Radiation doses when flying to the moon

I have long wanted to find information on this topic. In my understanding, only these facts can tell for sure whether the Americans flew to the moon or not. And here you are. We read and rejoice, well, or we grieve, as anyone ...

To determine radiation doses when flying to the moon we considered solar wind and fluxes of protons and electrons; solar flares, which, during maximum activity, together with X-ray radiation from the Sun, sharply increase the radiation hazard to astronauts; galactic cosmic rays (GCR), as the most high-energy component of the corpuscular flow in interplanetary space (150-300 mrem per day); also touched radiation belt of the Earth (ERB)... It was indicated that RPZ is one of the most dangerous factors on the Earth-Moon communication route for cosmonauts.

Let us determine the radiation dose during the passage of the radiation belts, as well as take into account the radiation hazard of the solar wind. Let's use the generally accepted model of the Earth's radiation belt AP-8 min (1995).

The proton component of the earth's radiation belt

In fig. 1 shows the distribution of protons of various energies in the plane of the geomagnetic equator. The abscissa is the parameter L in the radii of the Earth, the ordinate is the proton flux density in cm-2 s-1. This figure shows the time-averaged values ​​of the proton flux density according to the data of Soviet and foreign authors, referring to the period I96I-I975.

Rice. 1. Time-averaged profiles of the proton flux density in the plane of the geomagnetic equator (the numbers on the curves correspond to the lower limit of the proton energy in MeV).

In fig. 2 shows the results of recent studies of the composition and dynamics of the proton component of the Earth's radiation belt, carried out on artificial Earth satellites and orbital stations.

Rice. 2. Distribution of integral fluxes of protons in the plane of the geomagnetic equator. L is the distance from the center of the Earth, expressed in the radii of the Earth. (The numbers on the curves correspond to the lower limit of the proton energy in MeV).

Rice. 3. The meridional section of the Earth's radiation belt and the Apollo splashdown site. Shells L = 1-3 - inner part of the RPZ belt; L = 3.5-7 - outer part of the RPZ; L is equal to the radius of the Earth. Red dots mark the splashdown sites Apollo 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, located near the geomagnetic equator.

Rice. 4. Averaged over time and over all values ​​of longitude profiles of the intensity of electrons of various energies at the geomagnetic equator. The numbers on the curves correspond to the electron energy in MeV. (a) and (b) - for epochs of minimum and maximum solar activity.

The figure shows that during the epoch of maximum solar activity, the radiation dose created by the outer belt increases by 4-7 times. Recall that 1969 - 1972 was the year of the peak of 11-year solar activity. As well as for protons, for the electronic component of the ERP there is a universal altitude course, n = 0.46. The altitude movement for electrons is less critical than for protons. For example, for electrons at latitudes λ ~ 30 ° (V / Ve = 3) and λ ~ 44 ° (V / Ve = 10), the value of radiation doses of the electronic component will decrease by 1.7 and 3.1 times, respectively. This means that according to the NASA flight to the Moon and return to Earth, Apollo can't escape electronic component of the RPZ. The results of calculating the radiation dose and the characteristics of the electronic component of the ERP used are shown in Table 2.

Tab. 2. Characteristics of the electronic component of the ERB, the effective range of electrons in Al, the time of flight of the ERB by Apollo to the Moon and upon returning to the Earth, the ratio of specific radiation and ionization energy losses, absorption coefficients x-rays for Al and water, the equivalent and absorbed dose of radiation *.

The results show that conventional spacecraft protection reduces the radiation effect of the electronic component of the radiation belts by a factor of thousands. The obtained values ​​of the radiation dose are not dangerous for the life of astronauts. The main contribution to radiation doses is made by electrons with energies of 0.3-3 MeV, which generate hard X-rays.

Note the fact that the radiation effect is 1-2 orders of magnitude higher than the official NASA report for the Apollo missions gives. So much for Apollo 13 the value of the absorbed dose is 0.24 rad. The calculation gives a value of ~ 34.5 glad, this is 144 times more... At the same time, the radiation effect almost doubles with a decrease in effective protection from 7.5 to 1.5 g / cm2, while the NASA report indicates the opposite. For Apollo 8 and Apollo 11 the official radiation doses are 0.16 and 0.18 rad, respectively.

The calculation gives 19.4 rad. This is 121 and 108 times less, respectively. And only for Apollo 14 the official radiation doses are 1.14 rad, which is 17 less than the calculated one. There are seasonal variations for the electronic component of the RPZ. In fig. 5 shows the fluxes of relativistic electrons for one pass of the belt according to the data of the GLONASS satellite and the geomagnetic indices Кр and Dst for 1994-1996. Bold lines represent measurement smoothing results. The presented data demonstrate well noticeable seasonal variations: the electron fluxes in spring and autumn are 5-6 times higher than the minimum ones - in winter and summer.

Rice. 5. Time variation of electron fluxes with an energy of 0.8-1.2 MeV (fluences) integrated during the GLONASS satellite flight through the radiation belt for the period from June 1994 to July 1996. The indices of geomagnetic activity are also given: daily Kp-index and Dst-variation. Bold lines - smoothed values ​​of fluences and Kp-index.

Launch and landing Apollo 13 took place in the spring of 04/11/1970 and 04/17/1970, respectively. Obviously, the electron fluxes will be several times higher than the average. This means that the value of the absorbed radiation dose will increase several times and will be 43-52 rad. This is 200 times more than the official data. Similarly, for Apollo 16(launch and landing, respectively, 04/16/1972 and 04/27/1972) the radiation dose will be 25-30 rad. During magnetic storms there is a change in the intensity of electrons in the ERB sometimes 10-100 times and more during the epoch of maximum solar activity. In this case, the radiation doses can rise to dangerous values ​​for the life of astronauts and amount to 10 Sieverts and more. As a rule, during these periods, injection of particles predominates, especially at strong magnetic disturbances. In fig. 6 shows the profiles of the intensity of electrons of various energies in quiet conditions (Fig. 6a) and 2 days after the magnetic storm on September 4, 1966 (Fig. 6b).

Rice. 6. Profiles of electron fluxes in quiet conditions six days before the storm (a) and two days after the magnetic storm (b). The numbers at the curves are the energies of electrons in keV.

One of the flights to the moon according to the NASA report was Apollo 14: Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell, Stuart Rusa 01/31/1971 - 02/09/1971 GMT / 216: 01: 58 Third landing on the Moon: 02/05/1971 09:18:11 - 02/06/1971 18:48:42 33 h 31 min / 9 h 23 min 42.9.

On January 27, a few days before the Apollo launch, a moderate magnetic storm began, which turned into a small storm on January 31, which was caused by a solar flare towards the Earth on January 24, 1971. ... Obviously, an increase in the level of radiation can be expected 10-100 times or 1-10 Sievert (100-1000 rad). In the case of a radiation dose of 10 Sieverts the radiation effect when flying through the Van Alen belt - 100% fatal.

Rice. 7 Result of exposure to radiation. Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Flight results Apollo 14 It was:

1) demonstrated excellent physical fitness and high qualifications of astronauts, in particular, the physical endurance of Shepard, who at the time of the flight was 47 years old;

2) no painful phenomena were observed in astronauts;

3) Shepard put on half a kilogram in weight ( first case in the history of American manned astronautics);

4) during the flight, the astronauts never took medication;

5) demonstrates the advantages of exploring the Moon with the participation of astronauts in comparison with flights of automatic vehicles ...

