Brief information about space exploration. History of Russian cosmonautics. Progress of educational activities

On April 12, our country celebrated the 50th anniversary of space exploration - Cosmonautics Day. This is a national holiday. It seems familiar to us that spaceships launch from Earth. In the high celestial distances, spacecraft dockings take place. Cosmonauts live and work in space stations for months, and automatic stations go to other planets. You might say “what's so special about this?”

But just recently they talked about space flights as science fiction. And so, on October 4, 1957, a new era began - the era of space exploration.

Constructors

Tsiolkovsky Konstantin Eduardovich -

Russian scientist who was one of the first to think about flying into space.

The fate and life of a scientist are unusual and interesting. The first half of Kostya Tsiolkovsky’s childhood was ordinary, like all children. Already in old age, Konstantin Eduardovich recalled how he liked to climb trees, climb onto the roofs of houses, jump from great heights to experience the feeling of free fall. My second childhood began when, having contracted scarlet fever, I almost completely lost my hearing. Deafness caused the boy not only everyday inconvenience and moral suffering. She threatened to slow down his physical and mental development.

Kostya suffered another grief: his mother died. The family was left with a father, a younger brother and an illiterate aunt. The boy was left to his own devices.

Deprived of many joys and impressions due to illness, Kostya reads a lot, constantly comprehending what he read. He invents something that was invented a long time ago. But he invents himself. For example, a lathe. In the courtyard of the house, the windmills he built spin in the wind, and self-propelled sailing carts run against the wind.

He dreams of space travel. He voraciously reads books on physics, chemistry, astronomy, and mathematics. Realizing that his capable but deaf son will not be accepted into any educational institution, his father decides to send sixteen-year-old Kostya to Moscow for self-education. Kostya rents a corner in Moscow and sits in free libraries from morning to evening. His father sends him 15 - 20 rubles a month, but Kostya, eating black bread and drinking tea, spends 90 kopecks a month on food! With the rest of the money he buys retorts, books, and reagents. The following years were also difficult. He suffered a lot from bureaucratic indifference to his works and projects. I was sick and discouraged, but I got myself together again, made calculations, and wrote books.

Now we already know that Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky is the pride of Russia, one of the fathers of astronautics, a great scientist. And with surprise, many of us learn that the great scientist did not go to school, did not have any scientific degrees, in recent years he lived in Kaluga in an ordinary wooden house and no longer heard anything, but throughout the world the one who first drew for humanity's path to other worlds and stars:

Tsiolkovsky's ideas were developed by Friedrich Arturovich Zander and Yuri Vasilyevich Kondratyuk.

All the most cherished dreams of the founders of astronautics were realized by Sergei Pavlovich Korolev.

Friedrich Arturovich Zander (1887-1933)

Yuri Vasilievich Kondratyuk

Sergei Pavlovich Korolev

Tsiolkovsky's ideas were developed by Friedrich Arturovich Zander and Yuri Vasilyevich Kondratyuk. All the most cherished dreams of the founders of astronautics were realized by Sergei Pavlovich Korolev.

On this day the first artificial Earth satellite was launched. The space age has begun. The first satellite of the Earth was a shiny ball made of aluminum alloys and was small - with a diameter of 58 cm and a weight of 83.6 kg. The device had a two-meter mustache antenna, and two radio transmitters were placed inside. The satellite's speed was 28,800 km/h. In an hour and a half, the satellite circled the entire globe, and during the 24-hour flight it completed 15 revolutions. Nowadays there are many satellites in earth's orbit. Some are used for television and radio communications, others are scientific laboratories.

Scientists were faced with the task of putting a living creature into orbit.

And dogs paved the way to space for humans. Animal testing began in 1949. The first “cosmonauts” were recruited in: gateways - the first squad of dogs. A total of 32 dogs were caught.

They decided to take the dogs as test subjects because... scientists knew how they behaved and understood the structural features of the body. In addition, dogs are not capricious and are easy to train. And the mongrels were chosen because the doctors believed that from the first day they were forced to fight for survival, moreover, they were unpretentious and very quickly got used to the staff. The dogs had to meet specified standards: no heavier than 6 kilograms and no higher than 35 cm in height. Remembering that the dogs would have to “show off” on the pages of newspapers, they selected “objects” that were more beautiful, slimmer and with smart faces. They were trained on a vibration stand, a centrifuge, and a pressure chamber: For space travel, a hermetic cabin was made, which was attached to the nose of the rocket.

