Existing plans to build inhabited bases on the Moon are sometimes considered a preliminary stage of settlement, but the permanent and autonomous presence of a person is an order of magnitude more difficult task.
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✪ Exploration of the Moon (Sergey Lemeshevsky tells)
✪ Colonization of the Moon (says astronomer Alexander Bagrov)
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Fiction
Permanent human habitation on another celestial body (outside the Earth) has long been a recurring theme in science fiction.
Reality
The slow development of space technology after the 1970s does not allow us to think that space colonization is an easily achievable and in all cases justified 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 although the Soviet and American lunar exploration programs demonstrated the practical feasibility of flying to the moon (while being very expensive projects), they at the same time cooled the enthusiasm for creating a lunar colony. This was due to the fact that the analysis of dust samples delivered by the astronauts showed a very low content of light elements in it [ ] necessary to maintain life support.
Despite this, with the development of astronautics and the reduction in the cost of space flights, the Moon seems to be the primary object for establishing a base. 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 lack 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 upgrading such telescopes is much easier than orbital observatories.
The moon also has a variety of minerals, including metals valuable for industry - iron, aluminum, titanium; in addition, in the surface layer of the lunar soil, regolith, an isotope helium-3, rare on Earth, has been accumulated, which can be used as fuel for promising thermonuclear reactors. Currently, methods are being developed for the industrial production of metals, oxygen, and helium-3 from regolith; found deposits of water ice.
Deep vacuum and the availability of cheap solar energy open up new horizons for electronics, metallurgy, metalworking and materials science. In fact, the conditions for metal processing and the creation of microelectronic devices on Earth are less favorable due to the large amount of free oxygen in the atmosphere, which worsens the quality of casting and welding, making it impossible to obtain ultrapure alloys and microelectronic substrates in large volumes. It is also of interest to bring harmful and dangerous industries to the Moon.
The Moon, due to its impressive landscapes and exoticism, 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.
Helium-3 in the plans for the exploration of the moon
The creation of the station is not only a matter of science and state prestige, but also of commercial gain. Helium-3 is a rare isotope, costing approximately $1,200 per liter of gas, needed in the nuclear power industry to start a fusion reaction. On the Moon, its amount is estimated at thousands of tons (according to the minimum estimates - 500 thousand tons). The density of liquid helium-3 at boiling point and normal pressure is 59 g/l, and in gaseous form it is about 1000 times less, therefore, 1 kilogram costs more than 20 million dollars, and all helium costs more than 10 quadrillion dollars (about 500 current GDP USA).
When helium-3 is used, long-lived radioactive waste does not arise, and therefore the problem of their disposal, which is so acute in the operation of reactors for the fission of heavy nuclei, disappears by itself.
However, there are serious criticisms of these plans. The fact is that in order to ignite the thermonuclear reaction deuterium + helium-3, it is necessary to heat the isotopes to a temperature of a billion degrees and solve the problem of keeping the plasma heated to such a temperature. The current technological level allows to contain a plasma heated only to a few hundred million degrees in the deuterium + tritium reaction, while almost all the energy obtained in the course of a thermonuclear reaction is spent on confining the plasma (see ITER). Therefore, helium-3 reactors are considered by many leading scientists, for example, academician Roald Sagdeev, who criticized Sevastyanov's plans, to be a matter of the distant future. More realistic, from their point of view, is the development of oxygen on the Moon, metallurgy, the creation and launch of spacecraft, including satellites, interplanetary stations and manned spacecraft.
Water
Practical Steps
Lunar bases in the first "Moon Race"
In the United States, preliminary projects for the Lunex (Lunex Project) and Horizon (Project Horizon) lunar military bases were worked out, and there were also technical proposals for the Werner von Brown lunar base.
In the first half of the 1970s. under the hand Academician V.P. Barmin, Moscow and Leningrad scientists developed a project for a long-term lunar base, in which, in particular, they studied the possibilities of bunding inhabited structures with a directed explosion to protect against cosmic radiation (inventions by A.I. Melua using Alfred Nobel technologies). In more detail, including models of expeditionary vehicles and habitable modules, the project of the USSR lunar base Zvezda was developed, which was to be implemented in the 1970s-1980s. as a development of the Soviet lunar program, curtailed after the loss of the USSR in the "moon race" with the United States.
Lunar Oasis
In October 1989, at the 40th Congress of the International Aeronautical Federation, NASA staff members Michael Duke, head of the Solar System Research Division at the Lyndon Johnson Space Center in Houston, and John Niehoff of Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) presented project of the lunar station Lunar Oasis. Until now, this project is considered very elaborate and interesting for a number of basic solutions, both original and realistic. The ten-year Lunar Oasis project assumed three stages, with a total of 30 flights, half of which were manned (14 tons of cargo each); unmanned launches were estimated at 20 tons of cargo each.