In fig. 8 shows the change in the intensity profiles of electrons with an energy of 290-690 keV before and after a magnetic storm.

Rice. 8. The flux density of electrons with energy 290-690 keV for different times on the shells of the Earth's radiation belt from 1.5 to 2.5. The numbers next to the curves denote the time in days elapsed after the injection of electrons.

Rice. 8 shows that after 5 days the electron flux density with energy 290-690 keV significantly expanded and 40-60 times higher than before the magnetic storm, after 15 days - 30-40 times higher, after 30 days - 5-10 times more, after 60 days - 3-5 times more. Only after 3 months the electronic component of the ERP comes to an equilibrium state. Significant spatial and temporal changes in electron fluxes in the entire region of the belts during one year are shown in Fig. 9.

Rice. 9. Changes in fluxes of electrons with energy> 400 keV in radiation belts during 1 year. Shades of gray-black show a change in particle flux: the blacker the shade, the greater the particle flux. It can be seen that the largest particle fluxes are observed during magnetic storms (geomagnetic index Кр). At these moments of time, the electron density between the inner and outer radiation zones at distances of 2.5-5.5 Rz is increased by several orders of magnitude.

As can be seen, significant variations in the electronic component of the ERB in intensity and in space of a relatively quiet state of the Earth's radiation belt take a quarter of a year. During magnetic storms, particle fluxes significantly expand into the outer region and "slide" closer to the Earth, filling previously empty areas of trapped radiation.

A sharp increase in electron flux creates a real threat to satellites and spacecraft pilots on the Earth-Moon path, located in the zone of bursts of their flux. Quite a few cases have already been noted when the failure of individual satellite systems or even the termination of their functioning is associated with a sharp increase in the flux of relativistic electrons. A powerful stream of electrons with an energy of several MeV, through and through the shell of the satellite, electrons with a lower energy generate a huge flux of secondary bremsstrahlung, consisting of hard X-rays.

Radiation doses in the circumlunar space and on the surface of the moon

In near-earth orbit, astronauts are protected by the Earth's magnetosphere. In circumlunar space or on the lunar surface, the entire solar wind flow is taken up by the body of the spacecraft or lunar module. The flux of protons can be neglected (obviously, except for solar-proton events). The density of the electron flux in the solar wind changes by two to three orders of magnitude, sometimes within only one week.

When they collide with the skin of a ship or a module, electrons stop and give rise to X-rays, which have a huge penetrating ability (the thickness of the shielding 7.5 g / cm2 of aluminum will only halve the radiation dose). Below is a graph of changes in the radiation dose rad / day from 1996 to 2013, which an astronaut receives with an external shield thickness of 1.5 g / cm2:

Rice. 10. Changes in the radiation dose, rad / day from 1996 to 2013, which an astronaut receives with an external shielding thickness of 1.5 g / cm2 in the circumlunar space. Nonlinear scale on the left - electron flux levels for the solar wind according to the ACE satellite, n linear scale on the right - radiation dose in units of rad per day. The horizontal lines mark the levels for comparison: yellow is the dose on a single chest x-ray, orange is the dose on tomography of the vertebrae.

From fig. 10 that the radiation doses in the circumlunar space and on the lunar surface are irregular. In the year of minimum solar activity, radiation doses are 0.0001 rad. In the year of maximum solar activity, they vary from 0.003 to 1 rad / day (note - for electrons rem = rad; the irregularity of electron fluxes in the solar wind during the years of maximum solar activity is associated with solar flares that occur daily).

For a month of stay in the circumlunar space, astronauts for a value corresponding to October 1-31, 2001 receive doses of 0.5 rad, an average of 0.016 rad / day; for a value corresponding to November 1-30, 2001, doses of 3.4 rad are received, the average is 0.11 rad / day; the averaged over two months is - 3.9 rad for 60 days or 0.065 rad / day. This means that the radiation doses received by the astronauts of 9 missions only during their stay in the lunar space are higher than the doses declared by NASA and should have significant variations.

This contradicts the data from the Apollo missions. With a higher electron flux density, as well as with a long stay outside the Earth's magnetosphere (100 days), doses can approach the values ​​of radiation sickness - 1.0 Sv. Additionally - Archive of radiation doses from January 1, 2010. Obviously, these radiation doses are summed up with other doses, for example, when passing through the Earth's radiation belt, as a result, we have the values ​​that an astronaut receives when flying to the Moon and returning to Earth.

Discussion

40 years have passed since the Apollo missions. Until now, no one gives an accurate forecast for geomagnetic disturbance. They talk about the probability of geomagnetic disturbances (magnetic storm, magnetic storm) for a day, for several days. The accuracy of the forecast for the week is below 5%. A more unpredictable character is noted for the electrons of the solar wind. This means that with a probability of at least 20-30%, the astronauts of the Apollo missions will fall into an unpredictable powerful stream of electrons from the Earth's radiation belt and the solar wind. The flight of Apollo through the external RPZ and the solar wind in the era of the active sun can be compared to a hussar tape measure, when one cartridge is loaded into an empty drum of a 4-round revolver! 9 attempts were made. The likelihood of not getting acute radiation sickness

Attempt	Probability to survive
	(3 / 4)2 = 0,562
	(3 / 4)3 = 0,422
	(3 / 4)4 = 0,316
	(3 / 4)5 = 0,237
	(3 / 4)6 = 0,178
	(3 / 4)7 = 0,133
	(3 / 4)8 = 0,100
	(3 / 4)9 = 0,075

This is equivalent to almost 100% of radiation sickness.

To summarize, let's say: double passage of the Earth's radiation belt according to the NASA scheme leads to lethal doses of radiation of 5 Sieverts or more during magnetic storms. Even if the Apollo were accompanied by fortune:

1. radiation doses during the passage of the proton component of the ERP would be 100 times less,
2. the passage of the electronic component of the ERP would be with minimal geomagnetic disturbance and low magnetic activity,
3. low electron density in the solar wind,

then the total radiation dose will be at least 20-30 rem. Radiation doses are not dangerous to human life. However, in this case, the radiation effect by two orders of magnitude higher than the values ​​stated in the official NASA report! Table 3 shows the total and daily radiation doses from manned space flights and data from orbital stations.

