Lunar Apollo. Landing a man on the moon: interesting facts
Massif South - a city on the moon, built on the principle of arcology
This close-up photo of the Moon's surface is an extract from the Apollo 17 Lunar Surface Log, showing part of the panoramic camera photo of AS17-2309. The arrow indicates the exact location of the landing site on the Moon. Touchdown occurred at 19:54:57 (2:54:57 PM EST) at 20.19080 deg. north latitude and 30.77168 deg. o.d. (within 60 feet of the planned landing site). The valley shown by the arrow is only 8 km wide. The linearity (linearity) at the 2.3 km top of the Southern Massif is quite clearly visible in this photo. From left to right corner across the longest axis it is approximately 17 km wide; across it "s breadth approximately 12 km. In all likelihood, the remark about an almost symmetrical hexagon covered with rectangular striations (striations, grooves - striations) has completely "disappeared" from all official publications. Perhaps this "mountain" is a partially destroyed arcology.
arcology (arcology) - the creation of semi-enclosed spatial structures containing entire cities;
arcology (arcology) - urban planning concept, is a synthesis of architecture and ecology; designed by architect P. Soleri;
arcology - a city built according to the principles of arcology (highly urbanized settlement, with a vertical structure and a closed ecosystem)
Symmetrical hexagonal structures at the site of the Apollo 17 landing on the moon indicate their artificial origin
The southern massif of the lunar surface shown in the photo is also surrounded by numerous structural anomalies. There are too many regular geometric shapes in the structure of this section of the moon to explain it alone. geological processes. The current hypothesis that it is the result of the lifting of the lunar surface caused by the Serenitatis event does not explain - I will emphasize this - the formation of hexagonal symmetry on this structure or the linearity of other arrays around it. Until now, there is no reasonable and generally accepted model that allows us to understand how a shape on the lunar surface like this could have formed. Looking further into this entire region of the Moon, one can observe that the hexagonal structure of the Southern Massif is placed in the center of a diametrically opposed larger square plain bordered upon by sharply linear massifs.
Pay attention to great amount planning work to be carried out(click photo to enlarge)occurred in preparation for any Apollo mission to the Moon, it is hard to imagine that these anomalies were not noticed. On this issue, the esteemed Dr. Farouk El-Baz, head of the lunar science planning program, stated: “ not about all scientific discoveries on the moon was reported". Symmetrical hexagonal, half-ruined mountains covered with perpendicular linear structures are quite rare in nature. However, in all descriptions of the Apollo 17 landing site on the moon, this fact is not mentioned. This is just one of the unmentioned discoveries.
Among the events that the 20th century was remembered for, one of the main places is occupied by the landing of astronauts on the moon, which took place on July 16, 1969. In terms of its significance, this event can be called epochal and historical. For the first time in history, man not only left the earthly firmament, but also managed to set foot on an extraterrestrial space object. The footage of the first steps taken by man on the lunar surface spread around the world and became a symbolic milestone of civilization. American astronaut Neil Armstrong, who in an instant turned into a living legend, commented on his actions as follows: “This one small step for a person is one giant leap for humanity.”
On the technical side, there is no doubt that the Apollo program is a huge technological breakthrough. How useful the space odyssey of the Americans was for science is still debated today. However, the fact remains indisputable: the space race, which preceded the landing of man on the moon, had a beneficial effect on almost all spheres of human life, opening up new technologies and technical capabilities.
The main competitors, the USSR and the USA, were able to make full use of their achievements in the field of manned space flights, largely determining the current situation with space exploration.
Flying to the moon - big politics or pure science?
In the 50s between Soviet Union and the United States unfolded an unprecedented rivalry in its scope. The advent of the era of rocket technology promised a huge advantage to the side that would be able to build powerful launch vehicles. In the USSR, this issue was given special importance, rocket technology provided a real opportunity to counter the increased nuclear threat from the West. The first Soviet missiles were built as the main means of delivering nuclear weapons. The civilian use of rockets designed for space flights was in the background. In the United States, the missile program developed in a similar way: the military-political factor was in priority. Both opposing sides were also spurred on by the arms race, which, along with the Cold War, started after the end of World War II.
The United States and the USSR used every means and means to achieve the result. Soviet intelligence was actively working in secret laboratories the US space agency and vice versa, the Americans kept their eyes on the Soviet rocket program. However, the Soviets managed to get ahead of the Americans in this competition. Under the leadership of Sergei Korolev, the first ballistic missile R-7, which could deliver a nuclear warhead to a distance of 1200 km. It is with this rocket that the beginning of the space race is connected. Having received a powerful launch vehicle in its hands, the Soviet Union did not miss the opportunity to wipe its nose with overseas competitors. Achieve parity with the US in terms of the number of speakers nuclear weapons for the USSR in those years it was almost unrealistic. Thus remained the only way to achieve equality with the United States and, perhaps, overtake overseas competitors - this is to make a breakthrough in the field of space exploration. In 1957, with the help of the R-7 rocket, an artificial Earth satellite was launched into low Earth orbit.
From that moment on, not only issues of military rivalry between the two superpowers entered the arena. Space exploration has become a primary factor in foreign policy pressure on the opponent. A country that has the technical ability to fly into space, a priori looked the most powerful and developed. In this regard, the Soviet Union managed to deliver a sensitive blow to the Americans. First, in 1957, an artificial satellite was launched. A rocket appeared in the USSR that could be used for manned space flight. Four years later, in April 1961, the Americans were knocked down. Stunning news about Yuri Gagarin's flight into space on board spaceship"Vostok-1" dealt a blow to the pride of the Americans. Less than a month later, on May 5, 1961, astronaut Alan Shepard made an orbital flight.
The subsequent space program of the Americans was very similar to the Soviet developments in this area. The bet was made on the commission of manned flights by a crew of two or three people. The Gemini series ships became the basic platform for the subsequent development of the American space program. It was on them that the future conquerors of the moon flew around, on these spacecraft the systems of landing, splashdown and manual control were worked out. Having lost the first stage of the space race to the Soviet Union, the Americans decided to take a retaliatory step aimed at a qualitatively different result of space exploration. In the high offices of NASA, on Capitol Hill and in the White House, it was decided to get ahead of the Russians by landing on the moon. The international prestige of the country was at stake, so work in this direction took on a fantastic scale.
The colossal amount of funds that would be required for the implementation of such a grandiose event was not taken into account at all. Politics prevailed over economics. Through such an extraordinary decision, the unconditional leadership of the United States in the space race could become. On the this stage the competition between the two states could end in two ways:
- the overwhelming success and subsequent development of the program of manned flights to the Moon and other planets;
- a devastating failure and a colossal hole in the budget, which could put an end to all subsequent space programs.
Both sides were well aware of this. The official start of the American lunar program was given in 1961, when the American President John F. Kennedy made a fiery speech. The program, which received the sonorous name "Apollo", provided for 10 years to create all the necessary technical conditions for landing a person on the surface of the Earth's satellite and the subsequent return of the crew to Earth. For political reasons, the Americans suggested that the Soviet Union work together on the lunar program. Overseas, they relied on the fact that the USSR would refuse to work together in this direction. Thus, everything was put at stake in the United States: political prestige, economics and science. The idea was to overtake the USSR once and for all in the field of space exploration.
Beginning of the moon race
In the USSR, they took seriously the challenge thrown from across the ocean. By that time, the issue of manned flights to the natural satellite of the Earth, the flight and landing of astronauts on the Moon was already being considered in the Soviet Union. The work was headed by Sergei Pavlovich Korolev in V.N. Chelomeya. In August 1964, the Council of Ministers of the USSR approved the start of work on a manned lunar program, which provided for two directions:
- flying around the moon on a manned spacecraft;
- landing of the space module on the surface of the Earth satellite.
The start of design and flight tests was scheduled for 1966. In the USA, the scale of work in this direction has gained a wider scope. This is evidenced by the amount of appropriations spent on the implementation of all stages of the Apollo program, which, upon completion of the flights, amounted to a colossal amount even by today's standards - 25 billion dollars. Would be able to pull such expenses Soviet economy is a big question. This is part of the answer to the question of why the Soviets voluntarily ceded the palm of the race to the moon to the States.
The technical side of the issue associated with the implementation of the lunar program was a huge amount of work. It was required not only to create a huge launch vehicle capable of launching a spacecraft equipped with a lunar descent vehicle into orbit. It was also necessary to design vehicles for landing on the moon, capable of returning back to Earth.
