From the launch of the first satellite of the Earth to the beginning of the exploration of the moon spacecraft less than a year and a half has passed. And this is not surprising, since the Moon is the closest object to the Earth and a very unusual object 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 disappeared (due to its relatively small mass), its surface is very ancient and is estimated at almost 4.5 billion years, and the absence of an atmosphere leads to the accumulation of age on the surface of meteorites and the composition of which can reach and even exceed the age of the moon itself. solar system. All this, in addition to the very proximity of the Moon to us, caused an active scientific interest people and the desire to explore it: total number spacecraft sent to explore 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 the 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 the conditions under which spacecraft designers sometimes had to work.

Discussion of the failure of the Luna-8 station from the book Korolev: Facts and Myths by 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 has no 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...

March 3, 1959 on the same flyby trajectory with a set of the second space velocity The American apparatus Pioneer-4 was sent. 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, additional task- 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 pictures were taken reverse side The moon with the help of 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 first used 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:

Photo visible side Moon in high resolution were received 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. For testing new system Communication photos 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 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 this moment NASA enthusiasts are going to look for the flight block and the remains of the station's inflatable shock absorber using LRO photos (the device itself is too small to be seen - it should look like 2 * 2 pixels on LRO pictures).

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 a 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. She had a gamma spectrometer, a magnetometer, a meteorite detector, a device for research solar wind and infrared radiation 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 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 images with a resolution of 2 meters were taken for 36 potential landing sites.

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 speed, direction and torque) as well as studies of 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, he also had scientific goal: it flew the first living creatures that flew around the moon 3 months before Apollo 8 - these were two turtles, fruit flies, as well as several types of plants. 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 calculated moment right before touching the ground, and all biological objects on board (which were sent around the moon and in this flight) died. However, the film with black-and-white and color photographs of the Moon has survived.

Two more were produced successful launch this ship: Zond-7 and Zond 8 (August 8, 1969 and October 20, 1970, respectively) with successful returns of 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 lunar soil to Earth before the Americans had time to do so. 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 stations Luna-20 and Luna 24 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 controller remote control 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 from the same scientific program, the station worked for 521 days. These stations made it possible to clarify gravitational fields of the Moon, and to simplify the landing of the Luna-20 and Luna-24 stations for soil sampling.

Solar system and AMS

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"Luna-2" is the second interplanetary station created within the framework of the "Luna" program, which for the first time in the history of mankind reached the surface of the Earth's satellite.

A similar goal was set for the first station, . Unfortunately, due to an error in the calculations, the trajectory of this apparatus passed at a considerable distance from the Moon, and in fact the flight of an artificial apparatus from one cosmic body to another did not take place. Nevertheless, its importance in terms of the uniqueness of scientific data transmitted to the mission control center is invaluable.

Features of the design and flight of the AMS "Luna-2"

Based on the information collected from the results of the Luna-1 flight, a flight plan was developed for the next station, which was named Luna-2. All equipment and devices in the new apparatus remained practically unchanged. The launch was carried out by the same three-stage Luna-type launch vehicle with.

AMS "Luna-2" was a little over 5 meters in length and 2.5 in diameter. Its mass was approximately 390 kg.
Launched on September 12, 1959, the automatically controlled Luna-2 spacecraft completed the historic Earth-Moon flight in less than 48 hours. The landing site of the apparatus was fixed in the region of the Sea of ​​​​Rains, between the craters of Autolycus, Aristilus and Archimedes. This area is now called Lunnik Bay.

When the station hit the surface of the moon, it was destroyed. However, scientists managed to fix that not only the station itself, but also the last, third stage of the rocket reached the surface.

The importance of the Luna-2 mission

On board the AMS "Luna-2" was placed metal ball, which, upon impact, shattered into many pentagonal pennants with a commemorative engraving "USSR, September 1959". The same symbols of triumph Soviet cosmonautics were placed on the Luna-2 apparatus itself and on the last stage of the rocket.

So, "Luna-2" became the second triumph of the Soviet cosmonautics after the launch of the first in history. It was during this flight that for the first time it was possible to obtain parabolic velocity (second space velocity). The first apparatus in the history of mankind, created by human hands, reached the surface of another cosmic body, overcoming the force of gravity and passing an enormous distance from the Earth to the Moon.

In recognition of the importance of this event, the ice ledge in East Antarctica, discovered in the same year by Soviet scientists as part of the Antarctic expedition, was named Cape Lunnik (just like the lunar bay, where the Luna-2 AMS fell).