Table 3. Total and daily radiation doses from manned flights on spacecraft and on orbital stations.

launch and landing

duration

orbital elements

sum. radiation dose, glad [source]

average per day, rad / day

Apollo 7

11.10.1968 / 22.10.1968

10 d 20 h 09m 03 s

orbital flight, orbital altitude 231-297 km

Apollo 8

21.12.1968 / 27.12.1968

6 d 03 h 00 m

Apollo 9

03.03.1969 / 13.03.1969

10 d 01 h 00 m 54 s

orbital flight, orbital altitude 189-192 km, on the third day - 229-239 km

Apollo 10

18.05.1969 / 26.05.1969

8 d 00 h 03 m 23 s

flight to the moon and return to Earth according to NASA

16.07.1969 / 24.07.1969

8 d 03 h 18 m 00 s

flight to the moon and return to Earth according to NASA

Apollo 12

14.11.1969 / 24.11.1969

10 d 04 h 25 m 24 s

flight to the moon and return to Earth according to NASA

11.04.1970 / 17.04.1970

5 d 22 h 54 m 41 s

flight to the moon and return to Earth according to NASA

Apollo 14

01.02.1971 / 10.02.1971

9 d 00 h 05 m 04 s

flight to the moon and return to Earth according to NASA

26.07.1971 / 07.08.1971

12 d 07 h 11 m 53 s

flight to the moon and return to Earth according to NASA

16.04.1972 / 27.04.1972

11 d 01 h 51 m 05 s

flight to the moon and return to Earth according to NASA

Apollo 17

07.12.1972 / 19.12.1972

12 d 13 h 51 m 59 s

flight to the moon and return to Earth according to NASA

Skylab 2

25.05.1973 / 22.06.1973

28 d 00 h 49 m 49 s

orbital flight, orbital altitude 428-438 km

Skylab 3

28.07.1973 / 25.09.1973

59 d 11 h 09 m 01 s

orbital flight, orbital altitude 423-441 km

Skylab 4

16.11.1973 / 08.02.1974

84 d 01 h 15 m 30 s

orbital flight, orbital altitude 422-437 km

Shuttle Mission 41-C

06.04.1984 / 13.04.1984

6 d 23 h 40 m 07 s

orbital flight, perigee: 222 km apogee: 468 km

orbital flight, orbital altitude 385-393 km

orbital flight, orbital altitude 337-351 km

It can be noted that the Apollo radiation doses of 0.022-0.127 rad / day received by astronauts when flying to the moon do not differ from the radiation doses of 0.010-0.153 rad / day during orbital flights. The influence of the Earth's radiation belt is zero. Although the present calculation shows that the radiation doses from missions to the Moon will be 100-1000 times or more higher.

It can also be noted that the lowest radiation effect of 0.010-0.020 rad / day is observed for the ISS orbital station, which has an effective protection of 15 g / cm2 and is in a low reference orbit of the Earth. The highest radiation doses of 0.099-0.153 rad / day were recorded for the Skylab OS, which has a protection of 7.5 g / cm2 and flew in a high reference orbit.

Conclusion

Apollo did not fly to the moon they circled in a low reference orbit, protected by the Earth's magnetosphere, simulating a flight to the Moon, and received doses of radiation from a normal orbital flight. In general, the history of "man's stay on the moon" is several decades old! The flight of the Americans to the Moon can be compared to a chess game. On the one hand, there was NASA, the great-power prestige of the nation, politicians and "advocates" of NASA, on the other hand there were Ralph Rene, Yu. I. Mukhin, A. I. Popov and many other enthusiastic opponents. Opponents staged a lot of chess checks, one of the last - "Man on the Moon. The sun in the pictures of Apollo is 20 times bigger!" This article, on behalf of all opponents, is declared to be NASA's checkmate. Despite the danger of RPG and politics, of course, humanity will not stay forever on Earth ...

Apollo 11 - 2 people

On July 21, 1969, Neil Armstrong made history by becoming the first person to walk on the moon, followed by Buzz Aldrin. The lunar landing could hardly be called a "soft landing", Armstrong had to manually land the Lunar Module as the planned landing site was strewn with boulders. Together with Aldrin, who monitors altitude and speed, as well as an almost empty fuel tank, they landed safely at the Base of Tranquility (this is what they called their landing site on the moon).

In total, Neil and Buzz spent on lunar surface(both inside and outside the module) 21 hours, 36 minutes and 21 seconds, and the total duration of walks in the Sea of ​​Tranquility (as they called the area in which they worked) was 2 hours, 31 minutes and 40 seconds. During their lunar activity, they collected stones, placed the US flag, installed a seismograph and the Lunar Corner Reflector - a device for measuring the distances between the Earth and the Moon using lasers directed from the Earth, which is used to this day.

Apollo 12 - 2 people

The next lunar pedestrians were Pete Conrad and Alan Bean during the Apollo 12 mission. Powerful shocks knocked out the power and control systems, but thanks to the quick response of the Mission Control Center and Binu, everything was soon restored.

The Apollo 12 team confirmed their precision landing skills by landing just 185 meters from the drone spaceship Surveyor-3. During one of their walks, Konrad and Bean, passing by Surveyer, dismantled several parts of it for further analysis on Earth. In general, the astronauts spent two days on the moon, November 19 and 20, 1969.

Apollo 13 - 0 people

The next lunar mission was supposed to be Apollo 13, but due to the fact that two days after launch the oxygen tank on the spare module of the spacecraft exploded, the crew was never able to land on the moon. This was followed by a heroically torturous and spectacular rescue operation.

Apollo 14 - 2 people

Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell, who were part of the Apollo 14 mission, successfully landed on the moon. They took off on January 31, 1971 and landed on February 5 at Fra Mauro, the site originally planned for Apollo 13. Shepard and Mitchell made two exits; in the first, they conducted a series of seismic experiments to study possible earthquakes on the moon, using a modular wagon to transport equipment and samples.

During the second, they tried to reach a crater named Cone, but with no visible landmarks in the rocky, repetitive landscape, they were unable to find it. Later analysis, which matched the images taken by the astronauts with the orbital, determined that the pair was only 20 meters away. During his stay on the moon, Shepard managed to open a golf club and hit a couple of balls. Mitchell joined in, throwing the moon shovel like a spear.

Apollo 15 - 2 people

David Scott and James Irwin landed on July 31, 1971 as part of the Apollo 15 mission, flying for three days until August 2. Unlike previous missions that landed on flat lunar plains, this team sat between two mountains in an area called Hadley Rill.

The astronauts spent about 18.5 hours overboard driving the first ever Lunokhod which they brought with them. This allowed them to travel much further from the Lunar Module than previous missions. During three lunar walks, Scott and Irwin conducted several scientific experiments and collected 77 kg of lunar rock samples.

Apollo 16 - 2 people

John Young and Charles Duke were the next guests to land on the moon on the Apollo 16 mission. When the ship entered lunar orbit, the mission was nearly derailed due to problems with the main engine of the control and maintenance module. However, everything worked out and moreover, it turned out to be the first mission with a landing directly on the lunar hill. They spent 71 hours or three days on the lunar surface, from April 21 to 23, 1972. During this time, they made three exits with a total duration of 20 hours and 14 minutes, and also dashed off 26.7 kilometers on the lunar rover.

So how many people have been to the moon? - 12!

Although no one has ever walked to the moon more than once, three different astronauts have traveled to it several times. Jim Lovell flew around the moon on Apollo 8 and on the interrupted Apollo 13. John Young and Eugene Cernan circled the moon on Apollo 10, then Jung landed with Apollo 16, and Cernan walked on the moon during the Apollo 17 mission.

Were Russians on the Moon?

The official answer is no. The first person from the USSR to set foot on the lunar surface should be the pilot-cosmonaut, the hero of the Soviet Union Alexei Leonov - the person who was the first to open space.

In 1965-1969 Leonov was a member of a group of Soviet cosmonauts trained under the Soviet programs for flying around the Moon L1 / Zond and landing on it. The flight of the manned spacecraft Zond-7 according to the lunar orbital program was tentatively scheduled for December 8, 1968. Leonov was part of the second crew preparing to fly around the moon in September 1968, and the first to set foot on its surface. But history decreed otherwise, and the first to visit the moon was the American Neil Armstrong.

