation of outstanding experiments in the field of studying the moon using spacecraft - the collection of lunar soil with its delivery to Earth and the operation of mobile laboratories on the lunar surface. However, before proceeding directly to these experiments, let us consider in more detail the structural elements of new nuclear power plants and their equipment.

    The landing stage included a system of fuel tanks, liquid-propellant rocket engines with adjustable thrust, instrument compartments and shock-absorbing supports. Micromotors and sensors of the attitude control system, as well as containers with the working fluid of the engine and antennas of the radio complex were mounted on the landing stage.

    The main power element of the landing stage was a block of fuel tanks, which consisted of four spherical tanks connected into a single structure. They were attached to the propulsion system and all the necessary equipment. From below, shock-absorbing supports were docked to the tanks.

    The landing stage had two drop compartments, each of which consisted of two fuel tanks and a sealed container located between them with equipment for the astro-orientation system and radio complex automation. Special compartments (they were discarded before the final stage of braking during landing) housed the equipment and fuel necessary for the flight to the Moon.

    The propulsion system of the new AS consisted of the main single-chamber engine, a two-chamber low-thrust engine, control gas nozzles and a fuel supply system to the combustion chamber.

    The main AC engine was intended for trajectory correction and for braking. The thrusters were running just before landing. The main engine had a pumped supply of fuel to the combustion chamber and allowed for reusable inclusion. He worked in three modes - in the thrust range of 750-1930 kg. The two-chamber low-thrust engine had a displacement fuel supply, could only be switched on once and worked in three modes - in the thrust range from 210 to 350 kg.

    Each of the landing gear supports, designed to dampen the kinetic energy of the station at the moment of touching the lunar surface and to maintain a stable position after landing, consisted of a V-shaped strut, a support disk and a shock absorber.

    During the launch of the launch vehicle from the AU, the supports were raised and were in a folded state. After the separation of the station from the last stage of the launch vehicle, the supports under the action of a spring opened into the working position.

    The flight of the AS to the Moon was now carried out in several stages. After separation from the last stage and the station entering the flight route, the coordination and computing center, based on trajectory measurements, determining the difference between the actual trajectory parameters from the calculated ones, made a decision on the necessary correction, calculating the engine start time and the direction of the corrective pulse. All these data in the form of commands were transmitted to the AS board and stored in the memory block of the control system.


    Rice. 6. Scheme of the descent of AS "Luna-16" to the surface of the Moon

    Before turning on the corrective engine, the station had to be turned around and its orientation in space changed accordingly. At the same time, the speakers were first brought to the so-called "basic position", when the sensitive elements of the orientation system "see" the Sun and the Earth. Then, with the help of turns around two axes, the AC was set to its original position. After the engine was turned on at the estimated time at the signal of the time program device, the gyroscopic instruments, which "remembered" the desired position of the station, with the help of the control bodies, "parried" all the disturbances that arose during the operation of the propulsion system.

    As soon as the speed of the station changed by the required value, the automation gave a command to turn off the engine. According to a similar scheme, the station was placed into a circumlunar orbit or the orbital motion was corrected.

    After maneuvering in circumlunar space (the so-called landing orbit formation process), the motion parameters were refined, and codegrams were issued on board the AU, determining the sequence of operations during landing. When the AS was brought to its initial position for braking, the hinged compartments were discarded, the propulsion system was switched on, and the descent to the lunar surface began (Fig. 6). Then, when the station received the necessary braking impulse, the engine was turned off and the AU made a stabilized ballistic descent, while the vertical and horizontal velocity components were continuously measured using a Doppler measuring system and an altimeter.

    At certain values ​​of the vertical component of the speed of movement and height above the surface, the main engine was turned on again, and after the end of its operation, a two-chamber low-thrust engine was started, which completely extinguished the AC speed (it was turned off by a command given from the onboard gamma altimeter).

    To illustrate the operation of the main engine, let us present the heights above the surface at the characteristic points of the descent section of the AS Luna-17. The first switching on of the braking engine took place at an altitude of 22 km above the lunar surface at an AC longitudinal velocity of 1692 m/s. At an altitude of 2.3 km, the engine turned off. Its second activation took place at an altitude of about 700 m, and it switched off at a height of 20 m. At the moment of touching the surface, the station had a vertical descent rate of about 3.5 m/s, the lateral component was approximately 0.5 m/s.

    Automatic stations made on the basis of a unified landing stage include AS "Luna-16, -20, -24", which delivered soil from various regions of the Moon to Earth, as well as "Luna-17, - 21", on which mobile self-propelled scientific laboratories "Lunokhod-1, -2" (see Appendix).



    Rice. Fig. 7. Scheme of the soil intake device and the return vehicle of the Luna-16 stations

    Lunar soil sampling operations were carried out using soil sampling mechanisms. The soil intake device used, for example, during the flights of the Luna-16, -20 AS (Fig. 7), consisted of a rod with a drilling rig mounted on it and electromechanical drives that move the rod in vertical and horizontal planes. The working body of the drilling machine was a vibro-impact drill with cutters at the end (it was hollow inside).

    Drilling mechanisms ensured work with rocks having a wide range of physical and mechanical properties - from dusty-sandy to rocky. The maximum drilling depth was 35 cm. This equipment was driven by electric motors, the speed of deepening the drill into the ground and the power consumed by the electric motors were telemetrically controlled from the ground.

    Drilling during the operation of AS "Luna-16" lasted about 6 minutes and was carried out at full depth. At the end of the working stroke, the electric motors of the drilling rig were automatically switched off. The mass of the extracted sample was about 100 g.

    The process of soil drilling in the mainland area of ​​AS "Luna-20" was more complex. Several times there was an automatic stop of the drill due to the fact that the current in the electric motors exceeded the allowable value. The well was drilled to a depth of about 300 cm (there is a typo in the text, “m” is given). The mass of the extracted sample was 50 g.

    After performing all the necessary operations, the machine was removed from the ground, raised and turned 180 degrees, and then the drill with the soil inside it was placed in a hermetically sealed capsule of the return vehicle.

    The automatic station "Luna-24" was equipped with a device for deep drilling. This device included a drill head moving along special guides fixed on the landing stage and the Luna-Earth rocket, a drill rod with a crown, a drill head feed mechanism, an elastic soil carrier for placing the extracted soil, mechanisms for winding the soil carrier with soil on a special drum and for placing it in the return apparatus.

    Drilling was carried out by rotational or shock-rotational movements of the tool. The operating mode was selected automatically or by commands from the ground, depending on the conditions of penetration, strength and viscosity of the soil. The installation made it possible to obtain a soil core with a diameter of 8 mm, the maximum working stroke of the drill head was 2.6 m. The mass of the sample delivered to Earth was 170 g (the actual length of the extracted core was 1600 mm).

    The delivery of lunar soil to Earth was carried out using the AS takeoff stage, after the launch from the Moon of the so-called "Lunar rocket", which consisted of a propulsion system (having spherical cylinders with fuel and a rocket engine with a pump supply of fuel components to the combustion chamber), an instrument compartment with control equipment and the return apparatus, in which the lunar soil made the flight Moon-Earth, descent in the atmosphere and landing.

    The return apparatus had a spherical shape and was installed at the top of the instrument compartment. Its shell was made of metal with a special heat-shielding coating that protects against high temperatures in the ballistic descent section in dense layers of the atmosphere. The reentry vehicle contained a cylindrical hermetically sealed container for lunar soil, a parachute system, automation elements that control the activation of the parachute system, batteries, direction-finding transmitters, radio antennas and elastic gas-filled cylinders to ensure the necessary position of the apparatus on the Earth's surface.

    The launch of the Lunar Rocket to the Earth took place in the direction of the lunar local vertical. This direction was "remembered" by the control system during landing on the moon. In the event that the longitudinal axis of the takeoff stage could be deviated from the vertical during takeoff, the control system issued the necessary commands, thanks to which the rocket entered the desired trajectory.

    When the required acceleration speed was reached (for example, at the Luna-16 AS it was 2708 m / s), the engine was turned off, and the Lunar Rocket continued along a ballistic trajectory. During the flight, the onboard radio complex provided communication with the Earth and trajectory measurements to clarify the landing site of the return vehicle. When approaching the Earth, a command was transmitted to the NPP to detonate the squibs of metal tapes fastening the return vehicle to the instrument compartment, and after the spacecraft reduced its speed to a certain value due to movement in the atmosphere, the parachute system was put into operation.

    Lunokhod-1, -2, self-propelled vehicles controlled from the Earth, intended for carrying out complex scientific research during long-term work on the lunar surface, were delivered using the Luna-17, -21 AS.

    Lunokhods were placed on the landing stage and were attached with their bottoms to four vertical racks through special pyro-units. Ladders were also installed on the landing stage for the mobile laboratory to descend to the lunar surface. During the flight, the AC ladders were in the folded state, and after landing they were opened under the action of special springs.

    The Lunokhod vehicles (total mass about 800 kg) (Fig. 8) consisted of two main parts: the instrument compartment and the self-propelled chassis. The instrument compartment was designed to accommodate scientific equipment and devices that needed to be protected from the effects of outer space conditions. The upper part of the body of the instrument compartment was used as a radiator in the thermal control system and was closed with a lid. During the moonlit night, the lid was closed and protected the compartment from excessive heat loss, but on the lunar day it was open, contributing to the discharge of excess heat into space. Solar battery elements were placed on the inner surface of the lid. The cover could be installed at various angles and provide optimal illumination of the solar battery during the operation of the self-propelled vehicle.

