Questions, questions...
Friends from Kyiv sent me american film Island World studios "For all mankind"("For all mankind" - with polyphonic translation into Russian), directed by Al Reinert, released in 1989 to mark the 20th anniversary of the landing on the moon by the first people - American astronauts N. Armstrong and E. Aldrin. The film raises a lot of questions, even without watching it.
"For All Mankind", full NASA movie (1989)
(without translation into Russian - in English)
For example, why is the Soviet audience not familiar with him? Why were this and the next anniversary films never shown on our television? Let’s say that it was not shown in the USSR for ideological reasons, but already under Gorbachev we opened the doors to the propaganda of our older, pale-faced brother. Why did US agitprop never insist that its main achievement - the landing on the moon - be promoted in the conquered country?
Long road
Some general figures. This supposed documentary about the first men on the moon runs 75 minutes. After about half an hour, you will definitely start swearing: when will the moon finally appear? The fact is that the landing on the Moon and everything else about the astronauts’ stay on the Moon (all of them, not just Armstrong and Aldrin) take up only about 25 minutes in the film, and the filming on the Moon is about 20.5 minutes, and the astronauts themselves there are less than 19 minutes. You will agree that this is not much, if you consider that, according to legend, the astronauts of all expeditions spent about 400 hours on the Moon.
You ask: But what do the first 50 minutes show in the film? Whatever!
How astronauts dress before launch, how they are examined, how they walk, how they are lifted onto the ship, how they take off, how they admire the view of the Canary Islands from space, how they change clothes, how they eat, how they shave with an electric razor, how they throw objects suspended in zero gravity, how they sleep, again how they eat, again how they shave, although now with a safety razor. How they listen to music on an audio player, what kind of music it is, what the musicians said when they recorded it, etc. and so on. Since there is nowhere to rush, they show how the astronauts jokingly make a video about themselves, how they draw screensavers for it; these screensavers (4 or 5), of course, are necessarily shown to the audience. As astronauts broadcast a comic TV report about sports news from space, the scores of basketball league matches are broadcast. Etc. and so on. And all this with sparkling American humor. For example, they make fun jokes showing how the astronauts recover (it is explained in detail that bags with excrement must be tightly closed with lids, otherwise the excrement will stick all over the cabin). When one goes to recover, the rest, making faces, put on oxygen masks, letting the audience know that it stinks a lot. Funny. In general, there is an abyss of humor in the abyss of space. American.
To keep the audience from getting too bored, an accident is staged: “a leak of liquid oxygen in the service compartment where oxygen for the crew’s breathing is stored.” This liquid oxygen is shown gushing out like a fountain. For some reason, at the control center they are looking at something similar to battery and give a cheerful command: “Try plans No. 4 and No. 3.” At this command, the astronaut grabs a roll of tape and quickly seals something with it, brilliantly saving the lives of the crew.
The audience is not deprived original types, but first a few words about the structure of the Apollo spacecraft. It is launched into Earth orbit by two stages of the Saturn rocket, and the third stage accelerates it towards the Moon. Apollo itself consists of a main block, which contains the crew cabin and engine. In this cabin, astronauts fly to the Moon and return to Earth. The main block engine slows down Apollo at the Moon and accelerates it to return to Earth. The lunar cabin is docked to the main block engines, in which two astronauts descend to the Moon and return to the main block. A landing platform is docked to the lunar cabin on the side of its engine, the engine of which lands the platform and the lunar cabin on the surface of the Moon. (The lunar cabin then launches from this platform).
Saturn 5 launch vehicle"
1. Emergency rescue system (ESS).
2. Apollo crew compartment
3. The engine compartment of the Apollo spacecraft.
4. Lunar cabin of the Apollo spacecraft.
5. Lunar platform.
6. Equipment compartment.
7. Third stage (S-4B rocket).
8. J-2 engine.
9. Second stage (S- rocket).
10. Five J-2 engines.
11. First stage (S-1C rocket.
12. Five F-1 engines.
The crew compartment is small: it is a cone with a diameter at the base of 3.9 m and a height of 3.2 m. The lower, widest part of the cone is filled with supplies and equipment, in the upper there are seats for three crew members, at the top of the cone there is a hatch for access to the lunar cabin . There are no gateways.
Nevertheless, 2 hours after launch from the cosmodrome, when Apollo with the third stage of Saturn was still supposed to be in Earth orbit, one of Armstrong’s crew decided to urgently take a walk in space: he opened the hatch and went outside. There were enough television cameras inside the crew compartment, but at that time they were not filming, and this is not surprising: after all, oxygen should be released from Apollo into the open hatch, and the two remaining crew members would also have to put on spacesuits. The astronaut who walked into outer space did so solely to hang in the vacuum of space and say, “Hallelujah, Houston.” Soon, Houston demanded that he return to the compartment, since in a few minutes the Apollo acceleration to the Moon began. By the way, the absence of the third stage of the Saturn was clearly visible.
The mission control center (MCC) looms annoyingly in the film. Since there is nothing to show in it - the consoles and the people behind them, the poor director did his best to diversify the picture: he showed how they worry in the control center, and how they rejoice, and how they laugh at the endless jokes of the astronauts, and how they yawn, and how they drink coffee, how they eat, how they smoke. The flight director's trousers and boots are shown three times in the film, and everyone should remember that the trousers are a little short and the boots are brightly polished. With this technique, at the very least, the director stretched the MCC footage into 9 minutes of the total film time.
Be that as it may, but in the end, with jokes, music and songs, the astronauts finally flew up to the Moon.
My tech-savvy friends argued that the Americans could not land on the Moon due to the fact that they had no experience in docking spacecraft. Really. According to legend, on the way to the Moon, astronauts were required to undock the Apollo main block from the third stage of Saturn, turn it 180 degrees and dock again to the lunar cabin so that the upper hatch of the main block aligned with the upper hatch of the lunar cabin, otherwise Armstrong and it was impossible for Aldrin to cross into it.
So, not a word is said about this most complex operation in the film! There are no shots of the astronaut remaining in the main block saying goodbye to those moving into the lunar cabin, there are no shots of their return. But this is not a scene of the astronauts discharging minor and major needs, or a scene of them shaving, these should have been shots of the most powerful drama. But they are not available for any lunar expedition! Moreover, after approaching the Moon, the crew compartment cameras were no longer turned on, and there is not a single frame of its interior. The main unit was always shown outside. If I’m right and the Americans dropped lunar cabins onto the Moon without astronauts, then so it should be, because all three astronauts were in the crew compartment and it was impossible to show it, just as it was impossible at that time to film scenes of farewells and meetings that did not take place without real weightlessness .
On the moon
Anyway. And so they finally sit down. A television camera located somewhere outside (neither it nor the windows on the lunar cabin were found in its drawings) films the landing on the Moon. About a few meters from the surface, as can be seen from the shadow on the surface of the Moon, what appears to be jets of gas from an engine flashes in front of the lens and then the camera shudders with the shock of landing. Not a pebble, not a sand, not a speck of dust flew out from under the engine of the lunar platform with a thrust in airless space of 4530 kG. But when at the end of the film the launch of the lunar cabin of some next Apollo is shown from the Moon, starting from its metal platform, then from the jet of the engine with a thrust of 1590 kgf stones flew upward with enormous speed, to the eye no less than 20-50 kg. Nothing to say - cinema! Hollywood. By the last episode, they realized that the engine jet must somehow act on the ground.