After that, the space race was over. has ceased to make any sense. The next target was Mars, but until recently, neither the United States nor Russia showed much interest in flying to the Red Planet. Everything changed with the arrival of private companies, including.

Why don't they fly to the moon now?

Several years ago, dozens of innovative companies going to return to the moon with new technologies and ideas participated in the international Google Lunar X Prize competition. At the end of this year, the winner will be determined, who will receive $ 20 million for the implementation and development of his project.

In the coming years, China, the United States, Russia and the European Union are preparing manned missions to the moon ..

On the moon, and whether they were there at all, disputes have been going on for decades. Supporters of the landing of astronauts argue that this event was a decisive argument in the space dispute between the United States and the USSR, after which the basic space programs were significantly adjusted on both sides. For some, the first manned flight to the moon is a myth developed by cunning Americans, but for most people, a visit to our natural satellite is an indisputable fact.

Background

The first space launch towards our satellite was launched in 1959, already 15 months after launch. For a long time, only Soviet space explorers acted in this direction. US representatives began to work in this direction only after the launches of their lunar Ranger automata, the first series of which was launched in 1964.

Before the early 70s, the question "How many people were on the moon?" did not make sense - there was no technological possibility for this. In 1971, the Apollo program began to be seriously developed in the United States. Its successful implementation cost the American taxpayers $ 25 billion. President Kennedy considered the successful start of the lunar expansion a priority national task that would strengthen the US space prestige and prove the economic and scientific capabilities of this state.

The implementation of the plan for landing a man on the moon became possible after the launch and successful testing of the Saturn-5 launch vehicle. It was he who was used to complete the Apollo 11.

First landing

About that, during the first interplanetary expedition, it is known from newspaper publications and reports, which in July 1969 flew around the world. The names of three Americans, members of the first space crew - N. Armstrong, M. Collins. Of these, Armstrong and Aldrin were the first to set foot on the ground of our satellite, while Collins remained in circumlunar orbit. The astronauts left commemorative signs on the Moon with images of the deceased space explorers, collected samples of lunar soil, installed radar reflectors, took off on the take-off stage and joined the main flight unit 21 hours later.

Eight days later, the crew without incident landed in the area The Pacific where he was picked up by a team of rescuers.

Further expeditions

The successful start of the space pioneers gave rise to further expeditions aboard Apollo-class ships. Total for our natural satellite five expeditions were sent. This already gives a general idea of ​​how many people have visited the moon and how many reserves were spent for these flights. According to official sources, 26 people were sent to the moon, and twelve lucky ones managed to directly touch

The number of times people have flown to the moon can be determined by the Apollo space program - a total of 7 expeditions were sent, and only one of them was unsuccessful. The ill-fated "Apollo 13" got an accident at the start of its voyage, its crew was forbidden to descend to the surface of the satellite. Therefore, the answer to the question of how many times people have been on the moon contains a small catch. Apollo 13 flew to our satellite, but landing on the lunar surface was not made.

twice?

Were there even such people who visited our satellite several times? All the people who have flown to the moon were US citizens, experienced astronaut pilots who received special training at NASA centers. Of these, there was only one astronaut who managed to visit our moon twice. It turned out to be Y. Cernan. The first time he flew to the moon as part of the Apollo 10 space crew. Then he was on board artificial satellite The moon, just 15 km from its surface. The second time as commander of the Apollo 17 spacecraft, Eugene Cernan flew to the moon in 1972. Then, together with his partner H. Schmitt, he landed on the moon in the area of ​​the Littrow crater. In total, Cernan came to the surface of our satellite three times and stayed there for 23 hours.

So how many people were on the moon? A total of twelve people touched the surface of the moon, and twenty-six flew in space crews.

And in the 60s, and today, getting to the natural satellite of the Earth requires the same thing. First, a super-heavy rocket, launching 120 tons into low orbit and more than 45 tons into the trajectory to the Moon. The starting mass of such a monster should be under 3000 tons. On lighter rockets, it will not work to launch a lunar ship into space at one time. Launching two rockets and assembling a ship in space would dramatically increase the risks of failure.

Secondly, a lunar lander is needed, capable of landing in the manner of modern "falcon" or Soviet lunar lander half a century ago. Its mass starts from 15 tons. Everything else - MCCs, spacesuits, lunar transport- much simpler and either already in stock or can be developed quickly without huge costs.

In human history, super-heavy launch vehicles were built four times: the American (or rather, created by Wernher von Braun) Saturn-5, the Soviet N-1, the Soviet Energia, and the American SLS (still being created). It is enough to look at the images of all four to notice the obvious: they are very similar to each other. There are no technological secrets in them for a long time, and if desired, any significant country can cope with this task. The Soviet lunar rocket did not take off due to quite solvable design errors. If the USSR had a desire to correct these mistakes, it would eventually do it. Another thing is that Brezhnev did not have such a desire. The political leader was replaced - and the tasks associated with the creation of a super-heavy carrier were quickly and successfully solved in the USSR ("Energy").

Why can't the technology of the sixties be used for it?

One can often hear a perplexed question: if the United States had such a technology for the Saturns half a century ago, then why are they now building an SLS - a rocket of the same technical appearance, but with different engines and subsystems? Isn't it easier to take blueprints from the 60s and reproduce them accurately, especially since development is always the most expensive part of lunar programs?

The answer to this question is simple and disappointing. Firstly, in fact, there are simply no complete and detailed drawings. Private firms that made the knots of the old rocket have already closed in significant numbers. Secondly, even if they were, it would not help much. The Saturn components have not been produced for so long that the time and money required to reproduce them will be equal to the development of a new rocket. And in fact, even more - after all, when creating the SLS, NASA uses engines developed for shuttles. The most expensive part of their life cycle - development - has already been paid for, and choosing instead to create engines for Saturn according to old drawings will not only be more expensive, but also much longer.

In theory, Russia also has blueprints for Energia, one of the versions of which is quite suitable for a flight to the moon. In contrast to the United States, there are still companies that make up components. However, in practice, over a quarter of a century, even the infrastructure for fueling rockets with liquid hydrogen has disappeared in the country, not to mention the actual engines and other systems, without which the Soviet Energia cannot be made. When Russia builds a new superheavy, it will be created from scratch. Space technology easily and cheaply can only be lost. Finding them again will always be harder and more expensive.

No need to fly?

In recent years, a new hypothesis has been gaining popularity about why the United States, and with it all of humanity, stopped flying to the moon. Allegedly, the scientific return from flights there was "vanishingly small", everything that people could take from these missions, they quickly took, so it turned out to be more profitable to explore space with the help of machines.

Alas, in fact, by the end of half a dozen flights, our knowledge of Selene was extremely small. It became clear that it is not covered with an ocean of dust, in which everything gets stuck. We also managed to gain somewhere 400 kilograms of soil. But then it turned out that it is rather difficult to extract reliable scientific information from him. NASA was in such a hurry to win the lunar race that a number of small technical details worked through their sleeves. The soil containers did not close well and were not completely sealed. Immediately, all the geochemists who analyzed the soil and found there water and an amazing isotopic similarity with terrestrial rocks began to shout that, because of the ugly containers, the value of this soil in solving critical issues is zero.

In an amicable way, NASA had to take and finally make decent containers and fly to the satellite again in order to understand where, in fact, the water in the ground comes from and why the Moon and Earth look made of the same material, although planetary science argued that this could not be done at all be. Alas, the agency did nothing of this, because it curtailed flights, and there was no point in making new containers, because there would be nothing to transport them.

