Mysteries of the Moon

Project prepared

Student of grade 3A MAOU multidisciplinary lyceum. 202 VDB Khabarovsk

Karnaukhova Yarina

Head: Gromova V.S.

Relevance

The moon is our only satellite. Nevertheless, despite its relative proximity to us and its apparent simplicity, it continues to hide many interesting secrets. The moon is increasingly attracting the attention of scientists, engineers and economists, who are considering various options its use in the further study and exploration of space, as well as its natural resources, so the study of the moon is one of the pressing issues today.

The Moon is a celestial body and a natural satellite of the planet Earth. Its features and secrets.

• Collection and generalization of information about the Moon.
• Identifies questions that have not yet been answered.

• Learn as many facts about the moon as you can.
• Find out what questions in the study of the moon astronomers cannot answer.
• Observe the changes of the moon with a telescope.
• Compile a lunar calendar for one lunar month.
• Draw conclusions based on the results of the work.

• Bibliographic analysis of literature and Internet materials
• Study and generalization
• Observation

What is the Moon?

The Moon is a natural satellite of the Earth, it has been revolving around our planet for at least 4 billion years. This is a stone ball about a quarter the size of the Earth. It has no atmosphere, no water and no air. The temperature ranges from minus 173 at night to plus 127 degrees Celsius during the day. It is large enough for a satellite and is a 5m satellite in the solar system.

origin mystery

It is still not known exactly how the moon appeared. Before scientists received samples of lunar soil, they knew nothing about when and how the moon formed. There were two fundamentally different theories:

• The Moon and the Earth formed at the same time from a gas and dust cloud;
• The Moon formed elsewhere and was subsequently captured by the Earth.

However, new information

obtained through detailed

studying samples from the moon,

led to the theory

giant collision .

Although this theory also has

shortcomings, currently

time it is considered the main.

But scientists cannot yet unambiguously explain the origin of the moon.

giant impact theory

4.36 billion years ago, Earth collided with an object the size of Mars. The blow fell not in the center, but at an angle (almost tangentially). As a result, most of the matter of the impacted object and part of the matter of the earth's mantle were ejected into near-Earth orbit.

From these fragments, the Moon gathered and began to orbit.

Where are the craters on the moon?

The fact is that, unlike the Earth, it does not have its own atmosphere, which would protect it from cosmic bodies in the form of meteorites. When a meteorite enters the Earth's atmosphere, due to friction with the air, it, in most cases, burns up before reaching the surface. On the Moon, everything that falls to the surface leaves huge imprints in the form of craters.

Dark spots on the moon, what is it?

Dark spots visible to the naked eye on the lunar surface are relatively flat areas with fewer craters, they lie below the level of the continental surface and are called seas. They do not contain water, but millions of years ago they were filled with volcanic lava.

They were called seas

because the first astronomers

were sure that they see lakes

and the sea, since the absence

water on the moon was not guessed.

Why do the Sun and Moon appear the same from Earth?

The diameter of the Sun is about 400 times the diameter of the Moon, but the distance from us to the Sun is also about 400 times greater, so from Earth, both objects appear approximately the same. This is precisely what explains the fact that during a total solar eclipse, the lunar disk exactly coincides with the solar disk, covering it almost completely.

Why is only one side of the Moon visible from Earth?

The moon is constantly turned to the earth on one side, because its complete revolution around its own axis and the revolution around the Earth are the same in duration and equal to 27 Earth days and eight hours. The reasons for this phenomenon have not yet been clarified, the main theory of this synchronization is that the tides that the Earth causes in the lunar crust are to blame.

What is on the far side of the moon?

In 1959, the Soviet station "Luna 3" for the first time flew around the moon and photographed the back side of the satellite, on which there were almost no seas. Why they are not there is still a mystery.

Why does the moon "change" color so often?

The moon is the brightest object in the night sky. But it doesn't glow on its own. Moonlight is the sun's rays reflected from the lunar surface. Clean White color The moon has only a day. This is because the blue light scattered by the sky is added to the yellowish light reflected from the moon itself. As the weakening blue color the sky after sunset, it becomes more and more yellow, and near the horizon it becomes the same orange and even red as the setting Sun.

Do earthquakes happen on the moon?

There are, and they are called moonquakes.

Moonquakes can be divided into four groups:

• tidal, occur twice a month, are caused by the influence of the tidal forces of the Sun and the Earth;
• tectonic - irregular, caused by movements in the soil of the moon;
• meteorite - due to the fall of meteorites;
• thermal - they are caused by a sharp heating of the lunar surface with sunrise.

However, the strongest

moonquakes still

not explained.

Astronomers don't know

what causes them.

Is there an echo on the moon?

On November 20, 1969, the crew of Apollo 12 threw lunar module on the surface of the moon, and the noise from its impact on the surface provoked a moonquake. The consequences were unexpected - the moon rang like a bell for another hour.

What is the moon covered with?

The surface of the Moon is covered with what is known as regolith, a mixture of fine dust and rocky debris formed as a result of meteorite collisions with the lunar surface. It is fine, like flour, but very rough, so it cuts no worse than glass. It is believed that with prolonged contact with moon dust, even the most durable object can break. Moon dust is 50% silicon dioxide and half oxides of twelve different metals, including aluminum, magnesium and iron, and smells like burnt gunpowder.

Influence of the Moon on planet Earth?

The only phenomenon that visibly demonstrates the effect of the moon's gravity is the effect on the tides. The moon's gravity pulls the oceans along the circumference of the earth - water swells in each hemisphere. This swelling follows the Moon during the movement of the Earth, as if running around it. Since the oceans are large masses of fluid and can flow, they are easily deformed by the Moon's gravity. This is how the ebb and flow occurs.

But whether the moon affects a person, it is impossible to say unequivocally. Scientists have not come to a unanimous conclusion.

Practical part of the work

Observation of the phases of the moon through a telescope during December 2016.

Moon phases in december 2016

Growing moon - from 12/01/16 to 12/13/16 during the period of the growing moon, the Sun illuminates only part of its “sickle”, every day it increases and turns into a semicircle - First quarter . 07.12.16

Full moon- 01/14/17 At the time of the full moon, the earth is located between the Sun and the Moon and is completely illuminated by the sun. We see a full circle.

Waning moon– from 12/15/16 to 12/29/16 during the period of the waning moon Luminous circle gradually

turns into a sickle, and then into

semicircle - Last quarter

new moon – 29.12.16

at the time of the new moon

is between the earth and

The sun, the sun illuminates that

the side of the moon that we can't see,

so from the earth it seems that the moon

Prospects for expanding theoretical knowledge

The study of the lunar crust by Lunokhods can provide answers to the most important questions about the formation and further evolution of the solar system, the Earth-Moon system and the emergence of life.

The absence of an atmosphere on the Moon creates almost ideal conditions for observing and studying the planets of the solar system, stars, nebulae and other galaxies.

Practical use

Existing now environmental problems force humanity to change its consumer attitude towards nature. There are a variety of minerals on the Moon. In addition, in the surface layer of the lunar soil, the isotope helium-3, rare on Earth, has been accumulated, which can be used as fuel for promising thermonuclear reactors.

The moon is a very interesting object to study. It is of great both theoretical and practical importance for space exploration. This work was carried out in order to learn more about our closest celestial satellite to raise questions that scientists may be able to answer in the future. Maybe someday people will be able to make long space flights, and the study of the moon is one of the stages on the way to this.

Bibliography:

• http://unnatural.ru
• https://en.wikipedia.org
• http://v-cosmose.com
• http://www.astro-cabinet.ru/

International Festival "Stars of the New Age" - 2015

Natural sciences (from 8 to 10 years)

RESEARCH

Is the moon an artificial satellite of the earth?

Nesterov Alex, 8 years old

student of the t / o "Lego-studio"

Work manager:

Teacher t / o: "Lego-studio"

MBU DO DT "Vector"

When I was still little, I really liked to watch cartoons about space: "Astronomy for the little ones" by R. Saakayants, which develops the cartoon for children from 2 to 12 years old "Astronomy for the little ones" from the series "Entertaining Lessons", "Educational cartoon about space for the little ones ”project from Bibigon and others. These cartoons said that the Moon is a natural satellite of the Earth. And just recently, my mother and I watched a documentary that said that the Moon is not a natural satellite of the Earth. It became interesting to me what scientists say about this: is the Moon a natural satellite of the Earth or are there other assumptions.

Purpose of my research: to find out the opinions of various scientists confirming that the Moon is not a natural satellite of the Earth.

Research objective: to find out what assumptions scientists make about the moon.

During the research, a hypothesis:

That the Moon is not a natural satellite of the Earth if:

There are assumptions of modern scientists that the Moon is an artificial satellite of the Earth;

There are studies by modern scientists confirming that the Moon is some other object.

Subject of study: Moon.

Objects of study:

1. Scientific works about the Moon;

2. Documentaries about the moon.

Is the moon an artificial satellite of the earth?

First guess.

The sensational version of the artificial origin of the moon was the first to be put forward by Soviet scientists Alexander Shcherbakov and Mikhail Vasin. In 1968, they published an article in the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper entitled: "The moon is an artificial satellite." Shcherbakov and Vasin announced to the entire Soviet Union that the Moon has hollow structure inside. And this design was created by a civilization unknown to us. Otherwise, it is simply impossible to explain all the oddities of the earthly satellite.

The hypothesis of Soviet scientists that the Moon is an artificial celestial body has long been treated with great suspicion. But the results of geological studies of different years have confirmed that the Moon can indeed be hollow. And life there may not be outside, but inside. We managed to find out thanks to a simple experiment. During the next lunar mission a spent rocket stage was dropped onto an earth satellite, and then, with the help of special probes, the seismic activity of the lunar surface was tracked. The astronomers wanted to measure the amplitude of the explosion and the diameter of the crater to calculate the density of the soil. But what a surprise it was when the moon hummed like a bell.

Astronomer Vladimir Koval says: “The steps fell, then they registered impacts of meteorites on the surface of the moon. And the strange thing was that the moon hummed like a bell for a long time. This continuous hum indicated that the moon was empty; that the surface of the Moon is armor, under which a spaceship is hidden, on which someone flew to us and left". As stated about one of these experiments, Dr. Thomas Paine(Director of NASA - the space research center of that time): “The moon hummed like a bell. The residual sound of the moon lasted up to 2 hours!”

But if the hypothesis of M. Vasin and A. Shcherbakov that the inhabitants of the Moon live under its surface, having an artificial atmosphere there, is correct, then it is logical to assume that ventilation devices will be required to release excess or exhaust gas, and that during such emissions the view the lunar surface will be distorted. (Remember the haze over hot asphalt on a summer day or the trembling air over a blazing fire).

And indeed, among tens of thousands of images of the lunar surface, a very large percentage is precisely such "nebulae and fuzziness."

Second guess.

On June 19, 2009, the Atlas V launch vehicle is launched from the Cape Canaveral cosmodrome (USA). On board the rocket is the Elkros space probe, equipped with state-of-the-art equipment for studying the moon. 3 days after the launch, the Elkros probe reaches the lunar orbit. On it, he makes 2 complete revolutions around the Earth. Elkros then launches a rocket to the moon. Rocket Centaurus. She weighs 500 tons. The impact falls on the very center of the lunar crater Kadeus. There is a powerful explosion. The blast wave raises many kilometers of dust to the surface. These are deep minerals from the bowels of the moon. In 4 minutes, the Elkros research probe will fly up. It will plunge right into a cloud of lunar dust. Make measurements of the level of radiation and take samples of microparticles. Using the latest technology, the space probe will conduct an instant chemical analysis of these microparticles. The results will be sent to Earth. These data shocked scientists. Now scientists are almost sure that the Moon is an artificial celestial body. But who created it, when, and most importantly, why, all this humanity has yet to find out.

On October 9, 2009, the Elkros probe sent a detailed report on the composition of the lunar soil. From this report it follows that in the bowels of the Moon there are huge quantities of mercury, silver, hydrogen, but, most importantly, there is water there. Parts of it in a frozen state are present in all samples of lunar dust raised from the depths of the Cadeus crater. NASA experts have calculated that at least 10% of the water in the bowels of the moon contains. This amount is more than enough for a person to live autonomously on the Moon. After all, this water can be easily turned into steam with the help of special equipment, and in return receive energy, and most importantly, oxygen.

Professor of Biological Sciences at Brown University Alberto Saal states that the crystals that are clearly visible in the rock are water crystals. Moreover, Alberto Saal calculated that there is a hundred times more frozen water in the lunar soil than on Earth. If you melt all the water in the lunar crater Cadeus, then the volume will be more than in the great lakes of North America combined.

Third guess.

After all, the Moon is not like any natural celestial body. The Moon is the only satellite in the solar system that revolves around its planet, i.e. around the Earth, in a perfectly regular circle. All other moons of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn have elliptical orbits. In addition, the period of rotation of the Moon around its own axis completely coincides with the period of its revolution around our planet. That is why only one side of the Moon is always visible from the Earth, what happens on the far side of the Moon is never visible.

PhD Gennady Zadneprovsky considers that the rotation of the Moon around its axis with exceptional accuracy coincides with the time of its revolution around the Earth. Therefore, we observe only 59% of the surface of the Moon, and the rest is hidden from the gaze of earthlings. To bring the rotation of the Moon around its own axis to such super-accuracy so that it is constantly on one side of the Moon - this simply goes beyond the most fantastic assumptions about natural origin our satellite.

Gennady Zadneprovsky:« If there were no Moon, the Earth would rotate at a tremendous speed. And our day would be about 6 hours. This high speed of rotation and instability of the Earth's behavior would lead to the fact that our winter and summer would be very harsh. Practically unacceptable for the development of biological life forms. Therefore, the gravitational state of the Earth-Moon complex plays an extraordinary role for many aspects of the evolution of life on Earth.».

Fourth guess.

There is another anomaly of the Moon: how does it happen that the Moon has the right size, which sometimes allows it to completely cover the Sun. This happens exactly 63 times every 100 years during solar eclipses. After all, if the Moon had a slightly smaller diameter, it would cover half or a third of the solar disk. In addition, for solar eclipses to occur, the Moon must also be at a precisely calculated distance from the Earth. If the Moon were a little further away, it would never have succeeded in eclipsing the Sun at the right moment. But the most surprising thing is that there is no astronomical evidence for such a strange behavior of our satellite. Neither gravity, nor the magnetic field, nor cosmic rays and solar winds could affect this. In addition, the satellite of other planets is not capable of overshadowing the sun. Only our planet Earth can boast of such an amazing astronomical phenomenon. It turns out that either this is an accident, or someone specially placed the Moon in such a way.

Fifth guess.

It turns out that the Moon can indeed be a complex technological structure. If the satellite of the Earth is indeed hollow inside, then, according to the laws of physics, it should have collapsed long ago. With the density that the Moon has, this natural satellite would shatter into pieces under the influence of the Earth's gravity and its own centrifugal force. But that doesn't happen. Why? Experts believe that this is possible only in one case, if the earth satellite is held from the inside by some kind of supporting structure or frame that can withstand any load.

Also Gennady Zadneprovsky says that on the moon there are huge craters with a diameter of 120 km. It is interesting that the depth of these craters is 3-4 km. But with the impact of such a meteorite capable of creating such a huge crater, the depth would have to be at least 50 km. And the fact that the depth is shallow indicates that the Moon is an extremely rigid body, that is, it has an internal frame, presumably made of titanium, which ensures the stability of the Moon and its strength during impact collisions.