    The required thermal regime of the equipment was maintained by both passive and active methods. Screen-vacuum insulation on the outer surface of the instrument compartment was used as thermal protection (passive method). Active thermal protection was carried out by regulating the temperature of the gas circulating inside the compartment. With the help of a fan and a special damper, the gas was directed to the hot or cold circuits of the thermal control system. Local blowing of some devices with the help of separate gas supply channels was also used.



    Rice. 8. Scheme of the self-propelled apparatus "Lunokhod-1"

    The hot circuit included a heating unit located behind the Lunokhod (outside the instrument compartment). Heat in the unit was generated during the decay of a radioactive isotope.

    The instrument compartment was mounted on an eight-wheeled chassis, which had high maneuverability with relatively low weight and power consumption. The wheels of Lunokhod (Fig. 9) had an independent suspension: an electromechanical drive was mounted in the hub of each wheel (therefore, each of them was a leader). The elastic elements here were torsion bars; the fastening of the wheels ensured overcoming ledges 400 mm high without hitting the supports.

    The wheel drive consisted of a DC electric motor, the brushes of which were made of a special material designed to work in a vacuum, as well as a gearbox and an electromagnetically controlled mechanical brake. The output shaft of the transmission had a local weakening of the section so that it could be destroyed by undermining the pyrodevice on command from the Earth (in case of jamming). At the same time, this wheel became driven and did not interfere with movement: the chassis design allowed the simultaneous unlocking of five of the eight wheels without losing the Lunokhod's mobility.



    Rice. 9. Scheme of the device wheel "Lunokhod-1"

    The self-propelled vehicle was controlled by commands from the ground by a crew consisting of a commander, a driver, a navigator, a flight engineer, and an operator of a highly directional antenna. The television image of the terrain in front of the Lunokhod, telemetry data from onboard gyroscopes and distance sensors, information about the state of onboard systems, roll and trim of the self-propelled vehicle, wheel motor current, etc. were used as information necessary for control.

    The crew commander carried out general management of the work and made the final decision on the basis of information received from the navigator, flight engineer and driver. The driver directly controlled the Lunokhod, and the navigator performed navigational calculations, issued recommendations on the direction of movement, and was responsible for monitoring the path traveled. The flight engineer controlled the state of all systems of the device, and the operator of the highly directional antenna monitored its correct orientation and ensured optimal communication conditions.

    A special television device was used in solving problems related to the control of the Lunokhod. The electronic low-frame television system included in it transmitted operational information used when “driving” the device. In the case of Lunokhod-1, this system consisted of two transmitting chambers, electronic units, and automation. Television cameras were designed on transmitting tubes of the "vidicon" type, capable of long-term and adjustable image storage (3-20 s). The electromechanical shutter of the camera had a main shutter speed of 0.04 s with a possible change in shutter speeds: - to a shorter one - 0.02 s and a longer one - up to 20 s. The camera had a wide-angle lens with F=6.7mm and D/F=1:4. The angle of view in the horizontal plane was 50°, and in the vertical plane - 38° (the axis of sight was tilted down from the horizontal by 15°). The system provided a television transmission at a speed of 3.2; 5.7; 10.9; 21.1 s per frame.

    The panoramic system of television cameras was intended for the study of surface properties and observations of the Sun and Earth for navigation purposes. It gave clear images with slight geometric and brightness distortions and included four cameras with optical-mechanical scanning according to the device, similar to those used earlier during the Luna-9, -13 flights, but with better parameters. Two cameras located on different sides of the Lunokhod had horizontal panning axes and transmitted a circular panorama, into which images of the lunar sky and the surface near the Lunokhod wheels fell. The other two cameras provided close-to-horizontal panoramas (from different sides), and each of them captured an angle of more than 180°. The information from this pair of cameras was used to study the surface topography and topographic characteristics of the study area.

    Chemical express analysis of the lunar soil was carried out using the X-ray spectrometric method (RIFMA equipment). The X-ray sources of the remote unit of this equipment contained H3 (hydrogen-3); the ground radiation detectors were proportional counters. The RIFMA equipment made it possible to separately record the X-ray emission of rock-forming elements.

    The study of the physical and mechanical properties of the soil in natural occurrence was carried out using special equipment PROP (patency assessment device), which included a cone-blade stamp for penetration and rotation in the soil, as well as a distance traveled sensor (“ninth wheel”). The analysis also used data on the interaction of the Lunokhod chassis with the ground, photo panoramas, indications of roll and trim sensors, etc.

    In addition to the above equipment, Lunokhod-1 had a corner reflector for laser location of a mobile laboratory from the Earth, equipment for detecting charged particles and X-ray space radiation.

    The second Soviet self-propelled apparatus "Lunokhod-2" solved similar scientific problems and was similar to "Lunokhod-1" in its design. However, a number of improvements were made to its equipment and service systems: the capabilities of the device for chemical analysis of soil were expanded, the frequency of image transmission by FPV cameras was increased, for a better view of the area, one of them was raised on a bracket and moved forward. Instruments for magnetic measurements, astrophotometry and laser direction finding were introduced into the equipment.

    Multifunctional spacecraft of the generation of the 70s, designed to explore the moon, provided scientists with new opportunities for studying it. The era of laboratory geochemical studies of matter delivered to Earth from various regions of the Moon began. As a result, our knowledge of it has reached a qualitatively new level - in less than ten years, even more is known about the Moon than about our home planet. This was largely due to the fact that although the Moon, its history and evolution, is more complicated than previously thought, in geological and geochemical terms, our natural satellite turned out to be much simpler than the Earth. It became clear that, despite the same age of both bodies ~5 billion years, the main features of the appearance of the Moon were formed in the first billion years after its formation. Thanks to laboratory studies, the absolute age of numerous samples of primary lunar rocks was determined, and the previously available relative time sequence of lunar events was reliably tied to specific dates.

    In the multi-colored, diverse and multi-layered mosaic of evidence about the Moon, connecting bridges increasingly began to appear, uniting initially unrelated fragments. Many of them, which previously did not fit side by side, began to fit well to each other, a general picture of the formation of the Moon began to be seen, changes in its face and internal structure with age, a picture of a gradual decrease in the activity of the processes that acted on its surface and in its depths.

    The first automatic "geologist" - "Luna-16" - landed in the Sea of ​​Plenty, a typical marine area, the surface of which is composed of basaltic lavas. The taken soil consisted of rocks that filled the hollow of the sea, emissions from large, nearby craters, rocks mixed from the surrounding continental regions.

    AS "Luna-20" has already landed on the mainland with a relative elevation difference of up to 1 km. This area is more ancient, formed, apparently, much earlier than the Sea of ​​​​Plenty.

    The Sea of ​​Crises ("Luna-24") has a number of specific features. Its deep depression is not filled with lava as abundantly as the neighboring "seas". It is believed that this relatively "young" lava erupted on the surface about 3 billion years ago. In the center of the Sea of ​​Crises is a mascon - a gravitational anomaly caused by a local mass concentration. When planning the experiment, it was calculated that the sample would contain rocks bearing traces of the processes of the late stages of the magmatic evolution of the Moon. It was assumed that it contained rocks of a deep, subbasalt layer, ejected to the surface during the formation of nearby craters, for example, Fahrenheit or Picard-X. And it would be quite tempting to get a piece of the mascon substance.

    This is how the outline of three successive experiments on drilling the lunar surface, extracting soil samples and studying it in terrestrial laboratories using the entire range of available tools was roughly lined up.

    Lunar soil, mined from various depths and delivered by Soviet automatic stations, has been studied and continues to be studied in laboratories in many countries of the world. The object of study is often individual soil particles, of which there are several billion in each gram of lunar matter. The particles are crushed and mixed fragments of bedrocks of the study area with a small contribution of particles from neighboring regions and meteorite matter, both with the same appearance and modified by micrometeorite bombardment. Therefore, a soil sample of even a small volume has a very typical appearance for the rocks of this region.

    The lunar soil delivered to Earth by AS Luna-16 is a granular powder, well formed and sticking together into separate lumps. The graininess of the soil increases with depth. On average, grains 0.1 mm in size predominate. The median grain size increases with depth from 0.07 to 1.2 µm.

    In their composition, lunar samples are close to terrestrial basalts, but with an increased content of titanium and iron and a reduced amount of sodium and potassium. The lunar soil is well electrified, its particles stick to surfaces in contact with it. In the lunar regolith, two types of particles are clearly distinguished: one with an angular shape, outwardly similar to terrestrial crushed rocks; others (much more of them) have a rolled shape and bear traces of melting and sintering, many of them resemble glass and metal drops in appearance.

    The soil from the mainland region, delivered by AS Luna-20, differs significantly from the previous sample. It turned out to be much lighter, it was based on fragments of crystalline rocks and minerals, and relatively few rounded and slagged (vitrified) particles were found. In contrast to the soil from the offshore area, instead of basalt, the main here are anorthosites and their varieties - rocks of basic composition, but rich in feldspar.

    The soil column from the Sea of ​​Crises, delivered with the help of AS Luna-24, is characterized by clearly visible layering; layers differ in thickness, color and particle size. The color of the sample is uneven: the upper part is colored uniform gray with a brown tint, the lower part is non-uniform in color and consists of several layers of gray and a sharply prominent layer of white material. In general, the soil is lighter than the sample from the Sea of ​​Plenty, but significantly darker than the soil delivered by Luna-20. In addition, the soil of the Luna-24 station differs from the other two samples by a high content of relatively large fragments. Fragments of igneous rocks are widely represented in the sample, rocks of the gabbro type predominate among them. Glass spherical particles are found only in the upper part of the column, but there are not many of them. They make up slightly more than 1% of the total number of particles.