A few words about the fact that people who are confident that the Americans were on the Moon consider the lighting spotlights from the filming pavilion that appeared in numerous photographs to be lens flares. The spotlights were also included in the frames of this film and they are clearly distinguishable from glare. (When you turn the camera, the highlights change shape and follow the camera, but the spotlights remain stationary).
The Americans were the first to install corner reflectors of a laser signal on the lunar surface. Since then, the photon signal reflected from them has been repeatedly recorded in laser ranging sessions of the Moon at observatories. different countries, including the USSR. This is considered reliable evidence of Americans being on the Moon. True, opponents immediately admit that “similar instruments were later delivered to the Moon in Soviet experiments with Lunokhods and are used for the same purposes along with American ones,” i.e. To install them, it is not necessary for a person to land; this can also be done by an automatic station. The USSR also delivered a corner reflector to the Moon and took soil samples, but does not boast that its cosmonauts were on the Moon. So this is absolutely circumstantial evidence. And direct evidence of the presence of American astronauts on the Moon is genuine film and photography. You can’t make them just anywhere.
The most touching, of course, are the shots of the installation of the American flag. “On the Moon” one astronaut drove a peg into the ground, another planted a flagpole on it. According to legend, the flag was made of rigid fabric on a wire frame, i.e. the flagpole looked like the letter "G". So the flag had only one free corner, and this corner showed that it was indeed free. It fluttered so merrily in the wind of the “airless” space of the “Moon” that the astronaut was forced to pull it down. The corner is sagging. But as soon as the astronaut walked away, the flag fluttered cheerfully again. (Probably, some damn Negro opened all the time and closed the gate in the filming pavilion, creating a draft).
Since the obvious absurdity of these shots began to immediately catch the eye of any more or less intelligent person, fans of America tried to get out of the situation by offering some explanations for this fact. It is worth dwelling on them in more detail. At the moment, all pro-American scientists adhere to one of two mutually exclusive hypotheses. The first claims that “these are just natural vibrations of the elastic flagpole-flag system.” But you need to not only know these Clever words, but also figuratively imagine what it is. Take something elastic, for example, a ruler, pinch one end, pull it back and release the free one. These are elastic vibrations in their purest form. Their peculiarity, like any oscillations, is that the oscillating part of the system constantly deviates from the zero position - the one in which the oscillations die down.
So, in the film there is no hint of these very “elastic vibrations”. The flag is blown away by the wind in one direction from the zero position, and the ribbon trailing behind the astronaut “going into space” is also blown away in one direction. She always covers him on one side only and flutters in the draft. Those. and “going into space” is also a Hollywood fake. By the way, during this “exit” cumulus clouds are visible as close as they are visible from an airplane, and not from space station. (By the way, American journalists themselves caught NASA giving the press photographs of the “spacewalk” that were obviously falsified). By giving this fake, the Americans are showing that they are sorely lacking material for a film about a flight to the Moon. For the sake of fairness, it should be noted that in the scene of the spacewalk there are a number of frames of clearly cosmic origin: in particular, the switching on of the main engine in Earth orbit - the jet from the engine is exactly what it should be when expiring into a vacuum (severely underexpanded), visible its structure in the form of shock waves. So they still flew into space. And installation is a matter of technique.
The second hypothesis is the assumption that the flag had a motor, which created vibrations. But, in addition to the fact that this is quite difficult to imagine, it should also be noted that the oscillations created by the motor must, firstly, be strictly periodic, and secondly, have a wave profile that is constant over time. We don't see anything like this in the photographs. Of course, enthusiasts can assume that there, inside the flag, there was also a Pentium II or even III (and why not? Next to the motor!), which pulls the flag at random intervals in a random direction with random force, but still We do not consider the area of science fiction.
In addition, a significant caveat should be made: Truth is always concrete, and therefore it is impossible to implement both mutually exclusive hypotheses. If the issue is free oscillations, then why involve the hypothesis with a motor? After all, this is simply stupid! If there was a motor, then who do you need to be to believe in the hypothesis of free oscillations? Whatever you want, even if one of these hypotheses were true, it means that the supporters of the other are simply extremely stupid. Sometimes there are individuals who try to combine these two hypotheses and talk about free oscillations with a motor, but this stems from a basic ignorance of physics, and, apart from advice to read school textbooks, such people simply have nothing to say.
Another psychologically very interesting episode. The astronauts, like O. Bender, showed the world proof that they were really in the airless space of the Moon. One astronaut took a hammer in one hand and a bird feather (!) in the other, raised them to shoulder height and released them at the same time. The hammer and the feather fell to the ground at the same time. But, firstly, what is important to us is not this cheap trick, but the fact that the American children of Lieutenant Schmidt planned this on Earth in order to prove their stay on the Moon, for which the astronauts carried a “feather” with them. If they really were on the moon, then why is this necessary? Secondly, Hollywood was not smart enough to understand that they conducted a physical experiment by which one can calculate the acceleration of free fall, and by its value understand whether this is happening on the Moon or not. I think that if they understood this, they would stick a feather in the ass of whoever came up with this trick. But more on that below.
All the “lunar” shots are frankly playful: the astronauts play out their stay on the Moon, and this catches your eye. For example, an episode: between a television camera and two astronauts there is approximately 20 m of sandy surface. About 2 meters from the camera, a stone 10 centimeters in diameter and 20 centimeters in height sticks out vertically. There are no other more or less large stones anywhere else. In theory, the astronauts themselves should have installed the television camera and, moving away from it, would have tripped over this stone. The episode has begun. The astronaut from afar moves back to the camera and joyfully exclaims: “Look, what a stone!” And in the center of the frame it begins to rise. Those. This is the “lunar” version of the joke about the piano in the bushes.
There is not a single documentary, natural episode in this filming “on the Moon”. Here is an astronaut demonstrating useful activity - driving a small pin into the ground. There are no wires coming from the pin, there are no devices - a bare metal pin. He hammered, put the hammer in his pocket, turned and ran, singing some song. Why did he take him to the moon and why did he kill him?
The lunar scenes with the astronauts are clearly played in slow motion in order to create the appearance of the astronauts moving “like on the Moon.” When running and jumping, astronauts slowly lift off the surface and slowly descend. For several minutes in the film they deliberately fall to show that the fall is slow. If we consider the risk of a real and very careful stay on the Moon, then the behavior of the astronauts with their self-indulgence and falls clearly indicates that if they and the Mission Control Center are not completely kamikazes, then this is not the Moon.
Let's get back to running. If you ignore the slow motion, you can see that the astronauts in their spacesuits are having a very hard time. But they are on the Moon, where the weight is six times less than on earth, despite the fact that the muscle strength remains the same. Let's say, astronaut Aldrin in a spacesuit (about 11 kG) and with a life support pack (45 kG) weighs 161 kG on Earth, and 27 kG on the Moon. Let's remember school and do a little math.
Running on the Moon
When walking and running, the leg lifts us off the ground and throws us up to a certain height h. The energy of this throw is equal to our weight multiplied by this height. On the Moon, our weight will be 6 times less, therefore, with the same usual muscular effort, the leg will throw us to a height h 6 times higher than on Earth.
From high h we are returned to earth by the force of its gravity over time t, calculated by the formula
(It seems doubtful to me that such a decrease in speed would be noticeable by eye; I’m afraid that I won’t be able to tell by eye whether a person is walking at a speed of 5 km/h or 4.1 km/h, whether a car is driving at a speed of 10 km/h or 8 km/h).
