TO THE OUTER SPACE!
The universe is so huge that astronomers have not yet been able to establish how big it is! However, thanks to the latest advances in science and technology, we have learned a lot about space and our place in it. In the last 50 years, people have had the opportunity to leave the Earth and study the stars and planets, not only watching them through telescopes, but also receiving information directly from space. The satellites that are being launched are equipped with sophisticated equipment that has made amazing discoveries that astronomers do not believe in, such as black holes and new planets.
Since the launch of the first artificial satellite into outer space in October 1957, many satellites and robotic probes have been sent outside our planet. Thanks to them, scientists "visited" almost all major planets of the solar system, as well as their satellites, asteroids and comets. Such launches are carried out constantly, and nowadays the new generation of probes continue their flight to other planets, extracting and transmitting all the information to the Earth.
Some missiles are designed to reach only the upper atmosphere and are not fast enough to go into space. To go beyond the atmosphere, the rocket must overcome the Earth's gravitational force, which requires a certain speed. If the missile has a speed of 28,500 km/h, it will fly at an acceleration equal to gravity. As a result, it will fly around the Earth in a circle. In order to fully overcome the gravity of the Earth's gravity, the missile must move at a speed greater than 40,320 km/h. Once in orbit, some spacecraft, using gravity energy from the Earth and other planets, can thereby increase their own speed for further breakthroughs into space. This is called the "slinging effect.
TO THE BOUNDARIES OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM
Satellites and space probes have been launched repeatedly to the domestic planets: the Russian Venus, the American Mariner to Mercury and the Viking to Mars. The American probes Pioneer-10 and Pioneer-11, launched in 1972-1973, reached the outer planets of Jupiter and Saturn. In 1977, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were also launched to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Some of these probes are still flying near the boundaries of the solar system and will be sending information to Earth until 2020, and some have already left the solar system.
MOON FLYOVERS
The moon, the closest to us, has always been and remains a very attractive object for scientific research. Since we always see only the part of the Moon that is illuminated by the Sun, the invisible part of it has also been of particular interest to us. The first overflight of the Moon and photographing of its back side were carried out by the Soviet automatic interplanetary station "Luna-3" in 1959. If not long ago scientists simply dreamed of flying to the Moon, today their plans go much further: the earthlings consider this planet as a source of valuable rocks and minerals. From 1969 to 1972, Apollo spacecraft, launched into orbit by Saturn 5, made several flights to the Moon and took people there. And now the leg of the first man set foot on the Silver Planet on July 21, 1969. It was Neil Armstrong, commander of the American spacecraft Apollo 11, as well as Edwin Aldrin. Astronauts collected samples of lunar rock, conducted a number of experiments over it, the data on which continued to arrive on Earth for a long time after their return. Two expeditions on Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 spacecraft allowed to accumulate some information about human behavior on the Moon. The created protective equipment helped the astronauts to live and work in conditions of hostile vacuum and abnormal temperatures. The lunar attraction turned out to be very favorable for the work of astronauts, who found neither physical nor psychological difficulties.
The Prospektor space probe (USA) was launched in September 1997. This American probe is designed to collect and transmit to Earth information about the composition of the surface and bowels of the Moon. There are no cameras on it, but there are devices for carrying out necessary researches directly from the orbit, from the height of 100 kilometers.
The Japanese space probe Lunar-A is designed to study the composition of rocks forming the lunar surface. "Lunar-A, in orbit, sends three small probes to the Moon. Each of them is equipped with a seismometer to measure the force of "lunar shakes" and a device to measure the depth of heat of the moon. All data received by them are transmitted to Lunar-A, which is in orbit at an altitude of 250 km from the Moon.
Although the man has been on the moon many times already, he has not discovered any life there. But interest in the question of the Moon's population (if not in the present, then in the past) is growing and is being fuelled by various reports of Russian and American researchers. For example, the discovery of ice at the bottom of one of the lunar craters. Other materials on this topic are also published. One can refer to a note by Albert Valentinov (a scientific observer for Rossiyskaya Gazeta) in her May 16, 1997 issue. It tells about the secret photos of the lunar surface stored behind seven seals in the Pentagon's safes. The published photos show the destroyed cities near the Ukert crater (the image itself is made from satellite). One photo shows a giant embankment 3 km high, similar to the wall of an urban fortification with towers. Another photograph shows an even bigger hill consisting of several towers.
One of the first discoveries made during the analysis of lunar rock samples was among the most important: rocks from dark lunar seas are generally similar to terrestrial basalts. This shows that the Moon was not always cold; most likely, it was once hot enough to form magma (molten rock), which was poured out on the surface and crystallized into basalts. Significant differences between lunar and terrestrial rocks were also found. The conclusion is that the Moon could never be a part of the Earth. Nowadays, there is almost unanimous agreement on the idea that the Moon was formed approximately where it is now. Its formation was a part of the Earth formation process.