    Interestingly, dark opaque glasses were found in the soil sample from the Sea of ​​​​Crisis, which are porous, angular fragments of irregular shape. The bulk of the particles has a matte rough surface. Such fragments are not found in the samples delivered to Earth using the Luna-16 and Luna-20 AS. The origin of these glasses is not entirely clear; some of them are, in all likelihood, volcanic in nature.

    Mobile automatic scientific laboratories "Lunokhod" were intended for carrying out long-term complex scientific and scientific-technical research on the surface of the Moon when moving the self-propelled vehicle at considerable distances from the landing site. The first device of this type - "Lunokhod-1" "worked" in the Sea of ​​Rains, a typically "sea" section of the lunar surface. The second one is Lunokhod-2 in the eastern outskirts of the Sea of ​​Clarity (the landing site is the Lemonnier crater).

    As a result of tectonic processes, this crater has undergone partial destruction. Its bottom turned into a "bay", and the remaining part of the shaft formed a ledge on the border of the Sea of ​​​​Clarity and the Taurus mountain range. To the south of the landing site, the "marine" surface of the crater passes into a hilly plain - a continental area. In the coastal part of the crater there is a tectonic fault, stretching from north to south for almost two dozen kilometers. The width of the fault is several hundred meters, the depth varies from 40 to 80 m. This crack arose after flooding with lava, although it may be a renewal of an ancient tectonic fault, which can be traced further in the continental region behind the crater rim.

    The Lunokhod mobile laboratories are equipped with a similar set of instruments for studying the physical characteristics of the Moon, and their scientific tasks were largely similar. The research program included: study of the geological and morphological characteristics of the region and its topography, analysis of the chemical composition of the soil along the route of movement, determination of the physical and mechanical properties of the surface, and laser ranging of the Moon. In addition, the Lunokhod-l program included experiments to detect solar and galactic X-rays and cosmic rays. Lunokhod-2, in turn, was equipped with instruments for magnetic measurements, astrophotometry and laser direction finding.

    The study of the mechanical properties of the surface layer of the lunar soil was based on the determination of the strength and deformation characteristics of regolith in its natural occurrence. At the same time, it was supposed: to obtain, with the help of special equipment, information about the bearing capacity of the soil, its compactibility and resistance to rotational shear; to study the interaction of the undercarriage with the ground - to assess the properties of the surface material along the entire route; carry out the analysis of television images, which make it possible to reveal the features of the structure of the soil and its structure by the depth of the track of the Lunokhods and the nature of the deformation of the soil under the influence of their wheels.

    The results obtained with the help of Lunokhod-1 showed that the bearing capacity of the regolith at various points on the surface varied within fairly wide limits and in most cases amounted to 0.34 kg/sq. cm. The resistance to rotational shear was on average about 0.048 kg/sq. see. The bearing capacity of the uppermost dust layer was in the range of 0.02-0.03 kg/sq. see. The greatest resistance to the introduction of equipment into the ground was noted in areas not littered with stones, the least - in the area of ​​​​the annular crater shafts. The ability of the lunar soil to significant compaction and hardening under repeated loading was discovered. When measuring the parameters of the soil lying at a depth of 8-10 cm and exposed during the Lunokhod maneuvers, higher mechanical properties were revealed: a bearing capacity of about 1 kg/sq. cm, shear resistance 0.06 kg/sq. cm.

    To carry out magnetic measurements along the route and during stops, Lunokhod-2 had a three-component fluxgate magnetometer on board. An analysis of these measurements indicates the inhomogeneity of the magnetic field of the Moon's surface: the magnetic field component parallel to the surface, during measurements along the Lunokhod's path, varied from 5 to 60 gammas, magnetic anomalies characteristic of craters were detected (field drops of up to 3 gammas were noted in the area of ​​individual craters /m). Magnetic measurements carried out in the area of ​​the tectonic fault and the rim of the Lemonnier crater made it possible to estimate the magnetization of the rocks dissected by the crack, as well as the continental rocks of the crater rim.

    Geological and morphological studies of the areas along which the Lunokhods moved were aimed at obtaining data on the relief and identifying characteristic geological formations, at establishing their relationship and evolution, and determining the features of the microrelief and constituent rocks.

    An analysis of the materials obtained in the Sea of ​​Rains showed that craters are the main form of microrelief in this area. Craters up to 50 m in size were clearly visible on the images. Negative landforms less than 10 cm in diameter with specific features were identified in a special group. The craters in this area had a characteristic bowl-shaped shape, their appearance changed from clear to vague, in accordance with which they were grouped into three morphological classes - A, B and C.

    Class A craters, as a rule, had a clearly defined ridge or a sharp boundary with the surrounding surface. The ratio of depth to diameter (H/D) for craters of this class is in the range of 1/4-1/5. The steepness of the inner slopes in the upper part was 35–45°. Class B craters are smoother: the H/D ratio for them is about 1/8, and the maximum steepness of the inner slopes rarely reaches 30°. Class C craters had the smallest relative depth (H/D = 1/14), their slopes were 8–10° steep, and there were no clear boundaries.

    All craters are randomly located on the surface, which is typical for landforms of exogenous origin. Some of the craters, apparently, were formed as a result of secondary impact processes - falling rock fragments of low strength at a low speed. Rock fragments on the surface are a common element of the lunar landscape.

    Geological and morphological studies also included the study of the thickness and vertical section of the regolith layer, its structure and granulometric composition. The data of the analysis of the geological situation lead to the conclusion that the surface rocks of the Sea of ​​Rains crystallized after their melt in the period of 3.2–3.7 billion years ago. Craters in the groundmass are of impact-explosive origin, and morphological differences are associated with their evolution. Coarse clastic material, apparently, arose as a result of crushing of the rocky base during the formation of craters.

    The thickness of the regolith lies within 2–6 m, and in some cases it can reach 50 m. When moving from young to old craters, the microstructure of the upper regolith layer regularly changes from rubble to lumpy and cellular-lumpy, and the granulometric composition becomes finer. Directly under the regolith layer, most likely, there are rocks of the breccia type of basalt composition, below - basalts.

    During their work, Soviet self-propelled vehicles, controlled from the Earth, covered a route about 50,000 meters long, transmitted more than 300 panoramas and 100,000 photographs, and conducted multiple studies of the physical, mechanical and chemical properties of the soil.

    ON THE ROUTE OF FLIGHT EARTH - MOON - EARTH

    One of the important stages in the study of the Moon in the Soviet Union was the use of the AU of the Zond series, designed to test space technology systems in real flight conditions, methods and means used in long-term interplanetary flights, as well as to conduct experiments in outer space.

    The program of AS "Zond-3", put into a long flight in a heliocentric orbit, in addition to other experiments, included photographing the Moon, including those regions of its far side that were not covered by photography during the flight of the "Luna-3" station. On board the AS "Zond-3" a photo-television complex was tested and worked out, designed to take photographs of the planets and to transmit information from distances up to hundreds of millions of kilometers. When transmitting information, the station was oriented in space in such a way that its parabolic antenna was directed to the Earth with high accuracy.

    The Moon photography program included overlapping images of still unknown areas with photographs of areas already captured by Luna-3, as well as areas that can be observed from Earth. This provided a good cartographic reference for new photographic information. The survey of the Moon was carried out from distances from 11.6 to 10 thousand km. Such a distance made it possible to photograph large areas and obtain images of a sufficiently large scale. The photo session lasted about 1 hour. In this case, the position of the station relative to the Moon changed in longitude by 60° and in latitude by 12°. Thus, each section of the unexplored territory was photographed from different angles, which significantly increased the information content of the image.

    It is interesting that, along with photographing in flight, the spectral characteristics of the Moon's surface were recorded in the infrared, visible, and ultraviolet ranges. The optical axes of the devices were located parallel to the axis of the camera. Photographic images and spectral characteristics of the same surface areas, studied together, provided more opportunities for a comprehensive study of the physical properties of the lunar surface and their relationship with landforms.

    Automatic devices "Zond-5, -6, -7, -8" were intended for conducting research on the route of the flight Earth-Moon-Earth, including photographing the Moon and Earth and delivering experimental materials to Earth (see Appendix). By the time the first of these devices was launched, 14 Soviet automatic stations had been in the region of the Moon and on its surface. Messengers from the Earth went on a flight to the nearest planets - our neighbors in the solar system. With their help, methods for conducting scientific and technical experiments at large distances from the Earth were tested and debugged with the transmission of information about the experiments carried out via radio channels. These methods of space research have shown their high efficiency in practice. However, over time it became more and more obvious that many very important scientific and technical problems associated with the study of celestial bodies and remote regions of space cannot be solved with the help of devices that have left the Earth forever. It was necessary to create devices capable of not only "breaking the chains of the earth's gravity", but also returning to the "embrace of the native planet."

    The development of the fundamental sciences about the Universe, such as planetology, required the study of the matter of large celestial bodies, its chemical composition, rock-forming minerals and other characteristics in terrestrial laboratories using a full set of comprehensive fine analysis tools. It was also important to obtain photographs of the surfaces of space objects without interference and distortion introduced by the processing system on board and during the transmission of information over radio channels over long distances.

    Actively developing space medicine and biology also presented their requirements. Indeed, in order to fully reveal the consequences of the impact of space flight factors on living organisms, it is necessary to return them to Earth. Finally, this was also required by research into the impact of the space environment on structural materials and equipment in order to use this knowledge in the future to create new, more advanced space technology.

    The problem of returning vehicles to Earth after performing near-Earth orbital flights has already been successfully solved. Human spaceflight has become commonplace. The new automatic stations had to master the return to Earth from the flight route to the Moon, after entering the atmosphere with the second cosmic velocity. This was the task of tomorrow for the world cosmonautics. It was at this time that the possibility of manned flights to the Moon, and in the future to the planets, was tested in practice.