Let's assume that on Earth Aldrin, wearing only his shorts, makes it above the surface in the 0.14 seconds we have calculated. a step 0.9 m long. On the Moon in a spacesuit, his speed will decrease by 1.22 times, but the time before descending to the surface will increase by 0.71/0.14 = 5.1 times, therefore, Aldrin’s step width will increase by 5 ,1/1.22 = 4.2 times, or up to 0.9 x 4.2 = 3.8 m. The spacesuit makes movement difficult and, let’s say, for this reason its step will decrease by 0.5 m on Earth. On the Moon it will also decrease by this distance and amount to 3.8 - 0.5 = 3.3 m.
Therefore, on the Moon in a spacesuit, the astronauts' step speed above the surface should be slightly slower than on Earth, but the height of the rise with each step should be 4 times higher than on Earth, and the width of the step should be 4 times wider.
In the film, the astronauts run and jump, but the height of their jumps and the width of their steps are much smaller than on Earth. This is not surprising, because when they were filmed in Hollywood, they still had at least an imitation of a spacesuit and a life support pack, they were pretty loaded and it was hard for them. And replaying the filming in slow motion cannot hide this heaviness. Astronauts tread very heavily with their feet when running, kilograms of sand fly out from under their feet, they can barely lift their legs, and their toes are constantly paddling along the surface. But slowly...
Such an episode. Aldrin, with jokes and jokes, jumps from the last step of the lunar module to the “Moon”. The height is about 0.8 m, he holds onto the ladder with his hands. Since his weight in the spacesuit is 27 kg, i.e. is four times lighter than wearing only shorts on Earth, then for his trained muscles this jump is equivalent to jumping on Earth from a height of 0.2 m, i.e. from one step. Let each of you jump from such a height, without even holding on to anything with your hands, and look at your condition. Aldrin, when jumping from the step, slowly sank to the surface, then his knees began to bend and he bent at the waist, i.e. he hit the moon so hard that his trained muscles could not hold his body upright in the spacesuit.
Ground pressure
A little preface to the next calculation. My opponent brought me a thick book “Lunar soil from the Sea of Abundance” Nauka, M., 1974 so that I could read it myself and make sure that the lunar soil delivered by the Soviet automatic station “Luna-16” corresponded to the soil taken by the astronauts . Yes, that's what the book says. But how is this established? Our scientists reported to the Americans the results of studies of lunar soil, and the Americans informed us that they had the same thing. Of the 400 kg of American “lunar soil”, not a single gram was sent to the USSR for research, and, it seems to me, that is still the case. Yes, some amount of lunar soil can be obtained using automatic stations. But since these samples were taken in the absence of people - thoughtlessly, in the same way as they were taken by Soviet automatic stations - then the scientific result from the study of these samples should not have differed much from zero.
The American Lunar and Planetary Institute holds 2 conferences a year dedicated to the Moon, and a lot of lectures are given there. And yet, we know little about the composition of the Moon. Where does this knowledge come from? Two or three point samples from the most uninteresting and uninformative points of the Moon - from flat areas? These samples can be analyzed for at least a hundred years using any new methods of analysis, but still these analyzes will not say anything about the Moon, since on the surface of the Moon, as on the Earth, there may be God knows what, not related either to the crust or to the structure of the planet . But there is not the slightest hint that the Americans made even the slightest attempt at geological exploration on the Moon! The USSR, with the help of then imperfect automatic stations, could not conduct any geological exploration, but they - with people and cars - why didn’t they try to do it? Why weren’t soil samples, bedrock and ore deposits meaningfully sampled?
The fact is that, with the help of their lunar soil, the Americans were ahead of the USSR in only one issue - in proving the existence of paranormal phenomena.
A specialist in this matter, A. Kartashkin, in the book “Poltergeist” (M., “Santax-Press”, 1997) reports this:
“Alexander Kuzovkin wrote an article “Some aspects of the manifestation of the UFO and poltergeist phenomenon.”
It tells (with reference to the newspaper "Moskovskaya Pravda" dated October 6, 1979) about an absolutely incredible incident. Let us remember that by that time American astronauts had already visited the Moon and brought back samples of lunar soil to Earth. Of course, this soil was immediately placed in a special, sophisticatedly encrypted storage facility. Suffice it to say that this storage facility cost $2.2 million to design and build. Of course, the room with lunar soil was guarded with particular partiality. It is even more amazing that a significant number of lunar soil samples soon... disappeared without a trace" . (Emphasis added - original article)
And Americans lament that we know very little about the Moon. How can you find out more if Barabashka stole the most valuable samples from the unfortunate Americans? How do you like this American Drum? No patriotism!
Regarding the traces of the soles of astronauts “on the Moon,” the following data from the above-mentioned book on lunar soil is interesting. The researchers write (p. 38) that the lunar soil is “easily shaped and crushed into separate loose lumps. Traces of external influences—the touch of a tool—are clearly imprinted on its surface. The soil easily holds a vertical wall...” It formally follows from this that shoe protectors astronauts, squeezing the soil from above and from the sides, could leave a clear mark. (Although I find it difficult to understand how the researchers could estimate the moldability of the soil with a sample less than a stack in size.) But the researchers write that the soil “...when poured freely, has an angle of repose of 45 degrees (and gives a photo). That is, the soil without pressing does not “hold the wall.” If we pour wet sand into a glass on the beach, and then turn the glass over and remove it, the sand will remain internal shape glass, it will hold the wall without pressing, with free pouring. And if we pour dry sand into a glass and turn it over, the sand will spread, forming a cone with an angle of repose, i.e. he doesn't hold the wall.
It follows that the tread mark of the soles of American astronauts should be clear only in the center, and along the edges of the shoes, where the soil is not pressed, it should crumble at an angle of 45 degrees. This is the kind of trace - with crumbling edges - that our Lunokhod left on the Moon. In American photos, the soil holds a wall on the footprints both in the center and at the edges. Those. This is not lunar soil, this is wet sand.
Further from this book you can find out the compressibility of lunar soil. But first, let's do the math. There is a famous full-length shot of Aldrin in profile. It is unlikely that he is less than 190 cm tall, taking into account the soles and his helmet. In relation to his height, the length of his shoes is approximately 40 cm. From the photos of individual astronaut footprints it is clear that the width of the footprint is almost equal to half its length, i.e. the area of the sole is about 800 sq. cm; to take into account the rounding of the sole, we will reduce this value by a quarter - to 600 sq. cm. The trail has 10 transverse treads, and taking into account the approximately equal sized depressions, these treads are 2 cm wide and high. We estimate the surface area of the protectors to be half total area soles, i.e. in 300 sq.cm. Aldrin's weight on the Moon is well known - 27 kg. Hence, the pressure on the ground using only protectors is less than 0.1 kgf/sq.cm.
From diagram 7 on page 579 in the mentioned book it follows that at such pressure the lunar soil will compress (settle) by less than 5 mm. Those. Even the treads of an astronaut’s soles could not be completely immersed in real lunar soil on the Moon. But in all the photos, the prints of the soles are imprinted so that the side surfaces of the shoes form vertical walls even above the sole! If these footprints really were on the Moon, then we would not see the complete footprints of the astronauts’ shoes, but only shallow strips of tread. No, it’s not the Moon, it’s all 161 kg of Aldrin’s earthly weight pressing on the wet sand!
Acceleration of gravity
Now let's return to the experiment with the falling of the hammer and the "feather". In this trick, it was important for the Americans that the hammer and the “feather” fall at the same time, but they did not realize that the time during which they fall is also important. The astronaut dropped them from a height of no less than 1.4 m. The average fall time based on several measurements gave the result of 0.83 seconds. From here, using the formula a = 2h/t squared, the acceleration of gravity is easily calculated. It amounted to 2 x 1.4 / 0.832 = 4.1 m/sec. squared. And on the Moon this value should be 1.6 m/sec. squared, that means it’s not the Moon! Have you experimented yet, smart guys?!