In addition to the enormous amount of work facing the designers, astrophysicists had to work no less, who had to make the most accurate mathematical calculations of the flight path of the spacecraft to the Earth's satellite, the subsequent separation and landing of the module with two astronauts. All developments made sense only if the crew returned successfully. This explains the number of launches with which the Apollo program was saturated. Until the moment when the astronauts landed on the moon on July 20, 1969, 25 training, test and preparatory launches were made during which the work of all systems of the huge rocket and space complex was considered, starting with the state of the Saturn 5 launch vehicle in flight, ending with the behavior of the lunar module in lunar orbit.
For a long eight years, painstaking work has been going on. The upcoming event was preceded by serious accidents and successful launches. The saddest event in the history of the Apollo program was the death of three astronauts. The command compartment with the astronauts burned down on the ground launch complex during the tests of the Apollo 1 spacecraft in January 1967. On the whole, however, the project was encouraging. The Americans managed to create a reliable and powerful Saturn 5 launch vehicle capable of delivering a cargo weighing up to 47 tons to a lunar orbit. The Apollo apparatus itself could be called a miracle of technology. For the first time in the history of mankind, a spacecraft has been developed that can deliver people to an extraterrestrial object and ensure the safe return of the crew back.
The ship included a command compartment and a lunar module, a means of delivering astronauts to the moon. Two stages of the lunar module, landing and takeoff, were created taking into account all the technological operations provided for by the program. The lunar module cabin was an independent spacecraft capable of certain evolutions. By the way, it was the design of the lunar module of the Apollo spacecraft that became the prototype of the first American orbital space station Skylab.
The Americans more than carefully approached the solution of all issues, striving to achieve success for sure. Until the moment when the first Apollo 8 spacecraft reached the orbit of the Moon and flew around our satellite on December 24, 1968, 7 years passed in hard and routine work. The result of colossal work was the launch of the eleventh ship of the Apollo family, the crew of which eventually announced to the whole world that a man had reached the surface of the moon.
Is it true? Did American astronauts really manage to land on the moon on July 20, 1969? This is a mystery that continues to be solved to this day. Experts and scientists around the world are divided into two opposing camps, continuing to put forward new hypotheses and create new versions in defense of one or another point of view.
The truth about the American moon landing is a stunning success and a clever scam
The lies and slander that the legendary Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin and Michael Collins had to face are staggering in their scope. The skin of the Apollo 11 landing module had not yet had time to cool down, when, along with popular jubilation, the words were heard that there had actually been no landing. Hundreds of times on television all over the world they showed historical footage depicting the stay of earthlings on the moon, thousands of times the tapes were played with the negotiations of the command center with astronauts who were in lunar orbit. It is alleged that the spacecraft, if it flew to our satellite, was in orbit of the Moon, without having performed any lunar landing operations.
Critical arguments and facts became the platform for the conspiracy theory that exists today and puts a question mark under the entire American lunar program.
What arguments do skeptics and conspiracy theorists appeal to:
- photographs taken during the landing of the lunar module on the surface of the moon, taken in terrestrial conditions;
- the behavior of astronauts during their stay on the surface of the moon is unusual for airless space;
- analysis of the conversations between the crew of the Apollo 11 spacecraft and the command center gives reason to say that there was no communication delay, which is inherent in radio communications over long distances;
- lunar soil, taken as samples from the surface of the moon, differs little from rocks of terrestrial origin.
These and other aspects that are still being discussed in the press, with a certain analysis, may cast doubt on the fact that the Americans were on our natural satellite. The questions and answers that are being raised today on this subject allow us to say that most of controversial facts are far-fetched and have no real basis. Repeatedly, NASA employees and the astronauts themselves made presentations in which they described all the technical subtleties and details of that legendary flight. Michael Collins, while in lunar orbit, recorded all the actions of the crew. The actions of the astronauts were duplicated at the command post in the mission control center. In Houston, during the journey of the astronauts to the moon, they knew very well what was really happening. The reports of the crew were repeatedly analyzed. At the same time, the transcripts of the spacecraft commander Neil Armstrong and his colleague Edwin Aldrin, recorded while on the lunar surface, were studied.
In neither case was it possible to establish the falsity of the testimonies of the Apollo 11 crew members. In each hotel example in question about the precise fulfillment of the task assigned to the crew. It was not possible to convict all three astronauts of deliberate and skillful lies. When asked how astronauts land on the Moon in the lunar module, if each crew member has only 2 cubic meters of the internal volume of the ship, the following answer was given. The astronauts' stay on board the lunar module was limited to only 8-10 hours. A man in a protective suit was in a stationary position, without making significant physical movements. The time of the lunar odyssey coincided with the chronometer of the command module Columbia. In any case, the time spent by two American astronauts on the Moon was recorded in the logbook, in the audio recordings of the MCC and displayed in photographs.
Was there a moon landing in 1969?
After the legendary flight in July 1969, the Americans continued to launch spacecraft to our space neighbor. After Apollo 11, the 12th mission went on a journey, which also culminated in another landing of astronauts on the surface of the moon. Landing sites, including for subsequent missions, were chosen with the expectation of getting an idea of different parts of the lunar surface. If the lunar module "Eagle" of the Apollo 11 spacecraft landed in the area of the Sea of Tranquility, then other ships landed in other areas of our satellite.
Assessing the amount of effort and technical preparations associated with the organization of subsequent lunar expeditions, one involuntarily asks the question: if the landing on the moon was originally planned as a scam, why, after the success achieved, continue to portray titanic efforts by launching the rest of the Apollo missions to our satellite? Especially if it carries a high degree of risk for crew members. Indicative in this aspect is the story of the thirteenth mission. An emergency situation aboard Apollo 13 threatened to turn into a catastrophe. At the cost of the enormous efforts of the crew members and ground services, the ship, together with the living crew, was returned to earth. These dramatic events formed the basis of the blockbuster feature film Apollo 13, directed by talented director Ron Howard.
Edwin Aldrin, another man who managed to visit the surface of our Moon, even had to write a book about his mission. His books First in the Moon and Return to Earth, which came out in 1970-73, became bestsellers, not science fiction novels. The astronaut described in great detail the entire history of their flight to the Moon, described all regular and emergency situations that arose on board the lunar module and the command ship.
Further development of lunar missions
To say today that earthlings were not on the Moon is incorrect and impolite in relation to the people who took part in this grandiose project. In total, six expeditions were sent to the Moon, which ended with the landing of a man on the surface of our satellite. With their launches of rockets to the Moon, the Americans gave human civilization a chance to truly appreciate the scale of space, to look at our planet from the outside. The last flight to an earth satellite took place in December 1972. After that, rocket launches towards the Moon were not carried out.
One can only guess about the true reasons for curtailing such a grandiose and large-scale program. One of the versions that most experts adhere to today is the high cost of the project. By today's standards, more than $130 billion has been spent on the space program to explore the moon. It cannot be said that the American economy dragged the lunar program with an effort. It is highly likely that common sense simply prevailed. Manned flights to the moon had no special scientific value. The data that most scientists and astrophysicists work with today make it possible to accurately analyze what our nearest neighbor is.
To obtain the necessary information about our satellite, it is not at all necessary to send a person on such a risky journey. The Soviet automatic Luna probes coped with this task perfectly, delivering hundreds of kilograms of lunar rock and hundreds of photographs and images of the lunar landscape to Earth.
If you have any questions - leave them in the comments below the article. We or our visitors will be happy to answer them.
The Apollo program in the United States began to be engaged in October 1960, when the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) entered into several contracts with firms to conduct research work on the development of a three-seat Apollo spacecraft and a launch vehicle. Saturn". All the results of scientific, technical and biomedical research of previous programs, both manned and unmanned space aircraft were fully used for the delivery of American astronauts to the Moon with subsequent return to Earth. Intensive work on this program began in 1961, when US President John F. Kennedy called on American scientists and designers to do everything possible to land astronauts on the moon "before the end of the current decade."
According to NASA's plans, the original terms of reference provided for the development of three types of Apollo spacecraft: Apollo-A to launch an Earth satellite into orbit, Apollo-B to orbit a Moon satellite, and Apollo-C to deliver astronauts to the Moon followed by a return to Earth.
