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Why is the earth from the spaceship. Elementary Physics: Why Don't Satellites Fall to Earth? The moon has a dark side

2.50: "The descent of the SA from heights from 90 to 40 km is detected and accompanied by radar stations".

Remember this radar data.

We will return to them when we discuss how and how the USSR could track the Apollo 50 years ago and why it never did it.

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Include captions in Russian.

Manned spacecraft landing

Introduction

It should be noted right away that the organization of a manned flight is quite different from unmanned missions, but in any case, all work on carrying out dynamic operations in space can be divided into two stages: design and operational, only in the case of manned missions these stages, as a rule, take significantly more time. This article deals mainly with the operational part, since work on the ballistic design of the descent is ongoing and includes various studies to optimize all kinds of factors that affect the safety and comfort of the crew during landing.

For 40 days

The first approximate calculations of the descent are carried out in order to determine the landing areas. Why is this done? At present, the regular controlled descent of Russian ships can be carried out only in 13 fixed landing areas located in the Republic of Kazakhstan. This fact imposes a lot of restrictions associated primarily with the need for preliminary coordination with our foreign partners of all dynamic operations. The main difficulties arise when planting in autumn and spring - this is due to agricultural work in the planting areas. This fact must be taken into account, because in addition to ensuring the safety of the crew, it is also necessary to ensure the safety of the local population and the search and rescue service (SSS). In addition to the regular landing areas, there are also landing areas when stalling for ballistic descent, which must also be suitable for landing.

For 10 days

Preliminary calculations of the descent trajectories are being refined, taking into account the latest data on the current ISS orbit and characteristics of the docked spacecraft. The fact is that from the moment of launch to descent, a fairly long period of time passes, and the mass-centering characteristics of the spacecraft change, in addition, a large contribution is made by the fact that, together with the astronauts, payloads return to Earth from the station, which can significantly change the position the center of mass of the descent vehicle. Here it is necessary to explain why this is important: the shape of the Soyuz spacecraft resembles a headlight, i.e. it does not have any aerodynamic controls, but to obtain the required landing accuracy, it is necessary to control the trajectory in the atmosphere. For this purpose, the Soyuz has a gas-dynamic control system, but it is not able to compensate for all deviations from the nominal trajectory, therefore, an extra balancing weight is artificially added to the design of the apparatus, the purpose of which is to shift the center of pressure from the center of mass, which will make it possible to control the descent trajectory by rolling over ... The updated data on the main and backup schemes are sent to the MSS. Based on these data, all calculated points are flown around and a conclusion is made about the possibility of landing in these areas.

For 1 day

The descent trajectory is finally refined, taking into account the latest measurements of the ISS position, as well as the forecast of the wind situation in the main and reserve landing areas. This must be done due to the fact that the parachute system is deployed at an altitude of about 10 km. By this time, the descent control system has already done its job and cannot correct the trajectory in any way. In fact, only wind drift affects the device, which cannot be ignored. The figure below shows one of the options for simulating wind drift. As you can see, after entering the parachute, the trajectory changes greatly. Wind drift can sometimes be up to 80% of the allowed radius of the dispersion circle, so the accuracy of the weather forecast is very important.

On the day of the descent:
In addition to the ballistic and search and rescue services, many other units are involved in ensuring the descent of the spacecraft to the ground, such as:

transport ship control service;
ISS control service;
the service responsible for the health of the crew;
telemetry and command services, etc.

Only after the report on the readiness of all services, the flight directors can make a decision to carry out the descent according to the planned program.
After that, the passageway is closed and the ship is undocked from the station. A separate service is responsible for undocking. Here it is necessary to calculate in advance the direction of undocking, as well as the impulse that must be applied to the device in order to prevent a collision with the station.

When calculating the descent trajectory, the undocking scheme is also taken into account. After the ship is undocked, there is still some time before the braking engine is turned on. At this time, all equipment is checked, trajectory measurements are taken, and the landing point is specified. This is the last moment when something else can be clarified. Then the brake motor is switched on. This is one of the most important parts of the descent and is therefore constantly monitored. Such measures are necessary in order to understand which scenario to go on in the event of an emergency. During normal impulse development, after a while, the compartments of the spacecraft are separated (the descent vehicle is separated from the utility and instrument-aggregate compartments, which then burn out in the atmosphere).