There is another episode in the film. An astronaut is running with a bag full of samples on his shoulder. One stone falls down while running and falls to the ground in 0.63 seconds. Even if the astronaut bent his knees very strongly when running, the height from which the stone fell could not be less than 1.3 m. According to the above formula, this gives the value of the acceleration of free fall of 6.6 m/sec. squared. The result is even worse!
I was faced with a question: is this difference not my error in measuring time? I took seven measurements of the time the stone fell and got (sec.): 0.65; 0.62; 0.61; 0.65; 0.71; 0.55; 0.61. On average - 0.63, we will not count the standard deviation, since even the maximum error in both directions turned out to be 0.08 seconds. If this were on the Moon, the time it would take for the stone to fall would be
The difference between 1.27 and 0.63 is much greater than the 0.08 second error I allowed. This means that this is not a mistake, and therefore not the Moon!
The launch of the lunar cabin from its platform from the Moon was also shown. Firstly, the flame of a running engine was not visible near the starting cabin. Nevertheless, several dozen stones very quickly flew out from under the platform. One stone had an upper zero point, after which it began to decline until it went off the screen. Based on the size of the cabin, I roughly estimated that while the stone was visible, it fell by 10 meters. But the time of fall could not be determined. I was unable to press the button on the stopwatch at the required speed: the minimum that I could squeeze out of the stopwatch and myself was 0.25 seconds. But the speed of the stone’s fall was even greater; it disappeared before the stopwatch could squeak under my finger. Therefore, let’s assume that the stone fell 10 m in exactly these 0.25 seconds. Then the acceleration of gravity is 2 x 10 / 0.252 = 320 m/sec2. This, you see, is somewhat more than 1.6 m/sec squared on the Moon and 9.8 m/sec. squared on Earth. Wasn't it the Sun?
I think that's what's going on here. The lunar cabin “at launch” was lifted up with a winch, and the winch cable cannot be secured so that it passes exactly through the center of gravity, and it is difficult to align the winch itself strictly at the center of gravity, and if you lift the cabin quickly and pull it, it will begin to swing ( hang out). I had to pull it slowly and then scroll the film very quickly. As a result, the stones, which simultaneously rose upward with an expelling charge, acquired incredible speed.
Battle for the Moon
But why did the Americans need it - to take a huge risk in order to deceive the entire population of the Earth? Why risk your career like that? Because, having lost to the Soviet Union in the lunar race, they lost everything - 30 billion from the federal budget, prestige, self-esteem, careers, jobs. No one in America would need this Moon for nothing, and no one could convince the American taxpayer to allocate money to an organization that is unable to defend the prestige of America. So there is a motive. NASA knew how to send three people to the Moon and FLY AROUND the Moon, but had no technical experience when it came to landing on the Moon. How to undock from the "mother" ship (flying in lunar orbit) and lower it into a smaller, self-contained "shuttle" (lunar module), launch a lunar landing rocket pushing the module with a force of 10,000 pounds, fly the module to the planned landing site, land, put on spacesuits, go to the surface, tinker, act out a scene on the surface, ride on the Moon, return to the module, take off, rendezvous and dock with the mother ship, and finally return to Earth.
That's why they faked everything. Considering that Stanley Kubrick's blockbuster 2001: A Space Odyssey was filmed at the same time, the technology for the necessary special effects already existed. And for the tidy sum of 20 billion dollars you can make a very long movie.
In a video released on VHS cassette called "It's just a paper moon", American investigative journalist Jim Collier points out several minor inconsistencies, listed below:
1. Two Apollo astronauts, fully dressed in spacesuits, simply physically could not fit into the module and, in addition, open the door, because the door opened INWARDS, not outwards. They would not have been able to exit the module while wearing their spacesuits. He (D.K.) measured distances using film.
2. The Apollo astronaut was physically unable to squeeze through the tunnel connecting the mothership and the module. It's too narrow. Collier went to the NASA museum and measured it. The ends of the tunnel contained a ring of docking devices. The NASA "in-flight" footage we were talking about was supposedly taken during the flight to the Moon and shows the astronauts freely flying through the tunnel, which in itself says a lot, apart from the fact that there were no visible images on film. docking devices. Plus, to all this, the tunnel hatch opened in the wrong direction. So this filming was done ON EARTH.
3. Footage taken during the flight to the Moon shows BLUE light pouring through the windows of the spacecraft. But since in outer space there is no atmosphere capable of decomposing light into a spectrum, space is BLACK. These shots were taken ON GROUND, most likely in the cargo hold of a supersonic plane going into a deep dive to create the effect of weightlessness.
4. Photos taken by the astronauts who landed on the moon show the module standing on a flat, smooth, undisturbed surface. This could not have happened if they had actually landed on the moon using jet engines that were pressurized at 10,000 psi. The entire surface of the lunar landing site would have been seriously damaged. These pictures were taken ON GROUND.
5. There are no stars in any of the photographs of the Apollo astronauts. Not one. This can't be true. Astronauts, if they were on the Moon, would be surrounded by stars shining with white light, the presence of an atmosphere would not prevent them from sparkling to their fullest. These pictures were taken here ON EARTH. (The usual objection to this is that, due to different brightnesses, it is impossible to capture both the surface of the Moon and starry sky. Opponents probably don’t know that the Moon is a very dark object, its albedo is only about 10%. Right now I am holding in my hands the book “Course in General Astronomy” by Bakulin, Kononovich and Moroz, where on page 322 there is a photograph of the lunar landscape transmitted by the Luna-9 station. A piece of the sky is visible on it - and there are stars on it!)
6. Each astronaut and objects standing on the lunar surface cast many shadows, and shadows of varying lengths. This can't be true. There is no other source of light on the Moon other than the SUN, and, quite obviously, the light must fall in one direction. So these pictures were taken ON EARTH.
7. Considering that lunar gravity is 1/6 of Earth's gravity, the "rooster's tail" of dust raised by the wheels of the "dune stroller" (lunar rover) would have to rise SIX TIMES higher than it would be on Earth when driving with the same speed. But this is not the case. In addition, the dust falls in layers - LAYERS! Which is impossible where there is no atmosphere. The dust should have fallen in the same smooth arch as it had risen.
8. Even when disassembled, the lunar rover could not physically fit on the lunar module. Collier went and measured everything. A few feet are missing. Pictures taken “on the Moon” show astronauts HEADING to the module to remove the rover. After which the shooting ends. When the lunar panorama reappears, the rover has already been disassembled. How awesome!
9. The Lunar Module crashed - CRASHED - during its only test on Earth. So why was his next challenge trying to land on the MOON? If you were the wife of an astronaut, would you allow him to participate in such a suicide attempt?
10. None of the Apollo astronauts ever wrote a book on the topic “How I Went to the Moon” or any other memoirs on the same topic.
11. But that’s not all - far, far, far from all. We can also talk about the placement of engine guides, smoke from burning rocket fuel, and so on and so forth...
Two great discoveries
In 1982, 10 years after the full end of the lunar program, a beautifully illustrated book “Space Technology” was published by a team of American, Soviet and other authors. The chapter "Man on the Moon" was written by the American R. Lewis.
I will give the "Some Summary" section of this chapter in full, so that no one will think that I have hidden any of the outstanding American achievements. But I draw your attention to the fact that this chapter should contain only that knowledge about the Moon that was obtained thanks to man’s presence on this satellite of the Earth, and not general blah-blah. So consider what exactly R. Lewis wrote into this section to make it longer than three lines.