Subsequently, NASA refused to create these spacecraft, and in the future this program was simply called "Apollo".
The Apollo spacecraft consists of the main unit and the lunar cabin. The main unit includes the engine compartment and the crew compartment, and the lunar cabin consists of the landing and takeoff stages. The ship weighs about 43 tons. Its length is approximately 17.5 meters. The launch of the Apollo spacecraft to the flight path to the Moon was carried out by the Saturn-5 launch vehicle. The length of the rocket along with the ship is about 110 meters, the launch weight is more than 2750 tons, the body diameter is 10.06 meters. From 1959 to 1967, six groups of astronauts were assigned to the flights on the Apollo spacecraft in the United States. After careful selection in 1967, 9 people were approved for flights on the first three Apollo manned spacecraft, who passed special program preparation.
In the second half of 1968, all preparations for the launch of the Apollo manned spacecraft were completed. Initially, Apollo unmanned spacecraft were launched into geocentric orbit in order to check the entry of the descent vehicle into the atmosphere at a speed of 11 kilometers per second, the operation of all structural elements of the rocket and the aircraft.
On October 11, 1968, at 7 pm, the Saturn-1B rocket launched the first American three-seat manned spacecraft, Apollo 7, into orbit. The crew included astronauts: Walter Schirra - the commander of the ship, Don Eizel and Walter Cunningham.
For W. Schirr, this was the third space flight in a row (the first was on the Sigma-7 spacecraft, the second on the Gemini-6 spacecraft). The purpose of this flight is a comprehensive test of the Apollo 7 spacecraft in a long flight and carrying out some experiments necessary for the future flight of the spacecraft to the Moon with subsequent return to Earth. The ship normally entered the calculated orbit with an apogee of 280 kilometers and a perigee of 226 kilometers. At the end of the second orbit around the Earth, the second stage of the launch vehicle was separated from it. Then the ship, having performed the appropriate maneuver and approached the separated second stage of the rocket, moved to a new, higher orbit equal to 450 kilometers.
On the fifth day of the flight, W. Schirra, using a portable transmitting camera, conducted a tour of the ship's compartments for television viewers on Earth and demonstrated to them the state of weightlessness of the crew. Among the experiments carried out by the crew of the Apollo 7 spacecraft is the determination of the visibility of stars in the daytime in order to use stellar navigation in future flights to the Moon.
Despite a number of malfunctions in the systems of the Apollo 7 spacecraft, its flight was successful and the crew completed the task.
After an 11-day stay in space, on October 22, 1968, the ship landed safely in the Atlantic Ocean.
On December 21, 1968, at 15:51, the Apollo 8 manned spacecraft was launched into near-Earth orbit with astronauts Frank Borman (ship commander), James Lovell and William Anders for a flight along the Earth-Moon-Earth route. At the end of the second orbit at 18:42, the crew, after checking the operability of the onboard systems, at the direction of the flight director on Earth, turned on the engine of the third stage of the rocket, with which the ship was in near-Earth orbit, and put the ship on the Earth-Moon trajectory.
On December 24, at 13:00, after a two-fold correction of the trajectory on the way to the Moon, the crew, using a sustainer engine, reduced the speed of the spacecraft and transferred it to an elliptical trajectory around the Moon with a maximum (in a settlement) distance from it of 312 kilometers and a minimum (in perilocation) - 112 kilometers. At 5:22 p.m. on the same day, the ship entered a circular orbit around the Moon, with an average distance of 113 kilometers from it. On December 25, after 10 orbits around the Moon, at 0910 hours, the spacecraft was transferred by a main engine to the Moon-Earth trajectory.
On December 27, the ship made a descent to Earth using aerodynamic quality and at 18 hours 51 minutes splashed down in a given area of the Pacific Ocean. The entire flight was successful and provided extensive experimental material for studying the surface of the Moon and the space between the Earth and the Moon. Another page was written in the history of space exploration.
On March 3, 1969, the Apollo 9 spacecraft was launched into Earth orbit from Cape Kennedy. On board were US astronauts James McDivitt, David Scott and Russell Schweickart. Long before the launch, they underwent laboratory training with an imitation of the upcoming space flight.
For the first time, US scientists were to launch the main ship and the lunar cabin into Earth orbit, on which American astronauts in subsequent flights were to descend to the surface of the Moon. The crew of "Apollo-9" was entrusted with responsible and complex tasks in this flight. The astronauts had to check the operation of the systems of the main unit for three days, and on the fourth day, Schweikart, in a special spacesuit, had to go to outer space.
The launch of the Saturn-5 rocket and the spacecraft's entry into the Earth's orbit proceeded normally. On the second day of the flight, the sustainer engine was turned on twice and the ship moved to a higher orbit. The next day, first Schweickart, and then McDivitt, went from the crew compartment to the lunar cabin through the inner manhole. They checked all the systems, after which they turned on the landing stage engine, which worked for 6 minutes. Then the astronauts returned back to the crew compartment. At the beginning of the fourth day of the flight, McDivitt and Schweikart moved a second time into the lunar cabin and continued testing all systems. A few minutes later, Schweikart stepped out of the cockpit hatch onto the platform and, holding onto the handrail, remained in outer space for more than 30 minutes until the ship entered the Earth's shadow.
For eight hours, two astronauts were in the lunar cabin, where they checked the operation of all equipment and instruments. Astronaut Scott then opened the hatch and McDivitt and Schweikart returned to the crew compartment. On March 7, at 15:39, the crew of the Apollo 9 spacecraft performed the most difficult experiment. The astronauts undocked the main unit, in which Scott remained, and the lunar cabin, where Schweikart and McDivitt were. Since that time, the separate flight of the main unit and the lunar cabin began, which lasted about six hours.
After a series of maneuvers with the help of engines, the astronauts Schweikart and McDivitt at 21:30 completed the docking of the lunar cabin with the main unit. In a separate flight, the block and the lunar cabin were at a distance of 175 kilometers from each other. After this basic and important experiment, which was practically supposed to be carried out during the flight of the Apollo spacecraft to the Moon and back to Earth, the astronauts during the last 24 hours performed different kind ship systems testing. On March 13, 1969, the main block separated from the lunar cabin before de-orbiting. Note that Apollo 9 was launched into orbit around the Earth on March 3, weighing 41 tons 345 kilograms. Before landing, its weight was only 12 tons. The lunar cabin, which remained in space and will fly for more than 19 years, weighed 29 tons along with fuel and a main engine.
At 8 pm on March 13, 1969, the crew compartment of the Apollo 9 spacecraft with astronauts on board splashed down in the Bahamas. The flight of the ship lasted 241 hours 01 minutes. The main goal of the flight - a comprehensive check of all the equipment that is necessary for landing on the moon, thanks to the courage and courage of the three American astronauts, was completed. On May 18, 1969 at 19:49 another ship was launched. This time, Apollo 10 with the crew of astronauts Thomas Stafford, John Young and Eugene Cernan. The Saturn-5 rocket launched the Apollo 10 spacecraft into low-Earth orbit along with the last stage of the launch vehicle weighing 133.8 tons.
According to the program, after two revolutions around the Earth, the ship was supposed to switch to a flight path to the Moon. Then go into lunar orbit and fly for 61 hours. While in selenocentric orbit, astronauts Stafford, Young and Cernan had to do everything that the crew of the Apollo spacecraft did in orbit around the Earth.
At 22:23, Apollo 10 launched to the moon. During this flight, the compartments of the ship were rebuilt. Then the ship with the astronauts separated from the last stage of the launch vehicle and began an independent flight. During this flight, the first television session took place, during which a view of the Earth was shown from a distance of 40,000 kilometers. On May 21, with the help of television broadcasts from the ship, our planet was shown again, but from a height of 300,000 kilometers. Soon, the Apollo 10 spacecraft entered the zone of lunar attraction, and late at night on May 21 entered a selenocentric orbit.
After turning on the propulsion engine, the ship moved to a lower orbit with a maximum distance from the Moon of 113 kilometers and a minimum of 111 kilometers. According to the flight program, astronauts Cernan and Stafford opened the inner hatch and moved from the crew compartment to the lunar cabin. It happened on May 22 at 18:00. Preparatory work has begun to separate the lunar cabin from the main unit for an independent flight in a lunar orbit.