> Moon Exploration

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Consider scientific space moon exploration- satellite of the Earth: the first flight to the Moon and the first man, a description of research by devices with photos, important dates.

The moon is closest to the Earth, so it has become the main object of space research and one of the goals of the race between the USA and the USSR. The first devices were launched in the 1950s. and these were primitive mechanisms. But the technology did not stand still, which led to Neil Armstrong's first step on the lunar surface.

In 1959, the Soviet apparatus Luna-1 was sent to the satellite, flying past at a distance of 3725 km. This mission is important because it showed that earthly neighbor devoid of a magnetic field.

First landing on the moon

In the same year, Luna 2 was sent, which landed on the surface and recorded several craters. The first blurry photos of the Moon arrived on the third mission. In 1962, the first American probe rushed - Ranger-4. But it was a suicide bomber. Scientists specifically sent it to the surface to get more data.

Ranger 7 departed 2 years later and transmitted 4,000 images before dying. In 1966, Luna 9 landed safely on the surface. scientific instruments not only sent better pictures, but also studied the features of an alien world.

Successful American missions were the Surveyor (1966-1968), which explored the soil and landscape. Also in 1966-1967. were sent american probes fixed in orbit. So it was possible to fix 99% of the surface. This was the period of exploration of the moon by spacecraft. Having obtained a sufficient database, it was time to send the first man to the moon.

man on the moon

July 20, 1969 the first people arrived on the satellite - Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, after which the exploration of the moon by the Americans began. The Apollo 11 mission landed in the Sea of ​​Tranquility. Later, a lunar rover will arrive, which will allow you to move faster. Until 1972, 5 missions and 12 people managed to arrive. Conspiracy theorists are still trying to figure out if the Americans were on the moon, providing latest research and carefully watching the video. While there is no exact refutation of the flight, so we will consider Neil Armstrong's first step as a breakthrough in space research.

This breakthrough made it possible to focus on other objects. But in 1994, NASA returned to the lunar theme. The Clementine mission was able to map the surface layer into various lengths waves. Since 1999, the Lunar Scout has been searching for ice.

Today, interest in the celestial body is returning and new ones are being prepared. space research Moon. In addition to America, India, China, Japan and Russia look at the satellite. There is already talk of colonies, and people will be able to return to earth satellite in the 2020s Below you can see a list of spacecraft sent to the moon, and significant dates.

Significant dates:

• 1609- Thomas Harriot was the first to point a telescope into the sky and display the moon. He would later create the first maps;
• 1610- Galileo issues a publication of observations of the satellite (Star Herald);
• 1959-1976- The US lunar program of 17 robotic missions has reached the surface and returned samples three times;
• 1961-1968- American launches pave the way for the launch of the first people to the moon as part of the Apollo program;
• 1969- Neil Armstrong became the first person to set foot on lunar surface;
• 1994-1999– Clementine and Lunar Scout are transmitting data on the possibility of water ice at the poles;
• 2003– SMART-1 from ESA extracts data on the main lunar chemical constituents;
• 2007-2008- The Japanese Kaguya and the Chinese Chanier-1 are launching one-year orbital missions. They will be followed by the Indian Shandrayan-1;
• 2008- Lunar is formed scientific institute NASA to lead all lunar exploration missions;
• 2009 NASA's LRO and LCROSS launch together to re-master the satellite. In October, the second unit was placed over the shaded side near south pole, which helped to find water ice;
• 2011– Sending the CRAIL spacecraft to map the inner lunar part (from the crust to the core). NASA launches ARTEMIS focused on surface composition;
• 2013– NASA's LADEE is sent to collect information about the structure and composition of the thin lunar atmospheric layer. The mission ended in April 2014;
• December 14, 2013– China became the third country that lowered the device to the surface of the satellite – Utah;

The moon was destined to become that celestial body, which is associated with perhaps the most effective and impressive successes of mankind outside the Earth. Direct study natural satellite of our planet began with the start of the Soviet lunar program. January 2, 1959 automatic station"Luna-1" for the first time in history carried out a flight to the moon.

The first launch of a satellite to the Moon (Luna-1) was a huge breakthrough in space exploration, but the main objective, flight from one celestial body the other has not been achieved. The launch of Luna-1 gave a lot of scientific and practical information in the area of space flights to other celestial bodies. During the flight of Luna-1, the second cosmic velocity was reached for the first time and information was obtained about the Earth's radiation belt and outer space. In the world press, the Luna-1 spacecraft was called Mechta.