The authors call the cost of the project equal to four Apollo programs, which is about $550 billion in 2011 prices. Considering that the program implementation time was assumed to be very significant (10 years), the annual costs for it would amount to about $50 billion. For comparison, we can point out that in 2011 the cost of maintaining US troops in Afghanistan reached $6.7 billion per month, or $80 billion a year.
Lunar bases in the "Moon race" of the XXI century
The Japan Space Exploration Agency planned to commission a manned station on the Moon by 2030, five years later than previously thought. In 2007, the Kaguya space station Japan began orbital exploration of the moon. In March 2010, Japan decided to abandon the manned lunar program due to its excessive cost in favor of robotic settlements.
India sent the first Chandrayaan-1 AMS to the Moon in 2008 for the purpose of three-dimensional topography and radio sounding to map the surface chemical elements in search of metals, water and helium-3.
People have always been interested in space. The moon, being closest to our planet, has become the only celestial body that has been visited by man. How did the research of our satellite begin, and who won the palm in landing on the moon?
natural satellite
The moon is a celestial body that has accompanied our planet for centuries. It does not emit light, but only reflects it. The Moon is the Earth's satellite closest to the Sun. In the sky of our planet, it is the second brightest object.
We always see one side of the Moon due to the fact that its rotation is synchronized with the rotation of the Earth around its axis. The Moon moves around the Earth unevenly - sometimes moving away, sometimes approaching it. The great minds of the world have long puzzled over the study of its movement. This is an incredibly complex process, which is affected by the oblateness of the Earth and the gravity of the Sun.
Scientists are still arguing about how the moon formed. There are three versions, one of which - the main one - was put forward after receiving samples of lunar soil. It has been called the giant impact theory. It is based on the assumption that more than 4 billion years ago, two protoplanets collided, and their breakaway particles got stuck in near-Earth orbit, eventually forming the Moon.
Another theory suggests that the Earth and its natural satellite were formed due to a gas and dust cloud at the same time. Supporters of the third theory suggest that the Moon originated far from the Earth, but was captured by our planet.
The beginning of the exploration of the moon
Even in ancient times, this celestial body did not give rest to mankind. The first studies of the Moon were carried out back in the 2nd century BC by Hipparchus, who tried to describe its movement, size and distance from the Earth.
In 1609, Galileo invented the telescope, and the exploration of the moon (albeit visual) moved to a new level. It became possible to study the surface of our satellite, to see its craters and mountains. For example, Giovanni Riccioli made it possible to create one of the first lunar maps in 1651. At that time, the term "sea" was born, denoting the dark areas of the moon's surface, and craters began to be named after famous personalities.
In the 19th century, photography came to the aid of astronomers, which made it possible to conduct more accurate studies of the features of the relief. Lewis Rutherford, Warren de la Rue and Pierre Jansen at various times actively studied the lunar surface from images, and the latter created its "Photographic Atlas".
Exploration of the Moon. Attempts to create a rocket
The first stages of study have been passed, and interest in the Moon is getting hotter. In the 19th century, the first thoughts about space travel to the satellite were born, with which the history of the exploration of the moon began. For such a flight, it was necessary to create an apparatus whose speed would be able to overcome gravity. It turned out that the existing engines are not powerful enough to gain the necessary speed and maintain it. There were also difficulties with the motion vector of the vehicles, since after takeoff they necessarily rounded off their movement and fell to the Earth.
The solution came in 1903, when the engineer Tsiolkovsky created a project for a rocket that could overcome the gravitational field and reach the target. The fuel in the rocket engine was supposed to burn out at the very beginning of the flight. So, its mass became much less, and the movement was carried out due to the released energy.
Who is first?
The 20th century was marked by large-scale military events. The entire scientific potential was directed to the military channel, and the exploration of the moon had to be slowed down. The unfolding of the Cold War in 1946 forced astronomers and engineers to think again about space travel. One of the questions in the rivalry between the Soviet Union and the United States was the following: who will be the first to land on the surface of the moon?
The championship in the struggle for the exploration of the Moon and outer space went to the Soviet Union, and on October 4, 1957, the first one was released, and two years later the first space station Luna-1, or, as it was called, Dream, headed for the Moon.
In January 1959, AMS - an automatic interplanetary station - passed about 6 thousand kilometers from the moon, but could not land. "Dream" fell into a heliocentric orbit, becoming artificial. The period of its revolution around the star is 450 days.