At 10:10 p.m., the lunar cabin was undocked from the main unit of the ship, on board of which astronaut John Young remained. Astronauts Stafford and Cernan, who were on board the lunar cabin, turned on the engines, and the cabin switched to an elliptical orbit with a minimum distance from the lunar surface of 15 kilometers. The flight continued at this altitude for about 8 hours. The astronauts carried out repeated rendezvous and docking maneuvers with the main unit.
On May 23, at 2:37 a.m., Stafford and Cernan separated the takeoff stage of the lunar cabin from the landing stage. Here the unexpected happened - the take-off stage began to rotate around the longitudinal axis at high speed. Astronaut Stafford stabilized the stage using manual control. At 0611, the takeoff stage was successfully docked with the main unit, and astronauts Stafford and Cernan returned through the inner manhole to Young. After that, the takeoff stage was separated from the block, and the astronauts, being in the crew compartment, flew in a lunar orbit for one day, completing 31 orbits.
On May 24, at 13:25, Apollo 10 launched from a lunar orbit to Earth. The return trip took 54 hours and 30 minutes, which is 20 hours less than when flying to the moon. On May 26, 1969, after completing a complex and demanding mission to the Moon and back to Earth at 19:52, US astronauts Stafford, Cernan, and Young splashed down safely in pacific ocean in the region of the Samoan Islands. The total duration of the flight of the Apollo 10 spacecraft was 192 hours 3 minutes 23 seconds.
American scientists after this flight came to the conclusion that there are no obstacles to the landing of astronauts on the lunar surface.
On July 16, 1969, at 4:32 p.m., the Saturn 5 booster lifted off the Apollo 11 spacecraft from launch pad No. 39 at Cape Kennedy with three astronauts on board: Neil Armstrong (ship commander), Michael Collins and Edwin Aldrin. The total weight of the launch vehicle with the spacecraft was 2943 tons, height 109 meters, maximum diameter 10 meters.
The Apollo 11 flight program planned the landing of two astronauts - N. Armstrong and E. Aldrin on the Moon, the flight of astronaut M. Collins along the selenocentric orbit and the return of the entire crew to Earth.
Lunar cabin "Eagle" consists of landing and takeoff stages. The landing stage engine develops 64,477 kilograms of thrust, while the takeoff stage engine develops 1,590 kilograms. The total weight of the lunar cabin is 14,700 kilograms, and its height is about 7 meters.
After the launch, Apollo 11 was launched into Earth orbit with an altitude of about 190 kilometers. Having made 1.5 revolutions around the Earth, the engines of the third stage of the launch vehicle brought it to the flight route to the Moon. When the second space velocity was reached, the compartments of the Apollo 11 spacecraft were rebuilt.
At 7 pm on July 17, Apollo 11 was about 200,000 kilometers from Earth. After 17 minutes, the main engine was turned on, which worked for only 3 minutes. Thus, the astronauts carried out the second correction, which was provided for by the flight plan. On July 19, at 20:22, the astronauts turned on the main engine, and the ship, slowing down, switched to a selenocentric orbit with a maximum flight altitude above the lunar surface of 314 kilometers, and a minimum altitude of 112 kilometers. Astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin began to prepare for the transition from the main block to the lunar cabin. All onboard systems worked normally. While in lunar orbit, Armstrong and Aldrin made the transition from the main unit to the lunar cabin twice.
On July 20, Armstrong and Aldrin separated the lunar cabin from the main unit in order to begin a solo flight to the lunar landing site in the Sea of Tranquility region. Astronaut Collins remained in the main unit, which flew around the moon at an altitude of about 111 kilometers.
After 56 minutes, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin turned on the brake engine and the lunar cabin with the astronauts began to descend. At first, the height above the surface of the Moon was 15 kilometers, then 10, ... 8, ... 5. Only a few seconds remain before landing. Finally, the lunar cabin hovers over the Sea of Tranquility. Height 20.0 meters. Automatic control is turned off, and Armstrong takes control of the landing. Under the cabin on the surface of the moon was not a very flat area. Landing here is dangerous. Armstrong, using manual control, begins a horizontal maneuver over the lunar surface in search of a suitable landing site. And finally, the landing of the Apollo 11 lunar cabin with astronauts N. Armstrong and E. Aldrin was carried out. This happened at 23:17:32 on July 20, 1969.
Through the windows of the lunar cabin on the flat surface of the Moon, the astronauts saw a large number of stones of various shapes and many craters. At 5:40 am on July 21, Armstrong opened the cockpit hatch and began to slowly descend the stairs to the lunar surface. At this time, Aldrin filmed Armstrong's exit from the lunar cabin using a movie camera.
At 06:14, astronaut Aldrin began to descend to the lunar surface. Both astronauts quickly got comfortable with moving around the moon. Their feet left a footprint on the moon no more than 2.5 centimeters deep. They moved freely on the moon, easily, without much effort. The astronauts planted the US national flag on the moon and removed the cover from the plaque mounted on the landing stage. The plaque read:
“Here, a man from planet Earth first set foot on the moon. July 1969 We come in peace on behalf of all mankind.”
Armstrong and Aldrin placed on the moon all the instruments delivered to this planet, collected about 22 kilograms of samples lunar soil and returned to the moon cabin. It happened at 8:10 am. Thus, the total duration of astronaut N. Armstrong's stay outside the ship on the lunar surface was 2 hours 31 minutes 40 seconds, and astronaut E. Aldrin - 1 hour 44 minutes. After a short rest in the lunar cabin, the astronauts began to prepare for launch from the lunar surface.
At 8:54 pm on July 21, the engine of the take-off stage of the lunar cabin was turned on, and the astronauts in the lunar cabin, breaking away from the surface, began their flight in a selenocentric orbit. After a series of maneuvers with the help of the engines of the orientation system, the lunar cabin with two astronauts went into orbit, along which the main block of the Apollo 11 spacecraft with astronaut M. Collins rotated. The distance between them at that time was about 500 kilometers. After a series of maneuvers, the lunar cabin approached the main unit, and Collins made a successful docking at 0:35 on July 22.
At 2:42 a.m., Armstrong and Aldrin moved from the lunar cabin to the ship's crew compartment. At 03:02, having separated from the crew compartment the take-off stage of the lunar cabin, which had become unnecessary, Apollo 11 headed for Earth. At 20:40 on July 22, being at a distance of 325,000 kilometers from the Earth, Apollo 11 entered the zone of attraction of our planet.
The flight of the courageous US astronauts along the Moon-Earth route went well. During this time, Armstrong, Collins, and Aldrin hosted television sessions during which the astronauts showed a view of the Earth and Moon from space. For 10 hours on July 23, during the flight to Earth, the astronauts rested. All of America watched the flight of their heroes with great tension.
The last, eighth day of the flight arrived. It was July 24, 1969. The Apollo 11 spacecraft, being at an altitude of 120 kilometers above Australia, entered the dense layers of the atmosphere and communication with it was interrupted. agonizing minutes of waiting. Finally, the styles are good to hear the voice of one of the astronauts. Apollo 11 is rapidly approaching the splashdown site. Parachutes open, and the crew compartment smoothly descends into the waters of the Pacific Ocean, where the Hornet aircraft carrier is waiting for it.
The Apollo 11 spacecraft, with three brave astronauts on board, splashes down 1,600 kilometers southwest of the Hawaiian Islands at 7:50 pm on July 24.
After the completion of the outstanding space flight of the Apollo 11 spacecraft, the USSR pilot-cosmonauts heartily congratulated US President R. Nixon, the American people and astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin and Michael Collins on their landing on the surface of the Moon and their safe return to Earth.
On this historic flight, American astronauts set world records for the first time in manned spacecraft missions to the Moon. These are the duration of stay on the Moon outside the ship - 2 hours 31 minutes 40 seconds (N. Armstrong), the duration of the flight in orbit around the Moon - 59 hours 27 minutes 50 seconds (M. Collins), the duration of stay on the Moon - 21 hours 36 minutes 21 second (N. Armstrong, E. Aldrin), the duration of stay in the ship on the Moon - 19 hours 49 minutes (N. Armstrong, E. Aldrin), the largest weight (mass) delivered to the Moon - 7326 kilograms (N. Armstrong, E. Aldrin), the largest weight (mass) delivered to the lunar orbit from the surface of the Moon is 2689.2 kilograms (N. Armstrong, E. Aldrin).