Academician, author of fundamental works on physics, biology, history Nikolai Levashov in his interview claims that the moon is artificial object. Why? Because all craters on the Moon, regardless of their diameter, are the same depth. Everyone knows that a small bomb fell - a small crater, the larger the bomb, the larger the diameter and the deeper. A meteorite is a super bomb. When a meteorite falls at great speed, powerful explosion. And should be the diameter and depth of the funnel in proportion to the size this meteorite. On the Moon there are colossal craters with a diameter of up to 10 km., And the depth is the same for all. This suggests that at a depth a meteorite and another object collides with such matter, beyond which it cannot pass. Is there such a natural material? No.

But if the Moon is really an artificial satellite of the Earth, then how, when and, most importantly, who launched it into Earth orbit. After all, according to the calculations of scientists, the approximate age of the moon is not less than 4.5 billion years. At that time, our civilization had not yet begun to emerge. In addition, there were no conditions for life on Earth at that time. On the other hand, some researchers do not agree with this version. They believe that it is quite possible 4.5 billion years ago on our planet occurred terrible disaster. And before her, there was not just life on the planet, the Earth was a flowering garden. Only inhabiting it is another, unknown to us super-civilization. And it is more possible that representatives of that civilization actively explored space and flew to distant planets. If this is so, then an artificial satellite - the Moon could serve as a transshipment and testing base for space technology.

Approves Gennady Zadneprovsky: « Of course, there are gigantic complexes on the Moon, the remains of which are observed in the pictures taken by spacecraft. These giant complexes are industrial, ranging in size from 4 to 5 km. Plus a system of tunnels that permeates the surface of the moon. And, apparently, most of these industrial complexes are concentrated in huge cavities, or in a hollow part, in the hollow center of the Moon.».

Sixth guess.

Nikolai Levashov testifies: "... In the video, you can see how a spacecraft takes off from the north pole of the moon, very quickly flies around the moon and enters the south pole of the moon. Through what? So, there is a passage to the moon? Came in and didn't show up again».

President of the Foundation for Temporal Research, Analysis and Forecast Pavel Sviridov fixes that, most likely, this is some kind of base that works in the vicinity of us and is a very convenient point of observation for the development of human civilization.

It's almost unbelievable, but archaeologists around the world are still finding evidence that such a super-civilization capable of building spaceships and launching artificial satellites really existed on Earth.

In confirmation of the fact that bases and testing grounds for space technology could indeed be located on the Moon earlier, strange architectural ensembles are clearly visible on the photographs of the lunar surface. Many experts believe that these lunar cities could not have formed naturally. Neither comet impacts, nor lunar winds, nor even a giant asteroid can create such complex patterns.

Scientist Karl Wolf proves that some of the lunar buildings are clearly reflected by the reflective coating, others reminded me of water-cooling towers, some of the buildings were very tall and straight with a flat roof, others, on the contrary, were low with a round roof, some looked like domes, some like greenhouses.

American astronomers have discovered new geological faults on the moon. In other words, its surface seems to be moving. Moreover, only individual lithospheric plates move. At first they seem to move away, and then they return to their original place back to the nearest millimeter. One gets the feeling that the moving plates are complex mechanisms of a huge spaceship. The researchers are sure that this may indicate that the Moon is an artificial body, inside of which there should be intelligent life. Researchers suggest that the outer shell of the moon is similar to the skin of a spacecraft.

Researcher of anomalous phenomena Yuri Senkin thinks: " It is quite possible that this is a manned spacecraft of enormous size, and it was created only for certain conditions: for the evacuation of all creatures from planet Earth like in an ark, or a huge laboratory and base».

In the course of my research, it was confirmed that there are assumptions of many scientists, researchers and specialists that the Moon is an artificial satellite of the Earth, a huge spacecraft with laboratories and bases inside, a transport transshipment station for flights to other planets, an ark in case of evacuation from Earth. Therefore, the hypothesis was confirmed that the Moon is not a natural satellite of the Earth.

List of Internet resources:

1. Website “Earth. Chronicles of Life. Article "Mysteries of the Moon - facts, anomalies, secrets of the Earth's satellite". - 2015 (http://earth-chronicles.ru/news/2012-12-18-36370)

2. Website “Earth. Chronicles of Life. Article " Unsolved mysteries Moon." - 2015 (http://earth-chronicles.ru/news/2013-02-18-39545)

3. Site "Kramola". The article "The Moon is an artificial satellite of the Earth". – 2014 (http://www.kramola.info/vesti/kosmos/luna-iskusstvennyj-sputnik-zemli)

4. Video material “Day of space stories. Born on the Moon. – 2012 (http://www./watch?v=68z5e8Rt2xQ)

5. Video material "The Moon is an artificial satellite of the Earth." – 2013 (http://www./watch?v=8Y0bQJAU6LE)

natural satellite our native earth - moon- attracted the attention of people since prehistoric times. The modern science of astronomy knows much more interesting facts about the Moon than our ancestors. We will tell you about characteristics of the Moon, the phases of the Moon and the relief of the Earth's satellite.

moon- a natural satellite of the Earth, the second brightest object in the earth's sky after the Sun and the closest natural satellite of the planets to it, the fifth largest among them (after such satellites of Jupiter as Io, Ganymede, Callisto and Saturn's satellite - Titan).

The ancient Romans called the moon the same as we do (lat. Luna). The name comes from the Indo-European root "louksnā" - light, shiny. In the Hellenistic era of the ancient Greek civilization, our satellite was called Selena (ancient Greek "Σελήνη"), and the ancient Egyptians - Yah.

This article contains the most Interesting Facts from astronomy about the moon, its phases, relief and structure.

Planetary characteristics of the Moon

• Radius = 1,738 km
• Semi-major axis of the orbit = 384,400 km
• Orbital period = 27.321661 days
• Orbital eccentricity = 0.0549
• Equator orbital inclination = 5.16
• Surface temperature = -160° to +120°C
• Day = 708 hours
• Distance from Earth = 384400 km

Characteristics of the Moon's orbital motion

Since ancient times, people have tried to describe and explain the movement of the moon, using more accurate theories each time. The closest thing to reality is that the Moon moves in an elliptical orbit.

The smallest distance between the centers of the Earth and the Moon - 356,410 km(at perigee), the largest - 406,740 km (at apogee). The average distance between the centers of the Earth and the Moon is 384,400 km. A beam of light travels this distance in 1.28 s.

The fastest in the history of mankind interplanetary probe "New Horizons", which recently flew past Pluto, on January 19, 2006, overcame the path to the Moon's orbit in 8 hours 35 minutes.

Although The moon rotates on its axis, it always faces the Earth with the same side. This is because, relative to the stars, the Moon makes one revolution around its axis in the same time as one revolution around the Earth - an average of 27.321582 days (27 days 7 hours 43 minutes 5 s).

This circulation period is called sidereal (from the Latin "Sidus" - star; genitive case: sideris). And since the directions of both rotations coincide, it is impossible to see the opposite side of the Moon from the Earth. True, due to the fact that the movement of the Moon in an elliptical orbit is uneven (near the perigee it moves faster, near the apogee - slower), and the rotation of the satellite around its own axis is uniform, you can see small areas of the western and eastern edges of the far side of the Moon.

This phenomenon is called optical libration in longitude. Due to the inclination of the Moon's axis of rotation to the plane of the Earth's orbit (by an average of 5 ° 09 "), one can see the edges of the northern and southern zones of the far side of the Moon (optical libration in latitude).

Also exists physical libration, due to the oscillation of the Moon around the equilibrium position as a result of the displacement of the center of mass relative to its geometric center (the center of mass of the Moon is located approximately 2 km from the geometric center towards the Earth), and also due to the action of tidal forces from the Earth.

Physical libration has a value of 0.02° in longitude and 0.04° in latitude. Due to all types of libration, approximately 59% of the lunar surface can be observed from the Earth.

The phenomenon of optical libration was discovered by the outstanding Italian scientist Galileo Galilei in 1635. The moon is not a self-luminous body. You can see it only because it reflects sunlight.

As the Moon moves, the angle between the Earth, the Moon, and the Sun changes, so the conditions for illuminating the Moon's surface and the conditions for observing it from the Earth's surface also change. We observe this phenomenon in the form of a cycle of phases of the moon. In these illustrations, you will find out which moon is waning and which is growing.

New moon- the phase when the unilluminated Moon is between the Earth and the Sun. At this time, it is invisible to the earthly observer.

Full moon- the phase when the Moon is at the opposite point of its orbit and the hemisphere illuminated by the Sun is completely visible to the earthly observer.

Intermediate phases of the moon- the position of the moon between the new moon and the full moon - called quarters (first and last). The period of time between two successive phases averages 29.530588 days (708 h 44 min 3 s). It is this period - synodic (from the Greek "σύνοδος" - combination, connection) - and is one of the structural parts of the calendar - a month.

The patterns in motion described above by no means exhaust all the characteristics and features of the Moon. The actual motion of the moon is rather complicated.

The basis of modern calculations of the motion of the moon is the theory of Ernest Brown (1866-1938), created at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. It provides for the position of the Moon in orbit with great accuracy and takes into account many factors that affect the movement of the Moon: the oblateness of the Earth, the influence of the Sun, and gravitational attacks from planets and asteroids.

The error in the calculations according to Brown's theory does not exceed 1 km in 50 years! Clarifying the position of Brown's theory, modern science can calculate the motion of the moon and check the calculations in practice with even greater accuracy.

Physical characteristics and structure of the Moon

The moon is almost spherical- it is slightly flattened along the polar axis. Its equatorial radius is 1738.14 km, which is 27.3% of the Earth's equatorial radius. The polar radius is 1735.97 km (27.3% of the Earth's polar radius).

So, the average radius of the Moon is 1737.10 km (27.3% of the Earth's), and the surface area is approximately 3.793 x 10 7 km 2 (7.4% of the Earth's surface area).

The volume of the Moon is 2.1958 x 10 10 km³ (2.0% of the Earth's volume), and its mass is 7.3477 x 10 22 kg (1.23% of the Earth's mass). According to the data of the Lunar Orbiter satellites, a gravitational map of the Moon was created and gravitational anomalies - mascons - zones of increased density were revealed. These anomalies are much larger than on Earth.

The atmosphere of the Moon is extremely rarefied. When the surface is not illuminated by the Sun, the content of gases above it does not exceed 2.0 x 10 5 particles / cm 3 (for the Earth this figure is 2.7 x 1019 particles / cm 3 - the so-called Loschmidt number), and after sunrise it increases approximately hundred times due to degassing of the soil.

The rarefied atmosphere leads to a high temperature difference on the surface of the Moon (at the equator from -170 ° C before sunrise, to +120 ° C in the middle of the day, on the Moon lasts 14.77 Earth days).

Due to the low thermal conductivity of the soil, the temperature of rocks lying at a depth of 1 m is almost constant and equal to -35 ° C. Despite the virtual absence of an atmosphere, the sky on the Moon is always black, even when the Sun is above the horizon, and stars are always visible on it. The lunar crust is thicker on the reverse side than on the visible side.

Its maximum thickness in the vicinity of the Korolev crater is about twice as high as the average, and its minimum thickness is under some large craters. Its average value is, according to various estimates, 30-50 km. Beneath the crust is a mantle and a small two-layered core.

Shell inner core, with a radius of 240 km, rich in iron, the outer core consists mainly of liquid iron and has a radius of approximately 300-330 km. The mass of the core is 2% of the mass of the moon. Around the core is a partially melted magmatic layer with a radius of approximately 480-500 km.

relief of the moon

The landscape of the moon is quite interesting and varied. The science that studies the structure of the surface of the moon is called Selenography. Much of the Moon's surface is covered in regolith, a mixture of fine dust and rocky debris formed by meteor impacts.

The surface can be divided into two types: very old highlands with a lot of craters (continents) and relatively smooth and young lunar seas. The lunar seas, which occupy approximately 16% of the entire surface of the moon, are huge craters resulting from collisions with celestial bodies. These craters were later flooded with liquid lava.

Modern Selenography distinguishes 22 seas on the surface of the Moon, 2 of which are located on the surface of the Moon, invisible from the Earth. Selenographers call small areas of some seas bays, of which there are 11, and even smaller lava-filled parts of the Moon's surface - lakes (there are 22 of them, 2 of which are on the part of the Moon invisible from Earth) and swamps (there are 3 of them).

"The Moon is the Natural Satellite of the Earth"

1. Introduction

2.1. Mythological history of the moon

2.2. Origin of the Moon

3.1. Lunar eclipses

3.2. Eclipses in the old days

4.1. moon shape

4.2. surface of the moon

4.3. Relief of the lunar surface

4.4. Lunar soil.

4.5. The internal structure of the moon

5.1. Moon phases.

5.2. A new stage in the study of the moon.

5.3. Moon magnetism.

6.1. Tidal power research

7.1. Output.

1. Introduction .

The Moon is a natural satellite of the Earth and the brightest object in the night sky. There is no atmosphere familiar to us on the Moon, there are no rivers and lakes, vegetation and living organisms. The force of gravity on the Moon is six times less than on Earth. Day and night with temperature drops up to 300 degrees last for two weeks. And yet, the Moon is increasingly attracting earthlings with the opportunity to use its unique conditions and resources.

The extraction of natural resources on Earth is becoming more difficult every year. According to scientists, in the near future, humanity will enter a difficult period. The terrestrial habitat will exhaust its resources, so now it is necessary to begin to develop the resources of other planets and satellites. The Moon, as the closest celestial body to us, will become the first object for extraterrestrial industrial production. The creation of a lunar base, and then a network of bases, is planned in the coming decades. It is possible to extract oxygen, hydrogen, iron, aluminum, titanium, silicon and other useful elements from lunar rocks. Lunar soil is an excellent raw material for obtaining various building materials, as well as for the extraction of the helium-3 isotope, which is able to provide Earth's power plants with safe and environmentally friendly nuclear fuel. The moon will be used for unique scientific research and observations. By studying the lunar surface, scientists can "look" into a very ancient period of our own planet, since the peculiarities of the development of the Moon ensured the preservation of the surface topography for billions of years. In addition, the Moon will serve as an experimental base for testing space technologies, and in the future will be used as a key transport hub for interplanetary communications.

the Moon, the only natural satellite of the Earth and the closest celestial body to us; the average distance to the moon is 384,000 kilometers.

The Moon moves around the Earth at an average speed of 1.02 km / s in an approximately elliptical orbit in the same direction in which the vast majority of other bodies in the Solar System move, that is, counterclockwise when viewed from the Moon's orbit from the North Pole of the World. The semi-major axis of the Moon's orbit, equal to the average distance between the centers of the Earth and the Moon, is 384,400 km (approximately 60 Earth radii).

Since the mass of the Moon is relatively small, it has practically no dense gaseous shell - the atmosphere. Gases are freely dispersed in the surrounding outer space. Therefore, the surface of the moon is illuminated by direct sunlight. The shadows from uneven terrain are very deep and black here because there is no ambient light. And the Sun from the lunar surface will look much brighter. The moon's rarefied gaseous shell of hydrogen, helium, neon and argon is ten trillion times less dense than our atmosphere, but a thousand times more than the number of gas molecules in the vacuum of space. Since the moon does not have a dense protective shell from gas, very large temperature changes occur on its surface during the day. Solar radiation is absorbed by the lunar surface, which weakly reflects light rays.