Worse still, because of the same rush for astronauts on the moon. And those that were, weakly bent at the knees, which is why the explorers of the Moon could not walk on it normally. Needless to say, you can't really explore 38 million square kilometers of surface on rigid knees:

It is enough to read the science fiction of those years to notice: the idea that the most interesting things on the Moon are hidden in caves, crevasses and craters was widespread already half a century ago. Everyone understood that volatile substances, including the same water, can hide in the shadow of these objects and their study is extremely important. But how do you get into a cave when you can't even walk normally on a flat surface? Of course, no one set such a task for astronauts.

Today we already know hundreds of lunar caves and their entrances, some of which are measured in kilometers. But we have no way of exploring them without astronauts. We have already written why in such difficult conditions and why they will remain so for the entire foreseeable future.

In addition, it was discovered that there is water at the lunar poles - judging by the radar data, in the form of ice. You cannot be sure of this from a long distance. Neutron detectors (by the way, of Russian origin) register secondary neutrons from the lunar surface. They arise in the upper layer of the soil under the action of cosmic rays falling on it. High-energy neutrons born in the soil are slowed down and absorbed by the atomic nuclei that it contains (due to inelastic scattering and capture). If there is something containing hydrogen in the soil, then it effectively slows down the neutrons, and the flux of epithermal neutrons emitted outward drops sharply, which changes the picture observed by the detector. Alas, the neutron detector does not reliably distinguish water ice from hydrated minerals. This is a very significant difference in practical terms.

The issue can be resolved by sending a person there. He can also find out if there is water in the huge lava tubes already seen on the earth's satellite, as well as find out what temperature there is and how such objects are suitable for creating lunar bases protected from radiation. But in practice, all this remained unattainable due to the stoppage of flights.

As we can see, the hypothesis "we do not fly, because it is not necessary" does not withstand even the slightest contact with gross reality. Flights of people there are not only needed, but are also the only possible means of at least some deep study of the moon. Largely because of their absence, our understanding of the history of the satellite and our own planet has been going in circles for decades.

"You don't have enough funds?"

The most logical version of why there are no such flights now is the financial one. A single Saturn 5 flight in 1969 cost $ 185 million, or about $ 1.2 billion today. About 10 thousand per kilogram of load is clearly not cheap. However, uncomfortable questions arise with this version.

The lunar program was expensive (over $ 170 billion in 2016 prices), but the shuttle program was even more expensive ($ 230 billion). According to NASA, one shuttle flight cost $ 500 million. According to independent observers in the same USA - 1.65 billion. Let us assume that these observers are agents of the Kremlin, and only the agency gave the correct figure. Then it turns out that the shuttle, which launched 24.4 tons, cost 0.5 billion per launch, and Saturn-5 - 1.2 billion, but put five times more cargo into space. In the best case for shuttles, they put a payload into space more expensive than the Saturns! At the same time, the "shuttle traders" were doing, frankly, it is not clear what. It is difficult to compare the scientific results obtained from their flights to the ISS and into low-earth orbit, with the results of studies of the Moon and the removal of several centners of soil from there. If Saturns were expensive, then why turn to even more expensive and at the same time radically less efficient shuttles?

It can be assumed that after the curtailment of flights to the moon, "Saturns" were no longer needed. A rocket launching more than 100 tons into orbit is too powerful a thing to launch satellites with it. It will not be possible to load it with small devices - such needs for launching them in the post-Apollo era simply did not exist. The shuttles lift five times less and look much more appropriate for low-orbit astronautics. But even this explanation is unsatisfactory. From the point of view of space exploration and study, all the tasks performed by the shuttles look weaker than the tasks performed by the Saturns.

Why was the choice made in favor of the "shuttle traders"? When flights to the moon were phased out, US congressmen and politicians wanted to lower the cost of space. NASA tried, despite this, to maintain significant funding. Therefore, before politicians who were poorly versed in anything specific, a rosy picture was drawn of how, with massive launches of reusable shuttles, the unit cost of output per kilogram of cargo would decrease and everything would be fine. The shuttle program was positioned as saving money, otherwise no one would give money for it. However, a series of mistakes were made in its planning. The underlying reason for all of them was cost savings, which were shown to be the strong point of the shuttles compared to the expensive Saturn. As a result, the shuttles turned out the way they were made: cheap to develop ($ 6.75 billion), but expensive in flight ($ 18,000 per kilogram of cargo against the planned 674). All this reminds of the classic story of the construction of the Bradley BMP by the Pentagon (see the video below):

The opinion that giving up deep space can save money is a natural consequence of the fact that the bearers of this opinion are politicians, that is, people who are not technically very competent. The question is not how "to fly to the Moon is expensive or not to fly to it cheap". In reality, space will still be expensive. It's just that in one case, astronauts, like today, will be expensive to transport to the ISS 400 kilometers from Earth. In another case, they will be transported less frequently (once a year, for example), but to the Moon, 400 thousand kilometers from the Earth.

So, the correct answer to the question "Why aren't we going to the moon?" there will be a famous phrase from the Soviet classics: "We have the means. We do not have enough intelligence." The real reason for abandoning flights to the moon is NASA's inability to calculate that abandoning Saturns would make deep space flights impossible and near-space flights impossibly expensive. Only the USSR could restrain the United States from this mistake - if it wanted to perfect its lunar rocket, or even, as Korolev planned, by flying to Mars. In the face of Soviet deep space flights, the Americans could not abandon the Saturns. As you know, Moscow did not want any of this. Her reluctance, coupled with a series of enchanting agency mistakes, buried "lunar technology" for many decades.

Never again?

The most realistic answer to the question "When are we going to the moon?" will sound like "Never, as long as it depends on US or Russian government agencies." The problem is that the United States, in the words of Nicholas II, is a country without a master. No president there can spend more than 8 years in power, and it is unrealistic to implement the second lunar program in such a short time. Meanwhile, each subsequent president, coming to power, tries to change what he did not like in the previous policy (Donald Trump vs. Obamacare).

We all remember how Nixon came to power promising an end to ruinous "cosmic dreams." This, of course, did not work out - the shuttle program adopted by him came out more expensive than the lunar one. But his experience taught nothing to anyone. And it will not teach in the future: knowledge of history is inherent American presidents no more than knowing the basics of rocket science. Obama scrapped the Constellation (another lunar) program in the same way that Nixon scrapped the Apollo program. He, too, mistakenly believed that this would lead to a decrease in US space spending. As shown by the huge spending on the program for the development of the American space approved by Obama, no savings from the closure of Constellation came out either. However, this will not teach anyone anything. It doesn't matter if a Republican or a Democrat comes to power - both of them will close the program of their predecessor, which means that no one will have time to fly to the moon.

In theory, other sovereign nations can resolve the issue. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine the Chinese Communist Party or United Russia as having lost the elections. This means that there is no one there to kill the lunar programs of the predecessor president. However, China does not yet have the technological level required for such a flight. It also does not appear in the list of the nearest priorities of the PDA.