If, upon entering the atmosphere, the descent control system decides that it is not able to ensure the landing of the descent vehicle at the point with the required coordinates, then the ship “breaks down” into a ballistic descent. Since all this is already happening in the plasma (there is no radio communication), then it is possible to establish the trajectory along which the apparatus is moving only after the resumption of radio communication. If a ballistic descent is disrupted, it is necessary to quickly clarify the intended landing point and transfer it to the search and rescue service. In the case of a regular controlled descent, the spacecraft specialists begin to "lead" the ship while in flight, and we can see live the descent of the vehicle on a parachute and even, if we are lucky, the operation of the soft-landing engines (as in the picture).

After that, you can already congratulate everyone, shout hurray, open champagne, hug, etc. Officially, the ballistic work is completed only after receiving the GPS coordinates of the landing point. This is necessary for the post-flight assessment of the miss, which can be used to assess the quality of our work.
Photos taken from the site: www.mcc.rsa.ru

Spaceship Landing Accuracy

Super Precision Landings or NASA's "Lost Technology"

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Once again I repeat that before freely speculating about the deepest antiquity, where 100,500 warriors unrestrainedly made dashing march-throws over arbitrary terrain, it is useful to practice "on cats" © "Operation Y", for example, on events only half a century ago - " flights of Americans to the moon ".

Defenders of NASA something thick went. And in less than a month, the highly promoted blogger Zelenykot, who turned out to be red-haired, spoke on the topic:

"Invited to GeekPicnic to talk about space myths. Of course, I took the most popular and popular one: the myth of the lunar conspiracy. For an hour, we analyzed in detail the most common misconceptions and the most common questions: why the stars are not visible, why the flag flutters, where is hiding lunar soil how they were able to lose the tapes with the recording of the first landing, why the F1 rocket engines do not do it, and other questions."

I wrote him my comment:

"Fine, Hobotov! Into the furnace of the refutation "the flag jerks - there are no stars - the pictures are forged!"
Better explain only one thing: how did the Americans "when returning from the moon" from the second cosmic speed made a landing with an accuracy of + -5 km, which has been unattainable until now even from the first cosmic speed, from near-earth orbit?
Again "lost NASA technology"? G-d-d"I haven't received an answer yet, and I doubt that there will be something sane, it's not giggles about the flag and the space window.

I explain what the ambush is. A.I. Popov in his article "" writes: "According to NASA," lunar "Apollo Nos. 8.10-17 splashed down with deviations from the calculated points of 2.5; 2.4; 3; 3.6; 1.8; 1; 1.8; 5.4; and 1.8 km, respectively; on average ± 2 km. That is, the circle of impact for the "Apollo" was supposedly extremely small - 4 km in diameter.

Our proven "Soyuz" even now, 40 years later, land ten times less accurately (Fig. 1), although the descent trajectories of the "Apollo" and "Soyuz" are physically the same. ":

see details in:

"... the modern precision of the Soyuz landing is ensured by the improved Soyuz-TMS, which was envisaged in 1999 when designing reducing the height of the introduction of parachute systems to improve landing accuracy (15–20 km along the radius of the circle of the total spread of landing points).

From the late 1960s to the 21st century, the landing accuracy of the Soyuz during a normal, regular descent was within ± 50-60 km from the calculated point as envisioned in the 1960s.

Naturally, there were also abnormal situations, for example, in 1969 the landing "" with Boris Volynov on board occurred 600 km short of the calculated point.

Before the "Unions", in the era of "East" and "Sunrise", deviations from the calculated point were even more abrupt.

April 1961 Yuri Gagarin makes 1 revolution around the Earth. Due to a failure in the braking system, Gagarin landed not in the planned area near the Baikonur cosmodrome, but 1800 km to the west, in the Saratov region.