All this was taken into account when launching the next Luna-2 satellite. In principle, Luna-2 almost completely repeated its predecessor Luna-1, the same scientific instruments and equipment made it possible to fill in data on interplanetary space and correct the data received by Luna-1. For the Launch, the RN 8K72 Luna with the "E" block was also used. On September 12, 1959, at 06:39, AMS Luna-2 was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome by RN Luna. And already on September 14 at 00:02:24 Moscow time, Luna-2 reached the surface of the Moon, making the first ever flight from the Earth to the Moon.

The automatic interplanetary vehicle reached the surface of the Moon east of the "Sea of ​​Clarity", near the craters Aristilus, Archimedes and Autolycus (selenographic latitude +30°, longitude 0°). As the processing of data on the orbit parameters shows, the last stage of the rocket also reached the surface of the Moon. Three symbolic pennants were placed on board Luna-2: two in the automatic interplanetary vehicle and one in the last stage of the rocket with the inscription "USSR September 1959". Inside Luna-2 there was a metal ball consisting of pentagonal pennants, and when it hit the lunar surface, the ball shattered into dozens of pennants.

Dimensions: Total length was 5.2 meters. The diameter of the satellite itself is 2.4 meters.

RN: Luna (modification R-7)

Weight: 390.2 kg.

Tasks: Reaching the surface of the Moon (completed). Achievement of the second cosmic velocity (completed). Overcome the gravity of the planet Earth (completed). Delivery of pennants "USSR" to the surface of the moon (completed).

JOURNEY TO SPACE

"Moon" - name Soviet program lunar exploration and a series of spacecraft launched in the USSR to the moon since 1959.

Spacecraft of the first generation ("Luna-1" - "Luna-3") made a flight from the Earth to the Moon without first launching an artificial Earth satellite into orbit, making corrections on the Earth-Moon trajectory and braking near the Moon. The devices carried out the flyby of the Moon ("Luna-1"), reaching the Moon ("Luna-2"), flying around it and photographing it ("Luna-3").

Spacecraft of the second generation ("Luna-4" - "Luna-14") were launched using more advanced methods: preliminary insertion of an artificial Earth satellite into orbit, then launch to the Moon, trajectory corrections and braking in circumlunar space. During the launches, the flight to the Moon and landing on its surface (“Luna-4” - “Luna-8”), soft landing (“Luna-9” and “Luna-13”) and the transfer of an artificial satellite of the Moon into orbit (“Luna -10", "Luna-11", "Luna-12", "Luna-14").

More advanced and heavier spacecraft of the third generation ("Luna-15" - "Luna-24") carried out a flight to the Moon according to the scheme used by the second generation vehicles; At the same time, to increase the accuracy of landing on the Moon, it is possible to carry out several corrections on the flight trajectory from the Earth to the Moon and in the orbit of the artificial satellite of the Moon. The Luna spacecraft provided the first scientific data on the Moon, the development of a soft landing on the Moon, the creation of artificial satellites of the Moon, the taking and delivery of soil samples to the Earth, and the transportation of lunar self-propelled vehicles to the surface of the Moon. The creation and launch of various automatic lunar vehicles is a feature of the Soviet lunar exploration program.

MOON RACE

The USSR started the “game” by launching the first artificial satellite in 1957. The United States immediately joined in it. In 1958, the Americans hastily developed and launched their satellite, and at the same time formed "for the benefit of all" - this is the motto of the organization - NASA. But by that time, the Soviets overtook their rivals even more - they sent the dog Laika into space, which, although it did not return, but by its own heroic example proved the possibility of surviving in orbit.

It took almost two years to develop a descent module capable of delivering a living organism back to Earth. It was necessary to refine the structures so that they could withstand two “travels through the atmosphere” already, to create a high-quality sealed and resistant to high temperatures sheathing. And most importantly, it was necessary to calculate the trajectory and design engines that would protect the astronaut from overloads.

When all this was done, Belka and Strelka got the opportunity to show their heroic canine nature. They coped with their task - they returned alive. Less than a year later, Gagarin flew in their wake - and also returned alive. Americans in that 1961 airless space sent only Ham the chimpanzee. True, on May 5 of the same year, Alan Shepard made a suborbital flight, but the international community this achievement by space flight was not recognized. First "real" American astronaut- John Glenn - only found himself in space in February 1962.