In Russia, as we have already noted, the problem is even deeper. Although we can formally build the necessary equipment, in reality the Deputy Prime Minister in charge of space does not know why we need to fly to the Moon or Mars. In addition, we are incomparably poorer than the USA or China. and will remain so for the foreseeable future. Thus, Russia and China have been excluded from the list of potential conquerors of the moon. For them to get there, an external impulse is needed - the landing on another celestial body of the same Americans. Until such an event, a lunar mission should not be expected either under the tricolor or under the red flag.

The moon is not a bad place. Definitely deserves a short visit.
Neil Armstrong

Almost half a century has passed since the Apollo flights, but the debate about whether the Americans were on the Moon does not subside, but becomes more and more fierce. The piquancy of the situation is that the supporters of the theory of the "lunar conspiracy" are trying to challenge not real historical events, but their own, vague and error-ridden idea of ​​them.

Moon epic

Facts first. On May 25, 1961, six weeks after Yuri Gagarin's triumphant flight, President John F. Kennedy made a speech before the Senate and House of Representatives, in which he promised that the American would land on the moon by the end of the decade. Having suffered defeat at the first stage of the space "race", the United States set out not only to catch up, but also to overtake Soviet Union.

The main reason for the lag at that time was that the Americans underestimated the importance of heavy ballistic missiles. Like their Soviet colleagues, American specialists studied the experience of German engineers who built A-4 (V-2) missiles during the war, but did not give these projects serious development, believing that in a global war there would be enough long-range bombers. Of course, the team of Wernher von Braun, taken out of Germany, continued to create ballistic missiles in the interests of the army, but they were unsuitable for space flights. When the Redstone rocket, the successor to the German A-4, was modified to launch the first American ship, the Mercury, it was only able to lift it to suborbital altitude.

Nevertheless, resources were found in the United States, so American designers quickly created the necessary "line" of carriers: from "Titan-2", which launched a two-seater maneuvering ship "Gemini" into orbit, to "Saturn-5", capable of sending a three-man ship "Apollo" "To the moon.

Redstone
Saturn-1B
Saturn-5
Titan-2

Of course, a colossal amount of work was required before the expeditions were dispatched. Spacecraft of the Lunar Orbiter series carried out a detailed mapping of the nearest celestial body - with their help it was possible to outline and study suitable landing sites. The Surveyors made soft lunar landings and provided excellent images of the surrounding area.

Lunar Orbiter spacecraft have carefully mapped the Moon, identifying future astronaut landings

The Surveyor spacecraft studied the Moon directly on its surface; the parts of the Surveyor-3 apparatus were taken and delivered to Earth by the Apollo-12 crew

In parallel, the Gemini program developed. After unmanned launches on March 23, 1965, the Gemini-3 spacecraft was launched, which maneuvered by changing the speed and inclination of the orbit, which at that time was an unprecedented achievement. Soon, Gemini 4 flew, in which Edward White performed the first spacewalk for the Americans. The spacecraft worked in orbit for four days, testing orientation systems for the Apollo program. The Gemini 5, launched on August 21, 1965, tested electrochemical generators and a docking radar. In addition, the crew set a record for the duration of stay in space - almost eight days (Soviet cosmonauts managed to beat it only in June 1970). By the way, during the Gemini-5 flight, the Americans for the first time faced the negative consequences of weightlessness - the weakening of the musculoskeletal system. Therefore, measures have been developed to prevent these effects: a special diet, drug therapy and a series of physical exercises.

In December 1965, the ships Gemini 6 and Gemini 7 approached each other to simulate docking. Moreover, the crew of the second ship spent more than thirteen days in orbit (that is, the total time of the lunar expedition), proving that the measures taken to maintain physical fitness are quite effective during such a long flight. On the ships Gemini 8, Gemini 9 and Gemini 10, they practiced the docking procedure (by the way, Neil Armstrong was the commander of Gemini 8). On Gemini 11 in September 1966, they tested the possibility of an emergency launch from the Moon, as well as a flight through the Earth's radiation belts (the ship climbed to a record altitude of 1369 km). On Gemini 12, the astronauts tried out a series of manipulations in outer space.

During the flight of the Gemini 12 spacecraft, astronaut Buzz Aldrin proved the possibility of complex manipulations in outer space

At the same time, the designers were preparing for testing the "intermediate" two-stage rocket "Saturn-1". During its first launch on October 27, 1961, it surpassed the Vostok rocket in thrust, on which the Soviet cosmonauts flew. It was assumed that the same rocket would launch the first Apollo-1 into space, but on January 27, 1967, a fire broke out at the launch complex, in which the crew of the ship died, and many plans had to be revised.

In November 1967, tests began on the huge three-stage Saturn-5 rocket. During the first flight, it lifted into orbit the Apollo-4 command and service module with a lunar module model. In January 1968, the Apollo 5 lunar module was tested in orbit, and the unmanned Apollo 6 went there in April. The last launch due to the failure of the second stage almost ended in disaster, but the rocket pulled out the ship, demonstrating good "survivability".

On October 11, 1968, the Saturn-1B rocket launched the Apollo-7 command and service module with a crew into orbit. For ten days, the astronauts tested the ship, conducting complex maneuvers. Apollo was theoretically ready for the expedition, but the lunar module was still raw. And then a mission was invented, which was not originally planned at all - a flight around the moon.

The flight of the Apollo 8 spacecraft was not planned by NASA: it became an improvisation, but it was carried out brilliantly, securing another historical priority for the American astronautics

On December 21, 1968, the Apollo 8 spacecraft without a lunar module, but with a crew of three astronauts, set off for a neighboring celestial body. The flight went relatively smoothly, but before the historic landing on the Moon, two more launches were needed: the Apollo 9 crew worked out the procedure for docking and undocking the spacecraft modules in near-earth orbit, then the Apollo 10 crew did the same, but already close to the Moon ... On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin stepped onto the lunar surface, thereby proclaiming US leadership in space exploration.

The Apollo 10 crew performed a “dress rehearsal”, completing all the operations required to land on the moon, but without the landing itself

Lunar module of the ship "Apollo-11", named "Eagle" ("Eagle") leaves for landing

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin on the Moon

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's moonwalk was broadcast via the radio telescope at Parkes Observatory in Australia; the originals of the recording of the historical event were also preserved and recently discovered there

This was followed by new successful missions: Apollo 12, Apollo 14, Apollo 15, Apollo 16, Apollo 17. As a result, twelve astronauts visited the moon, conducted reconnaissance of the area, installed scientific equipment, collected soil samples, and tested the rovers. Only the crew of Apollo 13 was unlucky: on the way to the moon, a tank of liquid oxygen exploded, and NASA specialists had to work hard to return the astronauts to Earth.

Falsification theory

Devices for creating an artificial sodium comet were installed on the Luna-1 spacecraft

It would seem that the reality of expeditions to the moon should not have been in doubt. NASA regularly published press releases and bulletins, experts and astronauts gave numerous interviews, in technical support many countries and the world scientific community participated, tens of thousands of people watched the takeoffs of huge rockets, and millions watched live TV broadcasts from space. Brought to Earth lunar soil, which many selenologists were able to study. International scientific conferences were held to make sense of the data that came from instruments left on the moon.

But even in that eventful time, people appeared who questioned the facts of the landing of astronauts on the moon. A skeptical attitude towards space achievements manifested itself back in 1959, and the likely reason for this was the secrecy policy pursued by the Soviet Union: for decades it even hid the location of its cosmodrome!