Due to the ellipticity of the orbit and perturbations, the distance to the Moon fluctuates between 356,400 and 406,800 km. The period of revolution of the Moon around the Earth, the so-called sidereal (stellar) month, is 27.32166 days, but is subject to slight fluctuations and a very small secular reduction. The motion of the Moon around the Earth is very complex, and its study is one of the most difficult tasks of celestial mechanics. Elliptical motion is only a rough approximation; many perturbations due to the attraction of the Sun and planets are superimposed on it. The most important of these perturbations, or inequalities, were discovered from observations long before their theoretical derivation from the law of universal gravitation. The attraction of the Moon by the Sun is 2.2 times stronger than by the Earth, so that, strictly speaking, one should consider the movement of the Moon around the Sun and the perturbations of this movement by the Earth. However, since the researcher is interested in the motion of the Moon as seen from the Earth, the gravitational theory, which was developed by many leading scientists, starting with I. Newton, considers the motion of the Moon precisely around the Earth. In the 20th century, they use the theory of the American mathematician J. Hill, on the basis of which the American astronomer E. Brown calculated (1919) mathematically, series and compiled tables containing the latitude, longitude and parallax of the Moon. The argument is time.

The plane of the Moon's orbit is inclined to the ecliptic at an angle of 5*8”43”, subject to slight fluctuations. The points of intersection of the orbit with the ecliptic, called the ascending and descending nodes, have uneven backward movement and make a complete revolution along the ecliptic in 6794 days (about 18 years), as a result of which the Moon returns to the same node after a time interval - the so-called draconic month, - shorter than sidereal and on average equal to 27.21222 days, the frequency of solar and lunar eclipses is associated with this month.

The moon rotates around an axis inclined to the plane of the ecliptic at an angle of 88 ° 28 ", with a period exactly equal to the sidereal month, as a result of which it is always turned to the Earth by the same side. However, the combination of uniform rotation with uneven movement along the orbit causes small periodic deviations from a constant direction to the Earth, reaching 7 ° 54 "in longitude, and the inclination of the axis of rotation of the Moon to the plane of its orbit causes deviations of up to 6 ° 50" in latitude, as a result of which up to 59% of the entire surface of the Moon can be seen from the Earth at different times (although areas near the edges of the lunar disk are visible only in a strong perspective); such deviations are called the libration of the moon. The planes of the equator of the moon, the ecliptic and the lunar orbit always intersect in one straight line (Cassini's law).

There are four lunar months in the movement of the moon.

29, 53059 days SYNODIC (from the word synodion-meeting).

27, 55455 days ANOMALITICAL (the angular distance of the Moon from its perigee was called an anomaly).

27 , 32166 days SIDERAL (siderium - stellar)

27, 21222 days DRAKONIC (the nodes of the orbit are indicated by a dragon-like icon).

Target: Learn as much as you can about Earth's only natural satellite, the Moon. About its usefulness and significance in people's lives about its origin, history, movement, etc.

Tasks:

1. Learn about the history of the moon.

2. Learn about lunar eclipses.

3. Learn about the structure of the moon.

4. Learn about new moon exploration.

5. Research work.

2.1. Mythological history of the moon.

The moon in Roman mythology is the goddess of night light. The moon had several sanctuaries, one with the sun god. In Egyptian mythology, the goddess of the moon - Tefnut and her sister Shu - one of the incarnations of the solar principle, were twins. In Indo-European and Baltic mythology, the motif of the moon courting the sun and their wedding is widespread: after the wedding, the month leaves the sun, for which the god of thunder takes revenge and cuts the month in half. In another mythology, the moon, who lived in the sky with his wife, the sun, went to earth to see how people live. On earth, Khosedem (an evil female mythological creature) chased after the month. The moon, hurriedly returning to the sun, only half managed to enter its chum. The sun grabbed him by one half, and Khosedam by the other and began to pull him in different directions until they were torn in half. The sun then tried to revive the moon, left without the left half and thus without a heart, tried to make a heart out of coal for it, rocked it in a cradle (a shamanic way of resurrecting a person), but all was in vain. Then the sun commanded the moon to shine at night with the remaining half of it. In Armenian mythology, Lusin ("moon") - a young man asked his mother, who was holding the dough, for a bun. The angry mother slapped Lusin, from which he flew up into the sky. Until now, traces of the test are visible on his face. According to popular beliefs, the phases of the moon are associated with the cycles of the life of Tsar Lusin: the new moon - with his youth, the full moon - with maturity; when the moon wanes and the crescent moon appears, Lusin's old age sets in, who then goes to paradise (dies). From paradise he returns reborn.

There are also myths about the origin of the moon from body parts (most often from the left and right eyes). Most peoples of the world have special Lunar myths that explain the appearance of spots on the moon, most often by the fact that there is a special person (“ moon man or "lunar woman"). Many peoples attach special importance to the deity of the moon, believing that it provides the necessary elements for all living things.

2.2. Origin of the Moon.

The origin of the moon has not yet been definitively established. Three different hypotheses have been most developed. At the end of the XIX century. J. Darwin put forward a hypothesis according to which the Moon and the Earth initially constituted one common molten mass, the rotation speed of which increased as it cooled and contracted; as a result, this mass was torn into two parts: a larger one - the Earth and a smaller one - the Moon. This hypothesis explains the low density of the Moon, formed from the outer layers of the original mass. However, it meets serious objections from the point of view of the mechanism of such a process; in addition, there are significant geochemical differences between the rocks of the earth's shell and the rocks of the moon.

The capture hypothesis, developed by the German scientist K. Weizsacker, the Swedish scientist H. Alfven and the American scientist G. Urey, assumes that the Moon was originally a small planet, which, when passing near the Earth, became a satellite of the Earth as a result of the influence of the Earth's gravity. The probability of such an event is very small, and, moreover, in this case one would expect a greater difference between terrestrial and lunar rocks.

According to the third hypothesis, developed by Soviet scientists - O. Yu. Schmidt and his followers in the middle of the 20th century, the Moon and the Earth were formed simultaneously by combining and compacting a large swarm of small particles. But the Moon as a whole has a lower density than the Earth, so the substance of the protoplanetary cloud should have separated with the concentration of heavy elements in the Earth. In connection with this, an assumption arose that the Earth was the first to form, surrounded by a powerful atmosphere enriched in relatively volatile silicates; during subsequent cooling, the substance of this atmosphere condensed into a ring of planetesimals, from which the Moon was formed. The last hypothesis at the current level of knowledge (70s of the 20th century) seems to be the most preferable. Not so long ago, a fourth theory arose, which is now accepted as the most plausible. This is the giant impact hypothesis. The basic idea is that when the planets that we see now were just forming, some celestial body the size of Mars crashed into the young Earth at a glancing angle with great force. In this case, the lighter substances of the outer layers of the Earth would have to break away from it and scatter in space, forming a ring of debris around the Earth, while the core of the Earth, consisting of iron, would have been preserved intact. Eventually, this ring of debris stuck together to form the moon. The giant impact theory explains why the Earth contains a large number of iron, and there is almost none on the moon. In addition, from the substance that was supposed to turn into the Moon, as a result of this collision, many different gases were released - in particular oxygen.

3.1. Lunar eclipses.

Due to the fact that the Moon, revolving around the Earth, is sometimes on the same line Earth-Moon-Sun, solar or lunar eclipses occur - the most interesting and spectacular natural phenomena that caused fear in past centuries, because people did not understand what was happening. It seemed to them that some invisible black dragon was devouring the Sun and people could remain in eternal darkness. Therefore, the chroniclers of all nations carefully recorded information about eclipses in their chronicles. So the chronicler Kirill from the Novgorod Antoniev Monastery wrote on August 11, 1124: “Before evening, the Sun began to wane, and that was all. Oh, great fear and darkness! History has brought us a case when solar eclipse horrified the fighting Indians and the Medes. In 603 B.C. in present-day Turkey and Iran. The warriors threw down their weapons in fear and stopped the fight, after which, frightened by the eclipse, they made peace and did not fight each other for a long time. Solar eclipses occur only on the new moon, when the Moon passes neither lower nor higher, but just along the solar disk and, like a giant damper, blocks the solar disk, "blocking the path of the Sun." But eclipses in different places are visible in different ways, in some places the Sun closes a complete-total eclipse, in others a partial-incomplete eclipse. The essence of the phenomenon lies in the fact that the Earth and the Moon, illuminated by the Sun, cast the ends of the shadows (convergent) and the ends of the shadow (divergent). When the Moon falls in line with the Sun and the Earth and is between them, the moon's shadow moves across the Earth from west to east. The diameter of the total lunar shadow does not exceed 250 km, so at the same time the eclipse of the Sun is visible only on a small part of the Earth. Where the Moon's penumbra falls on the Earth, there is a partial eclipse of the Sun. The distance between the Sun and the Earth is not always the same: in the winter in the northern hemisphere of the Earth it is closer to the Sun, and further away in the summer. The moon, revolving around the Earth, also passes at different distances - sometimes closer, sometimes further away from it. In the case when the Moon lags farther from the Earth and cannot completely block the disk of the Sun, observers see a sparkling edge of the solar disk around the black Moon - a beautiful annular eclipse of the Sun occurs. When ancient observers accumulated records of eclipses over several centuries, they noticed that eclipses are repeated every 18 years and 11 and a third days. The Egyptians called this term "saros", which means "repetition". However, to determine where the eclipse will be visible, it is, of course, necessary to make more complex calculations. On a full moon, the moon sometimes falls into the earth's shadow completely or partially, and we see, respectively, a total or partial eclipse of the moon. The Moon is much smaller than the Earth, so the eclipse lasts up to 1 hour. 40min. At the same time, even with a total lunar eclipse, the moon remains visible, but turns crimson, which causes discomfort. In the old days, the lunar eclipse was feared as a terrible omen, it was believed that "the month is shedding blood." The sun's rays, refracted in the Earth's atmosphere, fall into the cone of the earth's shadow. At the same time, the blue and adjacent rays of the solar spectrum are actively absorbed by the atmosphere, and predominantly red rays are transmitted inside the shadow cone, which are absorbed more weakly, they then give the Moon an ominous reddish color. In general, lunar eclipses are a rather rare phenomenon of nature. It would seem that lunar eclipses should be observed monthly, on every full moon. But that doesn't really happen. The moon slips either under the earth's shadow or above it, and on a new moon the moon's shadow usually sweeps past the earth, and then eclipses also do not work. Therefore, eclipses are not so frequent.

Diagram of a total lunar eclipse.

3.2. Eclipses in the old days.

In ancient times, eclipses of the Sun and Moon were of great interest to people. Philosophers Ancient Greece were convinced that the earth is a sphere, because they noticed that the shadow of the earth falling on the moon always has the shape of a circle. Moreover, they calculated that the Earth is about three times bigger moon, simply based on the duration of the eclipses. Archaeological evidence suggests that many ancient civilizations tried to predict eclipses. Observations at Stonehenge, in southern England, may have enabled late Stone Age people, 4,000 years ago, to predict some eclipses. They knew how to calculate the time of the arrival of the summer and winter solstices. In Central America, 1,000 years ago, Maya astronomers could predict eclipses by building long series of observations and looking for recurring combinations of factors. Almost identical eclipses repeat every 54 years 34 days.

4.4. How often do we see eclipses.

Although the Moon passes in its orbit around the Earth once a month, eclipses cannot occur monthly due to the fact that the plane of the Moon's orbit is tilted relative to the plane of the Earth's orbit around the Sun. At the most, seven eclipses can occur in a year, of which two or three must be lunar. Solar eclipses only occur on the new moon, when the Moon is exactly between the Earth and the Sun. Lunar eclipses always happen on a full moon when the Earth is between the Earth and the Sun. In a lifetime, we can hope to see 40 lunar eclipses (assuming the sky is clear). It is more difficult to observe solar eclipses due to the narrowness of the solar eclipse band.

4.1. moon shape

The shape of the Moon is very close to a sphere with a radius of 1737 km, which is equal to 0.2724 of the Earth's equatorial radius. The surface area of ​​the moon is 3.8 * 107 square meters. km., and the volume is 2.2 * 1025 cm3. A more detailed determination of the figure of the Moon is difficult because on the Moon, due to the absence of oceans, there is no clearly expressed level surface in relation to which heights and depths could be determined; in addition, since the Moon is turned to the Earth on one side, it seems possible to measure from the Earth the radii of points on the surface of the visible hemisphere of the Moon (except for points on the very edge of the lunar disk) only on the basis of a weak stereoscopic effect due to libration. The study of libration made it possible to estimate the difference between the principal semiaxes of the Moon's ellipsoid. The polar axis is less than the equatorial one, directed towards the Earth, by about 700 m and less than the equatorial axis, perpendicular to the direction of the Earth, by 400 m. Thus, the Moon, under the influence of tidal forces, is slightly elongated towards the Earth. The mass of the moon is most accurately determined from observations of its artificial satellites. It is 81 times less than the mass of the earth, which corresponds to 7.35 * 1025 g. The average density of the Moon is 3.34 g cm3 (0.61 of the average density of the Earth). The acceleration of gravity on the surface of the Moon is 6 times greater than on the Earth, is 162.3 cm.sec and decreases by 0.187 cm.sec2 when ascending 1 kilometer. The first cosmic velocity is 1680 m.s, the second is 2375 m.s. Due to the small attraction, the Moon could not keep a gaseous shell around it, as well as water in a free state.

4.2. surface of the moon

The surface of the Moon is quite dark, its albedo is 0.073, that is, it reflects on average only 7.3% of the light rays of the Sun. Visual magnitude full moon at an average distance is - 12.7; it sends 465,000 times less light to Earth on a full moon than the Sun. Depending on the phases, this amount of light decreases much faster than the area of ​​the illuminated part of the Moon, so that when the Moon is at a quarter and we see half of its disk bright, it sends us not 50%, but only 8% of the light of the full Moon. The color of the moonlight is +1.2, which means it is noticeably redder than the sun. The moon rotates relative to the sun with a period equal to the synodic month, so the day on the moon lasts almost 1.5 days and the night lasts the same amount. Not being protected by the atmosphere, the surface of the Moon heats up to + 110 ° C during the day, and cools down to -120 ° C at night, however, as radio observations have shown, these huge temperature fluctuations penetrate only a few decimeters deep due to the extremely weak thermal conductivity of the surface layers. For the same reason, during total lunar eclipses, the heated surface cools rapidly, although some places take longer.

Even with the naked eye, irregular, extended darkish spots are visible on the Moon, which were taken for the seas; the name has been preserved, although it has been established that these formations have nothing to do with the earth's seas. Telescopic observations, initiated in 1610 by G. Galileo, made it possible to discover the mountainous structure of the Moon's surface. It turned out that the seas are plains of a darker shade than other areas, sometimes called continental (or mainland), teeming with mountains, most of which are ring-shaped (craters). Based on long-term observations, detailed maps of the Moon were compiled. The first such maps were published in 1647 by J. Hevelius in Lancet (Gdansk). Having retained the term “seas”, he also assigned names to the main lunar ridges - according to similar terrestrial formations: the Apennines, the Caucasus, the Alps. J. Riccioli in 1651 gave fantastic names to the vast dark lowlands: Ocean of Storms, Sea of ​​Crises, Sea of ​​Tranquility, Sea of ​​Rains, and so on. Swamp of Rot. Separate mountains, mostly ring-shaped, he named the names of prominent scientists: Copernicus, Kepler, Tycho Brahe and others. These names have been preserved on lunar maps to this day, and many new names of prominent people, scientists of a later time have been added. The names of K. E. Tsiolkovsky, S. P. Korolev, Yu. A. Gagarin and others appeared on the maps of the far side of the Moon, compiled from observations made from space probes and artificial satellites of the Moon. Detailed and accurate maps of the Moon were compiled from telescopic observations in the 19th century by German astronomers I. Medler, J. Schmidt and others. Maps were compiled in an orthographic projection for the middle libration phase, that is, approximately the same as the Moon is visible from Earth. At the end of the 19th century, photographic observations of the moon began.

