What the Russians did on the moon (15 photos). Chinese probe sent the first photos from the far side of the moon Lunokhod China

In the summer of 2016, we had to say goodbye to another space explorer, the Yutu lunar rover. Very little is known about it, partly because the PR people of the Chinese Space Agency still have to learn how to work, partly because the device began to have technical problems after a month of work - no one likes to talk about unsuccessful missions.

The Yutu lunar rover (“Jade Hare”), weighing 120 kg, landed on the surface of the Earth’s natural satellite in December 2013 using the 1.2-ton Chang’e 3 descent platform. The technical implementation of the program strongly resembled the flights of the Soviet Luna-17 and Luna- 21", with moon rovers on board.

Flight and landing Change 3 and Yutu

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Yutu successfully landed on the surface, and turned around so that China could display the red flag on the moon to the whole world.

At this point, the main propaganda mission of the mission was completed and the program's media coverage was drastically reduced even before the problems began.

Yutu completed a lap of honor around the platform and moved on to lunar exploration.

Along the way, stops were made, at which the manipulator was deployed and spectrometric studies were carried out.

The panoramic camera of the Chang'e 3 platform took pictures of the surroundings, the lunar rover, and the Earth in the sky.

When Yutu retired a few tens of meters from the starting point, information about him practically ceased to get into the press. As it became clear from the stingy official comments, the lunar rover had problems with the movement system and the thermal control system - the lid did not close at night solar panels.

Lunokhod no longer went, and no news was published about him, so he was almost forgotten. However, his performance remained. Approximately six months after landing, a new panorama of the Moon was published, taken on the way to the place of eternal parking.

Photos of the Chinese moon rover and the landing station were posted on the website of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Now they have been moved somewhere and the old links give empty pages, but you can still find photos and videos, although the archives included more pictures. In addition, the map of the Moon, compiled from images of two Chinese satellites Chang'e 1 and 2, is not active, and the existing site is malfunctioning.

Communication sessions with Yutu continued for more than two years and ended only in June 2016.

Lunokhod had four scientific instruments: a color stereo camera, an infrared camera, an alpha-proton spectrometer on a manipulator, and a ground penetrating radar. All studies were aimed at geology: studying the soil, comparing the data obtained with previous studies, including the American Apollo and the Soviet "Moons".

On the Chang'e 3 landing platform was a color mast camera and an ultraviolet telescope for observing the Earth's exosphere, stars and galaxies. In fact, the station turned out to be the first automatic astronomical observatory on the surface of the Moon.

The Chinese Moon in the pictures of the color cameras of the lunar rover and the landing station turned out to be yellower or browner than the surface that the astronauts managed to shoot in the 60s and 70s.

However, if you look at the pictures of the Moon from the Earth, it is easy to see that the landing took place approximately at the border of two regions, one of which differs just in brown shades.

The landing took place in the Sea of ​​Rains, at a distance of 50 meters from the edge of a 450 meter crater, which was later named Qi Wei. According to Chinese geologists, they managed to study the emissions from this crater, they were convinced of this by large boulders lying in the vicinity, and a rocky surface.

But in scientific publications wrote that the telescope worked for at least 18 months, managing to shoot up to 10 thousand images a month. Later, Chinese scientists managed to compile a star catalog of 86,000 stars. Whether the telescope is still working, there is no information.

China's next goal on the moon is to repeat a similar study, only this time on the far side of the moon, where no human-made lander has yet landed. The rover will have to study the unusual geological formation of the South Pole-Aitken Basin. The Chang'e IV spacecraft will be able to communicate with Earth using a relay satellite, which is expected to launch in 2018. Accordingly, the rover will depart later.

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About golden foil on spacecraft.

The moon has never given rest to the Russians. To reach the natural satellite of the Earth, to study it was one of the missions of our compatriots in the last century. And they dealt with it.

One of the main lunar intrigues until the middle of the 20th century remained the mystery of the far side of the moon. The fact that only half of our satellite is visible from Earth has long tempted people to imagine what is happening on the hidden side. Whatever the human imagination could think of. However, all fantasies were ordered to live long on October 7, 1959, when the Soviet automatic interplanetary station Luna 3 took a photograph of the far side of the Moon.