So: “The Apollo 17 expedition was the last expedition to the Moon. During six visits to the Moon, 384.2 kg of rock and soil samples were collected. During the implementation of the research program, a number of discoveries were made, but the most important are the following two. "First, it was established that the Moon is sterile, no life forms were found on it. After the flight of the Apollo 14 spacecraft, the previously introduced three-week quarantine for the crew was canceled."
Amazing discovery! The “Small Soviet Encyclopedia” for 1931 (I couldn’t find anything earlier) states: "The moon is devoid of atmosphere and water, and therefore life" . For this “important” discovery it was necessary to send people to the Moon?! And most importantly, what exactly did the astronauts do to make this discovery? Have you passed the quarantine, have you worked as experimental mice?
“Secondly, it was found that the Moon, like the Earth, went through a series of periods of internal heating. It has a surface layer - a crust that is quite thick compared to the radius of the Moon, a mantle and a core, consisting, according to some researchers, of iron sulfide ".
What exactly did the astronauts do to reach this conclusion? Indeed, in their soil samples (as in Soviet ones) sulfur is completely absent! How did the Americans determine that the core consists of iron sulfide?
“Although the chemistry of the Moon and Earth are quite similar, they differ significantly in other respects, which confirms the point of view of scientists who reject the idea that the Moon separated from the Earth during the formation of planets.
The conclusion that no forms of life have ever existed on the Moon is confirmed by the complete absence of water here, at least on or near the lunar surface."
Based on limited data seismic exploration The crust of the part of the Moon closest to us is 60-65 km thick. On the part of the Moon distant from us, the crust may be somewhat thicker - about 150 km. The mantle is located under the crust to a depth of about 1000 km, and the core is even deeper.
30 years later, the Americans began sending automatic stations to the Moon in order to still find out what their astronauts had supposedly already “discovered”.
The results are reported, for example, in the article (Feldman W., Maurice S., Binder B., Barraclough B., Elphic R., Lawrence D. Fluxes of fast and epithermal neutrons from Lunar Prospector: evidence for water ice at the lunar poles // Science. 1998. V. 281. P. 1496 – 1500.) Read.
The American spacecraft Lunar Prospector operated in lunar orbit for eighteen months.
Throughout its mission, this device, weighing 295 kg and slightly larger than a home washing machine, continually puzzled scientists with amazing discoveries. For the first time in early 1998, the Lunar Prospector stunned the scientific community with the discovery of huge amounts of ice in the shadowed areas near the lunar poles!
When rotating around our natural satellite, the device experienced minor changes in its speed. Calculations based on these indicators revealed the presence of a core on the Moon. Assuming that, like on Earth, it consists mainly of iron, experts calculated its dimensions. In their opinion, the radius of the lunar core should be from 220 to 450 km (the radius of the Moon is 1738 km).
Lunar Prospector's magnetometers detected a weak magnetic field near our natural satellite. Based on this field, the dimensions of the nucleus were clarified. Its radius turned out to be 300-425 km. With such dimensions, the mass of the core should be about 2% of the mass of the Moon. Let us emphasize that the Earth’s core, with a radius of about 3400 km, accounts for a full third of the planet’s mass.
So . Valiant American astronauts “found out” that the core of the Moon has a radius of 1738-1000 = 738 km. And the automatic station found out that it is equal to 300-425 km, half as much! Valiant astronauts “found out” that the core of the Moon consists of iron sulfide. And the Lunar Prospector found out that there is little iron in the core. The valiant astronauts “found out” that there is no ice on the Moon. And Lunar Prospector found out that there are many!
So how do the results of the American moon landing differ from idle chatter?
I think I have already answered the question raised at the beginning of the article - why the Americans do not demand that Russian TV show these films about their “most outstanding victory in the 20th century.” We, the generation that received a normal education, have not yet died out, we have not yet been completely replaced by those who chose Pepsi and safe sex. Well, how can we show such nonsense? And, looking at this American propaganda fake about the moon landing, we have to admit: no, guys, you weren't standing there!
On the Moon, and whether they were there at all, has been debated for decades. Supporters of the astronaut landing argue that this event was the decisive argument in the space dispute between the United States and the Soviet Union, after which the basic space programs were significantly adjusted on both sides. For some, man's first flight to the Moon is a myth engineered by wily Americans, but for most people, visiting our natural satellite is an undeniable fact.
Background
The first space launch towards our satellite was launched in 1959, already 15 months after the launch. For quite a long time, only Soviet space researchers acted in this direction. US representatives began working in this direction only after the launch of their Ranger lunar robots, the first series of which was launched in 1964.
Until the early 70s, the question “How many people were on the moon?” made no sense - there were no technological possibilities for this. In 1971, the Apollo program began to be seriously developed in the United States. Its successful implementation cost American taxpayers $25 billion. President Kennedy considered the successful start of lunar expansion a priority national task that would strengthen the space prestige of the United States and prove the economic and scientific capabilities of this state.
The implementation of the plan to land 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 Apollo 11.
First landing
That during the first interplanetary expedition is known from newspaper publications and reports that circled the whole world in July 1969. The names of the three Americans, members of the first space crew, are N. Armstrong, M. Collins. Of these, Armstrong and Aldrin were the first to set foot on the soil of our satellite, and Collins remained in lunar orbit. Astronauts left on the moon memorial signs with images of dead space explorers, collected lunar soil samples, installed radar reflectors, and 21 hours later they launched on the takeoff stage and joined the main flight unit.
Eight days later the crew landed in the area without incident Pacific Ocean, where he was picked up by a rescue team.
Further expeditions
The successful start of space pioneers gave rise to further expeditions on Apollo-type ships. A total of five expeditions were sent to our natural satellite. This already gives a general idea of how many people have been to the Moon and how many reserves were spent on these flights. By official sources, 26 people were sent to the Moon, and twelve lucky ones managed to directly touch
How many times people flew to the Moon can be determined from the Apollo space program - a total of 7 expeditions were sent, and only one of them was not successful. The ill-fated Apollo 13 suffered an accident at the start of its voyage; its crew was prohibited from descending to the surface of the satellite. Therefore, the answer to the question of how many times people have been to the Moon contains a small catch. Apollo 13 flew to our satellite, but did not land on the surface of the Moon.
twice?
Were there any people who visited our satellite several times? All the people who flew to the Moon were US citizens, experienced astronaut pilots who underwent 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. He first flew to the Moon as part of the Apollo 10 space crew. Then he was on board an artificial satellite of the Moon, just 15 km from its surface. Eugene Cernan flew to the Moon for the second time as commander of the Apollo 17 spacecraft in 1972. Then, together with his partner H. Schmitt, he landed on the moon in the area of the Taurus Mountains and the Littrov crater. Cernan went to the surface of our satellite a total of 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 as part of space crews.
Coming out of the “lunar” vehicle in 1969, the commander "Apollo 11" Neil Armstrong uttered the historic phrase: “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” When the attack of euphoria subsided, the first skeptics appeared. And after a while, even the Americans themselves started talking about the fact that the materials confirming the fact of man landing on the Moon were falsified.
Human space exploration is just beginning. Only 56 years have passed since the launch of the first artificial satellite. At the dawn of astronautics, it seemed that there was very little time left before flights to the nearest planets.
The world's great powers competed behind the scenes for the right to be space pioneers. As is known, the palm in this area belonged to the Soviet Union, which was the first to launch a man into outer space.