    AS "Zond-5" consisted of two main parts: the instrument compartment and the descent vehicle. The instrument compartment contained equipment for control systems, orientation and stabilization, thermal control and power supply, radio complex units, as well as a corrective propulsion system. Optical sensors of the orientation system, solar panels and radio antennas were mounted on the compartment.

    The return vehicle was used to install scientific equipment, conduct experiments on the flight route to the Moon and when returning to Earth. It had a segmental-conical shape, which, with the center of gravity shifted from the axis of symmetry, made it possible, using a special control system, to descend to Earth not only along a ballistic trajectory, but also a controlled descent, and the landing site varied widely.



    Rice. 10. Flight diagram of AS "Zond-5"

    The AS scientific equipment included devices for detecting charged particles and micrometeors, and photographic equipment. During the flight, the effect of space flight conditions on living organisms and other biological objects located in a special compartment of the return vehicle was studied.

    The AU was launched onto the flight path from the intermediate orbit of an artificial Earth satellite (Fig. 10). To form the desired trajectory of the flight around the Moon at the moment when the station was at a distance of 325,000 km from the Earth, the propulsion system was turned on, which informed the AU of the required value of the corrective impulse.

    After a flyby of the Moon, at a distance of 143,000 km from the Earth, a second trajectory correction was carried out, which ensured the entry of the station into the Earth's atmosphere in a given area with a calculated descent angle (the landing site was in the Indian Ocean). The descent in the atmosphere was carried out along a ballistic trajectory.

    In this flight, for the first time in the history of cosmonautics, the problem of a soft landing on the Earth of a spacecraft returning after a flyby of the Moon, entering the atmosphere with the second cosmic velocity, was solved.

    The remaining stations of this series were similar in design to the Zond-5 AS, although their program varied. Thus, the return of the descent vehicle of the AS "Zond-6" to the Earth was carried out along a controlled trajectory, consisting of a section of the first immersion into the atmosphere, an intermediate out-of-atmospheric flight, a section of the second immersion and descent to the surface. The program of AS "Zond-7" included testing of the on-board computer, high-precision orientation system, means of radiation protection of spacecraft. During the flight of the AS "Zond-8", further development of the methodology for returning the vehicles to the Earth was carried out, the entry into the atmosphere after the flyby of the Moon was made from the side of the northern hemisphere of the Earth.

    PROSPECTS FOR STUDY AND EXPLORATION OF THE MOON

    The past twenty years of rapid development of selenology, caused by the use of space facilities, have provided scientists with an enormous amount of experimental material. Much of the structure of the moon is known today. Much remains to be learned, developed and clarified, much remains to be rethought, using the already existing array of scientific information. The process of cognition is continuous. It is necessary to go forward, to extract new facts, to generalize them, to move further along the endless road of revealing the secrets of the Universe.

    What is the future path of studying the moon? In what directions will its development go?

    Without claiming to be exhaustive, we will try to make some general assumptions and consider some particular aspects of this complex picture.

    The Moon as an object of application of astronautics is of interest from several points of view.

    First, experiments will be continued to study the nature of the Moon, to obtain more complete and detailed information about the structure of the moon. There are still many "white spots" on the Moon, and this applies primarily to the polar regions and the opposite side, not visible from the Earth. These areas are in need of geological and geochemical studies. Very little is known about heat fluxes from the interior of the Moon and their variations in different regions. The structure of the lunar interior, studied by seismic methods, is not known accurately enough, there are different points of view on the presence, size and physical state of the lunar core. These data are necessary to study the general patterns inherent in the structure of large celestial bodies in the solar system, including the Earth.

    At present, it is of exceptional interest to study the deep structure of the lunar regolith in characteristic regions of the Moon, and especially on the surface of the hemisphere not visible from the Earth. Drilling cores obtained to depths of several tens or even hundreds of meters are the most informative type of lunar samples, since they contain fragments of local and introduced rocks, both primary and processed by meteorite bombardment. The sequence and nature of the arrangement of individual layers make it possible to establish the history of their deposition, the degree of processing by exogenous factors, the degree of mixing, the residence time on the surface, the intensity of bombardment by micrometeorites, and the degree of exposure to solar and galactic cosmic rays.

    The second interesting aspect of the exploration of the Moon is the possibility of using its surface to accommodate various scientific equipment in order to conduct a wide range of astronomical and astrophysical experiments. The absence of an atmosphere on the Moon creates almost ideal conditions for observing and studying the planets of the solar system, stars, nebulae and other galaxies. Under these conditions, the resolution of a telescope with a mirror diameter of 1 m will be equivalent to the resolution of a ground-based instrument with a mirror with a diameter of 6 m. In addition, the absence of an atmosphere makes it possible to conduct research using almost the entire range of the electromagnetic spectrum, which in the future will dramatically expand our knowledge of both our own solar system, and at a new level to approach the resolution of mysteries lurking in such exotic astronomical objects as pulsars, quasars, neutron stars and black holes, to study the grandiose processes occurring in the bowels of galaxies.

    For radio astronomical observations, the Moon presents no less advantages than for optical ones. A modern radio telescope is, first of all, an antenna, the large dimensions of which determine all the operating characteristics of a radio telescope. On Earth, due to the enormous weight of the metal structures of the antenna and the requirements for the precision of the mechanisms for its rotation, the practical limit of sensitivity and resolution of these structures has already been reached. The force of gravity on the Moon reduced by a factor of six eliminates this problem in many ways. In addition, under terrestrial conditions, the work of radio astronomers is hampered by an abundance of radio interference due to electrical discharges in the atmosphere and a multitude of radio transmitting and electrical devices that create an intense background of radio interference. The location of the radio telescope on the far side of the Moon radically solves this issue.

    Another tempting prospect of radio astronomy is associated with the possibility of using two radio telescopes: one - on the Earth, the other - on the Moon as a radio interferometer - a system that allows a sharp increase in resolution. The use of this technique under terrestrial conditions made it possible to obtain a radio image of large details of the surface of Venus, which are inaccessible to remote optical observations due to its thick cloud layer. Under terrestrial conditions, the use of the principle of radio interferometry is limited by the diameter of the globe. The installation of a radio telescope on the Moon will make it possible to increase the base - the distance between two radio telescopes - up to 384,000 km and to sharply increase the resolution of the entire system.

    Despite the fact that the theory of relativity has long been generally recognized, the question of experimental confirmation and refinement of the numerical coefficients underlying it has not ceased to be relevant. One of the aspects of such a refinement is the registration of the deviation of light rays from distant stars under the influence of the gravitational field of the Sun. Under terrestrial conditions, such measurements are possible only during total solar eclipses, and their accuracy is limited by the scattering and refraction of light in the atmosphere. With the help of a lunar telescope equipped with a screen covering the luminous disk of the Sun, such measurements can be made at any time.

    It is possible to expand the list of studies that can be conveniently performed from the surface of the Moon further. However, before ending this issue and moving on to another topic, it should be emphasized that it is very promising to study our home planet, the Earth, from the Moon. The advantages of studying the earth's surface from far distances, which makes it possible to perceive it in a generalized form, became apparent after the first global photographs of the Earth were obtained using spacecraft. It is well known how much information global images can give us about the geological structure, the general picture of atmospheric circulation, ice cover, pollution of the atmosphere and the ocean of the Earth as a whole.

    The next step in changing the scale of observations - when observing the surface of the Earth from the Moon, new discoveries should be expected. The organization of observatories on the Moon for continuous observation of the Earth makes it possible to conduct a systematic operational analysis of the meteorological situation on the globe as a whole, to effectively study the processes occurring in the atmosphere and their relationship with solar activity. When registering thermal radiation with wavelengths of 3.6–14.7 μm, one can almost instantly obtain a picture of the temperature distribution in the upper layers of the troposphere on the hemisphere as a whole, and when registering radiation in the range of 9.4–9.8 μm, the temperature of the ozone layer of the earth atmosphere.

    Active probing of the Earth's atmosphere with radio and light ranging at different wavelengths will make it possible to obtain a complete picture of the distribution of rain and snowfall zones, their size and intensity, and conduct ice reconnaissance immediately on a hemispheric scale. Color-zonal photography, which has already shown its effectiveness in the work of crews aboard orbital stations, and in observations from the Moon, will be useful to various specialists for the study and rational use of terrestrial resources and environmental protection.

    The solution of new, promising problems of the study and exploration of the Moon is inextricably linked with the development of all astronautics and is largely determined by the improvement of space technology. The accumulated scientific and technical potential is a reliable foundation for the deployment of the entire necessary set of works in this direction. Automatic stations for various purposes, artificial satellites of the Moon, automatic devices for taking soil samples and delivering it to Earth, self-propelled mobile laboratories, which have made a great contribution to the success of selenology, will faithfully serve science in the future. Their constant improvement, expansion of ranges of action, increase in autonomy, service life and reliability will allow them to continue to play a significant role in the exploration of the Moon.

    As one of the possible options for the use of automatic devices in future exploration of the moon, we can imagine a system that includes self-propelled vehicles, similar to the already familiar Lunokhods, as well as stations of the Luna-16 type. Mobile self-propelled vehicles, moving over a large area, will be able to carry out scientific measurements and take soil samples, and devices such as the Luna-16 station will ensure the delivery of materials, experiments and lunar soil to Earth.