In 1896-1910, a large atlas of the moon was published by the French astronomers M. Levy and P. Puse using photographs taken at the Paris Observatory; later, a photographic album of the Moon was published by the Lick Observatory in the USA, and in the middle of the 20th century, J. Kuiper (USA) compiled several detailed atlases of photographs of the Moon obtained with large telescopes of various astronomical observatories. With the help of modern telescopes on the Moon, one can notice, but not consider craters about 0.7 kilometers in size and cracks a few hundred meters wide.

Most of the seas and craters on the visible side were named by the Italian astronomer Riccioli in the mid-seventeenth century after astronomers, philosophers and other scientists. After photographing the far side of the moon, new names appeared on the maps of the moon. Titles are awarded posthumously. The exceptions are 12 names of craters in honor of Soviet cosmonauts and American astronauts. All new names are approved by the International Astronomical Union.

The relief of the lunar surface was mainly elucidated as a result of many years of telescopic observations. The "lunar seas", occupying about 40% of the visible surface of the Moon, are flat lowlands, crossed by cracks and low winding shafts; there are relatively few large craters on the seas. Many seas are surrounded by concentric ring ridges. The rest, lighter surface is covered with numerous craters, ring-shaped ridges, furrows, and so on. Craters less than 15-20 kilometers have a simple cup-shaped shape, larger craters (up to 200 kilometers) consist of a rounded shaft with steep inner slopes, have a relatively flat bottom, deeper than the surrounding area, often with a central hill. The heights of mountains above the surrounding terrain are determined by the length of the shadows on the lunar surface or by a photometric method. In this way, hypsometric maps were drawn up at a scale of 1: 1,000,000 for most of the visible side. However, the absolute heights, the distances of the points on the surface of the Moon from the center of the figure or the mass of the Moon, are determined very uncertainly, and the hypsometric maps based on them give only general idea about the relief of the moon. The relief of the marginal zone of the Moon, which, depending on the libration phase, limits the disk of the Moon, has been studied in much more detail and more accurately. For this zone, the German scientist F. Hain, the Soviet scientist A. A. Nefediev, the American scientist C. Watts compiled hypsometric maps that are used to take into account the irregularities of the edge of the Moon when observing to determine the coordinates of the Moon (such observations are made by meridian circles and from photographs of the Moon against the background of surrounding stars, as well as from observations of occultations of stars). With respect to the lunar equator and the middle meridian of the moon, the selenographic coordinates of several basic reference points are determined by micrometric measurements, which serve to bind a large number of other points on the surface of the moon. The main starting point in this case is the small regular shape and clearly visible crater Mösting near the center of the lunar disk. The structure of the lunar surface has been mainly studied by photometric and polarimetric observations, supplemented by radio astronomy studies.

Craters on the lunar surface have different relative ages: from ancient, barely distinguishable, heavily reworked formations to young craters that are very distinct in outline, sometimes surrounded by bright “rays”. At the same time, young craters overlap older ones. In some cases, the craters are cut into the surface of the lunar seas, and in others, the rocks of the seas overlap the craters. Tectonic ruptures sometimes cut through craters and seas, sometimes they themselves overlap with younger formations. These and other relationships make it possible to establish the sequence in which various structures appear on the lunar surface; In 1949, the Soviet scientist A. V. Khabakov divided the lunar formations into several successive age complexes. Further development of this approach made it possible by the end of the 1960s to compile medium-scale geological maps for a significant part of the lunar surface. The absolute age of lunar formations is known so far only at a few points; but, using some indirect methods, it can be established that the age of the youngest large craters is tens and hundreds of millions of years, and the bulk of large craters arose in the “pre-sea” period, 3-4 billion years ago.

Both internal forces and external influences took part in the formation of the forms of the lunar relief. Calculations of the thermal history of the Moon show that soon after its formation, the bowels were heated by radioactive heat and largely melted, which led to intense volcanism on the surface. As a result, giant lava fields and a number of volcanic craters were formed, as well as numerous cracks, ledges and more. At the same time, a huge amount of meteorites and asteroids fell on the surface of the Moon in the early stages - the remnants of a protoplanetary cloud, during the explosions of which craters appeared - from microscopic holes to ring structures with a diameter of many tens, and possibly up to several hundreds of kilometers. Due to the lack of atmosphere and hydrosphere, a significant part of these craters has survived to this day. Now meteorites fall on the Moon much less frequently; volcanism also largely ceased as the Moon used up a lot of thermal energy and radioactive elements were carried into the outer layers of the Moon. Residual volcanism is evidenced by the outflows of carbon-containing gases in lunar craters, the spectrograms of which were first obtained by the Soviet astronomer N. A. Kozyrev.

4.4. Lunar soil.

Wherever spacecraft have landed, the Moon is covered with what is known as regolith. This is an inequigranular detrital-dust layer with a thickness from several meters to several tens of meters. It arose as a result of crushing, mixing and sintering of lunar rocks during the fall of meteorites and micrometeorites. Due to the influence of the solar wind, the regolith is saturated with neutral gases. Particles of meteorite substance were found among the fragments of regolith. Based on radioisotopes, it was found that some debris on the surface of the regolith had been in the same place for tens and hundreds of millions of years. Among the samples brought to Earth, there are rocks of two types: volcanic (lavas) and rocks that arose due to the crushing and melting of lunar formations during meteorite falls. The main mass of volcanic rocks is similar to terrestrial basalts. Apparently, all lunar seas are composed of such rocks.

In addition, in the lunar soil there are fragments of other rocks similar to those of the earth and the so-called KREEP - a rock enriched in potassium, rare earth elements and phosphorus. Obviously, these rocks are fragments of the substance of the lunar continents. Luna 20 and Apollo 16, which landed on the lunar continents, brought anorthosite-type rocks from there. All types of rocks were formed as a result of a long evolution in the bowels of the moon. In a number of ways, lunar rocks differ from terrestrial ones: they have very little water, little potassium, sodium and other volatile elements, and some samples contain a lot of titanium and iron. The age of these rocks, determined by the ratios of radioactive elements, is 3 - 4.5 billion years, which corresponds to the most ancient periods of the Earth's development.

4.5. The internal structure of the moon

The structure of the interior of the Moon is also determined taking into account the limitations that data on the figure of a celestial body impose on models of the internal structure and, especially, on the nature of the propagation of P - and S - waves. The real figure of the Moon turned out to be close to spherically equilibrium, and from the analysis of the gravitational potential it was concluded that its density does not change much with depth, i.e. unlike the Earth, there is no large concentration of masses in the center.

Most upper layer It is represented by a crust, the thickness of which, determined only in the areas of basins, is 60 km. It is highly probable that in the vast continental areas of the far side of the Moon, the crust is approximately 1.5 times thicker. The crust is composed of igneous crystalline rocks - basalts. However, in terms of their mineralogical composition, the basalts of continental and marine regions have noticeable differences. While the most ancient continental regions of the Moon are predominantly formed by light rock - anorthosites (almost entirely composed of medium and basic plagioclase, with small admixtures of pyroxene, olivine, magnetite, titanomagnetite, etc.), crystalline rocks of the lunar seas, like terrestrial basalts, composed mainly of plagioclases and monoclinic pyroxenes (augites). They probably formed during the cooling of the magmatic melt on the surface or near it. At the same time, since lunar basalts are less oxidized than terrestrial ones, this means that they crystallized with a lower ratio of oxygen to metal. In addition, they have a lower content of some volatile elements and, at the same time, an enrichment in many refractory elements in comparison with terrestrial rocks. Due to admixtures of olivines and especially ilmenite, the areas of the seas look darker, and the density of the rocks composing them is higher than on the continents.

Under the crust is the mantle, in which, like the earth, one can distinguish the upper, middle and lower. The thickness of the upper mantle is about 250 km, and that of the middle mantle is about 500 km, and its boundary with the lower mantle is located at a depth of about 1000 km. Up to this level, the velocities of transverse waves are almost constant, which means that the substance of the interior is in a solid state, representing a powerful and relatively cold lithosphere in which seismic vibrations do not damp for a long time. The composition of the upper mantle is presumably olivine-pyroxene, while schnitzel and the mineral melilite occurring in ultrabasic alkaline rocks are present at greater depths. At the boundary with the lower mantle, temperatures approach melting temperatures, and strong absorption of seismic waves begins from here. This region is the lunar asthenosphere.

At the very center, apparently, there is a small liquid core with a radius of less than 350 kilometers, through which transverse waves do not pass. The core may be iron sulfide or iron; in the latter case, it should be smaller, which agrees better with estimates of the density distribution over depth. Its mass probably does not exceed 2% of the mass of the entire moon. The temperature in the core depends on its composition and, apparently, lies within 1300 - 1900 K. The lower limit corresponds to the assumption that the heavy fraction of the lunar protomatter is enriched in sulfur, mainly in the form of sulfides, and the core is formed from the Fe - FeS eutectic with a melting temperature (weakly dependent on on pressure) of about 1300 K. The assumption that the protomatter of the Moon is enriched in light metals (Mg, Ca, Na, Al), which together with silicon and oxygen are part of the most important rock-forming minerals of basic and ultrabasic rocks - pyroxenes and olivines, is better consistent with the upper limit. The latter assumption is also favored by the low content of iron and nickel in the Moon, as indicated by its low average area.

The rock samples delivered by Apollo 11, -12 and -15 turned out to be mostly basaltic lava. This marine basalt is rich in iron and, less commonly, titanium. Although oxygen is undoubtedly one of the main elements of the rocks of the lunar seas, lunar rocks are significantly poorer in oxygen than their terrestrial counterparts. Of particular note is the complete absence of water, even in the crystal lattice of minerals. The basalts delivered by Apollo 11 have the following composition:

The samples delivered by Apollo 14 represent a different type of crust, a breccia rich in radioactive elements. Breccia is an agglomerate of stone fragments cemented by small particles of regolith. The third type of lunar crust samples is aluminum-rich anorthosites. This rock is lighter than dark basalts. In terms of chemical composition, it is close to the rocks studied by Surveyor-7 in the mountainous area near the Tycho crater. This rock is less dense than basalt, so that the mountains formed by it seem to float on the surface of denser lava.

All three rock types are represented in large samples collected by the Apollo astronauts; but the belief that they are the main types of rock that make up the crust is based on the analysis and classification of thousands of small fragments in soil samples collected from various places on the lunar surface.

5.1. Moon phases

Not being self-luminous, the Moon is visible only in the part where the sun's rays fall, or the rays reflected by the Earth. This explains the phases of the moon. Every month, the Moon, moving in orbit, passes between the Earth and the Sun and faces us with the dark side, at which time a new moon occurs. After 1 - 2 days after that, a narrow bright crescent of the young Moon appears in the western part of the sky. The rest of the lunar disk is at this time dimly illuminated by the Earth, turned to the Moon by its daytime hemisphere. After 7 days, the Moon moves away from the Sun by 900, the first quarter comes, when exactly half of the Moon's disk is illuminated and the terminator, that is, the dividing line of the light and dark sides, becomes a straight line - the diameter of the lunar disk. In the following days, the terminator becomes convex, the appearance of the Moon approaches the bright circle, and after 14 - 15 days the full moon occurs. On the 22nd day, the last quarter is observed. Angular distance The moon decreases from the sun, it again becomes a sickle, and after 29.5 days a new moon occurs again. The interval between two successive new moons is called a synodic month, with an average duration of 29.5 days. The synodic month is longer than the sidereal one, since the Earth during this time passes approximately 113 of its orbit and the Moon, in order to again pass between the Earth and the Sun, must pass an additional 113 part of its orbit, which takes a little more than 2 days. If a new moon occurs near one of the nodes of the lunar orbit, a solar eclipse occurs, and a full moon near the node is accompanied by lunar eclipse. The easily observable system of phases of the moon served as the basis for a number of calendar systems.

5.2. A new phase of lunar exploration.

Not surprisingly, the first flight of a spacecraft above Earth orbit was directed towards the Moon. This honor belongs to the Soviet spacecraft Luna-l, which was launched on January 2, 1958. In accordance with the flight program, in a few days he passed at a distance of 6000 kilometers from the surface of the moon. Later in the same year, in mid-September, a similar apparatus of the Luna series reached the surface of the Earth's natural satellite.

A year later, in October 1959, the Luna-3 automatic apparatus, equipped with photographic equipment, took pictures of the far side of the Moon (about 70% of the surface) and transmitted its image to Earth. The apparatus had an orientation system with solar and moon sensors and jet engines running on compressed gas, a control and thermal control system. Its mass is 280 kilograms. The creation of "Luna-3" was a technical achievement for that time, it brought information about the far side of the Moon: noticeable differences were found with the visible side, primarily the absence of extended lunar seas.

In February 1966, the Luna-9 apparatus delivered an automatic lunar station to the Moon, which made a soft landing and transmitted to Earth several panoramas of the nearby surface - a gloomy rocky desert. The control system ensured the orientation of the apparatus, the activation of the braking stage on command from the radar at an altitude of 75 kilometers above the surface of the Moon, and the separation of the station from it immediately before the fall. Depreciation was provided by an inflatable rubber balloon. The mass of "Luna-9" is about 1800 kilograms, the mass of the station is about 100 kilograms.

The next step in the Soviet lunar program was the automatic stations "Luna-16, -20, -24", designed to take soil from the surface of the Moon and deliver its samples to Earth. Their mass was about 1900 kilograms. In addition to the brake propulsion system and a four-legged landing device, the stations included a soil intake device, a take-off rocket stage with a return apparatus for delivering soil. The flights took place in 1970, 1972 and 1976, small amounts of soil were delivered to Earth.

Another problem was solved by "Luna-17, -21" (1970, 1973). They delivered self-propelled vehicles to the Moon - lunar rovers, controlled from the Earth according to a stereoscopic television image of the surface. "Lunokhod-1" traveled about 10 kilometers in 10 months, "Lunokhod-2" - about 37 kilometers in 5 months. In addition to panoramic cameras, the lunar rovers were equipped with: a soil sampling device, a spectrometer for analyzing the chemical composition of the soil, and a path meter. The masses of the moon rovers are 756 and 840 kg.

The Ranger spacecraft have been designed to take images as they fall, from about 1,600 kilometers up to several hundred meters above the Moon's surface. They had a triaxial orientation system and were equipped with six television cameras. The vehicles crashed during landing, so the resulting images were transmitted immediately, without recording. During three successful flights, extensive materials were obtained for studying the morphology of the lunar surface. Filming "Rangers" marked the beginning of the American planetary photography program.