The survey materials transferred to Earth were sent for study to three astronomical institutions of the USSR. Based on the data obtained, the first map of the far side of the Moon was compiled, which included hundreds of surface details. Also released was an Atlas of the Far Side of the Moon and a satellite globe with a hemisphere invisible from Earth. The names of the details of the far side of the Moon photographed by Luna 3 were officially approved by the International Astronomical Union on August 22, 1961.

One of the main merits of the Russians in the study of the moon is large volume soil samples taken from the satellite, which is also called regolith. This is a layer on the surface of the Moon, consisting of debris and dust resulting from crushing during the fall of meteorites, mixing and sintering of lunar rocks.

The collected materials are studied by geologists, physicists, biologists, biochemists. Each of the specialists looked for his own in the lunar soil, but the main intrigue, of course, was the presence of microorganisms and the simplest particles of biological origin in the soil. Unfortunately, no reliable data have yet been found on the possibility of life on the Moon, but research by scientists, including Russian specialists, continues.

It's nice to know that the first state symbols that appeared on another planet were the symbols of the USSR. The automatic interplanetary station "Luna-2" reached the surface of the Moon on September 14, 1959, east of the Sea of ​​Clarity, near the craters Archimedes, Aristides and Autolycus. The station left pennants on the moon. These were metal pentagons with the emblem of the USSR. The next day, Khrushchev handed US President Eisenhower a replica of the pennant.

AMS "Luna-9" February 3, 1966 made a soft landing on the moon. The device left a pennant on the surface of the planet. It was a triangular metal plate with the coat of arms of the USSR in the corner and the inscription along the bottom edge: "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics."

Communist Turtles

Turtles were the first living creatures to watch the earth rise from the moon, but turtles are not ordinary, but, as the Discovery News columnist called them, "communist" turtles. A pair of Central Asian tortoises flew around the moon on the Soviet Zond-5 spacecraft during an expedition in September 1968.

Unmanned spaceship returned to Earth and splashed down in the Indian Ocean, after which the Russians rescued the "crew" of the ship.

moon rovers

If not everything is obvious with the presence of Americans on the moon and there are many hypotheses of exposing the famous walk, then with the fact that Soviet moon rovers was on the satellite of the Earth, no one argues.

On November 17, 1970, the Luna-17 station landed safely in the Sea of ​​Rains, and Lunokhod-1 slid down to the lunar soil. During its stay on the surface of the Moon, Lunokhod-1 traveled 10,540 meters, transmitted 211 lunar panoramas and 25,000 photographs to Earth. Max Speed movement was 2 km / h. The total duration of the active existence of the Lunokhod was 301 days 06 h 37 min. For 157 sessions with the Earth, 24,820 radio commands were issued. The passability assessment device worked out 537 cycles for determining the physical and mechanical properties of the surface layer of the lunar soil, and its chemical analysis was carried out at 25 points. On September 15, 1971, the temperature inside the sealed container of the lunar rover began to fall, as the resource of the isotope heat source was exhausted. On September 30, the device did not get in touch, and on October 4, all attempts to get in touch with it were stopped.

On April 22, 2010, a group of American scientists from the University of California at San Diego, led by Tom Murphy, reported that for the first time since 1971 they were able to get a reflection of a laser beam from the Lunokhod-1 reflector.

"Water"

In 1976, the Soviet "Luna-24" delivered to Earth lunar soil from depths of up to 2 m, in which a high water content was found. Despite the fact that some of the samples were handed over to NASA, the Western scientific community "did not notice" water in them. The presence of water in soil samples was explained by the most banal reason: they say, the containers were leaky and therefore this water was not of lunar, but of terrestrial origin. Like it or not, the very fact that Soviet scientists found water on the Moon was recorded and recognized within the country, and this is already a priority.

Tsiolkovsky was self-taught. Ever since his school days, he had serious hearing problems, which is why little Kostya experienced alienation from his peers and more and more went into books that were his best friends. In fact, cut off from the scientific environment, Tsiolkovsky made most of his discoveries on an intuitive level. In 1893, Tsiolkovsky's story "On the Moon" was published in the magazine "Around the World". In it, the scientist anticipated those physical phenomena that people will be able to prove almost a century later. Tsiolkovsky, with the help of thought, seemed to have visited the satellite of the Earth. The story is short and highly recommended.