    Experiments and research on the Moon can be carried out using various methods. For example, it is possible to set up research sites in various regions of the Moon equipped with automatic equipment. In particular, the polar regions of the Moon are very promising areas for organizing test sites there. At present, they are the least studied in comparison with other areas, which significantly increases the interest in them from scientists. However, in addition to this, they are interesting for a number of other reasons. So. Constant illumination of the polar regions by the Sun is very important both for the power supply of scientific and technical complexes and for carrying out some selenophysical experiments. In particular, the absence of significant temperature changes caused by the change of day and night in these regions is very convenient for measuring heat fluxes from the lunar interior. It is also important that the observation of various celestial objects from the polar regions makes it possible to keep them in the field of view of observation instruments for an unlimited time.

    It should be noted that the equipment of research sites on the Moon must be able to work for a long time according to a complex and flexible program, to function reliably and efficiently in extreme conditions of outer space, when exposed to sudden temperature changes, micrometeorite bombardment, solar wind and cosmic rays.

    The equipment of such a polygon can record the seismic vibrations of the Moon, the heat flow from its interior, the composition of gases released from the interior of the Moon, the composition and energy of the solar wind, the mass, energy and direction of movement of micrometeorite and dust particles, the composition and energy of galactic cosmic rays. Delivery of various scientific instruments to the test site can be carried out automatically. Such a complex could function without human intervention. A variant is possible when the test site is periodically visited by specialists who carry out repairs to replace equipment, pick up and deliver information material to Earth.

    The creation of research sites can technically be carried out in the near future. The current state of cosmonautics and scientific instrumentation allows us to hope for this. In a somewhat more distant perspective, I would like to imagine the possible combination of such a test site with a habitable base, on which a team of research scientists works. The creation of inhabited scientific bases on the Moon, generally speaking, is a matter of the distant future, but already now experts are thinking about various options for their design and equipment.

    According to one of the proposed projects, the living quarters of such a base is a hemispherical or cylindrical shell made of a multilayer elastic material reinforced with steel threads. The shell keeps its shape under the action of internal pressure. The base room is slightly buried under the surface and is protected from temperature extremes and micrometeorite bombardment by a layer of soil (a layer of 15–20 cm is enough to protect against meteorites 1–2 cm in size).

    Initially, 2-3 people can work at the base, in the future the staff may increase. The duration of stay at the base will reach several months. For effective work of cosmonauts, they must have vehicles for various purposes: from single-seat or double-seat lunar rovers with a payload capacity of 300–400 kg with a travel resource of 30–40 km to heavy transport devices with a travel range of up to 500 km, providing the possibility of carrying out scientific work for 15 days.

    Very promising for lunar exploration is the joint use of a stationary lunar base and an orbital complex. In this case, it seems possible to deliver the landing compartment with astronauts to any part of the Moon's surface located in the plane of the habitable satellite's orbit. A characteristic feature of such a project is that the crew, being on the orbital station, can wait for a long time for astronauts who have landed on the moon.

    For quite some time, the requirements for operating a rocket-transport system between the Moon and Earth will remain challenging. Apparently, the most energy-efficient method of transporting cargo between circumlunar and near-Earth orbital stations will be the use of electric jet engines powered by solar energy and a relatively small thrust that ensures the Earth-Moon flight in 30–90 days. The delivery of goods and people from the Earth to near-Earth orbit will be carried out by reusable ships operating on chemical fuel. For flights between the Moon and the circumlunar orbital station and back, it may be rational to build an electromagnetic catapult (powered by solar energy) on the surface of the Moon, used both to launch vehicles into a circumlunar orbit and for their soft landing on the surface.

    There is one more direction in the exploration of the Moon, which, perhaps, should be discussed separately. We are talking about obtaining structural materials and developing minerals for use in creating scientific bases, and in a somewhat more distant future - in organizing technological production on the lunar surface, building satellite solar power plants.


    Rice. 11. One of the options for the trajectory of transporting lunar soil to the space processing plant

    At present, the issue of the advisability of creating large energy satellites in near-Earth orbits equipped with equipment for converting solar energy into electrical energy with its subsequent transmission to Earth (in the form of microwave radiation energy) is being widely discussed in the press. The solution of this technical problem will probably free mankind from the energy crisis for a very long time and facilitate the protection of the human environment from pollution. These projects, at first glance, far from the lunar theme, were unexpectedly introduced into the circle of problems associated with the exploration of the Moon.

    The fact is that the energy complexes under consideration are conveniently located in the vicinity of the Moon, at the so-called "triangular libration points". An artificial Earth satellite located near one of these points has an extremely stable orbital motion. In addition, the delivery from the Moon of structural materials that make up the bulk of the satellite, or raw materials for their production, requires 20 times less energy than their delivery from Earth. The final assessment leads to the conclusion that the construction of such systems can be cost-effective only if raw materials are delivered from the surface of the Moon.

    On fig. 11 shows a diagram of one of the options for transporting goods from the Moon to an energy satellite. A special mechanism powered by electricity accelerates containers with cargo to a speed of 2.33-2.34 km / s, sufficient to exit the moon's sphere of gravity. Then the containers fly along a ballistic trajectory and fall into the catching device, which is a cone with a diameter of 100 m at the base. The “catching” cone must have an onboard propulsion system to maintain the desired position in orbit, as well as to transport containers with cargo to the satellite.

    If we consider the lunar soil as a raw material for processing, then we can easily see that metallic iron is most easily isolated from it. Particles that can be separated using weak magnetic fields are 0.15-0.2% of the total weight of the soil. They contain about 5% nickel and 0.2% cobalt. A conventional metallurgical process must be used to completely isolate the iron, aluminium, silicon, magnesium and possibly titanium, chromium, manganese, as well as oxygen, which is formed as a by-product.

    One of the possible schemes of such a process is shown in Fig. 12. It all starts with grinding the soil to a maximum particle size of 200 microns (vibratory mills can be used for this). Then it is sent by a gas stream to the firing furnace, and on the way to the furnace, ferrosilicon, crushed to particles of 50 microns in size, is added to the soil. Ferrosilicon is necessary for the reduction of iron, but, in addition, it is itself an intermediate product at other, subsequent, stages of the metallurgical process.

    At a temperature of 1300 °C, silicon diffuses from the ferrosilicon particles and, in doing so, iron will be reduced. The product of this process is a silicate melt with iron particles suspended in it. After cooling and grinding this mixture, the iron is removed by magnetic separation, and the low iron silicate enters the main reactor.


    Rice. 12. One of the variants of the technological scheme for obtaining structural metals from lunar soil. Among the technological devices, it includes: a furnace for distillation of aluminum from a melt with a temperature of 2300 ° C (II, a furnace for distillation of calcium, magnesium, aluminum, silicon and carbon monoxide (III), a reactor for the reduction of metals with carbon (IV). The following processes are used: separation iron (2), fusion of iron and silicon at a temperature of 1500 °C (3), distillation of magnesium at a temperature of 1200 °C (4), condensation and filtration (5), electrolysis of water (6), separation of solid and gaseous products of electrolysis (7 ), diffusion of iron from silicates (I). A centrifuge furnace is also needed to separate iron and slags (1)

    In the main reactor, and it can be represented as a furnace rotating around a longitudinal axis (for the gravitational separation of the formed alloy of metals, slag and gases), thermal reduction of metals occurs. After adding carbon to the silicate that entered the reactor and heating the mixture to 2300 °C, chemical reactions of the reducing type occur, proceeding with the release of heat.

    At this stage of the metallurgical process, the resulting alloy of silicon with aluminum is separated from the slag and gaseous products, enters the distiller, where aluminum and silicon are separated. Carbon monoxide, vapors of calcium, magnesium and partially aluminum and silicon are further separated. Carbon monoxide, for example, can combine with hydrogen to form water, methane, and some other hydrocarbons. This reaction has long been used in industry and is well studied. Iron oxide can be used as a catalyst. Methane as well as hydrogen is dried in a condenser to separate water. Water is decomposed by electrolysis into oxygen and hydrogen. Oxygen is released into the finished product, and hydrogen is returned to the reactor.

    The metallurgical process considered as an example is quite suitable for the conditions of the Moon in terms of the energy consumption required for this equipment and its practical maturity. For its implementation, it requires a minimum of substances delivered from the Earth, and gives a good yield of products per unit mass of equipment. Substances of "non-lunar" origin in the technological cycle will be only carbon and hydrogen, which are practically not consumed, but are used in a closed cycle.

    In addition to obtaining metals and other chemicals from the lunar soil, other possibilities can be imagined for processing this soil into structural materials, such as glass. The raw material for the production of glass can be plagioclase of the continental regolith, which is almost pure CaAl2Si2O8 with 0.5% NaO2 and a fraction of a percent of FeO. Compared to terrestrial glass from lunar soil, it should be stronger and withstand longer mechanical loads without breaking, since due to the lack of water in the rocks of the Moon, the glass surface should have fewer defects that reduce its strength.

    Using lunar soil, it is also possible to carry out such a process as basalt casting, which is widely used in the manufacture of hollow bricks, building blocks, pipes with a diameter of 3-10 cm and a length of 1-1.5 m, which are highly resistant to acids and alkalis. The strength of the products of this casting from moon rocks can reach 10,000-12,000 kg / sq. in compression. cm, and in tension -500-1100 kg / sq. cm.

    Sintered materials can be used for the manufacture of structural elements with low thermal conductivity, as well as filters. According to the combination of characteristics, the most favorable conditions for sintering lunar soil particles are heating them to temperatures of 800–900 °C with holding in a furnace from several seconds to tens of minutes and subsequent rapid cooling at a rate of 0.1–5 °C/min.

    Approximate calculations show that in some cases it is more profitable to process lunar matter into structural materials in outer space rather than on the Moon. When organizing a technological cycle on the surface of the Moon, it is not always possible to provide continuous illumination by solar rays of devices that convert light into electricity, while in outer space this is not a difficult problem. If we take into account that the transportation of cargo from the lunar surface to space requires 5 times less energy than its processing, then the final energy cost of production in outer space is 8 times less than on the Moon.