The design of the Ranger vehicles is similar to the design of the first Mariner vehicles, which were launched to Venus in 1962. However, further design of lunar spacecraft did not follow this path. Other spacecraft, the Lunar Orbiter, were used to obtain detailed information about the lunar surface. These devices from the orbits of artificial satellites of the Moon photographed the surface with high resolution.

One of the objectives of the flights was to obtain high-quality images with two resolutions, high and low, in order to select possible landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo vehicles using a special camera system. The images were developed on board, scanned by a photoelectric method and transmitted to Earth. The number of shots was limited by the stock of film (for 210 frames). In 1966-1967, five Lunar Orbiter launches were carried out (all successful). The first three Orbiters were launched into low-inclination, low-altitude circular orbits; each of them took stereo surveys of selected areas on the visible side of the Moon with very high resolution and surveyed large areas of the far side with low resolution. The fourth satellite operated in a much higher polar orbit, it surveyed the entire surface of the visible side, the fifth, the last Orbiter, also conducted observations from a polar orbit, but from lower altitudes. Lunar Orbiter 5 provided high resolution imagery of many special targets on the visible side, mostly at mid-latitudes, and a large part of the low resolution imagery of the far side. Ultimately, medium-resolution imaging covered almost the entire surface of the Moon, while focused imaging was in progress, which was invaluable for the planning of landings on the Moon and its photogeological research.

In addition, accurate mapping was carried out gravitational field, while regional concentrations of masses were revealed (which is also important with scientific point sight, and for the purposes of landing planning) and a significant displacement of the center of mass of the Moon from the center of its figure was established. Fluxes of radiation and micrometeorites were also measured.

The Lunar Orbiter vehicles had a triaxial orientation system, their mass was about 390 kilograms. After the completion of mapping, these devices crashed on the lunar surface to stop the operation of their radio transmitters.

Flights of Surveyor spacecraft intended to obtain scientific data and engineering information (such mechanical properties as, for example, carrier

ability of the lunar soil), made a great contribution to understanding the nature of the moon, to the preparation of the landings of the Apollo spacecraft.

Automatic landings using a sequence of commands controlled by a closed loop radar were a great technical achievement of the time. The Surveyors were launched by Atlas-Centaurus rockets (the Atlas cryogenic upper stages were another technical success of the time) and placed in transfer orbits to the Moon. Landing maneuvers began 30 - 40 minutes before landing, the main braking engine was turned on by radar at a distance of about 100 kilometers to the landing point. The final stage (the rate of descent was about 5 m/s) was carried out after the end of the main engine and its reset at an altitude of 7500 meters. The mass of the "Surveyor" at launch was about 1 ton and during landing - 285 kilograms. The main braking engine was a solid-propellant rocket weighing about 4 tons. The spacecraft had a three-axis attitude control system.

Fine instrumentation included two cameras for panoramic views of the terrain, a small bucket for digging a trench in the ground, and (in the last three devices) an alpha analyzer for measuring backscatter of alpha particles in order to determine the elemental composition of the soil under the lander. Retrospectively, the results of the chemical experiment have clarified much about the nature of the Moon's surface and its history. Five of the seven Surveyor launches were successful, all landing in the equatorial zone, except for the last one, which landed in the ejecta of the Tycho crater at 41°S. Surveyor 6 was, in a sense, a pioneer - the first American spacecraft launched from another celestial body (but only to a second landing site a few meters away from the first).

The Apollo manned spacecraft were next in the US lunar exploration program. There have been no flights to the moon since Apollo. Scientists had to be content with continuing to process data from automatic and manned flights in the 1960s and 1970s. Some of them foresaw the exploitation of lunar resources in the future and turned their efforts to developing processes that could turn lunar soil into materials suitable for construction, for energy production and for rocket engines. When planning a return to lunar exploration, both robotic and manned spacecraft will no doubt find use.

5.3. Moon magnetism.

Very interesting information is available on the topic: the magnetic field of the moon, its magnetism. Magnetometers installed on the moon will detect 2 types of lunar magnetic fields: constant fields generated by the "fossil" magnetism of the lunar substance, and variable fields caused by electric currents excited in the bowels of the moon. These magnetic measurements have given us unique information about the history and current state of the Moon. The source of the "fossil" magnetism is unknown and indicates the existence of some extraordinary epoch in the history of the Moon. Variable fields are excited in the Moon by changes magnetic field associated with the "solar wind" - streams of charged particles emitted by the sun. Although the strength of the permanent fields measured on the Moon is less than 1% of the strength of the Earth's magnetic field, the lunar fields turned out to be much stronger than expected on the basis of measurements made by earlier Soviet and American satellites.

The instruments delivered to the lunar surface by the Apollos testified that the constant fields on the Moon vary from point to point, but do not fit into the picture of a global dipole field similar to that of the earth. This suggests that the detected fields are caused by local sources. Moreover, the large strength of the fields indicates that the sources have become magnetized in external fields, much stronger than those present on the Moon at the present time. At some time in the past, the moon either had a strong magnetic field itself or was in a region of a strong field. We face a whole series of mysteries here lunar history: Did the Moon have a field similar to Earth's? Was it much closer to Earth where the Earth's magnetic field was strong enough? Did it acquire magnetization in some other region of the solar system and was later captured by the Earth? The answers to these questions can be encoded in the "fossil" magnetism of the lunar substance.

Variable fields generated by electric currents flowing in the bowels of the Moon are associated with the entire Moon, and not with any of its individual regions. These fields rise and fall rapidly in accordance with changes in the solar wind. The properties of the induced lunar fields depend on the conductivity of the lunar fields of the interior, and the latter, in turn, is closely related to the temperature of the substance. Therefore, the magnetometer can be used as an indirect "resistance thermometer" to determine the internal temperature of the Moon.

Research:

6.1. Tidal Power Research.

Under the influence of the attraction of the Moon and the Sun, periodic ups and downs of the surface of the seas and oceans occur - ebbs and flows. Water particles make both vertical and horizontal movements. The greatest tides are observed on the days of syzygies (new moons and full moons), the smallest (quadrature) coincide with the first and last quarters of the moon. Between syzygies and quadratures, the amplitudes of the tides can vary by a factor of 2.7.

Due to the change in the distance between the Earth and the Moon, the tidal force of the Moon during the month can change by 40%, the change in the tidal force of the Sun for the year is only 10%. The lunar tides are 2.17 times stronger than the solar tides.

The main tide period is semidiurnal. Tides with such periodicity prevail in the oceans. There are also diurnal and mixed tides. The characteristics of the mixed tides change throughout the month depending on the declination of the moon.

In the open sea, the rise of the water surface during high tide does not exceed 1 m. The tides reach a much greater value at the mouths of rivers, straits and in gradually narrowing bays with a winding coastline. The tides reach the highest value in the Bay of Fundy (Atlantic coast of Canada). At the port of Moncton in this bay, the water level rises by 19.6 m at high tide. In England, at the mouth of the Severn River, which flows into Bristol Bay, highest altitude The tide is 16.3 m. On the Atlantic coast of France, near Granville, the tide reaches a height of 14.7 m, and in the Saint-Malo area up to 14 m. In the inland seas, the tides are insignificant. So, in the Gulf of Finland, near Leningrad, the tide does not exceed 4-5 cm, in the Black Sea, near Trebizond, it reaches 8 cm.

The rise and fall of the water surface during high and low tides are accompanied by horizontal tidal currents. The speed of these currents during syzygies is 2...3 times greater than during quadratures. Tidal currents at the moments of greatest speeds are called "living water".

At low tides on the gently sloping shores of the seas, the bottom may be exposed at a distance of several kilometers perpendicular to coastline. Fishermen of the Tersky coast of the White Sea and the Nova Scotia Peninsula in Canada use this circumstance when fishing. Before the tide, they set up nets on the gently sloping shore, and after the water has subsided, they drive up to the nets on carts and collect the fish that have fallen into the sneeze.

When the time of passage of the tidal wave through the bay coincides with the period of oscillation of the tide-forming force, a resonance phenomenon occurs, and the amplitude of the water surface oscillations increases greatly. A similar phenomenon is observed, for example, in the Kandalaksha Bay of the White Sea.

At the mouths of rivers, tidal waves propagate upstream, reduce the speed of the current, and can reverse its direction. On the Northern Dvina, the action of the tide affects up to 200 km from the mouth up the river, on the Amazon - at a distance of up to 1,400 km. On some rivers (Severn and Trent in England, Seine and Orne in France, Amazon in Brazil), the tidal current creates a steep wave 2 ... 5 m high, which propagates up the river at a speed of 7 m / s. The first wave may be followed by several smaller waves. As you move up, the waves gradually weaken, when they meet shallows and obstacles, they break up and foam with noise. This phenomenon is called boron in England, mascara in France, viceroca in Brazil.

In most cases, boron waves go up the river for 70 ... 80 km, in the Amazon up to 300 km. Boron is usually observed during the highest tides.

The fall of the water level in rivers at low tide is slower than the rise at high tide. Therefore, when the tide begins to ebb at the mouth, the aftereffect of the tide can still be observed in areas remote from the mouth.

The St. Johns River in Canada, near its confluence with the Bay of Fundy, passes through a narrow gorge. At high tide, the gorge delays the movement of water up the river, the water level above the gorge is lower and therefore a waterfall is formed with the movement of water against the flow of the river. At low tide, the water does not have time to pass through the gorge quickly enough in the opposite direction, so the water level above the gorge is higher and a waterfall is formed, through which the water rushes downstream.

Tidal currents in the seas and oceans extend to much greater depths than wind currents. This contributes to better mixing of water and delays the formation of ice on its free surface. IN northern seas due to the friction of the tidal wave on the lower surface of the ice cover, the intensity of tidal currents decreases. Therefore, in winter in northern latitudes, the tides have a lower height than in summer.

Since the rotation of the Earth around its axis is ahead of the movement of the Moon around the Earth in time, tidal friction forces arise in the water shell of our planet, to overcome which the energy of rotation is spent, and the rotation of the Earth slows down (by about 0.001 sec in 100 years). According to the laws of celestial mechanics, further deceleration of the Earth's rotation will entail a decrease in the speed of the Moon's orbit and an increase in the distance between the Earth and the Moon. Ultimately, the period of rotation of the Earth around its axis should be equal to the period of revolution of the Moon around the Earth. This will happen when the period of rotation of the Earth reaches 55 days. This will stop diurnal rotation Earth, tidal phenomena in the oceans will also stop.

For a long time, the rotation of the Moon was slowed down due to the tidal friction arising in it under the influence of Earth's gravity (tidal phenomena can occur not only in the liquid, but also in the solid shell of a celestial body). As a result, the Moon has lost its rotation around its axis and is now facing the Earth on one side. Due to the prolonged action of the tidal forces of the Sun, Mercury also lost its rotation. Like the Moon in relation to the Earth, Mercury faces the Sun with only one side.

In the XVI and XVII centuries tidal energy in small bays and narrow straits was widely used to power mills. Subsequently, it was used to actuate pumping installations for water pipelines, to transport and install massive parts of structures during hydraulic construction.

Nowadays, tidal energy is mainly converted into electrical energy at tidal power plants and then flows into the general flow of energy generated by power plants of all types. Unlike river hydropower, the average value of tidal energy varies little from season to season, which allows tidal power plants to more evenly provide energy to industrial enterprises.

Tidal power plants use the difference in water levels that occurs during high and low tide. To do this, the coastal basin is separated by a low dam, which retains tidal water at low tide. Then the water is released, and it rotates the hydro turbines

Tidal power plants can be a valuable local energy resource, but there aren't enough places on Earth to build them to make a difference in the overall energy landscape.

Since 1968, the first tidal power plant in our country with a capacity of 400 kilowatts began to operate in Kislaya Bay near Murmansk. A tidal power plant is being designed at the mouth of the Mezen and Kuloi with a capacity of 2.2 million kilowatts.

Abroad, projects are being developed for tidal power plants in the Bay of Fundy (Canada) and at the mouth of the Severn River (England) with a capacity of 4 and 10 million kilowatts, respectively; kilowatts, operate small tidal power plants in China.

So far, the energy of tidal power plants is more expensive than the energy of thermal power plants, but with a more rational implementation of the construction of hydraulic structures of these stations, the cost of the energy they generate can be completely reduced to the cost of the energy of river power plants. Since the planet's tidal energy reserves far exceed the total hydropower of rivers, it can be assumed that tidal energy will play a significant role in the further progress of human society.

The world community assumes the leading use in the 21st century of environmentally friendly and renewable energy of sea tides. Its reserves can provide up to 15% of modern energy consumption.

33 years of experience in operating the world's first TPPs - Rance in France and Kislogubskaya in Russia - have proven that tidal power plants:

work steadily in power systems both at the base and at the peak of the load schedule with a guaranteed constant monthly electricity generation

do not pollute the atmosphere with harmful emissions, unlike thermal power plants

do not flood the land, unlike hydroelectric power plants

do not pose a potential hazard, unlike nuclear power plants

capital investments in TPP facilities do not exceed the costs of hydroelectric power plants due to the floating construction method tested in Russia (without lintels) and the use of a new technologically advanced orthogonal hydroelectric unit

the cost of electricity is the cheapest in the energy system (proven for 35 years at PES Rance - France).

The environmental effect (on the example of the Mezen TPP) is to prevent the emission of 17.7 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, which, with the cost of compensating for the emission of 1 ton of CO2 at 10 USD (data from the World Energy Conference 1992), can bring according to the formula Kyoto Protocol annual income of about 1.7 billion USD.

The Russian School of Tidal Energy Use is 60 years old. In Russia, the projects of the Tugurskaya TPP with a capacity of 8.0 GW and the Penzhinskaya TPP with a capacity of 87 GW on the Sea of ​​Okhotsk have been completed, the energy of which can be transferred to energy-deficient regions of Southeast Asia. The Mezen TPP with a capacity of 11.4 GW is being designed on the White Sea, the energy of which is supposed to be sent to Western Europe via the East-West integrated energy system.

The floating "Russian" TPP construction technology, tested at the Kislogubskaya TPP and on the protective dam of St. Petersburg, allows one third to reduce capital costs compared to the classical method of building hydraulic structures behind the cofferdams.

Natural conditions in the research area (Arctic):

sea ​​water of oceanic salinity 28-35 o / oo and temperature from -2.8 C to +10.5 C

air temperature in winter (9 months) up to -43 C

air humidity not lower than 80%

number of cycles (per year): soaking-drying - up to 690, freezing-thawing up to 480

fouling of structures in sea water with biomass - up to 230 kg/m2 (layers up to 20 cm thick)

electrochemical corrosion of metals up to 1 mm per year

the ecological state of the area - no pollution, sea water - no oil products.

In Russia, the substantiation of TPP projects is carried out at a specialized marine scientific base in the Barents Sea, where marine materials, structures, equipment and anti-corrosion technologies are being studied.

The creation in Russia of a new efficient and technologically simple orthogonal hydroelectric unit suggests the possibility of its mass production and a drastic reduction in the cost of PES. The results of Russian work on TEC were published in the capital monograph by L.B. Bernshtein, I.N. Usachev and others "Tidal Power Plants", published in 1996 in Russian, Chinese and English.

Russian specialists in tidal energy at the Hydroproject and NIIES institutes carry out a full range of design and research work on the creation of offshore energy and hydraulic structures on the coast and on the shelf, including in the Far North, allowing to fully realize all the advantages of tidal hydropower.