It would seem that the United States is hopelessly behind the "boys from the neighboring continent." The triumphs of the USSR followed one after another: the first group flight, the first person in open space, the first woman in space ... And even the Soviet "Moons" were the first to reach the natural satellite of the Earth, laying the foundations for such an important for the current research programs techniques of gravitational maneuvers and photographing the back side of the night star.

But it was possible to win in such a game only by destroying the opposing team, physically or mentally. The Americans were not going to be destroyed. On the contrary, back in 1961, immediately after the flight of Yuri Gagarin, NASA, with the blessing of the newly elected Kennedy, headed for the Moon.

The decision was risky - the USSR achieved its goal step by step, systematically and consistently, and still not without failures. BUT space agency The US decided to jump over a step, if not a whole flight of stairs. But America made up for its in a certain sense, the impudence of a thorough study of the lunar program. The Apollos were tested on Earth and in orbit, while the launch vehicles and lunar modules of the USSR were "tested in combat" - and did not withstand the tests. As a result, the US tactics proved to be more effective.

But the key factor that weakened the Union in moon race, there was a split within the "team from the Soviet court." Korolev, on whose will and enthusiasm cosmonautics rested, at first, after his victory over the skeptics, lost his monopoly on decision-making. Design bureaus grew like mushrooms after rain on unspoiled chernozem. The distribution of tasks began, and each leader, both scientific and party, considered himself the most competent. At first, the very approval of the lunar program was belated - politicians distracted by Titov, Leonov and Tereshkova took up it only in 1964, when the Americans had been thinking about their Apollos for three years already. And then the attitude to the flights to the Moon turned out to be not serious enough - they did not have such military prospects as the launches of the Earth satellites and orbital stations, and they required much more funding.

Problems with money, as is usually the case, "finished off" grandiose lunar projects. From the very start of the program, Korolev was advised to underestimate the numbers before the word "rubles", because no one would approve the real amounts. If the developments were as successful as the previous ones, this approach would justify itself. The party leadership was still able to calculate and would not close a promising business in which too much has already been invested. But, coupled with a messy division of labor, the lack of funds led to catastrophic delays in schedules and savings on testing.

Perhaps later the situation could be rectified. The astronauts were burning with enthusiasm, even asking to be sent to the Moon on ships that could not withstand the test flights. Design bureaus, with the exception of OKB-1, which was under the leadership of Korolev, demonstrated the inconsistency of their projects and quietly left the stage of their own accord. The stable economy of the USSR in the 70s made it possible to allocate additional funds for the refinement of missiles, especially if the military would join the cause. However, in 1968, an American crew circled the moon, and in 1969, Neil Armstrong took his small victorious step in space race. Soviet lunar program has lost its meaning for politicians.

Even before the start of the space age, people dreamed of flying to the moon and the planets of the solar system. Many scientists have created projects spaceships, artists painted imaginary pictures of the landing of the first people on the moon, science fiction writers offered in their novels various ways achievement of the desired goal. But no one could seriously assume that people would actually go to the moon at a fairly early stage of space exploration. And this happened ... But first things first.

THE FIRST FLIGHTS TO THE MOON.

On January 2, 1959, the Vostok-L launch vehicle was launched in the Soviet Union, which put the AMS on the flight path to the Moon "Luna-1". The station also had the names "Luna-1D" and, as journalists called her, "Dream"(in fact, this is the fourth attempt to launch to the Moon, three previous ones: "Luna-1A"- September 23, 1958, "Luna-1B"- October 11, 1958, "Luna-1C"- December 4, 1958 ended in failure due to launch vehicle crashes). "Luna-1" passed at a distance of 6000 kilometers from the surface of the moon and entered a heliocentric orbit. Despite the fact that the station did not hit the Moon, AMC "Luna-1" became the first spacecraft in the world to reach the second cosmic velocity, overcome the gravity of the Earth and become artificial satellite Sun. A special device installed on the last stage of the launch vehicle ejected a sodium cloud at an altitude of about 100,000 km. This artificial comet was visible from Earth.

On September 12, 1959, an automatic station launched to the satellite of our planet. "Luna-2" ("Lunnik-2") . She reached the moon and delivered a pennant with the emblem of the USSR to its surface. For the first time the Earth-Moon route was laid, for the first time the eternal peace of another celestial body was disturbed. , was a sphere made of an aluminum-magnesium alloy with a diameter of 1.2 m. Three simple devices were installed on it (a magnetometer, scintillation counters and Geiger counters, micrometeorite detectors), two of which were fixed on remote rods. The device weighing 390 kg throughout its rapid flight to the Moon was attached to the upper stage of the launch vehicle, it plunged into the surface of the Moon at a speed of over 3 km / s. Radio contact with him broke off near the edge of the Imbrium Sea near the crater Archimedes.

