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Half a century ago, on July 21, 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin stepped onto the moon for the first time in human history. Before that, Soviet and American automatic stations flew to the earth's satellite. Today, spacecraft continue to be sent to the moon, but manned missions have ceased for many years. Although the Moon is the nearest celestial body to us, we still do not know much about it. What have we learned about our nearest space neighbor with the help of Soviet spacecraft and manned flights under the Apollo program, and why humanity may need the Moon?
It would seem that drones can do everything that people can not do. They are more resistant to temperature changes, radiation and mechanical stress; for example, it is possible to make heated apparatus, such as the Soviet moon Rovers, which were heated at night with radioactive isotopes. They can be sent where a person is in danger-say, in deep tectonic faults, where pitch darkness, very low temperatures and extremely difficult conditions for descent and ascent. They can work on the surface of another planet for years. But manned missions have one distinct advantage. Man is mentally more flexible than the machine: he is able to make unconventional decisions. An astronaut can see something unusual and react to it: take a photo, take a sample, collect data.
Although the landing on another celestial body is itself a historic event, the first Apollo missions to the moon were less scientifically effective than the subsequent ones. In the struggle for supremacy in space NASA was in a hurry. Therefore, scientific tools were introduced and improved gradually.
The first trips on the moon
In the first missions there were no mooncars, and astronauts moved on foot for short distances. In Apollo 14 (1972), a small cart was provided for the transportation of scientific equipment. The dramatic mission "Apollo-13" (1970), during which there was an explosion on Board the ship, ended happily for the astronauts — they miraculously returned home, but fully conduct scientific observations in such circumstances, they could not. Unomobile were used, starting with the mission "Apollo-15" (1971). They could travel a distance of several tens of kilometers. But NASA understood that the lunar vehicle could break down, so they were sent close — so that astronauts in the event of a vehicle breakdown could return to the lander on foot. The pilots, who remained in orbit, photographed the surface of the moon. And while the most detailed images were taken over the lunar module landing site, they were able to get a lot of photos of other places, including the back of the satellite.
The Soviet automatic Rovers had a device for determining the elemental composition of the soil. The American manned missions did not do this — just collected samples without prior analysis and sorting. The astronauts had detailed images of the surface and a good team of geologists who planned their routes. Sometimes it was impossible to reach the end of the route. So, the astronauts "Apollo 14" were given the task to go to the shaft of the crater Cone (Cone), whose diameter is 340 meters. Scientists really wanted to get samples from the shaft of the crater. But lost among the rubble astronauts could not look inside the crater.
The study of the composition of the moon
Although there was only one professional scientist among the American Apollo astronauts, geologist Harrison "Jack" Schmitt, on the whole they were well trained. They were taken on Earth to interesting places from the point of view of Geology, read lectures for them. This gave excellent results. As he strode through the lunar sea of Rain, Apollo 15 commander Dave Scott saw a white lump of rock barely larger than his fist. He remembered being told in a lecture that there were older rocks on the mainland than in the seas, some of them white anorthosites. This rock could have come from the mainland, he thought, and picked it up. The sample was very valuable.
During the Apollo 17 mission, Harrison Schmitt and his partner Eugene Cernan noticed something reddish on the lunar surface. The unusual color of the rock attracted their attention, and they, not understanding what it was, took a sample. It turned out that this orange fine — grained sand is the result of a pyroclastic volcanic eruption. If the volcano erupts very intensively, with a large amount of gas, the lava does not pour out, but hits the fountain, and in flight its pieces solidify in the form of balls.
Although the fact of a volcanic eruption on the moon seemed strange, in themselves the samples did not see anything special. But decades later, in 2008, geologists and petrologists at brown University found traces of water dissolved in volcanic glass in these pink samples. It turns out that the gas responsible for this eruption contained a lot of water. Where did it come from? From the moon. Moreover, it turned out that the water in this source of the eruption is about the same as in magma, which is located on Earth under the mid-ocean ridges. This water is not oceanic — it comes from great depths with magma.
It was a major discovery. Before that, reliable traces of water were not found in samples brought by American astronauts, nor in soil samples taken by Soviet moon Rovers. Maya akhmanova from the Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and analytical chemistry found quite convincingly spectroscopic traces of water in Soviet lunar samples, and her data was published then, but no one believed them. And now, decades later at brown University, they received a reliable confirmation. Now find water in a number of other samples. And it all started with the fact that the astronauts saw something unusual and reacted to it. Of course, modern automatic devices have spectrometers, but they will not notice what is not provided by the program.
Production of Soviet moon Rovers
Although the Soviet cosmonauts did not visit the moon, the Soviet automatic vehicles gave scientists a lot of new information. Thanks to the lunar Rovers, many images of the moon's surface were obtained, albeit not of very high quality. This helps, in particular, to choose the most suitable places for landing.
The moon Rovers were equipped with the device "Rhyme", which studied the elemental composition of the surface using x-ray fluorescence analysis. The surface composition was measured in different places. It turned out that the closer we get to the lunar continent — a mountainous and cratered part of the lunar surface, the more calcium and less iron there is. Conversely, the farther from the mainland, the more iron and less calcium.
The moon Rovers were also equipped with a Prop instrument — a patency assessment instrument that measured the physical and mechanical properties of lunar soil. It was a cone with petals, which was embedded in the surface, in the ground. The penetration force was measured: if the soil was weak, the tool was easily introduced, if it was strong-it was difficult to introduce the device there. These measurements of soil strength geologists associated with geological observations.
On "Lunokhod-2" the Soviet magnetometer SG-70A which continuously, during movement and night Parking, measured interplanetary magnetic fields which are distorted by interaction with a body of the moon was established. Characteristic variations of the magnetic field on the moon's surface were recorded when the lunar Rover was not moving. These observations said something about the internal structure of the moon. A special experiment was carried out when the lunar Rover crossed the same small crater several times. Since its motors were electric, there were very strong electromagnetic noises, interference. A team of magnetologic of the Pakhra and the noises eliminated, and showed that small crater, about 10-20 metres in diameter, can affect the magnetic field. And scientists from the Institute of geospheric dynamics explained how meteorite impacts affect the moon's magnetic field. In a high-velocity impact, a plasma flash occurs, and minerals such as titanomagnetite memorize it.
In addition, the "Lunokhod-2" Crimean Observatory has installed a device that night was looking up. This instrument detected a faint glow-a sign that there is a dusty, very rarefied atmosphere above the Moon. Another instrument measured cosmic radiation over a long period.
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