March 1965 P. Belyaev, A. Leonov 1 day 2 hours 2 minutes open space automation failed, Landing took place in a snowy taiga 200 km from Perm, far from settlements... The cosmonauts spent two days in the taiga, until rescuers found them (“On the third day, they dragged us out of there.”). This happened due to the fact that the helicopter could not land nearby. The landing site for the helicopter was equipped the next day, 9 km from the place where the cosmonauts landed. The overnight stay was carried out in a log house built at the landing site. Cosmonauts and rescuers got to the helicopter on skis "

A direct descent like that of the Soyuz would be incompatible with the life of the Apollo cosmonauts because of overloads, because they would have to extinguish the second space velocity, and a safer descent using a two-dive scheme gives a spread over the landing point of hundreds and even thousands of kilometers:

That is, if the Apollo splashed down with unrealistic, even by today's standards, accuracy in a straight one-hole scheme, the cosmonauts would either burn out due to the lack of high-quality ablative protection, or die / receive serious injuries from overloads.

But numerous television, film and photographic surveys invariably recorded that the astronauts who allegedly descended from the second cosmic speed in the "Apollo" were not just alive, but very cheerful little animals.

And this despite the fact that the Americans at the same time could not normally launch even a monkey even into low-earth orbit, see.

Red-haired Zelenykot Vitaly Egorov, who so zealously defends the "Americans on the Moon" myth, is a paid propagandist, a public relations specialist for the private space company Dauria Aerospace, which dug in at the Skolkovo Technopark in Moscow and actually exists on American money (emphasis mine) :

"The company was founded in 2011. The Roskosmos license to carry out space activities was obtained in 2012. Until 2014, it had subdivisions in Germany and the USA. At the beginning of 2015, production activities were practically curtailed everywhere except Russia. The company is engaged in the creation of small spacecraft (satellites) and the sale of components for them. Dauria Aerospace Raised $ 20 Million Investment from I2bf Venture Fund in 2013... The company sold two of its satellites to the American at the end of 2015, thereby receiving the first income from their activities."

"In one of his regular "lectures" Yegorov arrogantly flaunting, smiling with his charming smile on duty, that the American fund I2BF Holdings Ltd. The goal of the I2BF-RNC Strategic Resources Fund, under the patronage of NASA, has invested $ 35 million in DAURIA AEROSPACE.

It turns out that Mr. Egorov is not just a subject Russian Federation, but a full-fledged foreign resident, whose activities are financed from American funds, with which I congratulate all voluntary Russian sponsors of the BOOMSTARTER crowdfunding who have invested their hard-earned money in a foreign company project, which has a very definite ideological character."

Catalog of all journal articles:

Scientists at the Harvard Center for Astrophysics believe Oumuamua - the first ever interstellar object seen in our solar system - could be a giant alien ship. Have the aliens really decided to honor us with their presence?

In a study published last Thursday, astronomers released their observations of an interstellar object known as Oumuamua. A giant asteroid entered our star system a year ago, presumably from some other galaxy. I must say that this happened for the first time in the history of astronomy. Moreover, the "alien" has noticeably accelerated compared to the movement last year.

Have the aliens decided to visit us?

Since the interstellar object appears to exhibit the qualities of both an asteroid and a comet, astronomers speculated that its unusual acceleration could be caused by "artificial factors" amplified by solar radiation.

In their report, astronomers summed up: "If we take as a basis the artificial origin of this object, one of Oumuamua's explanations is that it is a wreckage of some kind of spacecraft or other super-technological equipment."

Asteroid or comet?

This object was first discovered by the Haleakala Observatory, located at the top of the eponymous volcano in Hawaii, on October 19 last year. Oumuamua's strange shape and unusual "behavior" have led many to speculate that he may well be an alien artifact.

Throughout the year, a debate raged in the scientific community about whether this interstellar object is, in fact, a comet or an asteroid - after all, it, as already mentioned, successfully combines the features of both. Judge for yourself: Oumuamua clearly accelerated, leaving Solar system, and presumably its structure was influenced by the heat of the Sun, as befits comets.