The Chinese lunar rover Yutu, the Jade Hare, became the second vehicle to make a soft landing on the moon after the last Americans, the Apollo 17 crew, Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmit, left it in December 1972. In August 1976, the Soviet automatic station Luna-24 flew to Earth, taking samples of lunar soil.

In December 2013, a successfully landed "hare" transmitted images from the place of arrival. And they revived the disputes that had subsided about what color the moon was? In Chinese photos, it is brown. The sky is silver. Approximately the color of the Moon and in numerous pictures taken by American astronauts directly on the surface of our natural satellite. This surface is either white or greyish-silver in the sun. And in the shadows - dark.

Chinese lunar rover - "Jade Hare" - moves out to the brown surface of the moon Photo: Xinhua

The Chinese photographed the surface of the moon without the "hare" - it is brown. Photo: Xinhua

American lunar rover of the Apollo 17 expedition - rides on the gray moon Photo: NASA

The well-known American researcher of anomalous phenomena Joseph Skipper was the first to say that something was wrong with the color of the moon a few years ago. He accused NASA of a dirty trick. Like, for some mysterious reason, the agency processed the lunar images posted on official websites in the public domain. From all etched the real color of objects, making landscapes black and white. Like in an old movie.

Skipper's suspicions were strengthened by a photograph he found of one of those taken by the crew of the last Apollo. The picture shows Eugene Cernan - sets the American flag and takes a picture of himself, holding the camera at arm's length. Schmit walks around the lunar module, which is located in front of both the flag and the astronaut's spacesuit learned to be bright and colorful. And the lunar surface is black and white. As usual.

The moon is grey, but the helmet reflects brown. Photo: NASA

But look at the glass of the helmet. It reflects both the lunar module and the surface on which it stands. The surface is brown. How on Chinese pictures 2013. And it looks like this is the real color of the moon.

I don't know why NASA bleached the pictures, says Joseph Skipper. They must be hiding something. Indeed, as a rule, removing the natural color of an object masks its structure. And the structure, in turn, can give out some details that should not fall into the field of view of the uninitiated.

According to the researcher, part of the photo with the flag was simply not processed due to an oversight. And the trick was revealed.

And the Chinese did not process anything at all. They didn't know it was supposed to be. The Americans did not warn them.

All shades of chocolate, not gray

In favor of the fact that the Moon is brown, members of the crew of Apollo 10 also testified. Then in May 1969, the same Eugene Cernan was the pilot of the lunar module, the commander was Thomas Stafford, the pilot of the command module was John Young. The astronauts were choosing the landing site for Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, who were to be the first to set foot on the moon in just a couple of months.

Cernan and Stafford undocked from the command module and approached the surface to within 100 meters. Considered its color in detail. What was a detailed report about. And they took pictures.

In the report of the Apollo 10 crew, pardon the pun, it is written in black and white that the Moon is sometimes light brown, sometimes reddish brown, sometimes the color of dark chocolate. But not grey.

The surface of the moon taken from the Apollo 10. Photo: NASA

And in some pictures taken from the Apollo 10, it is generally green with bright red patches.

Strangely, the photos of Cernan, Stafford, and Young were the last to show the Moon in color. Further, starting with the first landing of the Americans, it became black and white.

In this picture, the moon is green Credit: NASA

By the way, the astronauts from Apollo 17 also found something surprising in color right next to the landing site. Enthusiastic and repeated shouts were received on Earth: "I can't believe it... It's incredible... It's orange... It's like something rusted here." It's about about the soil that the astronauts are trying to collect in a bag. She must have been brought to Earth. But what the find was, no one has yet reported.

There is some secret here

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The USSR pilot-cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, who was a friend of Stafford, once explained to me about the color of the moon: it's all about the film on which they shot, and the reflectivity of the surface.

Each person perceives light in his own way, - said Alexey Arkhipovich. - To one it seems a brown shade, to another - a different shade. And photography is artificially invented layers. Any film is three colors. And a combination of three colors. The result depends on the processing. Depends on the angle of the light beam. One light position - one color. The sun is rising - a different color. The same color surface can reflect, depending on the angle, different wavelengths. And this is a different color.