The landing of astronauts on the Moon, along with the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite, the first flight of Yuri Gagarin, the first spacewalk of Alexei Leonov, the first launches of automatic vehicles to the Moon, Venus, Mars, will go down in history as an important historical event, as evidence of the great possibilities of man in the study of the universe. On November 14, 1969, at 7:22 pm, the Apollo 12 spacecraft launched into outer space from the Cape Kennedy launch site. On board were US astronauts Charles Conrad, Richard Gordon and Alan Bean. This is the second lunar expedition, during which two people were supposed to land on the moon, install equipment on its surface, conduct a series of scientific experiments, collect and deliver lunar rocks to Earth. For astronaut Ch. Konrad this flight into space was already the third, R. Gordon the second, and A. Bean for the first time carried out flights into outer space.
The flight pattern of Apollo 12 is almost the same as that of Apollo 11. 11 minutes 20 seconds after the launch, the ship with the last stage of the launch vehicle entered the Earth's orbit. At 2209 hours, the engine of the last stage of the launch vehicle was turned on, and the ship switched to the flight path to the Moon. After rebuilding the compartments of the spacecraft, the astronauts began testing the Apollo 12 onboard systems. At 13:30 on November 15, the ship was about 150,000 kilometers from Earth. Astronauts Konrad and Bean moved from the main block to the lunar cabin through the manhole hatch and checked the onboard equipment there. All operations for the transition of astronauts from one compartment to another and their work related to checking on-board systems were transmitted to Earth via a television channel.
After sleep and rest, the crew of the Apollo 12 spacecraft began to prepare for the crucial stage of the flight - the transition to a circumlunar orbit and landing on the lunar surface. On November 19, after turning on the propulsion engine, the ship switched to a selenocentric orbit with a minimum altitude of about 115 kilometers. After two turns, the main engine was turned on again, as a result of which the flight altitude decreased again. At 07:16, the main unit and the lunar cabin were undocked, in which astronauts Ch. Konrad and A. Bean were already present.
The lunar cabin moved into a new orbit and began to gradually descend, approaching the planned landing site. On the last step Charles Conrad took control of the flight and at 09:54 on November 19 landed the lunar cabin on the surface of the Moon in the Ocean of Storms region. The landing of the cabin was made 6 meters from the calculated point - a small crater and 180 meters from the Sor-Beyer-3 space station.
After checking the onboard systems and having breakfast, the astronauts began to prepare for the exit to the lunar surface. C. Konrad and A. Bean spent 4 hours and 50 minutes preparing for the exit. At 2:44 p.m., astronaut Konrad was the first to land on the lunar surface, and at 3:15 p.m., astronaut Bean also descended. The exit of the astronauts from the cabin to the surface of the Moon and their work were broadcast on color television. Immediately after the release, C. Conrad and A. Bean began to collect samples of lunar rocks and at the same time photograph the surrounding area. At a distance of 100 meters from the lunar cabin, the astronauts placed scientific instruments. Conrad and Bean's first outing lasted about 4 hours. Returning to the lunar cabin, the astronauts, freed from lunar dust, recharged their autonomous backpack life support systems with oxygen and water, then ate and proceeded to a 9-hour rest. On November 20, at 7:01 a.m., astronauts Conrad and Bean stepped out of the lunar cabin onto the lunar surface for the second time. Having covered a distance of more than 180 meters, they approached the Surveyor-3 station, which in April 1967 made a soft landing on the Moon. Conrad and Bean spent almost 2 hours on this journey. They saw the station covered in a layer of lunar dust. The metal parts of Surveyor-3 were easily cut with scissors, and the cable became brittle. Having successfully completed the program of stay on the lunar surface, the astronauts returned to the lunar cabin. On the Moon, Conrad and Bean spent 31 hours and 31.5 minutes, making two exits to the lunar surface lasting 7 hours and 35 minutes. This is a record achievement. During this time, the astronauts collected about 45 kilograms of lunar soil samples.
At 17:26 on November 20, the take-off stage of the lunar cabin, together with the astronauts, was launched from the Moon. Then the takeoff stage was docked with the main block, where astronaut R. Gordon was located. After the transition of Conrad and Bean, the takeoff stage was separated into the crew compartment of the main unit.
On the 45th orbit, the crew of Apollo 12 turned on the main engine and the ship switched to the flight path to the Earth. After two corrections, the spacecraft reached the Earth's atmosphere. At an altitude of 7,000 meters, the brake parachutes opened, which extinguished the speed of the ship to 55 meters per second. At an altitude of 3000 meters, the main parachutes opened. At 11:58 p.m. on November 24, 1969, the Apollo 12 spacecraft splashed down 4 kilometers from the Hornet aircraft carrier, which at that time was in the Pacific Ocean southeast of Samoa as part of a search and rescue team. Thus ended another flight of the Apollo spacecraft with astronauts on board.
The flight of the Apollo 12 spacecraft lasted 10 days 4 hours 36 minutes, i.e. 244 hours 36 minutes. In this flight, the crew of the Apollo 12 spacecraft set new records for the duration of stay on the Moon outside the ship: 7 hours 35 minutes (C. Konrad), the duration of stay on the Moon - 31 hours 36.5 minutes (C. Konrad, A. Bean) .
On April 11, 1970 at 10:13 p.m., the Apollo 13 spacecraft was launched with three astronauts on board - James Lovell (ship commander), John Swigert and Fred Hayes.
In this next flight, two US astronauts had to land on the moon in the region of the Fra Maura crater, collect samples of lunar rocks and conduct a series of scientific research. This work should be done by D. Lovell and F. Hayes. Astronaut D. Swigert at that time was supposed to fly in the main block in a lunar orbit. When the Apollo 13 ship was 328,000 kilometers from Earth, the power plant on board in the main unit unexpectedly completely failed. This happened at 6:25 am on April 14th. The two crew members immediately moved to the lunar cabin, the power plant of which was in perfect working order.
The flight directors canceled the landing on the moon due to these malfunctions. On board the Apollo 13 spacecraft, a command was received from the Control Center to return the crew back to Earth. At 12 o'clock on April 14, a correction was made, and Apollo 13, after flying around the Moon, began its return flight to Earth. The failure of the power plant in the main unit has dramatically reduced the consumption of oxygen and water.
On the way j to the Earth, two of the astronauts remained in the lunar cabin, where the life support system worked normally, and one was in the main block, where oxygen was supplied from the lunar cabin. In these critical and dangerous moments, the crew of the Apollo 13 spacecraft behaved calmly and courageously. For some time, communication with the crew was repeatedly lost. The tension grew. On Earth, during these troubled hours, a group was urgently created to lead the return of Apollo 13, which included astronaut F. Borman and other NASA specialists. The aircraft carrier of the Iwo Jima search group was urgently sent to the estimated splashdown site. In connection with the emergency situation in which the crew of the Apollo 13 spacecraft found themselves, the Soviet government instructed the military and civilian organizations of the USSR, if necessary, to take all measures to assist in the rescue of American astronauts. The Soviet motor ships Akademik Rykachev and Novomoskovsk, as well as the ship Gulican and the fishing trawler 8452, were instructed to change course and head for the estimated landing site of the Apollo 13 spacecraft.
April 16 "Apollo 13" with astronauts D. Lovell, F. Hayes and D. Swigert passed half way to Earth. Another trouble happened on the ship: at night, the safety valve on the tank with liquid helium broke, which jeopardized its supply to the landing stage engine. After a while, the temperature in the crew compartment dropped. D. Swigert was forced to rest on the floor of the lunar cabin, and F. Hayes settled down in the transition tunnel between the lunar cabin and the crew compartment. D. Lovell at that time was on duty in the lunar cabin.
At 15:53 on April 17, the last correction of the ship was carried out before its entry into the dense layers of the atmosphere.
At 1943 hours, the lunar cabin separated from Apollo 13. Prior to this, three astronauts took their places in the crew compartment. Having flown from west to east over Australia for the last thousand kilometers, the Apollo 13 spacecraft with American astronauts Lovell, Hayes and Swigert on board splashed down in the Pacific Ocean at 21:08. The astronauts in this flight showed great courage and genuine composure.
To study the causes of the accident on the Apollo 13 spacecraft, a special commission was created in the United States, which studied in more depth all the technical malfunctions that arose during the flight on the Apollo 13 spacecraft. In subsequent flights of the Apollo spacecraft to the Moon, these problems did not recur.