However, since the object did not "burn up" when it was closest to the Sun, astronomers claim that it is a "space sailing ship" - a form of interplanetary transport, propelled by the force of radiation. “Oumuamua may well be part of alien technology that was created to study our solar system. Likewise, we hope one day to explore Alpha Centauri and other systems. "

It was also believed that 'Oumuamua is serving on a reconnaissance mission, as the object follows a random orbit. This, presumably, would require the creation of 10-15 such objects to study each star in our galaxy.

The further - the more interesting

No matter how many opinions and controversies, astronomers agree on one thing unconditionally: "The more we study Oumuamua, the more exciting it becomes."

The Oumuamua interstellar object is believed to be less than a kilometer in length and is currently moving away from the Sun at a speed of about 112,000 km per hour, heading towards the outskirts of the solar system. In another four years, according to the calculations of experts, it will reach the orbit of Neptune and follow further - into the unknown interstellar space. I wonder what awaits him there?

The crew of the Soyuz MS-08 spacecraft, which returned on October 4 from the International space station, delivered a dust filter to Earth, as well as dust samples taken in the utility compartment of the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft. As a source in the rocket and space industry explained, the samples will help establish the circumstances of the appearance in the skin of the spacecraft of the hole, which previously became the reason for a large-scale scandal.

Experts hope to find aluminum shavings among the dust.

In their opinion, this will indicate that the hole in the ship was made during orbital flight. This will probably help to get on the trail of the alleged saboteur.

“Among the cargoes returned by the Soyuz MS-08 spacecraft, position number 111 is of the greatest interest. This is a dust filter from the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft and samples of smears from the hole and around it”,

- emphasized the source.

The necessary research will begin shortly. Participants of the ISS-55/56 mission - and the Americans Andrew Foistel and - successfully landed last Friday. The international team spent 197 days at the station.

An air leak on the ISS was detected at the end of August. The crew quickly checked all the compartments and found a hole of unknown origin. The hole was sealed with sealant and patches. The state of emergency is being investigated by experts and.

According to the head of the Russian corporation Dmitry Rogozin, marriage is out of the question, the hole was definitely made deliberately.

The official stressed that a special commission had come to similar conclusions. The official's statement was aired on the Big Game program on Channel One.

“Now there is a version of intentional impact. Where it was done will be established by the second commission, which is working, ”he said.

“The commission is working, one commission has already finished its activity. She actually drew the conclusion that she excluded a manufacturing defect, which is important for the search for truth. Now the version of deliberate influence remains, ”Rogozin said on Monday.

Rogozin said that now it is necessary to establish where this impact occurred - on Earth, or in space.

The deputy head of Roscosmos, in turn, said that the hole in the Soyuz with a probability of 50 percent appeared in space. He noted that the examination of the outer side of the spacecraft by the cosmonauts will help in the investigation of the incident. Krikalev also stressed

that the ISS crew reacts painfully to media publications about versions of a hole in the skin of the Soyuz.

“We are considering the option that this was done on board,” Krikalev said, stressing that due to an agreement with NASA, the commission cannot comment on the investigation until the completion of the work.

From a recent statement by the head of Roscosmos, in fact, it follows that over the past month, the investigation of the incident, due to which an air leak was recorded on the ISS on August 29, has not come close to either of the two versions of the hole's origin - terrestrial and cosmic.

At the same time, it was Rogozin who was the first to suggest the possibility of drilling a hole not on Earth, but already in space.

Earlier, the members of the commission came to the conclusion that if the hole was drilled on the Earth, then it was done within 180 days between the time the spacecraft left the RSC Energia workshop and the time it was launched into orbit.

Roscosmos is now pinning high hopes on the planned spacewalk of Russian cosmonauts in November. They will cut out part of the meteor shield from the outside of the Soyuz spacecraft to explore the hole from the outside.

Having cut out a piece of protection with the help of special scissors, the astronauts will find out if there are any burrs on the outside of the hole, and, most importantly, any traces of glue with which the hole was originally patched up. The logic is simple - the discovery of glue residues will indicate the earthly origin of the hole,

since the outside of the ship can only be applied on Earth.

Because of the incident, Roskosmos began checking all the finished Soyuz spacecraft in and at the Baikonur cosmodrome.