I believe Alexei Arkhipovich. But still I don’t understand: at first the Moon reflected so that it was brown, and then it began to reflect so that it became black and white on color film. And now it's brown again - in Chinese pictures. Jade Hare's landing site: in the Sea of ​​Rains, not in Rainbow Bay. Photo: NASA

The Apollo 15 landing site is over 2,500 kilometers away. Before "Apollo-17" - even further. Or you could sit next to it, in order to surely see the equipment left by the astronauts, take a picture of it. Or, conversely, not to see. To the delight of those who doubt that the Americans landed on the moon. However, the Chinese have their own plans.

The mysterious moon is interesting not only for Russian but also for Chinese scientists. According to researchers, in the near future it will become an excellent storehouse of rare minerals and energy for mankind. Over time, the veils of secrecy will open, and the finds on the lunar surface will become a unique treasure for each person. China thoroughly undertook its study, inventing a new technique for flying to the moon.

How the Chinese study the moon

China is one of the largest powers, which has its own unique equipment in the field of astronautics. A huge country is armed with various satellites and missiles. China is launching stations to the Moon, and plans to master Mars in the near future. Back in the 90s, the so-called lunar program was developed and launched, the stages of which have already been partially implemented. Now the Chinese are preparing for a new stage of development. This time it is planned to send a new device into space to study and explore the far side of the Moon, where no man-made equipment has ever been. According to its external data, the lunar rover will be similar to the famous Yutu. It will be rectangular in shape.

Six durable wheels will be equipped solar panels that can move. The unit will be 1500 cm long, 1000 cm wide and 1100 cm high. The name of the unit has not yet been chosen. New spacecraft It will be equipped with special details and a load that can be adjusted so that it can cope with the complex terrain of the Moon. Planned landing site South Pole-Aitken Basin. The plans include studying the geological structure and mineral composition of the soil, taking soil samples for research. As with the previous device, images will be taken during the examination.

Chinese moon rover

The first Chinese envoy to the moon was the Jade Hare rover or Yutu. On December 14, 2013, a lunar rover weighing more than 100 kilograms landed on the surface of the moon. The landing time took 11 minutes, which can be considered pride. The landing site was the Sea of ​​Rains, although another site was planned. Chinese geologists say they have been able to study emissions from a crater located 50 meters from the landing site. Before landing, the lunar rover made a circle around the platform and went to explore the lunar surface. Stops were periodically made to conduct spectrometric studies. All this time, the cameras of the platform did not stop filming everything around. After moving away from the launch site through a distance of 114 meters, the “Jade Hare” experienced disruptions in movement and the solar panel cover stopped closing. Lunokhod stopped moving, but its activity continued.

Lunokhod was so unique and was modernly equipped with:

• color and infrared cameras;
• ground penetrating radar;
• alpha-proton spectrometer on a manipulator.

All research results in without fail sent for geological exploration. On the platform from which the lunar rover was landed, cameras and an ultraviolet telescope were also installed, so it was possible to observe not only the exosphere of the earth, but also stars and galaxies.

Satellite data confirmed that the surface of the moon is enriched with minerals and olivine, which contains a huge amount of iron. The structure of the moon contains a large amount of titanium. The ground penetrating radar, which was equipped with the lunar rover, made it possible to see a distance of 500 meters deep. With the help of it, several layers of rock were discovered, which indicates several periods of volcanism. China's space program has repeated what was achieved decades ago.

Important! Lunokhod observations suggest that the composition of the rocks where the lander landed is different from where other missions have been.

Pictures of the moon from the rover

The first photographs on the Moon were taken two hours after the Jade Hare landed. In color photos of the lunar rover and the landing station, the color of the lunar surface turned out to be different than in the photos taken in the 60-70s. The surface of the moon was much browner, which still raises many questions. In total, 35 gigabytes of data from two cameras of the lunar rover were published. All photographs are unique and interesting not only for scientists, but also for ordinary people.

The surface of the moon is rich in rare minerals that are essential for humanity. Scientists are currently working on various methods production of metals, oxygen and helium. During the research, deposits of water ice were discovered. Research can open up new possibilities for a person. Some believe that it opens up prospects for the future as a space tourism destination, which can attract a huge amount of funds for its development. Far from all the mysteries of the lunar surface have been solved yet, but scientists from China and beyond are striving to explore every piece of the Moon.