Therefore, when Soviet scientists announced that they had launched the Luna-1 research apparatus, some Western experts spoke in the spirit that the communists were simply fooling the world community. The specialists foresaw the questions and placed a device for vaporizing sodium on Luna-1, with the help of which an artificial comet was created, equal in brightness to the sixth magnitude.

Conspiracy theorists even dispute the reality of Yuri Gagarin's flight

Claims arose later: for example, some Western journalists doubted the reality of Yuri Gagarin's flight, because the Soviet Union refused to provide any documentary evidence. There was no camera on board the Vostok ship; the external appearance of the ship itself and the launch vehicle remained classified.

But the US authorities have never expressed doubts about the reliability of what happened: even during the flight of the first satellites, the National Security Agency (NSA) deployed two observation stations in Alaska and Hawaii and installed radio equipment there capable of intercepting telemetry, which came from Soviet devices. During Gagarin's flight, the stations were able to receive a TV signal with an image of an astronaut transmitted by an onboard camera. Within an hour, the printouts of individual footage from this broadcast were in the hands of government officials, and President John F. Kennedy congratulated the Soviet people on their outstanding achievement.

Soviet military specialists working at the Scientific and Measuring Point No. 10 (NIP-10), located in the Shkolnoye village near Simferopol, intercepted data coming from the Apollo spacecraft throughout the flights to the Moon and back.

Soviet intelligence did the same. At the NIP-10 station, located in the village of Shkolnoe (Simferopol, Crimea), a set of equipment was assembled that allows intercepting all information from the Apollo, including live TV broadcasts from the Moon. The head of the interception project, Aleksey Mikhailovich Gorin, gave the author of this article an exclusive interview, in which, in particular, he said: “A standard azimuth and elevation drive system was used to aim and control a very narrow beam. Based on the information about the location (Cape Canaveral) and the launch time, the flight trajectory of the spacecraft was calculated in all areas.

It should be noted that during about three days of flight, only sometimes there was a deviation of the beam pointing from the calculated trajectory, which was easily corrected manually. We started with Apollo 10, which made a test flight around the moon without landing. This was followed by flights with the landing of "Apollo" from the 11th to the 15th ... clear images spacecraft on the moon, the exit of both astronauts and travel on the lunar surface. Video from the Moon, speech and telemetry were recorded on appropriate tape recorders and transmitted to Moscow for processing and translation. "

In addition to intercepting data, Soviet intelligence also collected any information on the Saturn-Apollo program, since it could be used for the USSR's own lunar plans. For example, the scouts followed the missile launches from the Atlantic Ocean. Moreover, when preparations began for the joint flight of the Soyuz-19 and Apollo CSM-111 spacecraft (ASTP mission), which took place in July 1975, Soviet specialists were admitted to the official information on the ship and the rocket. And, as you know, they did not express any claims to the American side.

The Americans themselves had complaints. In 1970, that is, even before the end of the lunar program, a brochure was published by a certain James Kraeney "Did a man land on the moon?" (Did man land on the Moon?). The public ignored the brochure, although it, perhaps, was the first to formulate the main thesis of the "conspiracy theory": an expedition to the nearest celestial body is technically impossible.

Technical writer Bill Kaysing can rightfully be called the founder of the theory of the "lunar conspiracy"

The topic began to gain popularity a little later, after the release of Bill Kaysing's self-published book We Never Went to the Moon (1976), which lays out the now "traditional" arguments for conspiracy theory. For example, the author seriously argued that all deaths of participants in the Saturn-Apollo program are associated with the elimination of unwanted bystanders. I must say that Kaysing is the only one of the authors of books on this topic who was directly related to the space program: from 1956 to 1963 he worked as a technical writer at the Rocketdyne company, which was engaged in the design of the super-powerful F-1 engine for the rocket. Saturn-5 ".

However, after being fired "of his own free will," Kaysing became a beggar, grabbed hold of any job, and probably did not have warm feelings for his former employers. In the book, which was reprinted in 1981 and 2002, he argued that the Saturn 5 rocket was a "technical fake" and could never send astronauts on an interplanetary flight, so in reality the Apollo flew around the Earth, and the TV broadcast was carried out using unmanned vehicles.

Ralph René made a name for himself by accusing the US government of rigging flights to the moon and organizing the September 11, 2001 attacks

Bill Kaysing's creation was also ignored at first. Fame was brought to him by the American conspiracy theorist Ralph Rene, who posed as a scientist, physicist, inventor, engineer and scientific journalist, but in reality did not graduate a single higher educational institution... Like his predecessors, Rene published the book "How NASA showed America the Moon" (NASA Mooned America !, 1992) at his own expense, but at the same time he could already refer to other people's "research", that is, he looked not like a lonely psycho, but like a skeptic in search for truth.

Probably, the book, the lion's share of which is devoted to the analysis of certain photographs taken by astronauts, would also have gone unnoticed if the era of the television show had not come, when it became fashionable to invite all kinds of freaks and outcasts to the studio. Ralph Renee managed to get the most out of the sudden interest of the public, since he had a well-hung tongue and did not hesitate to make absurd accusations (for example, he claimed that NASA had deliberately damaged his computer and destroyed important files). His book was reprinted many times, and each time increasing in volume.

Among documentaries devoted to the theory of the "lunar conspiracy" come across outright hoaxes: for example, the pseudo-documentary French film "The Dark Side of the Moon" (Opération lune, 2002)

The topic itself also begged for a film adaptation, and soon there were films with a claim to documentary: "Was it just a paper moon?" (Was It Only a Paper Moon ?, 1997), "What Happened on the Moon?" (What Happened on the Moon ?, 2000), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon (2001), Astronauts Gone Wild: Investigation Into the Authenticity of the Moon Landings, 2004) and the like. By the way, the author of the last two films, filmmaker Bart Seabrell, twice harassed Buzz Aldrin with aggressive demands to confess to a deception and was eventually hit in the face by an elderly astronaut. A video footage of this incident can be found on YouTube. The police, by the way, refused to open a case against Aldrin. Apparently, she considered that the video was faked.

In the 1970s, NASA tried to collaborate with the authors of the lunar conspiracy theory and even issued a press release, which parsed the claims of Bill Kaysing. However, it soon became clear that they did not want a dialogue, but they were happy to use any mention of their fabrications for self-promotion: for example, Kaysing was suing astronaut Jim Lovell in 1996 for calling him a "fool" in one of his interviews.

However, how else to name the people who believed in the authenticity of the film "The Dark Side of the Moon" (Opération lune, 2002), where the famous director Stanley Kubrick was directly accused of filming all the astronauts on the moon in the Hollywood pavilion? Even in the film itself, there are indications that it is a fictional fiction in the mocumentari genre, but this did not prevent the conspiracy theorists from accepting the version with a bang and quoting it even after the creators of the hoax openly confessed to hooliganism. By the way, recently there was another "proof" of the same degree of reliability: this time an interview with a man similar to Stanley Kubrick surfaced, where he allegedly took responsibility for falsifying the materials of the lunar missions. The new fake was exposed quickly - it was made too clumsy.

Concealment operation

In 2007, science journalist and popularizer Richard Hoagland co-authored the book Dark Mission. The Secret History of NASA ”(Dark Mission: The Secret History of NASA), which immediately became a bestseller. In this weighty volume, Hoagland summarized his research on the "cover-up operation" - it is allegedly carried out by US government agencies, hiding from the world community the fact of contact with a more developed civilization that has mastered Solar system long before humanity.