“I can say unequivocally that the crew has nothing to do with this, no doubt, and I find it shameful and strange that someone is wasting time arguing that the crew is involved.

The only thing the crew did was to properly respond by following our emergency procedures, eventually finding a leak and sealing the hole, ”Astronaut Foistel stated earlier.

The leaders of Roscosmos and NASA will hold their first personal meeting at the Baikonur cosmodrome on October 10 as part of the visit of the head of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Jim Bridenstein to Russia and Kazakhstan to participate in events related to the upcoming flight to the ISS of Russian cosmonaut and American astronaut Nick Haig on the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft.

Earth as a controlled spaceship

D. Frohman

Speech at a banquet held after a conference on plasma physics organized by the American Physics Society in November 1961 in Colorado Springs.

Since I am not very well versed in plasma physics and thermonuclear fusion, I will not talk about these phenomena themselves, but about one of their practical applications in the near future.

Let's imagine that we managed to invent a spaceship that moves due to the fact that it throws out reaction products D– D and D– T... On such a ship, you can start into space, catch several asteroids there and tow them to Earth. (The idea, however, is not new.) If you do not overload the rocket, then it would be possible to deliver 1000 tons of asteroids to Earth, spending only about a ton of deuterium. I honestly don't know what substance the asteroids are made of. However, it may well turn out that they are half nickel. It is known that 1 pound of nickel costs 50 cents and 1 pound of deuterium costs about 100 dollars. Thus, for 1 million dollars, we could buy 5 tons of deuterium and, having spent them, deliver to the Earth 2500 tons of nickel worth 2.5 million dollars. Not bad, right? I already thought about organizing an American Asteroid Extraction and Delivery Company (ACDDA)? The equipment of such a company would be extremely simple. With enough subsidy from Uncle Sam, a very profitable business could be started. If anyone present with a large bank account wishes to be among the founders, let him come to me after the banquet.

Now let's look into the more distant future. Personally, I can't understand at all why astronauts dream of getting into interstellar space. After all, the rocket will be terribly crowded. And in nutrition, they will have to cut themselves down a lot. But this is not so bad. The main trouble is that the astronaut in the rocket will be in the same position as the person placed against the beam of fast protons from a powerful accelerator (see the picture). I am very sorry for the poor astronaut; I even composed a ballad about his sad fate:

Ballad of an Astronaut *

(free translation from English by V. Turchin)

From beta inverter

And gamma converter

There was only one paneling.

And the ion cannon

Like an empty cracker

Sticks out, not good for anything.

All mesons have decayed

All neutrons have decayed

All visible light was emitted.

According to Coulomb's law

The protons scattered

There is no hope for leptons.

Damaged reactor

Rumbles like a tractor

There is rot and decay in the bio-chamber.

Now the nozzle has already clogged,

And the bottom is leaky,

And the vacuum whips into the gap ...

He flew to Orion,

But the flow of gravitons

Unexpectedly crossed the path.

Deviating from the course

And having drained all the resources,

He managed to elude them too.

Taking a huge detour,

Flew around half the universe

And now on an empty ship

On the last line

Coming home

Approaching the planet Earth.

But fighting gravity

Super super super acceleration

He slowed down the hands of the clock.

And the arrows froze

Well passed on Earth

Thousands of thousands of centuries.

Here are the home planets ...

God! Is it the sun? -

A dark red, slightly warm ball ...

Smokes over the Earth

Swirls over the Earth

Hydrogen, cold steam.

What is it?

Where is the tribe of men? -

In unknown, distant worlds.

Their children grow up

Already on a new planet

And the Earth is all in cosmic ice.

Cursing and crying

From such a failure

The astronaut turned the lever.