The landing on the moon failed, but very valuable data were obtained on the outer radiation belt of our planet and the solar wind. It was possible to establish that the natural satellite has an insignificant magnetic field.
Following the Soyuz, in March 1959, the United States launched Pioneer-4, which flew 60,000 km from the Moon, hitting the solar orbit.
The real breakthrough happened on September 14 of the same year, when the Luna-2 spacecraft made the world's first "lunar landing". The station did not have cushioning, so the landing was hard, but significant. Made it "Luna-2" near the Sea of Rains.
Study of the lunar expanses
The first landing opened the way for further research. Following Luna-2, Luna-3 was sent, flying around the satellite and photographing the "dark side" of the planet. The lunar map has become more complete, new names of craters have appeared on it: Jules Verne, Kurchatov, Lobachevsky, Mendeleev, Pasteur, Popov, etc.
The first American station landed on the Earth's satellite only in 1962. It was a Ranger-4 station that fell on
Further, the American "Rangers" and the Soviet "Moons" and "Probes" attacked the expanses of space in turn, either making telephotos of the lunar surface, or breaking into smithereens about it. The first soft landing pleased the station "Luna-9" in 1966, and "Luna-10" became the first satellite of the moon. Having circumnavigated this planet 460 times, the "satellite's satellite" interrupted communication with the Earth.
Luna-9 was broadcasting a telecast filmed by a machine gun. From the TV screens, the Soviet viewer watched the filming of cold desert expanses.
The US followed the same course as the Union. In 1967, the American station "Surveyor-1" made the second soft landing in the history of astronautics.
To the moon and back
For several years, Soviet and American researchers have managed to achieve unimaginable success. The mysterious night luminary for many centuries excited the minds of both great minds and hopeless romantics. Step by step, the Moon became closer and more accessible to man.
The next goal was not just to send a space station to the satellite, but also to return it back to Earth. The engineers faced new challenges. The apparatus flying back had to enter the earth's atmosphere at a not too steep angle, otherwise it could burn out. Too large an angle, on the contrary, could create a ricochet effect, and the device would again fly into space without reaching the Earth.
Angle calibration issues have been resolved. A series of vehicles "Zond" from 1968 to 1970 successfully made flights with a landing. "Zond-6" became a test. He had to perform a test flight, so that later astronaut pilots could carry it out. The device circled the Moon at a distance of 2500 km, but when returning to Earth, the parachute opened too early. The station crashed and the astronauts' flight was cancelled.
Americans on the Moon: the first lunar explorers
Steppe turtles, that's who first flew around the moon and returned to Earth. The animals were sent into space on the Soviet Zond-5 spacecraft in 1968.
The United States was clearly lagging behind in the development of the lunar expanses, because all the first successes belonged to the USSR. In 1961, US President Kennedy made a loud statement that by 1970 there would be a landing on the moon. And the Americans will do it.
To implement such a plan, it was necessary to prepare reliable ground. The photographs of the lunar surface taken by the Ranger spacecraft were studied, and the anomalous phenomena of the Moon were studied.
For manned flights, the Apollo program was opened, which used the calculations of the flight trajectory to the Moon made by the Ukrainian. Subsequently, this trajectory was called the Kondratyuk Track.
Apollo 8 made the first test manned flight without landing. F. Borman, W. Anders, J. Lovell made several circles around the natural satellite, making a survey of the area for a future expedition. T. Stafford and J. Young on "Apollo 10" carried out the second flight around the satellite. The astronauts separated from the spacecraft module and stayed 15 km from the Moon separately.
After all the preparations, Apollo 11 was finally sent. The Americans landed on the Moon on July 21, 1969 near the Sea of Tranquility. The first step was taken by Neil Armstrong, followed by the Astronauts stayed on the natural satellite for 21.5 hours.
Further studies
After Armstrong and Aldrin, 5 more scientific expeditions went to the moon. The last time astronauts landed on a moon was in 1972. In the entire human history, only in these expeditions did people land on other
The Soviet Union did not leave the study of the surface of the natural satellite. Since 1970, radio-controlled "Lunokhods" of the 1st and 2nd series were sent. Lunokhod on the Moon collected soil samples and photographed the terrain.
In 2013, China became the third country to reach our moon with a soft landing on the Yutu rover.
Conclusion
It has been a fascinating object of study since ancient times. In the 20th century, the exploration of the moon turned from scientific research into a heated political race. A lot has been done to travel on it. Now the Moon remains the most studied astronomical object, which, moreover, has been visited by man.