Left and center: The first spacecraft to hit the surface of the moon was the Soviet Luna-2, attached to the last stage of a launch vehicle. It happened on September 13, 1959.
On right:"Luna-3", which accounted for another triumph of the USSR - the world's first pictures of the far side of the moon.

The next triumph went "Luna-3" launched in less than a month. This device, weighing 278 kg, had a length of 1.3 m and a diameter of 1.2 m. On its body first in the history of Soviet cosmonautics established solar panels. Also first the automatic spacecraft was equipped with an orientation system. It included optical sensors that "saw" the Sun and the Moon, and orientation micromotors that maintained the station in a strictly defined position when the lens of the photo-television device was directed to. The main instrument was a photo-television camera transmitting individual frames, which turned on on October 7 at a distance of 65,000 km from the Moon. Within 40 minutes, 29 frames were filmed (according to some reports, only 17 were satisfactorily received on Earth), which, in general, were images of the far side of the moon, which until then no one had seen . The process of the camera was that the 35 mm film was developed, fixed and dried right on board, and then translucent with a light beam and converted into an analog television image with a resolution of 1000 lines, which was transmitted to Earth.

For the first time in history, mankind has seen about 70 percent of the far side of the moon. Of course, compared to modern methods image transmission, signal quality was poor, and noise levels were high. But despite this, the flight "Luna-3" was an outstanding achievement, marking whole stage space age.

As a result of the very first flights to the Moon, it was found that it does not have a magnetic field and radiation belts. Measurements of the total flux of cosmic radiation, carried out on the flight path and near the Moon, gave new information about cosmic rays and particles, about micrometeors in open space.

The next significant achievement was pictures of the moon close range . July 31, 1964 apparatus "Ranger 7" weighing 366 kg plunged into the surface of the Sea of ​​​​Clouds at a speed of 9316 km / h after transmitting 4316 frames to Earth. The last image showed a patchy surface dotted with hundreds of small craters. The image quality was thousands of times better than the best telescopes on Earth. After "Ranger 7" equally successful flights followed. Rangers 8 and 9 . Apparatus "Ranger" were built on the same "Mariner 2" , the base, above which towered a tower-like cone-shaped superstructure 1.5 m high. At its tip was placed a television system of six cameras with a total weight of 173 kg. The images obtained with the help of transmitting television tubes were directly broadcast to the Earth.

"Ranger 7", "Luna-9" (model) and "Surveyor 1"

First soft landing on the moon was carried out by the Soviet "Luna-9", although strictly speaking, it cannot be called soft. The Luna-9 descent capsule weighing 100 kg, inside which a 1.5 kg television camera was installed, was docked with the last stage of the main apparatus during the entire flight to the Moon. On approaching the surface, a brake engine with a thrust of 4600 kg was turned on, reducing the speed of descent. At a height of 5 meters above the surface, the capsule fired back from the main apparatus, landing at a vertical speed of 22 km / h. When the capsule stopped its movement on the surface of the Moon, its body opened up like four petals of a flower, and the TV camera began filming the lunar surface. The speed of its work was comparable to the speed of image transmission by modern facsimile machines. The camera rotated, making one revolution in 1 hour and 40 minutes, shooting a circular panorama with a resolution of 6000 lines and a perspective range of 1.5 km. On the dusty surface of the moon lay many small stones different sizes. This proved that moon dust at least, does not form a deep layer in the Ocean of Storms. In this way, "Luna-9" transmitted to Earth the first panoramic images of the lunar surface .

The first truly soft landing was the lunar landing of the American "Surveyera 1" in June 1966 using a landing engine. In total, five soft landings were made in different regions of the Moon. "Surveyers" . They transmitted valuable images to Earth that helped the program management "Apollo" select sites for landing manned descent vehicles. Their data was supplemented during surprisingly successful flights. "Lunar Orbiters" . But the USSR wanted to be the first in lunar orbit, so on March 31, 1966 it was launched "Luna-10" .

"Luna-10" became the world's first artificial satellite of the moon. For the first time data on the general chemical composition Moon by the nature of gamma radiation from its surface. 460 orbits were made around the Moon. Communication with the apparatus ceased on May 30, 1966.