    It is quite probable that the energy satellites of the future, which were mentioned above, are more correctly imagined as some industrial and energy complexes with large production capabilities.

    So, from the most ancient times in the history of mankind, the Moon has always been an object of admiration and close interest. However, in different periods of the development of our civilization, the Moon influenced the feelings and minds of people in different ways. The romantic period of perception of the Moon was replaced in due time by the rationalistic one. Following the poets, scientists turned their inquisitive eyes to her, and then the time came for people of a practical mind.

    A huge role in involving the Moon in the sphere of practical interests was played by the impressive successes of astronautics, which made a revolution in our ideas about the place of mankind in outer space and brought the vast expanses of the Universe closer to us. The effective operation of Soviet spacecraft in space largely determined these successes.

    The "seventh continent" of the Earth, as the Moon is sometimes called, is increasingly attracting the attention of engineers and economists, who are considering various options for using its natural resources. And even if the development of the lunar interior and the creation of scientific bases are not the primary task of today. All the same, someday humanity will unleash work on the development of the closest celestial body to us. And then people will remember with gratitude the first spacecraft that paved the way for the practical exploration of the natural satellite of our native planet.

    APPENDIX

    Information about Soviet devices for the study of the moon

    № Device name Launch date (Moscow time) Basic information about the flight
    Flights AS "Luna"
    1. "Luna-1" 2.I.1959 The first ever spacecraft aimed at a celestial body. For the first time, the second space velocity, necessary for interplanetary flights, has been achieved.
    2. "Luna-2" 12. IX.1959 For the first time in the history of astronautics, a flight to another celestial body was made.
    3. "Luna-3" 4.X.1959 The first photographs of the far side of the moon have been obtained. Based on the results of photographing, the first maps and an atlas of the far side of the moon were compiled.
    4. "Luna-4" 2. IV.1963 Development of space technology for the exploration and exploration of the Moon, on April 6, 1963, the AS passed a distance of 8500 km from the lunar surface.
    5. "Luna-5" May 9, 1965 Development of a soft landing system on the moon. On May 12, 1965, the station reached the surface of the Moon in the region of the Sea of ​​Clouds.
    6. "Luna-6" 8. VI.1965 Testing and development of systems, AU, its celestial orientation, radio control, autonomous control, as well as radio monitoring of the flight path.
    7. "Luna-7" 4.X.1965 Development of a soft landing system on the moon. On October 8, 1965, the station reached the surface of the Moon in the region of the Ocean of Storms, west of the Kepler crater.
    8. "Luna-8" 3.XII.1965 Comprehensive testing of station systems at all stages of flight and landing. The station reached the surface at a point with selenocentric coordinates: 9°8 s. latitude, 63°18 W d.
    9. "Luna-9" January 31, 1966 The first spacecraft to make a soft landing on a celestial body and transmit scientific information, including a series of panoramic images from its surface. Landing on the Moon took place on February 3, 1966 in the region of the Ocean of Storms at the point with coordinates: 7°8 s. latitude, 64°22 W d.
    10. "Luna-10" 31. III.I966 The first artificial satellite of the Moon. Launched into orbit on April 3, 1966. Orbital parameters: maximum distance from the surface (apopulations) about 1000 km, minimum distance (relocations) about 350 km, inclination to the lunar equator - 72°, orbital period about 3 hours.
    11. "Luna-11" August 24, 1966 Continuation and development of experiments started by the Luna-10 station. The second Soviet lunar satellite was launched into a lunar orbit with the following parameters: apopulation - 1200 km, periselenie - 160 km, inclination - 27°, orbital period about 3 hours.
    12. "Luna-12" 22. X.1966 The third Soviet artificial satellite of the Moon. Orbital parameters: apopulations - 1740 km, periseleniums - 100 km, orbital period 3 h 25 min. The station is equipped with a photo-television device. Photographing heights from 100 to 340 km.
    13. "Luna-13" 24.XII.I966 Soft landing on the moon. Landing site coordinates: 18°52 s. latitude, 62°3 W e. The station is equipped with: a television device for transmitting surface images, devices for obtaining characteristics of the physical and mechanical properties of the soil at the landing site.
    14. "Luna-14" 7. IV.1968 A study of the Moon and outer space from a circumlunar orbit was carried out.
    15. "Luna-15" 13.VII.I969 Exploration of the Moon and the space environment, testing of new structural elements and on-board systems. On July 17, 1969, it was put into orbit as an artificial satellite of the Moon. On July 21, 1969, it was transferred to the descent trajectory and reached the lunar surface.
    16. "Luna-16" 12. IX.1970 Delivery of a sample of lunar soil to Earth. For the first time in astronautics, the soil was delivered by an automatic device. Soft landing was made on September 20, 1970 in the area of ​​the Sea of ​​Plenty, at the point with coordinates: 0°41 S. sh., 56°18 in. e. Drilling was carried out to a depth of up to 350 mm, the mass of the sample was about 100 g.
    17. "Luna-17" 10. XI.1970 Delivery to the Moon of the first mobile scientific laboratory in the history of astronautics (Lunokhod-1), controlled from the Earth. Landing on the moon was made on 17.XI. 1970 in the area of ​​the Sea of ​​Rains. Landing site coordinates: 38° 17 N latitude, 35° W on 4.X.1971 Lunokhod-1 completed the research program.
    18. "Luna-18" 2. IX.1971 Exploration of the Moon and outer space, testing of structures and on-board systems, development of methods for autonomous circumlunar navigation and ensuring the necessary accuracy of landing on the Moon. The station reached the surface of the Moon in the area of ​​the Sea of ​​Plenty at the point with the coordinates of the landing site: 3°34 s. sh., 56°30 in. d.
    19. "Luna-19" 28.IX.I971 The study of the gravitational field of the Moon, television survey of the surface, the study of charged particles and magnetic fields in the vicinity of the Moon, the density of the meteor shower. The station was launched into a circular orbit of an artificial satellite of the Moon with the following parameters: height above the surface - 140 km, inclination - 40°35, orbital period - 2 h 1 min 45 s.
    20. "Luna-20" 14. II.1972 Delivery to Earth of soil samples from the continental region of the lunar surface. Landing site coordinates: 3°32 s. latitude, 56°33 east e. Drilling was carried out to a depth of about 300 mm; sample weight 50 g.
    21. "Luna-21" January 8, 1973 Delivery to the lunar surface of the Lunokhod-2 self-propelled scientific laboratory. The landing was made on the eastern edge of the Sea of ​​Clarity at the point with coordinates: 25°51 N. sh., 30°27 in. d.
    22. "Luna-22" 29.V.I974 Carrying out television shooting of the lunar surface, the study of charged particles, magnetic fields, micrometeor matter in the circumlunar space. Initially, the station was launched into a circular selenocentric orbit with the following parameters: height above the surface - 220 km, inclination - 19°35, orbital period - 2 h 10 min.
    23. "Luna-23" 28. X.1974 Launched with the aim of delivering a sample of lunar rock to Earth, testing new structural elements and equipment for automatic lunar stations. The landing was made in the southern part of the Sea of ​​​​Crisis. Due to damage to the soil intake device during planting, soil sampling operations were not carried out. The work program of the station has been partially completed.
    24. "Luna-24" 9.VIII.1976 Carrying out deep drilling on the surface of the Moon and delivery of soil samples to Earth. The landing was made in the southeastern part of the Sea of ​​​​Crisis at the point with coordinates: 12°45 N. sh., 62°12 in. e. The new drilling device made it possible to drill to a depth of about two meters. The mass of the delivered sample is 170 g.
    Flights AS "Zond"
    25. "Zond-1" 2. IV.1964 Development of space technology for long-term interplanetary flights. The station was put into flight along a heliocentric trajectory from the orbit of an artificial Earth satellite. Communication sessions with the station were carried out, the operability and functioning of on-board systems were checked, and the trajectory was corrected.
    26. "Zond-2" 30.XI. 1964 Development of the design and systems of the AU in the conditions of a long-term space flight, the study of the interplanetary medium during the flight towards Mapca. Tests of the attitude control system using electrojet plasma engines as control elements.
    27. "Zond-3" 18.VII.I965 Photographing areas of the far side of the Moon not covered by the Luna-3 station.
    28. "Zond-4" 2. III. 1968 Space exploration, development of new units and systems.
    29. "Zond-5" 15. IX.1968 Testing the design of spacecraft, photographing the Earth from space. Study of the physical conditions on the Earth-Moon-Earth route and their influence on living organisms.
    30. "Zond-6" 10.XI.I968 Carrying out scientific and technical experiments on the Earth-Moon-Earth flight path, photographing the Moon and the Earth from space. The movement of the AU in the atmosphere during the return to Earth was carried out along the trajectory of a controlled descent using the lifting force of the return vehicle. "Zond-6" circled the Moon.
    31. "Zond-7" 8.VIII.I969 The study of the physical characteristics of outer space on the flight path to the Moon and when returning to Earth, photographing the Earth and the Moon from various distances, testing the control system from the onboard computer, high-precision orientation system, means of radiation protection of spacecraft. The descent in the atmosphere took place using the lifting force of the reentry vehicle. "Zond-7" flew around the moon.
    32. "Zond-8" 20. X.1970 Flying around the Moon, carrying out scientific research on the flight path, photographing the Earth and the Moon from various distances, working out the design of spacecraft. The station entered the Earth's atmosphere from the side of the Northern Hemisphere.