On the night of February 1, 1971, the Apollo 14 spacecraft was launched from Cape Kennedy using a Saturn-5 rocket with three astronauts on board - Alan Shepard, Stuart Rus and Edgar Mitchell. Five engines of the first stage of the Saturn-5 rocket, burning 3 tons of fuel every second, tore off the Apollo spacecraft weighing 44,474 kilograms from the launch pad.
The Apollo 14 spacecraft was to deliver the third American expedition to the Moon in the region of the Fra Mauro crater, where the crew of the Apollo 13 spacecraft was previously supposed to land. The Apollo 14 flight program included practicing landing techniques in a selected area on the lunar surface, installing a number of scientific instruments, collecting samples of lunar rocks, taking samples from a depth of up to 1.2 meters, photographing and filming from a selenocentric orbit and on the lunar surface, radio sounding of the Moon in order to determine the electromagnetic characteristics, study of the influence of anomalies of the gravitational field of the Moon on the selenocentric orbit, conducting technological experiments in weightlessness, testing the operation of life support systems under conditions of increased oxygen consumption, etc.
When the second orbit around the Earth began, the Apollo 14 spacecraft turned on the rocket engine of the last stage of the launch vehicle, which brought the speed of the spacecraft to 10,833 meters per second and brought it to the flight path to the Moon. At a distance of about 12,000 kilometers from the Earth, the astronauts rebuilt the ship's compartments. During the docking of the main unit with the lunar cabin, the astronauts had to carry out this operation five times due to the fact that the heads of the docking pin did not fall into a special socket.
At 06:39 on February 2, when the spacecraft was 220,000 kilometers from Earth, a correction was made. Following this, the two astronauts, after a short rest, moved from the main unit to the lunar cabin and checked all the onboard systems.
On February 4, the Apollo 14 spacecraft approached the Moon and entered a selenocentric orbit with a minimum altitude of 107 kilometers. At 10 hours 42 minutes, the last stage of the launch vehicle fell onto the moon, as a result of which a crater 10 meters deep and about 60 meters in diameter was formed on the planet. Dust from the moon rose to a height of up to 100 kilometers.
On February 5, after the transition of astronauts A. Shepard and E. Mitchell to the lunar cabin, after a while the landing stage engines turned on, and the lunar cabin began to slowly descend to the Moon. At this time, the third member of the crew, astronaut S. Rus, in the crew compartment, began flying in a lunar orbit.
Above the lunar surface, astronaut A. Shepard took over the landing control. He manually maintained the thrust of the landing stage engine. At an altitude of 2.3 kilometers, Shepard put the lunar cabin into hover mode in order to select a suitable landing site. At a height of 1.5 meters, when the probes touched the surface, visibility deteriorated sharply, as the raised dust from the running engine of the landing stage dissipated very slowly. In the tanks of the landing stage of the lunar cabin there was fuel for 60 seconds of flight. Finally, Mitchell called out, “Contact. We are on the surface of the moon!” The landing was made at 12 hours 18 minutes 13 seconds on February 5, 1971 at the Fra Mauro crater.
Astronauts Shepard and Mitchell, after almost five hours of rest, checking the status of on-board systems and viewing through the windows of the surrounding area, prepared to leave the lunar cabin. Shepard stepped on the surface of the moon first. At the same time, he said: "It was a long way, but here we are." Mitchell came down 5 minutes later. He removed the cart from the landing stage housing and then collected an emergency set of soil samples. They set up a television camera so that they could watch the astronauts at work. Loading some of the equipment onto the cart, Shepard and Mitchell set off. During the movement of the cart, dust was very disturbing.
On the way back to the lunar cabin, Shepard and Mitchell collected samples of lunar rocks. The first exit of the astronauts lasted 4 hours and 45 minutes.
After eating, recharging life-support systems and a short sleep, the astronauts began to prepare for the second exit. Using the trolley, they again collected samples of the lunar soil and conducted a series of scientific experiments. During the movement, solid dust again appeared in their path. This journey for the astronauts was not very pleasant. They are very tired. Shepard's heart rate was 150 and Mitchell's was 128 beats per minute. From Earth, Shepard and Mitchell received a command to stop the experiments. The astronauts entered the lunar cabin one by one. The second exit to the lunar surface lasted 4 hours 29 minutes. During this time, the astronauts collected 43 kilograms of lunar rock samples.
Shepard spent two exits on the surface of the moon for a total of about 9 hours and covered a distance of 2.7 kilometers. During two exits from the lunar cabin to the surface of the Moon, astronauts Shepard and Mitchell performed 215 out of 224 planned research operations. The total duration of the astronauts' stay on the Moon was 33 hours and 14 minutes. This was a new absolute world achievement.
At 21:48 on February 6, the lunar cabin was launched from the Moon and went into orbit with an altitude of 17 kilometers in resettlement and 96 kilometers in a settlement. Some time after rendezvous and mooring, the lunar cabin was docked with the main unit.
On the 35th orbit, after turning on the sustainer engine, the Apollo 14 spacecraft with the astronauts on board switched to the flight path to the Earth. Before the crew compartment entered the dense layers of the atmosphere, the engine compartment separated from it. At 00:05:04 on February 10, 1971, the Apollo 14 spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean 6.4 kilometers from the New Orleans helicopter carrier, which was in the area as part of the search party.
The Apollo 14 flight lasted 9 days. Of these, the astronauts spent about two days in the lunar cabin on the moon. The total flight duration was 216 hours 02 minutes. Astronauts A. Shepard, E. Mitchell and S. Rus almost completed the flight program. They delivered 43 kilograms of lunar rock samples to Earth. During the flight, the astronauts did not experience any painful phenomena. They felt good all the time. When the astronauts were weighed after the flight, it turned out that Shepard had gained 0.5 kilograms in weight (the first case of weight gain among astronauts). Mitchell lost 0.5 kilograms, and Rus lost 5 kilograms. As a result of the analyzes carried out, it was found that some samples of the lunar rock delivered by Apollo 14 contain 10 times more potassium, thorium and uranium than samples delivered by the astronauts of the Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 spacecraft. 23 minerals were found that were absent in previous samples. In addition, it was found that there were no microorganisms in the lunar samples, in connection with this, NASA decided to abandon the further quarantine of astronauts who returned from the moon.
On July 26, 1971, at 4:34 p.m., the Apollo 15 spacecraft was launched from Cape Kennedy by a Saturn V rocket, with astronauts David Scott, Alfred Worden, and James Irwin on board. In this 12-day flight, the astronauts had to carry out an extensive program that included new scientific and technical research. This is a study of the chemical structure of the lunar soil, more detailed photography separate parts the surface of the Moon, launching a small satellite around the Moon, moving on the lunar surface with the help of a two-seat all-terrain vehicle "Rover", etc.
For several years the crew had been intensively preparing for this flight. On July 29, the crew of Apollo 15, approaching the Moon, turned on the main engine, as a result of which the ship moved into a lunar orbit. After
two orbits around the moon, the main engine was turned on again. The height of Apollo 15 dropped to 17 kilometers. At 18:24, astronauts Irwin and Scott moved from the main unit to the lunar cabin. Warden remained in the main block. The separation of the main unit from the compartment was carried out only on the second attempt. Scott and Irwin were to spend almost three days on the moon. During this time, they had to make three exits to the lunar surface lasting up to 7 hours, using a two-seater all-terrain vehicle to move around the moon.
At 1:16 a.m. on July 31, the lunar cabin with astronauts Irwin and Scott descended smoothly onto the Moon in the region of the Hadley Plateau at the foot of the Apennine Mountains. Behind were four days of a difficult flight. At 0317, Scott opened the top hatch of the lunar cabin, leaned out to his shoulders and surveyed the surrounding area. The hatch was closed at 3 hours 44 minutes, that is, after 27 minutes.
After a rest that lasted up to 16 hours, Scott was the first to set foot on the ground of the Moon, followed by Irwin 8 minutes later. The astronauts installed a television camera, after which they began to assemble the all-terrain vehicle. The test showed a malfunction of the steering of the front wheels. The astronauts had to use the steering of the rear wheels. The first trip to the Moon on an all-terrain vehicle lasted over 2 hours.