Environmental performance of tidal power plants

Environmental Safety:

PES dams are biologically permeable

the passage of fish through the PES is almost unhindered

full-scale tests at the Kislogubskaya TPP did not find any dead or damaged fish (research by the Polar Institute of Fisheries and Oceanology)

the main food base of the fish stock is plankton: 5-10% of plankton die at the TPP, and 83-99% at the HPP

the decrease in water salinity in the TPP basin, which determines the ecological state of marine fauna and ice, is 0.05-0.07%, i.e. almost imperceptible

ice regime in the TPP basin softens

hummocks and prerequisites for their formation disappear in the basin

there is no pressure effect of ice on the structure

bottom erosion and sediment movement fully stabilize during the first two years of operation

the floating method of construction makes it possible not to erect temporary large construction bases in the sites of the TPP, to construct jumpers, etc., which contributes to the preservation of the environment in the area of ​​the TPP

emission of harmful gases, ash, radioactive and thermal waste, extraction, transportation, processing, combustion and disposal of fuel, prevention of combustion of atmospheric oxygen, flooding of territories, the threat of a breakthrough wave are excluded

TPP does not threaten humans, and changes in the area of ​​its operation are only local in nature, and mostly in a positive direction.

Energy performance of tidal power plants

tidal energy

renewable

unchanged in monthly (seasonal and long-term) periods for the entire period of operation

independent of the water content of the year and the availability of fuel

used in conjunction with power plants of other types in power systems both at the base and at the peak of the load curve

Business case for tidal power plants

The cost of energy at TPP is the lowest in the power system compared to the cost of energy at all other types of power plants, which is proved by the 33-year operation of the industrial TPP Rance in France - in the Electricite de France power system in the center of Europe.

For 1995, the cost of 1 kWh of electricity (in centimes) for:

The cost of kWh of electricity (in 1996 prices) in the feasibility study of the Tugurskaya TPP is 2.4 kopecks, in the project of the Amguenskaya NPP - 8.7 kopecks.
The feasibility study of Tugurskaya (1996) and the materials for the feasibility study of the Mezen TPP (1999), thanks to the use of efficient technologies and new equipment, for the first time substantiated the equivalence of capital costs and construction time for large TPPs and new HPPs under identical conditions.

The social significance of tidal power plants

Tidal power plants do not have a harmful effect on humans:

no harmful emissions (unlike thermal power plants)

there is no flooding of land and the danger of a wave breaking into the downstream (unlike a hydroelectric power station)

no radiation hazard (unlike nuclear power plants)

the impact on the TPP of catastrophic natural and social phenomena (earthquakes, floods, hostilities) does not threaten the population in the areas adjacent to the TPP.

Favorable factors in TPP basins:

mitigation (levelling) of climatic conditions in the territories adjacent to the TPP basin

Coastal protection from storms

· Empowerment of mariculture farms due to an almost doubling of seafood biomass

improvement of the transport system of the region

· exceptional opportunities for expanding tourism.

PES in the European energy system

Option to use PES in the power system of Europe - - -

According to experts, they could cover about 20 percent of all European electricity needs. Such technology is especially beneficial for island territories, as well as for countries with a long coastline.

Another way to obtain alternative electricity is to use the temperature difference between sea water and the cold air of the Arctic (Antarctic) regions of the globe. In a number of areas of the Arctic Ocean, especially at the mouths of large rivers such as the Yenisei, Lena, Ob, in the winter season there are especially favorable conditions for the operation of Arctic OTES. The average long-term winter (November-March) air temperature here does not exceed -26 C. Warmer and fresh river flow warms up sea water under ice up to 30 C. Arctic ocean thermal power plants can operate according to the usual OTES scheme based on a closed cycle with low-boiling working fluid. The OTES includes: a steam generator for generating steam of the working substance due to heat exchange with sea water, a turbine for driving an electric generator, devices for condensing the steam exhausted in the turbine, as well as pumps for supplying sea ​​water and cold air. More promising is the scheme of the Arctic OTES with an intermediate coolant cooled by air in the irrigation mode ”(See B.M. Berkovsky, V.A. Kuzminov“ Renewable energy sources in the service of man ”, Moscow, Nauka, 1987, p. 63- 65.) Such an installation can already be made at the present time. It can be used: a) for the evaporator - APV shell-and-plate heat exchanger with a thermal power of 7000 kW. b) for the condenser - an APV shell-and-plate heat exchanger with a thermal power of 6600 kW or any other condensing heat exchanger of the same power. c) turbogenerator - a 400 kW Yungström turbine and two built-in generators with disk rotors, permanent magnets, with a total capacity of 400 kW. d) pumps - any, with a capacity for the heat carrier - 2000 m3 / h, for the working substance - 65 m3 / h, for the cooler - 850 m3 / h. e) cooling tower - collapsible 5-6 meters high, with a diameter of 8-10 m. less than + 30C or a large lake from which you can take such an amount of water, and cold air with a temperature below -300C. It will take only a few hours to assemble the cooling tower, after which, if the water supply is provided, the unit will operate and produce more than 325 kW of electricity for useful use, without any fuel. From the foregoing, it can be seen that it is already possible to provide humanity with alternative electricity, if we invest in this.

There is another way to get energy from the ocean - power plants that use the energy of sea currents. They are also called "underwater mills".

7.1. Output:

I would like to base my conclusion on lunar-terrestrial connections and I want to talk about these connections.

MOON-EARTH RELATIONSHIPS

The Moon and the Sun cause tides in the water, air and solid shells of the Earth. The tides in the Hydrosphere, caused by the action of

Moon. During a lunar day, measured in 24 hours and 50 minutes, there are two rises in the ocean level (high tides) and two sinkings (low tides). The range of fluctuations of the tidal wave in the lithosphere at the equator reaches 50 cm, at the latitude of Moscow - 40 cm. Atmospheric tidal phenomena have a significant effect on the general circulation of the atmosphere.

The sun also causes all kinds of tides. The phases of the solar tides are 24 Hours, but the tidal power of the Sun is 0.46 Parts of the tidal power of the Moon. It should be borne in mind that, depending on the mutual position of the Earth, Moon and Sun, the tides Caused by the simultaneous action of the Moon and the Sun either strengthen or weaken each other. Therefore, twice during the lunar month, the tides will reach the highest and twice the lowest value. In addition, the Moon revolves around the center of gravity common to the Earth in an elliptical orbit, and therefore the distance between the centers of the Earth and the Moon varies from 57 to 63.7 Earth radii, as a result of which the tidal force changes by 40% during the month.

Geologist B. L. Lichkov, comparing the graphs of tides in the ocean over the past century with the graph of the speed of the Earth's rotation, came to the conclusion that the higher the tides, the lower the speed of the Earth's rotation. The tidal wave, constantly moving towards the rotation of the Earth, slows it down, and the day lengthens by 0.001 seconds per 100 years. At present, the Earth's day is equal to 24 hours, more precisely, the Earth makes a complete revolution around its axis in 23 hours 56 minutes. 4 seconds, and one billion years ago, a day was equal to 17 hours.

BL Lichkov also established a connection between changes in the speed of the Earth's rotation under the influence of tidal waves and climate change. Other comparisons made by this scientist are also curious. He took a graph of average annual temperatures from 1830 to 1939 and compared it with herring data for the same period. It turned out that temperature fluctuations caused by climate change under the influence of lunar and solar attraction affect the number of herring, in other words, their feeding and reproduction conditions: in warm years it is more than in cold ones.

Thus, a comparison of the graphs made it possible to conclude that the factors that determine the dynamics of the troposphere, the dynamics of the solid earth's shell - the lithosphere, the hydrosphere, and, finally, the biological

processes.

A. V. Shnitnikov also points out that the main factors that create rhythm in climate change are tidal force and solar activity. In every 40 thousand years, the duration of the earth's day increases by 1 second. The tide-forming force is characterized by a rhythm of 8.9; 18.6; 111 and 1850 years, and solar activity has cycles of 11, 22 and 80-90 years.

However, the well-known surface tidal waves in the ocean do not have a significant impact on the climate, but internal tidal waves affecting the waters of the World Ocean at considerable depths introduce a significant disturbance in the temperature regime and density of oceanic waters. A. V. Shnitnikov, referring to V. Yu. Vize and O. Petterson, tells about the case when in May 1912 between Norway and Iceland the surface of zero temperature was first discovered at a depth of 450 m, and then, after 16 hours, this surface of zero temperatures was raised by an internal wave to a depth of 94 M. A study of the distribution of salinity during the passage of internal tidal waves, in particular, a surface with a salinity of 35%, showed that this surface rose from a depth of 270 m to 170 m.

The cooling of the surface waters of the ocean as a result of the action of internal waves is transferred to the lower layers of the atmosphere that are in contact with it, i.e., internal waves affect the climate of the planet. In particular, the cooling of the ocean surface leads to an increase in snow and ice cover.

The accumulation of snow and ice in the polar regions contributes to an increase in the speed of the Earth's rotation, since a large amount of water is withdrawn from the World Ocean and its level decreases. At the same time, the paths of cyclones are shifted towards the equator, which leads to greater humidification of the middle latitudes.

Thus, during the accumulation of snow and ice in the polar regions and during the reverse transition from the solid phase to the liquid phase, conditions arise for periodic redistributions of the water mass relative to the poles and the equator, which ultimately leads to a change in the Earth's daily rotation rate.

The close connection of tide-forming force and solar activity with biological phenomena allowed A. V. Shnitnikov to find out the causes of rhythm in the migration of the boundaries of geographical zones along the following chain: tide-forming force, internal waves, ocean temperature regime, Arctic ice cover, atmospheric circulation, humidity and temperature regime of continents ( river flow, lake level, moisture content of peatlands, groundwater, mountain glaciers, perpetual

permafrost).

T. D. and S. D. Reznichenko concluded that:

1) the hydrosphere transforms the energy of gravitational forces into mechanical energy, slows down the rotation of the Earth;

2) moisture, moving to the poles or to the equator, transforms the thermal energy of the Sun into mechanical energy diurnal rotation and gives this rotation an oscillatory character.

In addition, according to the literature data, they traced the history of the development of 13 reservoirs and 22 rivers of Eurasia over the past 4.5 thousand years and found that during this period of time the hydro-network was subjected to rhythmic migration. During cooling, the rate of the Earth's daily rotation increased and the hydraulic network experienced a shift towards the equator. With warming, the daily rotation of the Earth slowed down and the hydroelectric network experienced a shift towards the pole.

References:

1. Great Soviet Encyclopedia.

2. Children's encyclopedia.

3. B. A. Vorontsov - Velyaminov. Essays on the Universe. M., "Nauka", 1975

4. Baldwin R. What do we know about the Moon. M., Mir, 1967

5. Whipple F. Earth, Moon and planets. M., "Science", 1967

6. Space biology and medicine. M., "Nauka", 1994

7. Usachev I.N. Tidal power plants. - M.: Energy, 2002. Usachev I.N. Economic evaluation of tidal power plants taking into account the environmental effect // Proceedings of the XXI Congress of the SIGB. - Montreal, Canada, June 16-20, 2003.
Velikhov E.P., Galustov K.Z., Usachev I.N., Kucherov Yu.N., Britvin S.O., Kuznetsov I.V., Semenov I.V., Kondrashov Yu.V. A method for erecting a large-block structure in the coastal zone of a reservoir and a floating complex for implementing the method. - Patent of the Russian Federation No. 2195531, state. reg. 12/27/2002
Usachev I.N., Prudovsky A.M., Historian B.L., Shpolyansky Yu.B. The use of an orthogonal turbine at tidal power plants// Hydrotechnical construction. - 1998. - No. 12.
Rave R., Bjerregard H., Milaj K. Project to achieve 10% of the world's electricity generation with wind energy by 2020 // Proceedings of the FED Forum, 1999.
Atlases of wind and solar climates in Russia. - St. Petersburg: Main Geophysical Observatory. A.I. Voeikova, 1997.

Exploration of the natural satellite of the Earth - the Moon: pre-cosmic stage, study by automata and people. travels from Jules Verne, physicists and astronomers to the apparatuses of the Luna and Surveyor series. Research of robotic lunar rovers, landing of people. magnetic anomaly.

I. INTRODUCTION

II. Main part:

1. Stage I - pre-space stage of research

2. Stage II - Automata study the moon

3. Stage III - the first people on the moon

V Applications

I. INTRODUCTION

Space flights made it possible to answer many questions: what secrets does the Moon hold, the “consanguineous” part of the Earth or the “guest” from space, cold or hot, young or old, whether the other side will turn to us, what does the Moon know about the past and future of the Earth. At the same time, why was it necessary to undertake such labor-intensive, expensive and risky expeditions to the Moon and to the Moon in our time? Do people have few earthly concerns: to save environment from pollution, to find deeply buried sources of energy, to predict a volcanic eruption, to prevent an earthquake...

But as paradoxical as it may seem at first glance, it is difficult to understand the Earth without looking at it from the outside. That's really true - "big is seen at a distance." Man has always sought to know his planet. Since that distant time, when he realized that the Earth does not rest on three whales, he has learned a lot.

The earth's interior is studied by geophysics. Investigating with the help of instruments individual physical properties planets - magnetism, gravity, heat, electrical conductivity - you can try to recreate its integral image. Seismic waves play a particularly important role in these studies: they, like a searchlight beam, illuminate the bowels of the Earth on their way. At the same time, even with such supervision, far from everything is visible. In the depths, active magmatic and tectonic processes have repeatedly melted down the original rocks. The age of the most ancient samples (3.8 billion years) is almost a billion years less than the age of the Earth. To know what the Earth was like in the beginning means to understand its evolution, it means to predict the future more reliably.

But after all, not so far from the Earth there is a cosmic body, the surface of which is not subject to erosion. This is the eternal and only natural satellite of the Earth - the Moon. To find on it traces of the first steps of the Earth in the Universe - these hopes of scientists were not in vain.

Much can be said about lunar exploration. But I would like to talk about the pre-cosmic stages of the exploration of the moon and about the most significant research of the 20th century. Before writing this essay, I studied a lot of literature on my topic.

For example, in I. N. Galkin's book "Geophysics of the Moon" I found material devoted to the study of the problem of studying the structure of the lunar interior. The book is based on material. Which was published, reported and discussed at the Moscow Soviet-American Conference on the Cosmochemistry of the Moon and Planets in 1974 and at subsequent annual lunar conferences in Houston in 1975-1977. It contains a huge amount of information about the structure, composition and state of the lunar interior. The book is written in a popular science style, which makes it easy to understand the information presented in it. I found quite a lot of information in this book useful.

And in the book by K. A. Kulikov and V. B. Gurevich “The New Look of the Old Moon” material is presented on the most important scientific results of the study of the Moon by means of space technology. The book is designed for a wide range of readers, does not require special training, because it is written in a fairly popular form, but based on a strictly scientific basis. This book is older than the previous one, because I practically did not use the material from it, but it contains very good diagrams and illustrations, some of which are presented by me in the appendices.

The book by F. Yu. Siegel “Journey through the bowels of planets” contains information about the achievements of geophysics in the study of the bowels of planets and satellites, space connections of geophysics, the role of gravimetry in determining the figure of the Earth, earthquake predictions, volcanic processes on planets. Here, a significant place is given to the problems of the origin of the solar system and planets, the use of their bowels for the technical needs of mankind. The book is intended for a wide audience. But for me, unfortunately, little attention is paid to the Moon, so for me this source was practically not needed.