After the launch of Yuri Gagarin, the world community recognized the unconditional leadership of the USSR. But the main competitor - the United States of America - did not share the wild enthusiasm for the next giant leap of progress. And if in the USSR there was a phrase “Catch up and overtake America!”, then the members of NASA were faced with the task of restoring the undermined national prestige, ahead of the Soviet Union in the space race.
Three weeks after the first American astronaut flew into space, John Kennedy solemnly promised America that within ten years the Americans would land on the moon.
Indeed, on July 21, 1969, the first American astronaut set foot on the surface of the Moon. For Americans, this event was no less significant than the discovery of America or the declaration of independence.
Pictures depicting the discoverers of the Moon under the Stars and Stripes spread across the globe, and later, film footage depicting the historical moment. It was with them that the dispute about the lunar program, which has not subsided to this day, began.
Photographic materials presented by NASA alerted professional photographers. In some photographs, the shadows of objects for some reason fall in completely different directions (which is impossible with sunlight), and their densities are different. There are black, gray, almost transparent shadows. But in a vacuum, the contrast between light and shadow is very sharp.
Further, the panoramic image of the lunar surface clearly shows light sources that simply could not exist on the Moon. They are “to blame” for the incorrect placement of shadows. When you enlarge the image, you can clearly see that two of them are surrounded by a shining halo, which is only possible in the atmosphere due to the scattering of rays.
But that's not all. For some reason, not a single star is visible in photographs from the lunar surface. Only Earth. And the astronauts themselves emphasize in their memoirs that they saw neither stars nor planets.
Quite strange, especially considering that Soviet cosmonauts were describing a whole sea of sparkling stars... Another famous shot - a footprint on the lunar surface - did not cause any complaints from photographers. But experts from other industries joined the discussion.
Metallurgist Yu. I. Mukhin, who has repeatedly dealt with all kinds of soil samples, is absolutely sure that the footprint on the lunar soil would look completely different. There is no water on the Moon, and an absolutely dry, fine suspension could not perfectly follow all the contours of the corrugated sole of the boot.
A clear print, at best, could remain in the center (like the prints of the tracks of Soviet lunar rovers), but in the photo we see clear relief lines everywhere. Such a mark could only be left on wet sand.
The same frame caused bewilderment among physicists. Using simple calculations, they found out that the weight of an American astronaut in full suit on the lunar surface was as much as... 27 kg. Using the formulas included in the program high school(Soviet, - in American schools the programs are completely different), they were able to calculate the pressure "of the soles of the astronaut's shoes on the ground. It turned out to be ridiculously low: less than 0.1 kgf/cm2, which is clearly not enough to leave a mark on the Moon...
Let's turn to the film showing the American landing on the moon. There is a lot that is incomprehensible in it: the frivolity of the astronauts and the predominance of game episodes. At the same time, truly important and dramatic scenes are missing. For example, for some reason the moment of docking is not reflected anywhere.
In order for Armstrong and Aldrin to move into the descent module cabin, they needed to undock the Apollo main block from the Saturn third stage on the way to the Moon, turn it 180° and dock again to the lunar cabin so that the upper hatch of the main block aligned with the upper hatch of the lunar cabin. Neither the scene of the astronauts moving to the lunar block nor their return is shown. And what was chronicled looks very unconvincing.
Observant people are always and everywhere. And it could not go unnoticed that in the vacuum of space the American flag for some reason flutters merrily in the wind. Opponents tried to explain this effect by vibrations of the entire structure, but this explanation was rejected by a counter-argument: elastic vibrations propagate in both directions from the zero point, and the panel deviates only in one direction.
The next problem occurred with the movement of the astronauts. They move in short and rather awkward leaps, while simple calculations show that with a decrease in gravity, both the length and height of the step increase fourfold. By the way, it was precisely with these conditions in mind that the astronauts were prepared to move by jumping: it was easier to control the process.
But in the film, for some reason, they demonstrate the opposite: both the width of the step and the height of the jumps are much less than on Earth. Were you afraid? But falling on the Moon is not so dangerous. And filming the “moon” jumps would serve as excellent proof of the authenticity of the film: in those days it was impossible to film such a thing on Earth.
The Americans chose a different way to prove that they are really on the moon. They did a little experiment in front of the camera. The astronaut took a hammer in one hand, a bird feather in the other, and released it at the same time.
As you know, in a vacuum, both objects simultaneously touch the ground. And so it happened. The desire for clarity played a cruel joke on the falsifiers: they did not take into account that the footage allows not only to verify that objects are falling in airless space, but also to calculate the acceleration of free fall. Which is what physicists did not fail to do.
The free fall acceleration was 4.1 m/sec2. And on the Moon this value should be 1.6 m/sec2. This means that the shooting took place anywhere, but not on the Moon! By the way, observing the “behavior” of various objects gives physicists many reasons for doubt. A stone accidentally dropped by one of the astronauts falls with an acceleration of 6.6 m/sec2.
And at the moment of takeoff, judging by the trajectory of the stones flying out from under the nozzle, the acceleration of free fall grows to an unimaginable value: 320 m/sec2. Was it possible that the American space explorers landed on the Sun by mistake?
Further, during landing, the jet stream gushing from the nozzle should have scattered dust over a radius of hundreds of meters. During the “lunar landing” of the Soviet modules, it soared high above the surface; settling several kilometers from the ship. But in the film, the astronauts walk on untouched soil, the condition of which suggests that the laws of physics do not apply on the Moon.
But that's not all. Unlike theorists, practitioners became interested in more “material” issues. First of all, the discussion was about equipping the lunar expedition. There is no need to dwell in detail on minor oddities (for some reason, on the Apollo diagram presented by NASA, there was no place for the propulsion engine), but the astronauts’ spacesuits, the design of the spacecraft, and the lunar vehicle caused bewilderment among experts.
According to American experts, in order to protect the ship from radiation during the flight to the Moon, its walls had to be multi-layered, with one of the layers consisting of 80 cm of lead. And in the 1960s, NASA ships had a shell of aluminum foil only a few millimeters thick. Under such conditions, astronauts should have received a lethal dose of radiation and died, just as the monkeys sent into space had died.
For some reason this did not happen... Perhaps the main protection was in spacesuits? But no additional reinforcement was made. Moreover, according to experts, the Americans in the film are dressed in suits that are completely unsuitable for lunar conditions.
Even with the current level of development of space technologies, it is impossible to fit into their volume a supply of oxygen for four hours, a radio station, a life support system, a thermal control system and much more that, according to legend, the conquerors of the Moon had.
The fuel consumption during the first flight was so high that Armstrong and Aldrin landed the device on the surface literally with the last drops of fuel. But the much heavier (more than four times) Apollo 17 landed on the Moon with exactly the same fuel supply without any problems.
In addition to direct inconsistencies (besides those already listed, there are others mentioned in the book of the famous scientist and inventor Rene “NASA deceived America”), there are also indirect ones. First of all, the achievement of the Americans was not called into question just because they had the Saturn 5 launch vehicle at their disposal, specifications which were high enough to support a lunar expedition.
But all other components of the project were not up to the task. A manned “lunar landing” was still impossible in 1969: the technology had not reached the required level. Moreover, much of NASA's accumulated experience up to that time had consisted of disasters and failures.
Even if we assume that a miracle happened and the expedition was successful, it is completely unclear why the project was not continued. After all, leading institutions in Europe and Japan, representatives of astrobusiness, and various corporations offered to finance flights to the Moon. NASA purposefully rejects all “lunar” projects, citing either lack of time or lack of interest in the problem.