The first dog race took place on July 22, 1951 - the mongrels Dezik and Tsygan successfully completed it! Gypsy and Desik rose to 110 km, then the cabin with them freely fell to a height of 7 km.

Since 1952, they began to practice animal flights in spacesuits. The spacesuit was made of rubberized fabric in the form of a bag with two blind sleeves for the front paws. A removable helmet made of transparent plexiglass was attached to it. In addition, they developed an ejection cart, on which the tray with the dog was placed, as well as the equipment. This design was fired at a high altitude from a falling cabin and descended by parachute.

On August 20, it was announced that the descent module had made a soft landing and the dogs Belka and Strelka had returned safely to the ground. But not only that, 21 gray and 19 white mice flew off.

Belka and Strelka were already real cosmonauts. What were the astronauts trained for?

The dogs passed all types of tests. They can remain in the cabin for quite a long time without moving, and can endure large overloads and vibrations. Animals are not afraid of rumors, they know how to sit in their experimental equipment, making it possible to record the biocurrents of the heart, muscles, brain, blood pressure, breathing patterns, etc.

Footage of the flight of Belka and Strelka was shown on television. It was clearly visible how they tumbled in weightlessness. And, if Strelka was wary of everything, Belka was joyfully furious and even barked.

Belka and Strelka became everyone's favorites. They were taken to kindergartens, schools, and orphanages.

There were 18 days left before man's flight into space.

Male cast

In the Soviet Union only on January 5, 1959. a decision was made to select people and prepare them for space flight. The question of who to prepare for the flight was controversial. The doctors argued that only they, the engineers, believed that a person from among them should fly into space. But the choice fell on fighter pilots, because of all professions they are closer to space: they fly at high altitudes in special suits, endure overloads, can jump with a parachute, and keep in touch with command posts. Resourceful, disciplined, know jet aircraft well. Out of 3,000 fighter pilots, 20 were selected.

A special medical commission was created, mainly consisting of military doctors. The requirements for astronauts are as follows: firstly, excellent health with a double or triple safety margin; secondly, a sincere desire to engage in a new and dangerous business, the ability to develop in oneself the beginnings of creative research activity; thirdly, meet the requirements for certain parameters: age 25–30 years, height 165–170 cm, weight 70–72 kg and no more! They were eliminated mercilessly. The slightest disturbance in the body was immediately suspended.

The management decided to allocate several people out of 20 cosmonauts for the first flight. On January 17 and 18, 1961, the cosmonauts were given an exam. As a result, the selection committee allocated six to prepare for flights. Here are portraits of astronauts. They included in order of priority: Yu.A. Gagarin, G.S. Titov, G.G. Nelyubov, A.N. Nikolaev, V.F. Bykovsky, P.R. Popovich. On April 5, 1961, all six cosmonauts flew to the cosmodrome. Choosing the first cosmonaut equal in health, training, and courage was not easy. This problem was solved by specialists and the head of the cosmonaut group N.P. Kamanin. It was Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin. On April 9, the decision of the State Commission was announced to the cosmonauts.

Baikonur veterans claim that on the night of April 12, no one slept at the cosmodrome except the cosmonauts. At 3 a.m. on April 12, final checks of all systems of the Vostok spacecraft began. The rocket was illuminated by powerful spotlights. At 5.30 am, Evgeny Anatolyevich Karpov raised the cosmonauts. They look cheerful. We started physical exercises, then breakfast and a medical examination. At 6.00 a meeting of the State Commission, the decision was confirmed: Yu.A. will be the first to fly into space. Gagarin. They sign him a flight assignment. It was a sunny, warm day, tulips were blooming around in the steppe. The rocket sparkled dazzlingly brightly in the sun. 2-3 minutes were allotted for goodbye, but ten passed. Gagarin was put on the ship 2 hours before the launch. At this time, the rocket is filled with fuel, and as the tanks are filled, it “dresses” like a snow coat and soars. Then they provide power and check the equipment. One of the sensors indicates that there is no reliable contact in the lid. Found... Made... Closed the lid again. The site was empty. And Gagarin’s famous “Let’s go!” The rocket slowly, as if reluctantly, spewing out an avalanche of fire, rises from the start and quickly goes into the sky. Soon the rocket disappeared from sight. An agonizing wait ensued.