The next volume of the popular children's encyclopedia “I Want to Know Everything” contains information about great astronomers, their discoveries and inventions, about how people imagined the structure of their space home at different times. It is easy to find the information of interest to me in this book, since it is provided with a subject index. The book is intended for children of primary school age, so the information in it is presented in a very accessible language, but is not as deep as my work requires.

A very fascinating book by S. N. Zigulenko “1000 Mysteries of the Universe”. It contains answers to many questions, for example: how our Universe was formed, how a star differs from a planet, and many others. There is also information about the exploration of the moon, which was used by me in the abstract.

In the book of I. N. Galkin “Routes of the XX century”, two topics are closely intertwined - a description of expeditionary geophysical research in some regions of the Earth and a presentation of facts, theories, hypotheses about the origin and further development of planets, about complex physical and chemical processes occurring in their bowels and in our time. Here we are talking and about the study of the Earth's satellite - the Moon, its origin, development and current state. It was this material that was the best fit for my work and was the reference when writing an essay.

Thus, I set myself:

purpose - to show the process of accumulating knowledge about the moon

tasks - to study information about the Moon known in the pre-space period;

To study the exploration of the moon by automata;

Explore human exploration of the moon in the 20th century

II. Main part

1. Ith stage - pre-space stage of research

From amethyst and agate

From smoked glass

So amazingly sloping

And so mysteriously floated

Like "Moonlight Sonata"

We immediately crossed the path.

A. Akhmatova

For the first time, the heroes of Homer's Odyssey* landed on the moon. Since then, the characters of fantastic works have often flown there and different ways: using a hurricane and evaporating dew, a team of birds and a balloon, a cannon shell and wings tied behind his back.

The hero of the French writer Cyrano de Bergerac* reached her by throwing up a large magnet that attracted an iron chariot. And in Haydn's opera, on the plot of Goldoni, they got to the moon by drinking a magic drink. Jules Verne * believed that the source of movement to the moon should be an explosion capable of breaking the chains of earth's gravity. And Byron * in "Don Juan" concluded: "And it is true that someday, thanks to the vapors, we will continue our way to the Moon" 1 . H.G. Wells admitted that the Moon was inhabited by creatures such as ants.

Not only writers, but also prominent scientists - physicists and astronomers - created science fiction works about the Moon. Johannes Kepler* wrote the science fiction essay The Dream, or The Last Essay on Lunar Astronomy. In it, the demon describes the flight to the Moon during its eclipse, when "hiding in its shadow, you can avoid the scorching rays of the Sun." “We, the demons, drive the bodies with an effort of will and then move in front of them so that no one is hurt by a very strong push against the Moon” 2 .

Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky* - the father of cosmonautics, who laid the scientific foundations for rocket science and future interplanetary travel - wrote a series of science fiction works about the Moon. One of them (“On the Moon”) gives the following description:

“For five days we hid in the bowels of the Moon, and if we went out, then to the nearest places and for a short time ... The soil cooled down and by the end of the fifth day on the earth or in the middle of the night on the moon it cooled so much that we decided to take our journey through The moon, along its mountains and valleys... It is customary to call the darkish huge and low spaces of the moon seas, although it is completely wrong, since the presence of water was not found there. Will we not find in these "seas" and even lower places traces of water, air and organic life, according to some scientists who have long disappeared on the Moon? .. We purposely out of curiosity ran past volcanoes along their very edge, and, looking inside the craters, twice saw sparkling and iridescent lava ... Due to lack of oxygen on the Moon or due to other reasons, only we came across non-oxidized metals and minerals, most often aluminum” 3 .

Having passed the routes of the lunar space “odyssey”, we will see what science fiction writers were right about and what they were wrong about.

Observations of the moon date back to ancient times.

Periodic shift lunar phases has long entered into people's ideas about time, became the basis of the first calendars. At the sites of the Upper Paleolithic (30-8 thousand years BC), fragments of mammoth tusks, stones and bracelets with rhythmically repeating cuts were found, corresponding to a 28-29-day period between full moons.

It was the Moon, and not the Sun, that was the first object of worship, was considered the source of life. “The moon, with its moist productive light, promotes the fertility of animals and the growth of plants, but its enemy, the Sun, with its annihilating fire, burns everything living and makes most of the Earth uninhabitable with its heat,” 4 wrote Plutarch. During the eclipse of the moon, cattle and even people were sacrificed.

“O Moon, you are the only shedding light, You who bring light to mankind!” 5 - inscribed on clay cuneiform tablets of Mesopotamia.

The first systematic observations of the motion of the Moon in the sky were made 6,000 years ago in Assyria and Babylon. A few centuries before our era, the Greeks realized that the Moon glows with reflected light and is always turned to the Earth on one side. Aristophanes of Samos (3rd century BC) was the first to determine the distance to the Moon and its size, and Hipparchus (2nd century BC) created the first theory of its apparent motion. Many scientists, from Ptolemy (II century BC) to Tycho Brahe (XVI century), refined the features of the moon's motion, remaining within the framework of empirical descriptions. The true theory of the motion of the Earth's satellite began to develop with the discovery by Kepler of the laws of planetary motion (late 16th - early 17th century) and by Newton the law of universal gravitation (late 17th century).

The first selenographer was the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei*. On a summer night in 1609, he directed a home-made telescope to the Moon and was amazed to see that: we see a great difference: some large fields are more brilliant, others less...” 6 Dark spots on the Moon have since been called “seas”.

In the middle of the 17th century, with the help of telescopes, sketches of the Moon were made by the Dutchman Mikhail Langren, the Gdansk amateur astronomer Jan Hevelius, the Italian Giovanni Riccialli, who gave names to two hundred lunar formations.

Russian readers first saw a map of the Moon in 1740 in an appendix to the book by Bernard Fontenelle * "Conversations about the Many Worlds". The church withdrew it from circulation and burned it, however, thanks to the efforts of M.V. Lomonosov, it was republished.

For many years, astronomers used the Baer and Medler map, published in Germany in 1830-1837. and containing 7,735 details of the surface of the moon. The last map based on visual telescopic observations was published in 1878 by the German astronomer Julius Schmidt and had 32,856 details of the lunar relief.

The connection of the telescope with the camera contributed to the rapid progress of selenography. At the end of XIX - beginning of XX century. photographic atlases of the moon were published in France and the USA. In 1936, the International Astronomical Congress issued a catalog that included 4.5 thousand lunar formations with their exact coordinates.

In 1959, the year of the launch of the first Soviet rocket to the Moon, a photographic atlas of the Moon by J. Kuiper was published, including 280 maps of 44 sections of the Moon at various conditions lighting. Map scale - 1: 1,400,000.

The astronomical stage of the study of the Moon brought a lot of important knowledge about its planetary properties, the features of rotation and orbital movement, the relief of the visible side, and at the same time, through the observation of the Moon, some knowledge about the Earth.

“It is amazing,” wrote the French astronomer Laplace *, “that an astronomer, without leaving his observatory, but only by comparing the observations of the Moon with the data of mathematical analysis, can deduce the exact size and shape of the Earth and its distance from the Sun and Moon, for which it was previously necessary more difficult and long journeys (on Earth)” 7 .

Thus, we understand that the Moon in ancient times amazed and attracted astronomers, but they knew little about it. What was known about the Moon in the pre-cosmic period is shown in Table 1.

Tab. 1 Planetary characteristics of the Moon

Weight 7, 353 10 25 g
Volume 2.2 10 25 cm 3
Area 3.8 10 7 km2
Density 3.34±0.04 g/cm 3
Distance Earth - Moon: average 384,402 km at perigee 356,400 km at apogee 406,800 km
Orbital eccentricity 0.0432-0.0666
Radius (average) 1,737 km
Axis Tilt: to the plane of the lunar orbit 83 o 11? - 83 about 29? to the ecliptic 88 about 28?
Sidereal month (relative to the stars) 27, 32 days.
Synodic month (equal phases) 29, 53 days.
Acceleration of gravity on the surface 162 cm / s 2
Separation velocity from the Moon (second space velocity) 2.37 km/s

1 - Byron J. G. "Don Juan"; M.: Publishing house " Fiction", 1972, p. 755

2 - Galkin I. N. “Routes of the XX century”, M .: Publishing House “Thought”, 1982, p. 152

3 - Tsiolkovsky K. E. “On the Moon”, M .: Eksmo Publishing House, 1991, p. 139

4 - Kulikov K. A., Gurevich V. B. “The new look of the old Moon”, M .: “Nauka”, 1974, p. 23

5 - Galkin I. N. “Routes of the XX century”, M .: Publishing House “Thought”, 1982, p. 154

6 - Zigulenko S. N. “1000 mysteries of the Universe”, M .: Publishing house “AST” and “Astrel”, 2001, p. 85

7 - Kulikov K. A., Gurevich V. B. “The new look of the old Moon”, M .: “Nauka”, 1974, p. 27

2. II-Oh stage - automatons study the moon

Moon and lotus...

exudes a lotus

your gentle scent

over the stillness of the waters.

And the moonlight is still the same

pours quietly.

But on the moon tonight

"Lunokhod".

The first step to the moon was taken on January 2, 1959, when (only a year and a half after the launch of the first artificial satellite of the Earth) the Soviet space rocket“Luna-1” (Appendices, Fig. 1), having developed the second cosmic speed, broke the chains of the earth's gravity. The moon turned out to be a wonderful testing ground for studying the evolution of the Earth.

34 hours after the launch, Luna-1 swept at a distance of 6 thousand km from the surface of the Moon, becoming the first artificial planet in the solar system. Phenomenal news was transmitted to Earth: the Moon did not have a magnetic field! Then these data were corrected. The magnetization of the rocks still exists there, it's just very small, and the regularity of the magnet, the so-called dipole, as on Earth, is not on the Moon. In September of the same year, Luna-2 made an exact hit (“hard landing”) on the Moon, and in October, two years after the launch of the first artificial satellite, Luna-3 transmitted the first telephotos of the invisible side of the Moon. This survey was repeated and supplemented by "Zond-3" in 1965 and a series of images of the American satellites "Lunar Orbiter".

Prior to these flights, it was reasonable to think that the reverse side was similar to the visible one. What was the surprise of astronomers when it turned out that on the other side of the Moon there are practically no plains - “seas”, there were solid mountains. As a result, they built complete map and part of the globe of the natural satellite of the Earth.

This was followed by flights with the aim of working out a soft landing of the machine on the surface of the moon. The American Ranger satellites took photographs of the lunar landing panorama from a height of several kilometers to several hundred meters. It turned out that literally the entire surface of the moon is dotted with small craters with a diameter of about 1 m.

At the same time, it was possible to “feel” the lunar surface only seven years after the first rocket hit the Moon, the task of landing on the moon in the absence of a decelerating atmosphere turned out to be too technically difficult. The first soft landing was made by the Soviet Luna-9 assault rifle, then by a series of Soviet Lunas and American Surveyors.

Already “Luna-9” dispelled the myth that the surface of the Moon is covered with a thick layer of dust or even that dust flows around it.

The density of the dust cover turned out to be 1-2 g/cm 3 , and the travel speed sound waves in a layer several centimeters thick was only 40 m/s. Phototelepanoramas of the lunar surface with high resolution were obtained. The initial images of the Moon came to Earth only via radio telemetry and television channels. They became much better and more complete after processing the photographs taken by the Soviet probes Zond-5 (1968) and Zond-8 (1970) returned to Earth.

Almost all planets in the solar system, except for Mercury and Venus, have natural satellites. Observing their movement, astronomers know in advance by the magnitude of the moment of inertia whether the planet is homogeneous, whether its properties change strongly from the surface to the center.

The moon has no natural satellites, but, starting with Luna-10, automatic satellites periodically appeared above it, measuring the gravitational field, the density of the meteorite flux, cosmic radiation, and even the composition of rocks long before the lunar sample came under a microscope in the earth laboratories. For example, according to the concentration of radioactive elements measured from a satellite, it was concluded that the lunar seas are composed of rocks similar to terrestrial basalts. The magnitude of the moment of inertia of the Moon, determined with the help of satellites, made it possible to think that the Moon is much less stratified compared to the Earth. This point of view was strengthened when the average density of the Moon was first calculated astronomically, and then the density of samples of the lunar crust was directly measured - they turned out to be close.

Orbital measurements revealed positive anomalies in the gravitational field of the visible side - increased attraction in areas of large “seas”: Rains, Nectar, Clarity, Tranquility. They have been called "mascons" (in English: "mass concentration") and represent one of the unique properties of the Moon. It is possible that the mass anomalies are associated with the intrusion of a denser meteorite substance or with the movement of basaltic lava under the influence of gravity.

Subsequent automata on the moon became more and more complex and “smarter”. Station "Luna-16" (September 12 - 24, 1970) made a soft landing in the area of ​​the Sea of ​​Plenty. The selenologist robot carried out complex operations: a rod with a drilling rig advanced, an electric drill - a hollow cylinder with cutters at the end - plunged 250 mm into the lunar soil in six minutes, the core was packed into a sealed container of the return vehicle. The precious 100 gram cargo was safely delivered to the earth laboratory. The samples turned out to be similar to the balsams taken by the crew of Apollo 12 in the Ocean of Storms at a distance of about 2,500 km from the landing site of Luna 12. This confirms the common origin of the lunar "seas". Seventy chemical elements, determined in the regolith of the Sea of ​​​​Plenty, do not go beyond the periodic system of Mendeleev.

Regolith is a unique formation, specifically “lunar soil”, not washed out by water or whirlwinds, but pitted with countless impacts of meteorites, blown around by the “solar wind” of fast-flying protons.

The second automatic geologist, “Luna-20”, in February 1972 delivered to Earth a soil sample from a high-mountain “mainland” region separating the “seas” of Crises and Abundance. In contrast to the basaltic composition of the “marine” sample, the continental sample consisted mainly of light light rocks rich in plagioclase, aluminum oxide and calcium and had a very low content of iron, vanadium, manganese and titanium.

The third automatic geologist, Luna-24, delivered in 1973 to Earth the last sample of lunar soil from the transition zone from the lunar “sea” to the continent.

As soon as the terminator - the line of change of day and night - crossed the Sea of ​​Clarity, a movement not envisaged by nature began on the lifeless surface of the Moon. A strange mechanism made of metal, glass and plastic with eight legs-wheels a little more than a meter high and a little more than two long “woke up”. The lid popped open, serving as a solar battery. Having tasted the life-giving electric charge, the mechanism came to life, shook itself, crawled up the slope of the crater, bypassing a large stone, came to a level place and headed for a furrow. The terrestrial crew of the Lunokhod, invisible to the world, at the TV screens and computer buttons, began the fifth day of the transition from the “sea” to the continent of the Moon ...

Mobile stations - moon rovers - an important stage in the study of the moon. For the first time, space technology presented this surprise on November 17, 1970, when Luna-17 softly descended into the Sea of ​​Rains. Lunokhod-1 moved down the gangway of the landing stage and began an unprecedented journey through the waterless lunar “sea” (Appendices, Fig. 2). He was small in stature and weighed three-quarters of a ton, and consumed no more energy than a household iron. But wheels with independent suspensions and electric motors ensured its high cross-country ability and maneuverability. And six telephoto eyes examined the track and transmitted a panorama of the surface to the Earth, where the Lunokhod crew gained experience in controlling its movement at a distance of 400,000 km with each watch.