In response to arguments in favor of falsifying the results of the expedition, it was planned to publish a book. She never saw the light of day. As well as all the scientific materials that the expedition was supposed to bring.
Not a single gram of lunar soil brought by Apollo 11 fell into the hands of foreign scientists. Not a single truly complete report has been published in serious journals. US officials refuse to provide voters with information about the lunar project, on which about four billion dollars were spent.
Proponents of the hypothesis that the Americans never visited the Moon suggest that all film materials and photographs of astronauts on the lunar surface were taken in a specially equipped film studio.
Flights to the Earth's satellite were carried out by unmanned ships after all the material had been filmed. This version is finding more and more confirmation. Sometimes - the most unexpected ones. Aldrin's memoirs describe a select party where those gathered watched a film about Fred Hayes' time on the moon.
Hayes did all sorts of steps, then tried to stand on the step of the moon rover, but the step crumbled as soon as he stepped on it. Everything would be fine, but Hayes was a member of the infamous Apollo 13 expedition. So he certainly wasn’t on the moon.
The time is approaching when the truth about the first American landing on the Moon will become known to everyone. Both Europe and Japan are already thinking about the development of lunar mineral resources. According to forecasts, the first lunar bases will appear in 10-15 years. Until then, you can rely on care and common sense.
We will talk about who and how many times traveled to the Moon, what it is like there and whether there are prospects for such “flights”. And about whether these flights took place at all...
Luna plays very important role in the existence of our planet, the Sun, of course, cannot be eclipsed by it, but without the Moon it is not a fact that our Earth would be alive at all.
A few words about the Moon.
Despite the debate about whether the Moon is a satellite of the Earth or an independent planet, it is now believed that it is a satellite of the Earth.
“The Moon is a natural satellite of the Earth. The planet's closest satellite to the Sun, since the planets closest to the Sun, Mercury and Venus, do not have satellites. The second brightest object in the earth's sky after the Sun and the fifth largest natural satellite of a planet in the solar system. The average distance between the centers of the Earth and the Moon is 384,467 km (0.002 57 AU, ~ 30 Earth diameters).
The Moon is the only astronomical object outside the Earth that has been visited by man.”
One of the most common versions of the origin of the Moon is that it is fragments of the celestial body Theia and the earth’s mantle that collided with the Earth. “As a result, most of the substance of the impacted object and part of the substance of the earth’s mantle were thrown into low-Earth orbit. From these fragments, the proto-Moon assembled and began to orbit with a radius of about 60,000 km (now ~ 384 thousand km). As a result of the impact, the Earth received a sharp increase in rotation speed (one revolution in 5 hours) and a noticeable tilt of the rotation axis.”
The moon is full of craters. The main hypotheses of their origin are volcanic and meteorite. Craters are named after great scientists and celebrities.
They began to study the Moon even before our era; for example, Hipparchus studied its movement. Closer to the 20th century, earthlings took a more thorough approach to the issue of developing the mysterious Earth satellite, but flights into space were still far away. In 1902, the first science fiction film in the history of cinema, “A Trip to the Moon,” was released in France (you can watch it at the link at the bottom of the article, duration 12 minutes). People, then still at a naive level, predicted a flight to the Moon and fantasized about how it could be.
The Russians were the first to explore the expanses of the Moon with their own eyes. In 1959, the Luna stations (1-2-3) went to the Moon.
“On September 14, 1959 at 00:02:24, the Luna-2 station for the first time in the world reached the surface of the Moon in the Mare Mons region near the craters Aristyllus, Archimedes and Autolycus.”
In the same year 59, the Luna-3 station “obtained” the first photo of the far side of the Moon, flying over a surface invisible from the Earth.
Luna 24 brought soil from the lunar surface to Earth in 1976 for important research.
List of US astronauts who walked on the Moon (12 people in total)
Charles ("Pete") Conrad, Alan Bean - 1969 (Apollo 12)
Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell - 1971 (Apollo 14)
David Scott, James Irwin 1971 (Apollo 15)
John Young, Charles Duke - 1972 (Apollo 16)
Eugene Cernan, Harrison Schmitt - 1972 (Apollo 17)
"Apollo 11"
So, in 1969, American astronaut Neil Alden Armstrong managed to set foot on the Moon, albeit in a spacesuit. On July 20, 1969, Armstrong accomplished what humanity had been preparing for for centuries, millennia, saying: “This is one small step for a man, but a giant leap for all mankind.”
20 minutes later, when Armstrong was already peacefully walking along the craters of the Moon, Buzz Aldrin (American aeronautical engineer, retired US Air Force colonel and NASA astronaut) joined the first person to disturb the peace of the Moon. This is the second person to walk on the moon.
These two astronauts were part of the Apollo 11 crew.
Apollo 11 (English: Apollo 11) is a manned spacecraft of the Apollo series, during the flight of which on July 16-24, 1969, the inhabitants of the Earth for the first time in history landed on the surface of another celestial body - the Moon.
Then the exit to the surface of the Moon by Armstrong and his partner Buzz Aldrin lasted as much as 2 hours 31 minutes 40 seconds.
“On July 20, 1969, at 20:17:39 UTC, crew commander Neil Armstrong and pilot Edwin Aldrin landed the spacecraft’s lunar module in the southwestern region of the Sea of Tranquility. They remained on the lunar surface for 21 hours, 36 minutes and 21 seconds. All this time, command module pilot Michael Collins was waiting for them in lunar orbit. The astronauts made one exit to the lunar surface, which lasted 2 hours 31 minutes 40 seconds. The first man to set foot on the moon was Neil Armstrong. This happened on July 21, at 02:56:15 UTC. Aldrin joined him 15 minutes later.
The astronauts planted a US flag at the landing site, placed a set of scientific instruments and collected 21.55 kg of lunar soil samples, which were delivered to Earth. After the flight, crew members and lunar rock samples underwent strict quarantine, which did not reveal any lunar microorganisms.
The successful completion of the Apollo 11 flight program meant the achievement of the national goal set by US President John F. Kennedy in May 1961 - to land on the Moon before the end of the decade, and marked the victory of the United States in the lunar race with the USSR."
Many materials are devoted to the first steps of people on the Moon: “This happened at 109 hours 24 minutes 20 seconds of flight time, or at 02 hours 56 minutes 15 seconds UTC on July 21, 1969. Still holding onto the ladder with his hand, Armstrong placed his right foot on the ground, after which he reported on his first impressions. According to him, the small particles of soil were like powder that could easily be thrown up with the toe. They stuck in thin layers to the soles and sides of the moon boots, like crushed charcoal.
His feet sank into it quite a bit, no more than 0.3 cm. But Armstrong could see his footprints on the surface. The astronaut reported that moving on the Moon is not difficult at all, in fact it is even easier than during simulations of 1/6 gravity on Earth.”
Pictured are the Apollo 11 astronauts during the moon landing.
"Apollo 12"
The Apollo 12 spacecraft, which launched on November 14, 1969 and landed on the Moon—the second human encounter with the lunar surface—returned to Earth on November 24, 1969. Charles (“Pete”) Conrad and Alan Bean are the second astronauts to visit the Moon in person.
Pictured are the Apollo 12 astronauts during the moon landing.
"Apollo 14"
The launch of the ship, whose mission was the third visit to the Moon, took place on January 31, 1971. Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell were the third to visit the Moon. The astronauts made two walks to the Moon, during which they collected several dozen soil samples, a total of 23 kg of samples, brought “lunar” trees, seeds that had been luggage on the Moon and were then planted in the forests of America.
Pictured are the Apollo 14 astronauts during the lunar landing.