And B rang out,

And A came out,

And there was an X -

But I also feel sorry for those who remain on Earth. After all, our Sun is not eternal. It will someday go out, plunging everything around it into cosmic darkness and cold. As Fred (Fred Hoyle, that is) told me (3), in a couple of billion years it will be so cold on Earth that, let alone comfort, life itself on this planet is out of the question. And therefore, it makes clear sense to go somewhere. It seems to me that for most of us the most convenient spacecraft would still be the Earth itself. Therefore, if we do not like that our star is gradually extinguished and, in general, if we are tired of everything in the solar system, why stay here? Let's fly somewhere directly on our Earth. In this case, all the difficulties associated with space flight will disappear by themselves. After all, the problem of protection from radiation does not exist, there is an atmosphere on Earth, and the speed of movement will be low. The safety and pleasantness of such a trip is obvious.

However, will we have enough energy? First of all, you need heat and light: after all, for a long time we will be removed from the Sun or any other star. The deuterium contained in the ocean water can give us 1038 erg, therefore, if it is used only for heating and lighting, then this will be enough for three million years - a period quite sufficient. However, there is a small snag here. At our speed, we will consume 3 × 1010 pounds of deuterium per year, and its cost is $ 100 per pound, therefore, the deuterium consumed will be 100 times the annual budget of modern air forces. But perhaps it will be possible to obtain deuterium at wholesale prices?

However, we need more energy to get away from the Sun. The calculation shows that 2.4 · 1040 erg will be spent on this, that is, much more than all oceanic deuterium can give. Therefore, it will be necessary to find other sources of energy. I believe that in order to solve this problem we will have to turn to the synthesis of an alpha particle from four protons. When using this reaction, all the protons of the world's oceans will give us an energy of 1042 erg, that is, forty times more than what is needed to get away from the Sun.

Sand can be used as a working fluid. Ejecting 1000 SiO2 molecules for each synthesized alpha particle, we will have to spend only 4% of the Earth's mass to detach from the Sun. It seems to me that we can afford it. Moreover, for such a purpose, it will not be a pity to use up the Moon: after all, far from the Sun, there is still no use from it. After leaving the solar system and wandering in outer space, we will probably be able to replenish our reserves of mass and energy from time to time, refueling on the fly at the expense of planets along the road. There is still one fundamental obstacle on the way to the implementation of these plans: we do not know how to carry out the 4p - He4 chain reaction. Now you can see how important this is. We need to redouble our efforts to address it. Time does not stand: the Earth has already spent two-thirds of the time allotted to it at the Sun.

I assure you that we will be fine in space. We might like it so much that we don't even want to cleave to the new star.

Published in Physics Today, 15, no. 7 (1962).

D. Frohman - until 1962 held the position of technical director of Losalamos laboratory.

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Over the years of space exploration, many useless items have accumulated there. Graduate of the Moscow State Technical University. Bauman with a degree in modeling space complexes Anna Lozhkina explains the origin of this debris, where it comes from and why it does not fall on our heads, tells what can be done to maintain the purity of outer space.

What objects revolve around our planet?

First of all, this is a technique launched by people.

Remote sensing vehicles and the interplanetary space station (ISS) move in a low near-earth orbit with an altitude of 160 to 2000 kilometers.

In a more distant, geostationary orbit, its height is about 36 thousand kilometers above the planet's surface, satellites of direct broadcasting of television programs and different systems communication.

In fact, the satellites move with a very high linear and angular velocity, keeping pace with the Earth's rotation, so each is above its own point of the planet - as if hanging over it.

In addition, there are various "space debris" in orbits.

Where does garbage come from in space if no one lives there?

Like on Earth, in space, garbage is the work of human hands. These are spent stages of launch vehicles, fragments of colliding or exploding satellites.

The number of vehicles sent into outer space from 1957 to the present has exceeded 15 thousand. It's getting crowded in low orbits.

Some of the equipment is becoming obsolete - some devices run out of fuel, others have equipment out of order. Such satellites are no longer amenable to control, but only tracking.

Soon there will be so many satellites and space debris around the Earth that it will be impossible to launch a new satellite or fly away from Earth in a rocket.

The collision of even small objects moving at orbital speeds at an angle to each other leads to their significant destruction. So the gum that flew into the ISS orbit can pierce the shell of the station and destroy the entire crew.

A similar effect - an increase in the amount of debris in low Earth orbit as a result of collisions of objects, is called Kessler's syndrome and can potentially lead in the future to the complete impossibility of using outer space during launches from Earth.