    Moon exploration has a long history. They began even before our era, when Hipparchus studied the movement of the Moon in the starry sky, determined the inclination of the lunar orbit relative to the ecliptic, the size of the Moon and the distance from the Earth, and also revealed a number of features of movement.

    Since the middle of the 19th century, in connection with the discovery of photography, a new stage in the study of the Moon began: it became possible to analyze the surface of the Moon in more detail using detailed photographs (Warren de la Rue and Lewis Rutherford). In 1881, Pierre Jansen compiled a detailed "Photographic Atlas of the Moon".

    In the 20th century, the space age began, knowledge about the moon expanded significantly. The composition of the lunar soil became known, scientists received samples of it, and a map of the reverse side was drawn up.

    Study of the moon by automatic devices

    The Soviet spacecraft Luna-2 first reached the Moon on September 13, 1959. And for the first time, it was possible to look at the far side of the Moon in 1959, when the Soviet station Luna-3 flew over it and photographed part of its surface invisible from the Earth. Scientists believe that the far side of the moon is an ideal place for an astronomical observatory. Optical telescopes stationed here would not penetrate Earth's dense atmosphere. And for radio telescopes, the Moon would serve as a natural shield of solid rocks 3500 km thick, which would reliably cover them from any radio interference from the Earth.

    In the second half of the 20th century, the United States began to actively prepare for landing on the moon. But to prepare for manned flight, NASA has planned several space programs: "Ranger"(photographing its surface), " surveyor" (soft landing and surveying the terrain) and " Lunar Orbiter"(detailed image of the surface of the moon). In 1965-1966 NASA implemented the MOON-BLINK project to study unusual phenomena (anomalies) on the surface Moon. Surveyors 3,4 and 7 were equipped with a grab bucket for scooping up soil.

    The USSR conducted research on the surface of the Moon using two radio-controlled self-propelled vehicles, Lunokhod-1, launched to the Moon in November 1970, and Lunokhod-2 - in January 1973. Lunokhod-1 worked 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 on the lunar soil and many photographs of details and panoramas of the lunar relief.

    "Lunokhod-1"

    Lunokhod-1 is the first planetary rover in the world to successfully operate on the surface of the Moon. Belongs to a series of Soviet remote-controlled self-propelled vehicles "Lunokhod" for lunar exploration, worked on the Moon for eleven lunar days (10.5 Earth months).

    Lunokhod-1 was equipped with:

    • two cameras (one backup), four panoramic telephotometers;
    • X-ray fluorescent spectrometer RIFMA;
    • X-ray telescope RT-1;
    • odometer-penetrometer PrOP;
    • radiation detector RV-2N;
    • laser reflector TL.

    The automatic interplanetary station "Luna-17" with "Lunokhod-1" was launched on November 10, 1970 and entered the orbit of an artificial satellite of the Moon, and on November 17, 1970 the station landed safely in the Sea of ​​Rains, and "Lunokhod-1" moved down to the lunar priming.

    During its stay on the surface of the Moon, Lunokhod-1 traveled 10,540 m, surveyed an area of ​​80,000 m2, transmitted 211 lunar panoramas and 25,000 photographs to Earth. The maximum speed was 2 km/h. At 25 points of the lunar soil, its chemical analysis was carried out. A corner reflector was installed on Lunokhod-1, with the help of which experiments were carried out to accurately determine the distance to the Moon.

    "Lunokhod-2"

    "Lunokhod-2"- the second in a series of Soviet lunar remote-controlled self-propelled planetary rovers. It was designed to study the mechanical properties of the lunar surface, photographing and telephotography of the Moon, conducting experiments with a ground-based laser rangefinder, observing solar radiation and other studies.

    January 15, 1973 delivered to the moon by the automatic interplanetary station "Luna-21". The landing took place 172 kilometers from the Apollo 17 lunar landing site. The Lunokhod-2 navigation system was damaged and the ground crew of the Lunokhod was guided by the environment and the Sun. Despite this, the device covered a greater distance than Luna-1, as a number of innovations were introduced, for example, a third video camera at the height of human growth.

    In four months of work, he traveled 37 kilometers, transmitted 86 panoramas and about 80,000 television frames to Earth, but overheating of the equipment inside the case prevented his further work. The work of Lunokhod-2 was officially terminated on June 4, 1973.

    The Luna space program was curtailed in the USSR in 1977. The launch of Lunokhod-3 was cancelled.

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

    "Clementine"

    Clementine is a joint mission between the North American Aerospace Defense Command and NASA to test military technology and simultaneously produce detailed photographs of the lunar surface.

    The Clementine probe transmitted to Earth about 1.8 million images of the Moon's surface in black and white. "Clementine" is the first probe to transmit scientific information confirming the hypothesis of the presence of water at the lunar poles. This is a very important discovery that solid water is present on the Moon. Liquid water cannot be on the lunar surface, as it evaporates under the influence of sunlight and then disperses into outer space. But since the 1960s, there has been a hypothesis that water ice is stored in the craters of the Moon, where the rays of the Sun cannot penetrate or lie at great depths. And here it is confirmed. What is the importance of this discovery? Lunar glaciers can provide water for the first colonists, while vegetation can appear on the Moon.

    Lunar Prospector

    "Lunar Prospector" and the American automatic interplanetary station for the study of the moon, created as part of the NASA Discovery program. Launched January 7, 1998 Completed July 31, 1999

    AMS "Lunar Prospector" is designed for global imaging of the elemental composition of the Moon's surface, the study of its gravitational field and internal structure, magnetic field and the release of volatile substances. The Lunar Prospector had to supplement and refine the research of the Clementine, and most importantly, check for the presence of ice.

    Lunar Prospector was launched on January 7, 1998 on an Athena-2 launch vehicle. During 1998, most of the scientific problems for which the apparatus was launched were solved: the possible volume of ice on the south pole of the moon was clarified, its content in the soil was estimated by scientists as 1-10%, and an even stronger signal indicates the presence of ice at the north pole. On the far side of the Moon, a magnetometer detected relatively powerful local magnetic fields, which formed 2 small magnetospheres with a diameter of about 200 km. According to the perturbations in the movement of the device, 7 new mascons were discovered (a region of the lithosphere of the planet or a natural satellite that causes positive gravitational anomalies).

    The first global spectrometric survey in gamma rays was also carried out, as a result of which distribution maps of titanium, iron, aluminum, potassium, calcium, silicon, magnesium, oxygen, uranium, rare earth elements and phosphorus were compiled, a model of the gravitational field of the Moon was created, which allows very accurately calculate the orbit of the Moon's satellites.

    In 1999, AMC completed its work.

    Automatic exploration of the Moon inXXI century

    After the end of the Soviet space program "Luna" and the American "Apollo", the exploration of the moon with the help of spacecraft was practically stopped.

    But at the beginning of the 21st century, China began its lunar exploration program. It includes: the delivery of a lunar rover and sending soil to Earth, then an expedition to the Moon and the construction of habitable lunar bases. The rest of the space powers, of course, could not remain silent and again launched their lunar programs. Plans for future lunar expeditions announced Russia, Europe, India, Japan. On September 28, 2003, the European Space Agency launched its first automatic interplanetary station (AMS) Smart-1. On September 14, 2007, Japan launched the second AMS to explore the Moon, Kaguya. And on October 24, 2007, China also entered the lunar race - the first Chinese satellite of the moon, Chang'e-1, was launched. With this and the next station, scientists are creating a three-dimensional map of the lunar surface, which in the future may contribute to an ambitious project to colonize the moon. On October 22, 2008, the first Indian AMS "Chandrayan-1" was launched. In 2010, China launched the second Chang'e-2 AMS.

    In 2009, NASA launched Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite to collect information about the lunar surface, search for water and suitable sites for future lunar expeditions. On October 9, 2009, the LCROSS spacecraft and the Centaurus upper stage made a planned fall to the lunar surface. to the Cabeus crater, located about 100 km from the south pole of the moon, and therefore constantly in deep shadow. On November 13, NASA announced that water had been found on the Moon using this experiment.

    Private companies are starting to study the moon. A worldwide Google Lunar X PRIZE competition was announced to build a small lunar rover. Several teams from different countries participate in the competition, including the Russian Selenokhod. 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 Rus PTKNP being developed.

    USA are going to continue exploration of the Moon by automatic stations "GRAIL" (launched in 2011), "LADEE" (scheduled to be launched in 2013), etc. China plans to launch its first landing AMS, Chang'e-3, in 2013, followed by a lunar rover by 2015, a lunar soil-returning AMS by 2017, and a lunar base by 2050. Japan announced future robotic exploration of the moon. India plans a mission in 2017 of its Chandrayaan-2 orbiter and a small lunar rover delivered by the Russian AMS Luna-Resource, and further exploration of the Moon up to manned expeditions. Russia first launches a multi-stage program of lunar exploration by automatic stations "Luna-Glob" in 2015, "Luna-Resource-2" and "Luna-Resource-3" with lunar rovers in 2020 and 2022, "Luna-Resource-4" return of soil collected by lunar rovers in 2023, and then plans manned expeditions in the 2030s.

    Scientists do not exclude that not only silver, mercury and alcohols, but also other chemical elements and compounds can be found on the Moon. Water ice, molecular hydrogen indicate that there are indeed resources on the Moon that can be used in future missions. An analysis of the topographic data sent by the LRO spacecraft and the gravitational measurements of Kaguya showed that the thickness of the crust on the far side of the Moon is not constant and changes with latitude. The thickest sections of the crust correspond to the highest elevations, which is also characteristic of the Earth, and the thinnest ones are found in subpolar latitudes.

    This whole re-opened lunar race has to do with the possibility of colonizing the moon. What does it mean?