The loud statement of Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin about Russia's intention to colonize the Moon, made by him on Cosmonautics Day, as it turned out, has a well-developed platform. At the disposal of "Izvestia" was the draft Concept of the Russian lunar program, prepared by the Russian Academy of Sciences, enterprises of Roscosmos and Moscow State University. The goal of this program is to create by the middle of the century a habitable base on the Moon and a lunar test site with the possibility of extracting minerals on the Earth's satellite. In addition, the authors of the project do not rule out attracting private investors to lunar projects. The first expeditions with the landing of astronauts to create a permanent lunar base are planned to be carried out in 2030.
The Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (including the head of this organization, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Lev Zeleny), TsNIIMash, NPO Lavochkin, RSC Energia, the Research Institute of Nuclear Physics of Moscow State University, and the Sternberg State Astronomical Institute of Moscow State University participated in the preparation of proposals for the concept.
At the very beginning of the project, the developers make a loud statement: "The moon is a space object for the future development of the earth's civilization, and in the 21st century geopolitical competition for lunar natural resources may begin." Consequently, an arsenal of the necessary means of deep space exploration should be created in Russia to ensure national interests in the exploration of the Moon, the authors of the concept continue.
The axiom of the previous projects, concerning not only exploration, but even just expeditions to visit the Moon, was broad international cooperation. This introduction was based on the fact that not a single state in the world in the foreseeable future can afford interplanetary projects. This premise is also present in the new concept, but with a caveat: "The independence of the national lunar program from the conditions and scope of participation of foreign partners in it must be ensured."
As conceived by the authors, the lunar program should be planned in such a way that every 3–4 years a new lunar project is implemented in the country, embodying the priority scientific and technical space achievements of Russia.
Previous expeditions to the Moon (the Soviet project "Luna" and the American "Apollo") made it possible to establish that aluminum, iron, titanium, rare earths and many other elements of the periodic table are present in the substance of the Moon. “After geological studies of the Moon provide reliable scientific knowledge about the abundance of minerals, about the degree of content of certain elements in them, a feasibility study will be drawn up for the expediency of their extraction, processing and delivery to Earth,” the authors of the concept write, noting that following the preparation of a feasibility study, it will be possible to raise the question of attracting private investors to the moon.
Exploration of the moon must be dynamic, the authors argue, because "in the next 20-30 years, the leading space powers will explore and secure convenient lunar footholds to provide future opportunities for practical use." The bridgeheads will be used for geological exploration of the lunar interior, for experiments on the use of regolith (lunar soil), including the hydrogen and oxygen contained in it, for the construction of lunar space infrastructure and providing human habitat in it. The first bridgeheads of people on the Moon will be located in the vicinity of the poles, the authors suggest. “At the poles, the sun's rays are directed almost tangentially to the surface. As a result, the polar mountains can be areas of constant illumination, and the polar lowlands - areas of permanent shading," the document says.
The first stage, proposed for inclusion in the Federal Space Program (FSP) 2016-2025, involves sending automatic interplanetary stations "Luna-25", "Luna-26", "Luna-27" and "Luna-28" to the Earth's satellite. The tasks of these devices are to determine the composition and physicochemical properties of the lunar polar regolith with water ice and other volatile compounds, to select the most promising area in the area of the South Pole of the Moon for the future deployment of a test site and a lunar base there.
The second stage, scheduled for 2028-2030, includes manned expeditions to orbit the Moon without landing on its surface. To this end, RSC Energia is already creating a transport manned spacecraft.
The third stage, scheduled for 2030–2040, includes expeditions of astronauts visiting the potential location of the lunar test site and deploying the first infrastructure elements from lunar material. It is proposed to start building elements of a lunar astronomical observatory, as well as objects for monitoring the Earth.
The cost of the described projects is not fully calculated. There is clarity only in relation to the first stage proposed in the FKP 2016-2025: it is about 28.5 billion rubles. Earlier, an estimate for the construction of a new manned spacecraft for lunar missions was presented: this is 160 billion rubles in 2012 prices (in addition to the ship, the amount includes an emergency rescue rocket unit, an assembly and protective unit, a ground-based facilities complex, including a set of training and launch facilities) .
The moon is the first step on the way to deep space, - says Ivan Moiseev, scientific director of the Space Policy Institute. - Therefore, it makes sense to use the Moon as a promising spaceport. Because it is very expensive to carry cargo from Earth to space. For example, the Proton rocket has a launch mass of 700 tons, and it takes only 20 tons into low earth orbit. As a result, metal and equipment are lost. If we take some materials from the Moon, where to create the infrastructure for this, it will turn out to be much more profitable, including if we launch Earth satellites from the Moon. But the creation of such an infrastructure there is possible, apparently only by the end of the century. As for the extraction of resources on the Moon, it makes no sense to bring them to Earth: even if diamonds are found there, it will still be unprofitable to deliver them here. But in any case, you can start with the release of oxygen, it is present on the moon in many compounds.