Within the framework of the new theory, the "lunar conspiracy" is viewed as a product of the activities of NASA itself, which deliberately provokes an illiterate discussion of the falsification of landings on the moon so that qualified researchers disdain to deal with this topic for fear of being branded as "marginalized." Hoagland cleverly tailored all modern conspiracy theories to fit his theory, from the assassination of President John F. Kennedy to flying saucers and the Martian Sphinx. The journalist was even awarded the Shnobel Prize, which he received in October 1997, for his vigorous activity in exposing the "cover-up operation".

Believers and unbelievers

The supporters of the theory of the "lunar conspiracy", or, more simply, the "anti-Apollo", are very fond of accusing their opponents of illiteracy, ignorance, or even blind faith. A strange move, given that it is the "anti-Apollo people" who believe in a theory that is not supported by any significant evidence. In science and law, there are Golden Rule: An extraordinary statement requires extraordinary evidence. An attempt to accuse space agencies and the world scientific community of falsifying materials that are of great importance to our understanding of the Universe must be accompanied by something more weighty than a couple of self-published books published by an offended writer and a narcissistic pseudo-scientist.

All hours of film footage of the Apollo lunar expeditions have long been digitized and are available for study

If we imagine for a moment that a secret parallel space program existed in the United States using unmanned vehicles, then we need to explain where all the participants in this program have gone: the designers of the “parallel” technology, its testers and operators, as well as filmmakers who prepared kilometers of films of lunar missions. We are talking about thousands (or even tens of thousands) of people who needed to be involved in the "lunar conspiracy." Where are they and where are their confessions? Let's say they all, including foreigners, swore to remain silent. But piles of documents, contracts-orders with contractors, corresponding structures and landfills should remain. However, apart from nagging some public NASA materials, which are indeed often retouched or presented in a deliberately simplified interpretation, there is nothing. Nothing at all.

However, the "anti-Apollo people" never think about such "trifles" and persistently (often in an aggressive form) demand more and more evidence from the opposite side. The paradox is that if they, asking "tricky" questions, themselves tried to find answers to them, it would not be difficult. Let's consider the most typical claims.

During the preparation and implementation of the joint flight of the Soyuz and Apollo spacecraft, Soviet specialists were admitted to the official information of the American space program

For example, anti-Apollo people ask: why was the Saturn-Apollo program interrupted, and its technologies were lost and cannot be used today? The answer is obvious to anyone with even a general idea of ​​what happened in the early 1970s. It was then that one of the most powerful political and economic crises in the history of the United States happened: the dollar lost its gold content and was devalued twice; the protracted war in Vietnam drained resources; the youth were engulfed in the anti-war movement; Richard Nixon is on the verge of impeachment in connection with the Watergate scandal.

At the same time, the total costs of the Saturn-Apollo program amounted to $ 24 billion (in terms of current prices, we can talk about $ 100 billion), and each new launch cost $ 300 million (1.3 billion in modern prices) - it is clear that further funding became exorbitant for the meager American budget. The Soviet Union experienced something similar in the late 1980s, which led to the inglorious closure of the Energia-Buran program, the technologies of which are also largely lost.

In 2013, an expedition led by Jeff Bezos, founder of the Internet company Amazon, lifted from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean fragments of one of the F-1 engines of the Saturn 5 rocket that delivered Apollo 11 into orbit

Nevertheless, despite the problems, the Americans tried to squeeze a little more out of the lunar program: the Saturn-5 rocket launched the Skylab heavy orbital station (it was visited by three expeditions in 1973-1974), a joint Soviet-American flight took place. Soyuz-Apollo "(ASTP). In addition, in the Space Shuttle program, which replaced the Apollo, the launch facilities of the Saturns were used, and some technological solutions obtained during their operation are used today in the design of the promising American SLS launch vehicle.

Lunar Sample Laboratory Facility Moonstone Work Crate

Another popular question: where did the lunar soil, brought by astronauts, go? Why isn't it being studied? Answer: it has not gone anywhere, but is stored where it was planned - in the two-story building of the Lunar Sample Laboratory Facility, which was built in Houston (Texas). Applications for the study of the soil should also be applied there, but only organizations that have the necessary equipment can receive them. Each year, a special commission reviews applications and satisfies from forty to fifty of them; on average, up to 400 samples are sent. In addition, 98 samples with a total weight of 12.46 kg are exhibited in museums around the world, and dozens of scientific publications were published on each of them.

Pictures of the landing sites of the ships Apollo 11, Apollo 12 and Apollo 17, taken by the main optical camera of the LRO: the lunar modules, scientific equipment and the "paths" left by the astronauts are clearly visible

Another question in the same vein: why is there no independent evidence of a visit to the moon? Answer: they are. If we ignore the Soviet evidence, which is still far from completeness, and the excellent space photographs of the lunar landing sites, which were made by the American LRO spacecraft and which the “anti-Apollo people” also consider “fake”, then the materials provided by the Indians (Chandrayaan-1 ), the Japanese (the Kaguya apparatus) and the Chinese (the Chang'e-2 apparatus): all three agencies have officially confirmed that they have found the tracks left by the Apollo ships.

"Lunar Deception" in Russia

By the end of the 1990s, the theory of the "lunar conspiracy" came to Russia, where it gained ardent supporters. Its wide popularity, obviously, is facilitated by the sad fact that very few historical books on the American space program are published in Russian, so an inexperienced reader may get the impression that there is nothing to study there.

The most ardent and talkative adherent of the theory was Yuri Mukhin, a former engineer-inventor and publicist with radical pro-Stalinist convictions, noticed in historical revisionism. In particular, he published the book "The Corrupt Girl Genetics", in which he refutes the achievements of genetics in order to prove that the repressions against the domestic representatives of this science were justified. Mukhin's style repels with deliberate rudeness, and he builds his conclusions on the basis of rather primitive distortions.

The cameraman Yuri Elkhov, who participated in the filming of such famous children's films as "The Adventures of Pinocchio" (1975) and "About Little Red Riding Hood" (1977), undertook to analyze the footage made by astronauts, and came to the conclusion that they were fabricated. True, for testing, he used his own studio and equipment, which has nothing to do with NASA equipment of the late 1960s. As a result of the "investigation" Elkhov wrote the book "Fake Moon", which never came out on paper due to lack of funds.

Perhaps the most competent of the Russian "anti-Apollo men" remains Alexander Popov, Doctor of Physics and Mathematics, a specialist in lasers. In 2009, he published the book "Americans on the Moon - a great breakthrough or a space scam?" For many years he has been running a special website dedicated to the topic, and now he has agreed that not only the flights of the Apollo, but also the ships Mercury and Gemini are falsified. Thus, Popov claims that the Americans made their first flight into orbit only in April 1981 - on the Columbia shuttle. Apparently, the respected physicist does not understand that without great previous experience it is simply impossible to launch such a complex reusable aerospace system like the Space Shuttle the first time.

* * *

The list of questions and answers can be continued indefinitely, but this does not make any sense: the views of the "anti-Apollonites" are based not on real facts that can be interpreted in one way or another, but on illiterate ideas about them. Unfortunately, ignorance persists, and not even Buzz Aldrin's hook can make a difference. It remains to rely on time and new flights to the Moon, which will inevitably put everything in its place.