    Moon colonization

    The colonization of the moon is understood as the settlement of the moon by humans. Now this is not a fiction of fantastic works, but real plans for the construction of inhabited bases on the Moon. The rapid development of space technology allows us to hope that space colonization is a completely achievable goal. Due to its proximity to the Earth (three days of flight) and a fairly good knowledge of the landscape, the Moon has long been considered as a candidate for the creation of a human colony. But while the Soviet Luna and Lunokhod programs and the American Apollo program demonstrated the practical feasibility of flying to the Moon, they also dampened the enthusiasm for establishing a lunar colony. This was due to the fact that the analysis of dust samples delivered by astronauts showed a very low content of light elements in it, necessary for life on the Moon.

    For scientists, the lunar base is a unique place for conducting scientific research in the field of planetary science, astronomy, cosmology, space biology and other disciplines. The study of the lunar crust can provide answers to the most important questions about the formation and further evolution of the solar system, the Earth-Moon system, and the emergence of life. The absence of an atmosphere and lower gravity make it possible to build observatories on the lunar surface equipped with optical and radio telescopes capable of obtaining much more detailed and clear images of remote regions of the Universe than is possible on Earth, and maintaining and modernizing such telescopes is much easier than orbital observatories. The moon also has a variety of minerals: iron, aluminum, titanium; in the surface layer of the lunar soil, regolith, isotope helium-3, rare on Earth, has been accumulated, which can be used as fuel for promising thermonuclear reactors. Methods for the industrial production of metals, oxygen and helium-3 from regolith are currently being developed, and deposits of water ice have been found. Deep vacuum and the availability of cheap solar energy open up new horizons for electronics, foundry, metalworking and materials science. The moon also looks like a very likely object for space tourism, which can attract a significant amount of funds for its development, promote space travel, and provide an influx of people to explore the lunar surface. Space tourism will require certain infrastructure solutions. The development of infrastructure, in turn, will contribute to a larger penetration of mankind on the moon. There are plans to use moon bases for military purposes to control near-Earth space and ensure dominance in space. Thus, the colonization of the moon is a very likely event in the coming decades.

    It's been less than a year and a half. And this is not surprising since the Moon is the closest object to the Earth and a very unusual object for the object: the Earth / Moon mass ratio surpasses all others and is 81/1 - the closest such indicator is only 4226/1 for the bundle /.

    Due to the fact that volcanic activity on the Moon quickly faded away (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 on the surface of the age and composition of which can reach up to even surpass the age of the solar system itself. All this, in addition to the very closeness of the Moon to us, caused an 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 will be discussed today.

    First steps

    The first exploration of the Moon started rather badly both in the USSR and in the USA: only the fourth of the 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 on our account, so very little was known about the conditions of open space. Adding to this limited technical difficulties that did not allow at that time to stuff spacecraft with heaps of sensors as it can be done now (so one could sometimes only guess about the causes of the accident) - and one can imagine in what conditions spacecraft designers sometimes had to work.

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

    The first spacecraft that was able to conduct direct exploration of the moon and gain second space velocity 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 these two satellites: Sputnik-1 had only a radio transmitter, while several scientific instruments were already installed on Luna-1. With the help of them, it was first established that the Moon does not have a magnetic field and was first recorded. Also during its flight, an experiment was conducted to create an artificial comet: at a distance of about 120 thousand km from the Earth, a cloud of sodium vapor weighing about 1 kg was released from the station, which was recorded as an object of the 6th magnitude.

    Station Luna-1 assembled with block "E" - the third stage "Vostok-L", with the help of which the stations Luna-2 and Luna-3 were also launched.

    Film dedicated to Luna-1 station

    Initially, Luna-1 was supposed to be smashed against its surface, however, during the flight preparation, the signal delay 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 that worked a little later than necessary led to a miss of 6 thousand km - which well, "rocket science" has never been easy...

    On March 3, 1959, the American Pioneer-4 spacecraft was sent along the same flight trajectory with a set of second space velocity. His goal was to study the Moon from a flyby trajectory, but a miss of as much as 60 thousand km led to the fact that the photoelectric sensor could not fix the Moon and it was not possible to photograph it, however, the Geiger counter found that the lunar neighborhood does not differ in the level of radiation from the interplanetary medium.

    On September 12, 1959, the Luna-2 station was launched. For her, in addition to hitting the moon, an additional task was set - to deliver the pennant of the USSR to the moon. By that time, the orientation and correction systems were not yet ready, so the impact was assumed to be serious - at a speed of more than 3 km / s. The developers of the device went for two technical tricks: 1) 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 part of the pennants to extinguish the speed relative to the Moon.

    2) Another solution was to use a 25 cm long aluminum tape on which the inscriptions were applied. The tape itself was placed in a strong case filled with a liquid with a density similar to that of the tape, and this case, in turn, was placed in a less durable one. At the moment of impact, the outer body was crushed and extinguished the impact energy. The liquid served as an additional shock absorber and made it possible to be sure of the safety of the tape. This whole structure was placed on the third stage of the rocket, which brought the station to the trajectory of departure 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 cosmonautics historians will be able to answer this question.

    By October 7, 1959, the first images 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 it already had a full-fledged lunar orientation system installed, providing an accuracy of 0.5 degrees when shooting. The station was the first to use a gravity assist.

    The flight path of the Luna-3 station - this trajectory was calculated under the leadership of Keldysh in order to ensure the passage of the station over the territory of the USSR when it returns to Earth. The next gravitational maneuver will be performed only by Mariner 10 flying near 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 already transmitted to Earth. To avoid the risk of the device failing before returning to the 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 at the moments when the device flew by 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 communication 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 interference. But subsequent photos were already much better.

    High-resolution photographs of the visible side of the Moon were obtained 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 for it, which managed to transmit 4300 images of the Moon in the last 17 minutes of flight before the collision .

    The process of approaching the moon (video sped up)

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

    Better pictures of the far side of the moon were obtained by the Zond-3 station launched on July 18, 1965. Initially, this station was being 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, the 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 whole series of failures, was carried out only on February 3, 1966 by the Luna-9 station, which 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 rather intricate.

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

    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 speed even turned out to be a positive factor - a slow communication channel was enough 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 shoot 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 terrain - so that it could capture both the distant panorama and the nearby surface microrelief.

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

    The Americans managed to land the Surveyor-1 descent module by June 2 (4 months after our station). It was equipped with many sensors:

    The device itself carried out landing from a flight trajectory, therefore, instruments for this purpose were installed on it: the main engine (it was dropped at an altitude of 10 km), steering motors and an altimeter / speed sensor. Landing legs were made of aluminum honeycombs to soften the impact during lunar landing. Among the target equipment of the vehicles were a television camera, a sensor for analyzing the light reflected from the surface (to determine the chemical composition of the soil) and sensors for determining the 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 in the process of braking near the Moon, and the rest 5 sat down and completed their tasks of exploring 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-ray spectrometer, a magnetometer, a meteorite detector, an instrument for studying the solar wind and the infrared radiation of the Moon. Also, studies of the gravitational anomalies of the Moon (mascons) were 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).

    On August 10, 1966, five vehicles of the Lunar Orbiter series were sent to the Moon. Like the Soviet stations, they used film for filming. Since they were already launched as part of the preparations for the Apollo program, the cartography of the Moon primarily included images 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 for 36 potential landing sites, images were taken with a resolution of 2 meters.

    The device itself was quite large: with a total 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 camera had two lenses for simultaneous wide-angle shots 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 the mascons were also seen). They threatened the safety of the astronauts, since landing without taking them into account, according to calculations, could lead to a deviation of 2 km instead of the standard 200 m. from your goal.

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

    The next Soviet spacecraft to reach the Moon was Zond-5, launched on September 15, 1968. The device was a Soyuz 7K-L1 spacecraft launched by a launch vehicle and was intended to fly around the moon. In addition to testing the ship itself, it also had a scientific goal: it flew the first living creatures that flew around the moon 3 months before - these were two turtles, fruit flies, and several plant species. After flying around the moon, he splashed down in the waters of the Indian Ocean.

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

    Two more successful launches of this ship 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 to do it. However, in the process of deceleration, the Moon lost contact with it. As a result, Luna-16, launched on September 12, 1970, became the first automatic station to deliver samples of lunar soil.

    On September 20, the lander weighing 1880 kilograms reached the surface of the moon. The sample was obtained using a drill that within 7 minutes reached a depth of 35 cm and took 101 grams of lunar soil. Then the return vehicle weighing 512 kg was launched from the Moon and already on September 24 the samples on the 35 kg 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 was able to obtain soil samples from a depth of 1.6 m. A small portion of the lunar soil was transferred to NASA in December 1976. The Luna-24 station was the last for the next 37 years, the device carried out a soft landing on the moon - until the landing of the Chinese Jade Hare.

    Lunokhods and the final of the first stage of research

    Launched on November 10, 1970, the Luna-17 station delivered the first in the world: Lunokhod-1, which worked 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 earth, 537 measurements of the physical and mechanical properties of the lunar soil were made, and 25 times - chemical ones.

    On January 8, 1973, Lunokhod-2 was launched, which had the same design. Despite the failure 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 rover. The flight of Lunokhod-3, planned for 1977, was unfortunately canceled.

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

    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, and cameras for shooting the surface of the moon. One of the main tasks of the apparatus was the study of mascons. Due to the failure of the control system and the entry into an undesignated orbit, it was decided to abandon the task of cartography of the moon. During the flight, additional data on the magnetic field of the Moon were obtained 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.

    On May 29, 1974, the Luna-22 station was launched with the same scientific program, the station worked 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.

    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 with the same goals).

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



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