"Apollo 15"
Apollo 15 (English: Apollo 15) is the ninth manned spacecraft in the Apollo program, the fourth landing of people on the Moon. Crew commander David Scott and lunar module pilot James Irwin spent almost three days (just under 67 hours) on the Moon.
The total duration of three exits to the lunar surface was 18 hours 30 minutes. On the Moon, the crew used a lunar vehicle for the first time, driving it a total of 27.9 km. 77 kilograms of lunar soil samples were collected and then delivered to Earth. After the flight, experts called the samples delivered by this expedition the “richest catch” of the entire program, and the Apollo 15 mission “one of the most brilliant from a scientific point of view.”
Pictured are the Apollo 15 astronauts during the lunar landing.
"Apollo 16"
The tenth manned flight of the Apollo program brought men to the Moon for the fifth time, dated April 16-27, 1972, the flight lasted just over 10 days.
“First landing in a mountainous area, on a plateau not far from the Descartes crater. This was the second J-mission, after Apollo 15, with an emphasis on scientific research. The astronauts (like the crew of the previous expedition) had at their disposal a lunar vehicle, Lunar Rover No. 2.”
Pictured are the Apollo 16 astronauts during the lunar landing.
"Apollo 17"
It was the final flight of the Apollo program, the sixth and last landing of men on the Moon, the third scientific mission - December 7, 1972 - December 19, 1972.
The astronauts made three exits from the ship for a total duration of 22 hours 3 minutes 57 seconds. 110.5 kg of lunar rock samples were collected and brought to Earth.
Pictured are the Apollo 17 astronauts during the lunar landing.
In just over three years, the Americans made 6 landings on the Moon, and 12 people set foot on the lunar surface.
The latest missions were especially productive in scientific terms: soil samples were obtained, including deep samples using drilling tools, the astronauts “drove” around the Moon in a special rover, made several trips in one flight, walked, and left souvenirs various items, perhaps for foreign nations.
However, flights to the Moon ended abruptly in 1972; since then, the surface of the Earth’s satellite has only touched artificial devices. Why there are no attempts to fly to the Moon now is not clear, because astronautics has reached much greater heights than in the 1970s.
Retreat. The expression mentioned earlier in quotes - “lunar race” - is an extremely important action that can be translated to a philosophical and political level.
Do you think the Earth is just a planet, with certain areas of houses, forests, where people scurry around, wanting to win a bigger piece for themselves? And the Moon is an abstract mysterious halo that illuminates our Earth at night and about flights, which you can dream about when you want something unrealistic? Everything in this world (and not only in this, and not only in this Universe is possible), including the Earth and the Moon, are objects of self-affirmation of states, and this is primarily.
So many people are permeated by base instincts - the thirst for power, greed, vanity, etc. That's why in the race, who will fly first to the moon, who will get more oil on Earth, who will build the coolest skyscraper - everyone is frantically participating, in reality only a couple of states. Two states fought in the lunar race, two special states - the USA and the USSR.
There is another side to this race - nothing comes closer to progress than competition, conflict, and the desire for self-affirmation. And it is unknown where we would be with the exploration of the Moon if it were not for the wounded pride of states. But progress in this case goes over heads... corpses... and gives an example to all of humanity on how to achieve their goals.
What did we get with going into space? Scientists will note the many scientific achievements obtained thanks to man's flight into space and to the moon, achievements that are incredibly necessary for the development of both heavenly and earthly spaces. But I think there is one very important achievement, in addition to the material one, - we have become less afraid of the unknown. After all, people have lived for centuries in oblivion about the fact that there is Space and this round plate, illuminating the night. People know not only the number of planets in our Galaxy, but also a photo was taken celestial bodies, soil samples have been taken, artificial satellites are flying around the Earth, etc. The world has advanced, but what was more important to states was not the reduction of fear of the size and content of the Universe, but who would be the first to plant a flag on the Moon.
Yes, by the way, there is an opinion that the landing of people during the Apollo expeditions was falsified.
“Moon conspiracy” is a conspiracy theory, the central idea of which is the assertion that during the “moon race” during the American space program “Apollo” (1969-1972), no people were landed on the moon, and photographs, filming and other documentary materials of the lunar expeditions were faked by the US government.
If there were no flights to the Moon (in the links under the article there are videos with documentaries about how we could be deceived, subtleties, details, technology), then why did America need all this? The point is clear - America wanted to be ahead by any means... And then so many material resources were allocated to the Apollo program that it was a shame to let the whole world down and not fly to the Moon. The whole masquerade was carefully thought out, played well, everyone involved signed non-disclosure documents...
If the Americans really haven’t been to the moon, then everything is ahead, and there are plenty of prospects.
Then the 1902 film A Trip to the Moon is right: going to the Moon is a great fantasy for the world. We fantasized just as we did a hundred years ago, so we do today... It’s just that the Americans played it a little more believably than the French.
We are still used to thinking that there was a man on the moon. In fact, nothing will change much for most of us if we find out the truth about whether man set foot on the moon or not. Therefore, you can believe in any truth.
What do you think, was there a man on the moon or not?
49 years ago, on July 21, 1969, one of the greatest events in the history of mankind. On this day, American astronaut Neil Armstrong took his first step on the surface of the Moon. And his phrase about this event became popular:
True, there are serious doubts that this huge leap was made on the lunar surface, and not among the Hollywood sets created by the great master of American cinema, Mr. Stanley Kubrick.
The idea that man has never been to the moon is called the “moon conspiracy” theory. Despite the fact that the Soviet Union was the main and only competitor of the United States in the space race, the theory was born in the States. Moreover, the USSR had no doubt that American astronauts actually landed on the Moon.
"Moon Conspiracy"
The founding father of this conspiracy theory can be called Bill Keysing. In 1974, he wrote the book We Never Went to the Moon. In it, he convincingly argued that the American lunar expeditions were a falsification.
The author finds many “blunders” in the footage of the astronauts landing. These are multidirectional shadows from objects, and the absence of stars in the sky, and small size Earth. But the most striking evidence was considered to be the waving American flag in the vacuum of the lunar atmosphere. Bill also believes that NASA technology in the late 60s of the last century did not allow reaching the Moon.
Following Keysing, other supporters of the theory of falsification appeared. In particular, some of them argued that the astronauts could not fly alive; solar radiation would have killed them along the way.
There was no doubt in the Soviet Union
On the other hand, the fact that no one in the USSR doubted the landing of American astronauts speaks volumes. After all, between Soviet Union and the United States was in a fierce battle for space. At the slightest doubt about the reliability of the American flight to the Moon, the Soviet media would have raised a real storm.
The fact is that we have been closely observing the American space program. The flight was monitored by ground services, and communications between the crew and the Earth were intercepted. It was impossible to falsify communication sessions while remaining on Earth. More precisely, it is possible, but such a hoax would be more difficult than a real flight.
The famous Soviet cosmonauts Leonov and Grechko had no doubt about the authenticity of the presence of Americans on the Moon. But they do not rule out that to better illustrate the event, some of the material was filmed on Earth. And traces on the photographs, supposedly indicating falsification, were left during retouching and editing of the material.
Almost all the arguments in favor of the hoax had an explanation. Even the waving flag can be explained. After installation, vibrations in a vacuum do not subside for a long time, so the oscillatory movements of the panel touched during installation were not interfered with by air, so they continued for a long time.
Unmanned spacecraft, sent to the Moon, and not only American ones, were subsequently able to detect and film the American landing sites. Clear traces of the presence of an earthly landing force were found there, leaving no doubt that people had visited the Moon after all.