Having reached the crater Saint George, located 4 kilometers from the lunar cabin, and having collected samples of lunar soil, the astronauts returned back to the lunar cabin. The lunar rover performed well. At 100 meters from the cabin, the astronauts drilled a well 3 meters deep. The drill did not advance further, as the rock turned out to be very hard.
The first exit lasted 6 hours and 34 minutes. The astronauts traveled 10.3 kilometers on the all-terrain vehicle at an average speed of 8–9 kilometers per hour and a maximum speed of 12 kilometers per hour. Collected 13 kilograms of lunar soil.
After a short rest and troubleshooting in Irwin's backpack life support system, the astronauts' second exit to the lunar surface began at 15:00. The astronauts fixed the steering of the front wheels of the all-terrain vehicle and went south on it. They retired on an all-terrain vehicle to a distance of 5.7 kilometers from the lunar cabin. Returning to the lunar cabin, the astronauts drilled a well 2.4 meters deep. The drill jammed, and the astronauts could not pull it out.
The second exit lasted 7 hours and 13 minutes. The astronauts traveled 12.7 kilometers on the all-terrain vehicle. 35 kilograms of lunar soil were collected. After a rest, they began to prepare for the exit for the third time. The astronauts removed the stuck drill and traveled in a rover northwest to the Hadley furrow, where they collected samples and photographed. The third exit lasted 4 hours and 50 minutes. The astronauts traveled 5.1 kilometers on an all-terrain vehicle and collected 29 kilograms of lunar soil. Thus, for three exits with a total duration of 18 hours and 37 minutes, the astronauts traveled 28.1 kilometers on an all-terrain vehicle and collected 77 kilograms of soil.
At 20:11 on August 2, the takeoff stage of the lunar cabin was launched from the Moon and docked with the main unit at 22:10. Astronauts Scott and Irwin, after docking, moved from the lunar cabin to the main block, where astronaut Worden was located. The main unit of the Apollo 15 spacecraft with the astronauts circled around the lunar orbit for another two days. At 11:30 p.m. on August 4, the propulsion engine was turned on, and the ship switched to a flight path to Earth. In flight along the Moon-Earth route, on August 5, astronaut Warden made a spacewalk and transferred two cassettes with film from the engine compartment to the cockpit. Warden was in outer space for 18 minutes.
At 23:20 on August 7, the crew compartment separated from the engine compartment, at 23:32 it entered the atmosphere. At 11:46 p.m. on August 7, 1971, the Apollo 15 spacecraft with three astronauts on board - D. Scott, A. Warden and D. Irwin splashed down in the Pacific Ocean 530 kilometers north of the island of Oahu (Hawaiian Islands) .
The total flight duration of the Apollo 15 spacecraft was 295 hours 12 minutes (12 days 7 hours 12 minutes). Astronauts Scott and Irwin spent 67 hours on the Moon (2 days and 19 hours), including 18 hours and 37 minutes outside the cabin of the Apollo 15 spacecraft.
Astronauts Scott and Irwin set new world records for the duration of their stay on the Moon and outside the spacecraft. According to these indicators, they broke the previously set records of the crew of the Apollo 14 spacecraft.
US astronauts D. Scott and D. Irwin left a silver-black plate with the names of Soviet and American cosmonauts who gave their lives to the cause of space exploration at the Apollo 15 landing site on the Moon. In front of the plate is a metal figurine depicting a fallen cosmonaut.
On April 16, 1972, at 20:54, the US spacecraft Apollo 16 launched from Cape Kennedy to the Moon. The crew included astronauts John Young, Thomas Mattingly and Charles Duke.
The ship and its third stage in 11 minutes. 53.9 seconds after the launch, it entered the Earth's orbit with an altitude of 178 kilometers at the apogee and 169 kilometers at the perigee. At 11:13 p.m., that is, 2 hours and 19 minutes after launch, the spacecraft switched from near-Earth orbit to a flight path to the Moon. At 00:13 on April 17, operations were completed to rebuild the compartments. Two days later, that is, on April 19 at 00:00 07 minutes, Apollo 16 entered the Moon's gravitational field. The flight directors refused to carry out the first correction. A second correction was carried out by turning on the main engine, which worked for only 2 seconds. As a result of this, the ship received a speed increase of 3.6 meters per second and had to pass at a closer distance from the surface of the Moon (132 kilometers instead of 217).
At 23:23 on April 19, the ship's main engine was turned on for braking in order to enter the calculated selenocentric orbit. Apollo 16 switched to a selenocentric orbit with an altitude of 17 kilometers in the resettlement and an altitude of 304 kilometers in the apopulation. After the second start of the engine, the altitude of the ship in lunar orbit was 19.8 and 109.3 kilometers, respectively. At the command of an electronic computing program device, the last stage of the launch vehicle separated from the spacecraft and fell onto the lunar surface.
On April 20 at 18:02, astronauts Young and Duke moved into the lunar cabin and began another test of the onboard systems. Mattingly remained in the main block. 3 hours after the passage of the astronauts, the separation of the main unit, which must remain in orbit around the Moon, was carried out from the lunar cabin. Mattingly made an attempt to turn on the main engine to transfer his block into the meeting orbit.
However, the engine did not turn on, and a decision was made in the Mission Control Center to carry out special calculations on a computer. For this reason, astronauts Young and Duke were forced to make three additional orbits around the moon in the lunar cabin. Finally, the engine of the main unit worked and, almost six hours late, entered the rendezvous orbit.
Since the lunar cabin made unplanned orbits, at the moment the engine was turned on before landing, it was 6.4 kilometers to the south and 4.8 kilometers above the calculated point. "Lunning" took place in a difficult environment. Young, who piloted the lunar cabin, had to maneuver to select a landing site.
On April 21, at 0524 hours, the landing stage touched the surface of the Moon in the area of the Descartes crater with a delay of almost 6 hours. Astronauts Young and Duke were given an 8-hour rest.
At 7:56 p.m., Young was the first to set foot on the surface of the moon. Duke joined him 5 minutes later. The exit of the astronauts was not shown on television (for the first time in the history of lunar expeditions) due to a malfunction of the highly directional antenna of the lunar cabin. Young and Duke determined that the dust layer was shallow, with approximately 40% of the surface covered by rocks. They installed scientific instruments, brought the all-terrain vehicle into working order. Then three wells were drilled up to a depth of 3 meters. Later, they made a 4.2-kilometer ride on an all-terrain vehicle and collected samples of lunar soil. The speed of the all-terrain vehicle was 11 kilometers per hour. The astronauts said they were doing well. True, Yang after a while began to complain that he was freezing even under the sun's rays and during active work. Duke, on the contrary, was hot, and he turned on the cooling system at full capacity. It should be noted that when the astronauts performed the program of the first exit, the temperature of the surfaces illuminated by the Sun was 46°C, and the surfaces in the shade - 65°C. Young's heart rate was 140, while Duke's was 150 beats per minute. The astronauts tested the rover, during which Young drove it along a closed triangular path at a speed of 12 kilometers per hour, making sharp turns.
After resting and recharging backpack systems at 19:41 on April 22, the astronauts began their second exit. The rover's path now lay south, toward Stone Mountain. The second exit on commands from the Earth was broadcast on television. The height of the mountain was determined to be 500 meters. The astronauts on the all-terrain vehicle climbed to a height of about 230 meters, from where a view of 30 kilometers opened. During the second exit, the astronauts collected 37.2 kilograms of samples, drove 11.5 kilometers on an all-terrain vehicle. The total duration of the release was 7 hours 23 minutes.
On April 23 at 6:35 p.m., Young and Duke stepped out of the spacecraft onto the lunar surface for the third time. The astronauts were to make a trip on an all-terrain vehicle north to the North Ray crater, which was located at a distance of about 5 kilometers from the lunar cabin. When approaching the crater on an all-terrain vehicle, Young and Duke at its foot saw many large stones, the height of which reached 10-15 meters. After collecting soil samples weighing 41.7 kilograms and photographing the crater, the astronauts returned 28 minutes later. At 100 meters from the lunar cabin, they stopped the all-terrain vehicle so that the television camera could transmit the start of the take-off stage to Earth. The duration of the third exit was 5 hours and 40 minutes. During this time, astronauts Young and Duke traveled 11.4 kilometers.