After some time, the Lunokhod stopped - rested, then the scientific instruments began to work. A cone with cruciform blades was pressed into the soil and rotated around its axis, investigating the mechanical properties of the regolith.

Another device with nice name"RIFMA" (X-ray isotope fluorescent method of analysis) determined the relative content of chemical elements in the soil.

Lunokhod-1 explored the lunar soil for ten and a half Earth months - 10 lunar days. The eleven-kilometer track of Lunokhod crashed into sticky, several centimeters thick lunar dust. The soil was examined on an area of ​​8,000 m 2 , 200 panoramas and 20,000 lunar landscapes were transmitted, the strength of the soil was tested in 500 places, and its chemical composition was tested at 25 points. At the finish line "Lunokhod-1" stood in such a "pose" in which a corner reflector was directed at the Earth. With its help, scientists measured the distance between the Earth and the Moon (about 400,000 km) to the nearest centimeter, but also confirmed that the shores of the Atlantic are moving apart.

Two years later, on January 16, 1973, an improved fellow of the family of lunar explorers, Lunokhod-2, was delivered to the Moon. His task was more difficult - to cross the marine section of the Lemonnier crater and explore the Taurus continental massif. But the crew is already experienced and the new model has more opportunities. The eyes of Lunokhod-2 were set higher and provided a large view. New instruments also appeared: an astrophotometer studied the luminosity of the lunar sky, a magnetometer - the strength of the magnetic field and the residual magnetization of the soil.

The work of automatic stations on the Moon takes place in very difficult and unusual conditions for earthlings. The dawn of each new working day of the Lunokhod dispelled far from unfounded fears: would the delicate organism of the automaton wake up, would it not get cold in the cold of a two-week moonlit night?

The astrophotometer peered into the alien sky of the Moon: even in the daytime, in the light of the Sun, it was black, the stars, bright and unblinking, stood there almost motionless, and a white-blue miracle shone above the horizon - the Earth of people, for the sake of knowledge of which such difficult experiments were undertaken.

"Lunokhod-2" safely woke up 5 times and worked full time for glory. For two days he moved south, towards the mainland, then turned east, towards the meridional fault. As the transition from the “sea” to the continent, the content of chemical elements in the regolith changed, iron became less, aluminum and calcium more. This conclusion was confirmed later, when about half a ton of samples taken from nine points of the visible side of the Moon were studied in terrestrial laboratories: the “seas” of the Moon are composed of basalts, the continents - gabbro-anorthosites.

The crew of "Lunokhod-2" got the hang of making turns and turns without slowing down, the speed of movement at times reached almost one kilometer per hour. The all-terrain vehicle crossed craters with a diameter of several tens of meters, climbed slopes with a steepness of 25 o, bypassed stone blocks that were several meters in diameter. These blocks are not the result of weathering, and it was not the glacier that dragged them, but the terrible impacts of meteorites pulled out tons of stones from the Moon's crust. If it were not for such favorable for geologists "super-deep drilling" of the Moon with meteorites, they would have to be content only with dust and regolith, and now they have samples of bedrocks that reveal the secrets of the interior of the Moon.

...“Lunokhod” was in a hurry. As if he felt that ahead was a discovery that lifted the veil over one of the main mysteries of the Moon - the paradox of the magnetic field ...

Like satellites and stationary magnetometers, Lunokhod did not detect a stable dipole magnetic field on the Moon. Such as on Earth, with the north and south poles, that you can, without fear, wander in any thickets with a magnetic compass. There is no such field on the Moon, although, in fact, the magnetometer needle did not stand at zero. But the strength of the lunar magnet is thousands of times less than that of the earth, in addition, the magnitude and direction of the magnetic field change.

The absence of a magnetic dipole on the Moon can naturally be explained by the absence of the mechanism that just creates it in the Earth.

But what is it? Lunokhod continued its procession, and magnetologists on Earth were numb with amazement. The residual (paleo) magnetization of the lunar soil turned out to be disproportionately higher compared to the weak field. But it reproduces the state of the lunar magnet in those ancient times, when the rocks solidified from the melt.

All lunar samples brought to Earth are very ancient. In vain did volcanologists hope to find traces of recent eruptions on the Moon. There are no (or rather, not found) rocks on the Moon younger than three billion years. The outpourings of magma and volcanic eruptions have ceased so long ago. Solidifying as the melt cools, the rocks, like on a tape recorder, recorded the former greatness of the lunar magnetic field. It was commensurate with the earth.

Three years have passed since the time when, having worked for five lunar days and traveled about forty kilometers, Lunokhod-2 froze in the Lemonnier crater as a monument to the glory of space technology of the 70s of the XX century. Since then, heated debates have not subsided on the pages of scientific journals, in conference halls.

A well-known light on this question was shed by the lunar seismic experiment.

Thus, I would like to summarize the material that was collected during the second stage of the research in a table:

		Launch date	The main task of launching	Achievements
			Flyby near the Moon and entry into heliocentric orbit	Launch of the first artificial satellite of the Sun
			Reaching the surface of the moon	Landing on the Apennines
			Flyby of the Moon	The far side of the moon was photographed for the first time and the images were transmitted to Earth
			Flyby near the moon	Re-photography of the far side of the Moon and transmission of images to Earth
			Soft landing on the moon	For the first time, a soft landing on the Moon and the first transmission of a lunar photo panorama to Earth were made.
			Entry into orbit of the Moon's satellite	The device became the first artificial satellite of the Moon
			Flyby of the Moon and return to Earth	Transmission of images of the Moon's surface to Earth
Apollo 12			Entry into ISL orbit and descent from orbit to the surface
				Landing in the Sea of ​​Plenty on September 20, 1970. The first automatic device that returned from the Moon to Earth and delivered a column of lunar soil
			Flyby of the Moon and return to Earth
			Soft landing on the Moon and unloading of the Lunokhod-1 self-propelled vehicle
			Landing on the moon, delivering a sample of lunar soil to Earth by the return vehicle	Landing on the Moon between the Seas of Plenty and Crisis on February 21, 1972 and delivery of a column of lunar soil to Earth
			Soft landing on the Moon and unloading of the Lunokhod-2 self-propelled vehicle

3. III-th stage - the first people on the moon

If you're tired, start again.

If you're tired, start again and again...

The first seismograph was installed in the Sea of ​​Tranquility on the visible side of the Moon on July 21, 1969. Four days earlier, Apollo 11 had launched the first American expedition to the Moon with Neil Armstrong*, Michael Collins* and Edwin Aldrin*.

On the evening of July 20, 1969, when Apollo 11 was above the far side of the Moon, the lunar compartment (it had the personal name Eagle) separated from the command compartment and began its descent.

"Eagle" hovered at a height of 30 m and smoothly descended. The lander's probe touched the ground. 20 painful seconds of readiness for immediate takeoff passed, and now it became clear that the ship was firmly on its “feet”.

For five hours, the astronauts put on spacesuits, checked the life support system of the engine. And now the first traces of a man on the "dusty paths of a distant planet." These footprints are left on the moon forever. There are no winds or streams of water to wash them away. A memorial plaque has also been placed forever in the Sea of ​​Tranquility in memory of the dead cosmonauts of the Earth: Yuri Gagarin, Vladimir Komarov and the Apollo 1 crew members: Virjik Grissom, Edward White, Roger Chaffee...

A strange world surrounded the first two messengers of the Earth. No air, no water, no life. The eighty times smaller mass compared to the Earth does not allow the Moon to retain the atmosphere, its attraction affects less than the speed of the thermal movement of gas molecules - they come off and fly away into space.

Not protected, but not changed by the atmosphere, the surface of the Moon has a shape determined by external cosmic factors: meteorite impacts, the solar "wind" and cosmic rays. The lunar day lasts almost an earthly month, so lazily the Moon turns around the Earth and itself. During the daytime, several upper centimeters of the lunar surface warm up above the boiling point of water (+120 ° C), and during the night they cool down to -150 ° C (this temperature is almost half that at the Antarctic Vostok station - the earth's cold pole). Such thermal overloads cause cracking of rocks. They are even more loosened by impacts of meteorites of different sizes.

As a result, the Moon turned out to be covered with a loose layer of regolith several meters thick and on top of it - a thin layer of dust. Solid dust particles, not wetted with moisture and not laid with air gaskets, stick together under the influence of cosmic radiation. They have a strange property: soft powder stubbornly resists the deepening of the drill pipe and at the same time does not hold it in a vertical position.

The astronauts were struck by the variability in the color of the surface, it depends on the height of the Sun and the direction of view. When the Sun is low, the surface is gloomy green, the landforms are hidden, it is difficult to estimate the distance. Closer to noon, the colors take on warm brown tones, the moon becomes “friendlier”. Armstrong and Aldrin stayed on the surface of Selenium for about 22 hours, including two hours outside the cabin, collected 22 kg of samples and installed physical instruments: a laser reflector, a noble gas trap in the solar wind and a seismometer. Following the first expedition to the moon, five more have visited.

Until recently, it was thought that there is life on the moon. Not only the science fiction writer HG Wells at the beginning of the century invented the adventures of his heroes in the underground labyrinths of selenites, but also reputable scientists, shortly before the flights of the “moons” and “Apollos”, seriously discussed the possibility of the emergence of microorganisms in lunar conditions or even took the change in color of craters for the migration of hordes insects. That is why the astronauts of the first three Apollo expeditions were subjected to a two-week quarantine. During this time, lunar samples, especially lunar soil - regolith, were carefully examined in microbiological laboratories, trying to revive lunar bacteria in them, or find traces of dead microbes, or inoculate terrestrial forms of simple life into regolith.

But all attempts were in vain - the Moon turned out to be sterile (so the astronauts of the last three expeditions immediately fell into the arms of earthlings), there was not even a hint of life. On the other hand, regolith, applied as a fertilizer to legumes, tomatoes, wheat, gave rise to no worse, and in one case even better, than earthly soil without this fertilizer.

They also studied the opposite question - can terrestrial bacteria survive on the surface of the moon? "Apollo-12" landed in the Ocean of Storms, 200 meters from the place where the automatic station "Surveyor-2" previously worked. The astronauts found the space machine, took away the cassettes with long-exposed film, as well as parts of the equipment that had been exposed to a completely different kind: for two and a half years, invisible tiny particles broke about them - protons flying from the Sun and from the Galaxy at supersonic speeds. Under their influence, the previously white parts turned light brown, lost their former strength - the cable became brittle, and the metal parts were easily cut.

Inside the television tube, out of reach of cosmic rays, terrestrial bacteria survived. But there were no microorganisms on the surface - the conditions of cosmic irradiation are too harsh. The elements necessary for life: carbon, hydrogen, water - are found on the Moon in negligible amounts, in thousandths of a percent. Moreover, for example, the main part of this meager water content was formed over billions of years during the interaction of the solar wind with the soil substance.

It seems that the conditions for the emergence of life on the moon never existed. Such is he, the strange and unusual world of Selena. So it is, gloomy, deserted and cold compared to the white-blue Earth.

Thus, I would like to summarize the material that was collected during the third stage.

The flight of the Apollo 11 spacecraft had as its main task the solution of engineering and technical problems, and not scientific research on the moon. From the point of view of solving these problems, the main achievements of the flight of the Apollo 11 spacecraft are considered to be the demonstration of the effectiveness of the adopted method of landing on the Moon and launching from the Moon (this method is also considered applicable when starting from Mars), as well as demonstrating the ability of the crew to move around the Moon and conduct research in lunar conditions.

As a result of the Apollo 12 flight, the advantages of lunar exploration with the participation of astronauts were demonstrated - without their participation it would not have been possible to install instruments in the most suitable place and ensure their normal functioning.

The study of the parts of the Surveyor-3 apparatus dismantled by the astronauts showed that during about a thousand days of their stay on the Moon they were subjected to a very insignificant impact of meteor particles. In a piece of foam placed in a nutrient medium, bacteria were found from among those living in the human mouth and nose. Obviously, the bacteria got into the foam during the pre-flight repair of the device with the exhaled air or saliva of one of the technicians. Thus, it turned out that, once again in a selective environment, terrestrial bacteria are capable of reproduction after almost three years of stay in lunar conditions.

III. Conclusion

Launch to the moon spaceships brought science a lot of new and sometimes unexpected. Billions of years steadily moving away from the Earth, the Moon in last years became closer and more understandable to people. We can agree with the apt remark of one of the prominent selenologists: "The Moon has turned from an astronomical object into a geophysical one."

Exploration of the moon gave scientists new and important arguments, without which the hypotheses of its origin were sometimes speculative, and their success depended to a large extent on the contagious enthusiasm of the authors.

Apparently, in terms of rock composition, the Moon is more homogeneous than the Earth (although the high-latitude regions and the far side of the Moon have remained completely unexplored).

The studied samples showed that the rocks of the Moon, although different in its seas and continents, in general resemble those of the earth. There is not a single element that goes beyond the periodic table.

The veil over the secrets of the early youth of the Moon, the Earth and, apparently, the planets has been opened terrestrial group. The most ancient crystalline sample was brought from the Moon - a piece of anorthosite, which saw the Universe more than 4 billion years ago. At nine points on the Moon, the chemical composition of the rocks of the "seas" and "continents" was studied. Precise instruments measured the force of gravity, the strength of the magnetic field, the flow of heat from the bowels, traced the features of seismic traces, and measured the relief forms. Physical fields testified to the radial stratification and inhomogeneity of the matter and properties of the Moon.

It can be said that the life of the Earth and even to a certain extent the shape of its surface are determined by internal factors, while the tectonics of the Moon is mainly of cosmic origin, most moonquakes depend on the gravitational fields of the Earth and the Sun.

The earthlings needed the moon not in vain, and it was not in vain that they expended their strength and money on unprecedented space flights despite the fact that lunar minerals are useless to us.

The moon rewarded the inquisitive and courageous astronauts and organizers of space flights, and with them the whole of humanity - a solution to a number of fundamental scientific problems was outlined. The veil over the secret of the birth and the first steps of the Earth and the Moon in the Universe has been opened. The oldest sample found and the age of the Earth, Moon, planets determined solar system. Untouched by winds and waters, the surface of the Moon demonstrates the proto-relief of the Earth, when there were no oceans and atmosphere, and meteor showers fell freely on the Earth. Almost devoid of internal modern processes, the Moon provides an ideal model for studying the role of external factors. Features of tidal moonquakes help the search for earthquakes of a gravitational nature, despite the fact that on Earth the picture is complicated and confused by the most complex tectonic processes. Elucidation of the role of cosmic factors in seismotectonics will help the prediction and prevention of earthquakes.

Based on the lunar experience, it is possible to outline a number of improvements in geophysical research methods: the substantiation of a seismic model of a deterministically random environment, the development of effective methods for electro-telluric sounding of the subsoil, etc.

Although the tectonic life of the Moon is not as active and complex as the life of the Earth, there are still many unresolved problems here. They could be explained by new observations in the nodal regions of lunar activity; it is desirable to have geophysical routes crossing the Mascons, to determine the thickness of the crust on the continents and the reverse side, to illuminate the transition zone between the lithosphere and the asthenosphere, to confirm or refute the effect of the inner core of the Moon. One can hope that we will yet witness new geophysical experiments on the Earth's satellite.

The current and future flights of spacecraft to the planets of the solar system will supplement and refine the chapters of the exciting book of nature, important pages of which were read during the lunar space odyssey.

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