According to Andrey Ionin, a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Cosmonautics, such large-scale projects as the colonization of the Moon or Mars are unlikely to be carried out at public expense.
The exploration of the planets by people will be the prerogative of private companies, he believes. - Already now there are many such projects: they provide for the colonization of Mars, mining on asteroids and similar initiatives. It is hard to imagine that some government will be ready to spend trillions on the creation of lunar bases, despite the fact that they have a lot of other, more pressing tasks: medicine, education, the army ... Well, who now, being in their right mind, will take it and say: on There is no money for social programs, but there is money for the lunar base - we will extract minerals there ... This is unrealistic.
Roscosmos explained that proposals to the Federal Space Program will undergo a comprehensive examination at the level of industry experts and scientists, after which the FKP project will be submitted to the government for consideration.
Most of the world's scientists agree that the colonization of the moon is only a matter of time. From century to century, from millennium to millennium, man walked, swam, rode into unknown distances. In previously unfamiliar places, he settled, began to extract resources, hunt, followed by trade and production. Why should the moon be different?
The moon is our natural satellite
The moon is a natural satellite of the planet Earth in the solar system. It rotates in an orbit with a radius of about 400 thousand kilometers, it is an almost perfect ball with a diameter of about 3500 km.
According to the most popular theory, more than 4 billion years ago, as a result of the collision of the newly formed Earth with another planet, a smaller one. As a result of a sliding impact, the iron cores of both planets merged and went to the Earth, and the Moon gradually “blinded” from the lighter elements that made up the crust thrown into space. Therefore, the lunar soil is not rich in iron, other heavy elements, gold, uranium, it consists mainly of regolith. Lunar-like soil is easily obtained in the laboratory by grinding a mixture of sand and glass into fine dust.
moon and earth
On the Moon, the smallest cosmic particles act as a mill, constantly bombarding the surface for billions of years.
What will we find there?
As you know, earthlings have already managed to visit the moon. And, given that about half a century has passed since the last visit of NASA astronauts there, and technology has not stood still all this time, the question of the technical feasibility of sending astronauts to the surface of our satellite does not arise today. With today's scientific and technical capabilities, we are also solving the issue of building a permanent lunar base. The question is different - in the means.
It is not possible to finance such a project alone by any firm or corporation, even for an entire country, even if such a powerful and rich as the United States, the cost of the mission will cost a pretty penny. This raises the question: why, in fact, spend a lot of financial resources and material resources, time, risk people's lives for the sake of exploring the moon, what is the benefit to humanity from this?
Recent studies by American spacecraft from lunar orbit show that craters located in the polar regions, on the bottom of which sunlight never penetrates, most likely contain deposits of water ice. And water is a factor that greatly facilitates the future colonization of the moon. Ice reserves are: no need to bring water for the needs of the station from the Earth, oxygen for breathing and, finally, hydrogen - the main component of fuel for rockets. But this is what is necessary for the life of the colonists, and what will they bring to Earth from there?
Helium isotope "Helium-3" is a bonus and even a jackpot for future lunar settlers. A helium atom with two protons and one (instead of the traditional two) neutron. Lunar regolith has accumulated a large amount of this isotope over millions of years, its content on the Moon is hundreds of times greater than on Earth. The use of Helium-3 in obtaining energy, according to scientists, could provide earthlings for several millennia ahead.
What needs to be overcome
A man who landed on the surface of the moon will need to solve several problems at once. The first one is . Our satellite, unlike the Earth, does not have , so the entire solar wind (α, β and γ - radiation) will mercilessly attack the settlers. The lunar missions carried out by the Americans were not long and the astronauts did not receive excessive doses of radiation, a permanent base is another matter. The way out is seen in the development of lunar caves - lava tubes similar to those on earth.
Not quite hospitable and climatic conditions on the moon. The satellite of the Earth does not have any significant atmosphere. At night, the soil cools down to -200 °C, while the sunny side heats up to more than + 150 °C.
Lunar colony as imagined by an artist
But people have learned to overcome these problems. But two problems are really holding back the development of the Earth's satellite for the purpose of extracting fuel. On the one hand, this is the absence on Earth of complete and efficient technologies for obtaining energy by implementing a controlled thermonuclear reaction (thermonuclear energy is still in its infancy). On the other hand, this is the colossal cost of transporting the extracted fuel by spacecraft.
Obviously, until there is a breakthrough in the field of nuclear energy and in the field of space flight technologies, the exploration and colonization of the Moon will not be on a large scale.