At 04:26 on April 24, the take-off stage with astronauts Young and Duke launched from the surface of the Moon and entered a circumlunar orbit with an altitude of 78 kilometers at a settlement and 165 kilometers at a resettlement. At 6:35 a.m., the lunar cabin and the main unit were docked. After an eight-hour rest, the astronauts transferred soil samples, film footage, and some instruments from the takeoff stage to the lunar cabin.
After 18 hours and 17 minutes, the takeoff stage of the lunar cabin was separated, which, after braking, was supposed to fall 23 kilometers from the landing site of the Apollo 16 spacecraft. Due to the fact that the astronauts forgot to switch one of the toggle switches on the take-off stage of the lunar cabin, it was not possible to slow down the stage, and it became an artificial satellite of the moon. On the 64th orbit around the Moon, the propulsion engine of the main unit was turned on, which ensured its transition from a selenocentric orbit to a flight trajectory to the Earth.
The total duration of the astronauts' stay in the selenocentric orbit was more than 6 days. When the main unit was about 300,000 kilometers from Earth, astronaut Mattingly went into outer space and was out of the spacecraft for 1 hour 04 minutes.
During this time, he transferred to the main unit the film cassettes and the container with biological samples that were in the engine compartment. Pulse Mattinglp during spacewalks increased to 130-168 beats per minute, while astronauts Young and Duke had 70-80 beats per minute. On April 27, 1972, at 10:45 p.m., Apollo 16 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean south of the Hawaiian Islands.
The flight of the ship lasted 265 hours 51 minutes (11 days 1 hour 51 minutes). Astronauts Young and Duke spent 71 hours and 02 minutes on the Moon, making three exits from the spacecraft to the surface of the Moon for a total duration of 20 hours and 15 minutes. They delivered samples of lunar soil to Earth, including a stone weighing 15.9 kilograms. A preliminary medical examination immediately after splashdown showed that, for the most part, the astronauts endured the flight satisfactorily, but they lost weight: Young - 3.4, Duke - 3.5, Mattingly - 3.0 kilograms.
It should be noted that during the flight of the Apollo 16 spacecraft, astronauts were first exposed to radiation as a result of a small solar flare.
On December 7, 1962, at 8:33 a.m., another US spacecraft, Apollo 17, with astronauts Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans, and Harrison Schmitt on board, was launched into Earth orbit by a Saturn-5 launch vehicle. Apollo 17 with the last stage of the rocket was launched into a geocentric orbit with a maximum apogee height of 171 kilometers. At 11:45 a.m., the engine of the last stage was turned on and the spacecraft moved onto the Earth-Moon track.
At 8:03 pm on December 8, Apollo 17 passed a distance of 230,000 kilometers from Earth. On December 10, at 9:47 p.m., Apollo 17 entered its initial selenocentric orbit with a maximum altitude of 315 kilometers from the surface of the Moon, and a minimum altitude of 97 kilometers. At 11:33 p.m., the last stage of the launch vehicle fell into the area of the Fra Mauro crater, where two Apollo 14 astronauts landed in February 1971. After its fall, seismic vibrations were recorded for 2 hours and 40 minutes.
Astronauts Cernan and Schmitt moved into the lunar cabin, and at 8:20 pm on December 11, it separated from the main unit. The astronauts of the Apollo 17 crew were tasked with studying the minerals formed in the surface layers of the planet and probing the near-lunar space. For these purposes, Cernan and Schmitt took with them a special set of scientific equipment, which included a device for assessing heat flows from the interior of the Moon to its surface, a stationary gravimeter for studying tidal phenomena and gravitational waves in the circumlunar space, and a mass spectrometer for gas analysis of the supersurface environment, a device for estimating the intensity of meteorite fall and other devices. The last three devices were used for the first time. Astronauts Cernan and Schmitt made three trips to the surface of the moon in 75 hours. The first exit was carried out on December 12 and lasted 7 hours and 13 minutes. During this time, the astronauts, moving on an all-terrain vehicle, took 13 kilograms of soil samples and made surveys.
They saw many stones and craters at the landing site of the lunar cabin. The found stones, according to the astronauts, are of volcanic origin. They have a coarse-grained structure with voids. When moving without an all-terrain vehicle, Cernan and Schmitt's legs got stuck in a loose layer of soil by 20-25 centimeters.
On December 13, the astronauts walked on the lunar surface for the second time. They made a trip to the mountain range, where the Apollo 17 cabin landed. Near Shorty Crater, astronauts found bright orange dust. The depth of this dust is 5-8 centimeters. According to Schmitt, this is the result of the impact on the soil of water vapor contained in volcanic gases during volcanic eruptions.
The astronauts collected 36 kilograms of lunar soil, drove 19.8 kilometers on an all-terrain vehicle.
The last, third in a row, journey J. Cernan and H. Schmitt made on December 14th. On an all-terrain vehicle, they went to the mountain range. Huge boulders lay in their path. To beat off pieces of rock from them turned out to be a difficult task. During the trip on the rover, the astronauts took measurements using a number of instruments and left eight charges on the surface of the moon. explosives, which, according to commands from the Earth, were successively blown up for the purpose of seismic sounding of this planet. The total duration of the last exit was 7 hours and 15 minutes. Y. Cernan and H. Schmitt collected 64 kilograms of lunar soil and covered a distance of 13.5 kilometers on an all-terrain vehicle.
In total, the duration of the three exits by J. Cernan and H. Schmitt was 22 hours 5 minutes, the length of the routes on the all-terrain vehicle is 36.1 kilometers. During this time, the astronauts collected 113 kilograms of lunar rock samples.
At 01:54 on December 15, the takeoff stage of the lunar cabin lifted off from the Moon. At 03:10, the lunar cabin was docked with the main unit, in which astronaut R. Evans was located.
On December 17, at 02:35, on the 76th revolution in the selenocentric orbit, after the transition of Cernan and Schmitt, the main engine was turned on in the compartment and the ship with three astronauts switched to the Moon-Earth flight trajectory.
At 20:25 on December 17, astronaut R. Evans made a spacewalk. He was out of the ship for 45 minutes. During this time, he transferred to the crew compartment film cassettes from film cameras installed in the engine compartment.
The Apollo 17 spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean south of Samoa at 21:25 on December 19.
The flight lasted 12 days 13 hours 51 minutes, i.e. 301 hours 51 minutes 57 seconds.
The Apollo 17 mission ended the lunar exploration program, which cost about $26 billion.
The planned three more flights of astronauts to the moon with their landing on this planet were canceled, as the US Congress refused to allocate funds for these purposes. The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) switched all work to the implementation of the flight of the Skylab orbital station and the implementation of joint experiments with the Soviet Union on the docking of the Apollo-Soyuz spacecraft.
On October 11, 1968, the first American three-seat manned spacecraft, Apollo 7, was launched into orbit by a Saturn-1B rocket. The crew included astronauts: Walter Schirra (ship commander), Don Eizel and Walter Cunningham. In a flight that lasted 10.7 days (163 orbits), the spacecraft without a lunar cabin was carefully checked. On October 22, 1968, the ship landed safely in the Atlantic Ocean.
On December 21, 1968, the Saturn 5 launch vehicle launched Apollo 8 with astronauts Frank Borman (ship commander), James Lovell and William Anders on a flight path to the Moon. It was the world's first manned spacecraft mission to the Moon. On December 24, the ship was launched into the orbit of an artificial satellite of the Moon, made 10 revolutions on it, after which it launched to the Earth and on December 27, 1968 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean. During the flight, the navigation and control system on the Earth-Moon track, the orbit around the Moon, the Moon-Earth track, the entry of the command module with the crew into the Earth's atmosphere with the second space velocity and the accuracy of splashdown in the ocean were tested. The astronauts conducted lunar photography and navigational experiments, as well as a television session.
During the flight of the Apollo 9 spacecraft, which took place on March 3-13, 1969, the lunar module and the command and service module were tested together in orbit of an artificial Earth satellite. Methods for controlling the entire space lunar complex "assembly", communication between ships and the Earth, rendezvous and docking were tested. The two astronauts in the lunar module undocked from the command module, moved away from it, and then tested the rendezvous and docking systems.
During the flight of the Apollo 10 spacecraft, which took place on May 18-26, 1969, all stages and operations of the lunar program were checked, except for the landing on the lunar surface itself. The lunar module descended to a height of 15 kilometers above the surface of the moon.
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