And how are things high, high, there, in geostationary orbit? It is also densely populated, the places there are expensive and they even have a waiting list. Therefore, as soon as the service life of the device comes to an end, it is removed from the geostationary, and the next satellite flies to the vacant position.

Where does space debris go?

From low near-earth orbit, any large object descends into the atmosphere, where it burns up quickly and completely - not even ash falls on our heads.

But with small pieces, the situation is more complicated. Several organizations in the United States and Russia reliably track only spacecraft and debris larger than 10 cm. Objects with sizes from 1 to 10 cm are practically uncountable.

Outdated satellites or satellites that have ceased to function normally are moved from geostationary orbit farther, to an altitude of about 40 thousand kilometers, in order to make room for new applicants.

So, behind the geostationary, a burial orbit appeared, where the "dead" satellites will fly by inertia for hundreds of years.

What happens to spaceships?

The ships on which people went into space return to Earth, where they live out their days in museums or scientific centers.

The garbage generated in the process of life of the inhabitants of the international space station, as if it will not get into space. It is carefully assembled, loaded onto a transport ship - the one that brings them everything they need, and set off towards Earth. This ship on the way back almost completely burns up in the atmosphere or is flooded in the Pacific Ocean.

Garbage as the cost of launching spacecraft

A message on the radio or from television screens that “the first stage separation was carried out in the normal mode” sounds familiar to a modern person. On the way to the planned orbit, the launch vehicle also loses other unnecessary parts.

For 1 kg of launched mass there is a minimum of 5 kg of auxiliary mass. What's going on with them?

The tanks of the first stage are immediately "caught" on Earth by specially trained people. The second stage and fairings also fall to Earth, but fly away much further and are more difficult to find.

But the upper stages, which are used during the transition from the reference orbit to the final one, remain there at the top. Over time, they slowly slide down, enter the atmosphere, where they burn.

In general, everything turns into dust and dissipates in the atmosphere. Unless very, very large and strong pieces reach us. In 2001, a piece flew from the MIR station and fell into the ocean.

Utilization of spacecraft

It turns out that the ways to dispose of spacecraft are to drown in the ocean, launch them further away, burn them in the atmosphere ... This is a completely waste-free method.

Parts found on Earth by rescuers are recycled or reused.

Unfortunately, not everything can be reworked yet. Hydrazine released from a fallen engine will poison the soil and water for a long time.

How does all this dust and fumes affect the air we breathe?

Yes, our air is polluted and littered with small particles of ash, dust, and other combustion products of spacecraft. But not as much as from the emissions of earthly machines and factories.

Here's just one example. The total mass of air in the atmosphere is 5X10¹⁵ tons. The mass of the Mir orbital station, the largest of the spacecraft that ever entered the atmosphere, and burned up in it (2001), is 105 tons. That is, all the droplets and dust particles remaining from the orbital station are nothing compared to the size of the atmosphere.

Now let's look at industrial emissions. According to Rosstat, the smallest total emission over the observation period since 1992 was in 1999. And it amounted to 18.5 million tons.

That is, just over our country in one year, 176,190 times more dirt got into the air than it spread over the entire globe, while Mir was burning in the atmosphere.

What can be done to reduce the amount of debris in space

In recent years, mankind has faced acute problems of maintaining the purity of outer space.

There are several directions in which research is being conducted:

Development of the microsatellite industry. Satellites-boxes have already been created - cubesats and tabletsats. When they are launched, significant savings in launch are achieved, less fuel is required, and less excess goes into orbit. True, how to catch up with such a lump if something goes wrong is not yet clear.
Increasing the lifespan of devices. The first satellites were designed for 5 years, modern devices - for 15 years.
Reuse of parts. The biggest breakthrough in this direction is the return launch vehicles, on which Elon Musk is already working.

It is also very important to figure out which satellites are really needed, to be more responsible in the choice of launched vehicles.

In the distant future, we hope that there will be vacuum cleaners or other devices that will make it possible to do cosmetic and even general cleaning of outer space.

You never know what you can think of, if you think about it, if you set a goal, to preserve clean space for future generations.