Female cast

Valentina Tereshkovawas born in the village of Bolshoye Maslennikovo, Yaroslavl region, into a peasant family of immigrants from Belarus (father - from near Mogilev, mother - from the village of Eremeevshchina, Dubrovensky district). As Valentina Vladimirovna herself said, as a child she spoke Belarusian with her family. Father is a tractor driver, mother is a textile factory worker. Drafted into the Red Army in 1939, Valentina's father died in the Soviet-Finnish War.

In 1945, the girl entered secondary school No. 32 in the city of Yaroslavl, where she graduated from seven classes in 1953. To help her family, in 1954 Valentina went to work at the Yaroslavl Tire Factory as a bracelet maker, while simultaneously enrolling in evening classes at a school for working youth. Since 1959, she has been involved in parachuting at the Yaroslavl flying club (performed 90 jumps). Continuing to work at the Krasny Perekop textile mill, from 1955 to 1960 Valentina completed correspondence studies at the Light Industry College. Since August 11, 1960 - released secretary of the Komsomol committee of the Krasny Perekop plant.
In the cosmonaut corps

After the first successful flights of Soviet cosmonauts, Sergei Korolev had the idea to launch a female cosmonaut into space. At the beginning of 1962, a search began for applicants according to the following criteria: parachutist, under 30 years of age, up to 170 centimeters tall and weighing up to 70 kilograms. Out of hundreds of candidates, five were chosen: Zhanna Yorkina, Tatyana Kuznetsova, Valentina Ponomareva, Irina Solovyova and Valentina Tereshkova.

Immediately after being accepted into the cosmonaut corps, Valentina Tereshkova, along with the other girls, was called up for compulsory military service with the rank of private.
Preparation

Valentina Tereshkova was enrolled in the cosmonaut corps on March 12, 1962 and began training as a cosmonaut student of the 2nd squad. On November 29, 1962, she passed her final exams in OKP with “excellent marks.” Since December 1, 1962, Tereshkova has been a cosmonaut of the 1st detachment of the 1st department. On June 16, 1963, that is, immediately after the flight, she became an instructor-cosmonaut of the 1st detachment and held this position until March 14, 1966.

During her training, she underwent training on the body’s resistance to the factors of space flight. The training included a thermal chamber, where she had to be in a flight suit at a temperature of +70 ° C and a humidity of 30%, and a soundproof chamber - a room isolated from sounds, where each candidate had to spend 10 days.

Zero-gravity training took place on the MiG-15. When performing a special aerobatics maneuver - a parabolic slide - weightlessness was established inside the plane for 40 seconds, and there were 3-4 such sessions per flight. During each session, it was necessary to complete the next task: write your first and last name, try to eat, talk on the radio.

Particular attention was paid to parachute training, since the astronaut ejected before landing and landed separately by parachute. Since there was always a risk of splashdown of the descent vehicle, training was also carried out on parachute jumps in the sea, in a technological, that is, not tailored to size, spacesuit.

Savitskaya Svetlana Evgenievna- Russian cosmonaut. Born on August 8, 1948 in Moscow. Daughter of twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Air Marshal Evgeniy Yakovlevich SAVITSKY. After graduating from high school, she entered college and at the same time sat at the controls of an airplane. Mastered the following types of aircraft: MiG-15, MiG-17, E-33, E-66B. I was engaged in parachute training. She set 3 world records in group parachute jumps from the stratosphere and 15 world records in jet aircraft. Absolute world champion in aerobatics on piston aircraft (1970). For her sporting achievements in 1970 she was awarded the title of Honored Master of Sports of the USSR. In 1971 she graduated from the Central Flight Technical School under the Central Committee of the USSR DOSAAF, and in 1972 from the Moscow Aviation Institute named after Sergo Ordzhonikidze. After studying, she worked as a pilot instructor. Since 1976, having completed a course at the test pilot school, he has been a test pilot for the USSR Ministry of Aviation Industry. During her work as a test pilot, she mastered more than 20 types of aircraft and has the qualification “Test Pilot 2nd Class”. Since 1980, in the cosmonaut corps (1980 Group of Women Cosmonauts No. 2). She completed a full course of training for space flights on Soyuz T-type spacecraft and the Salyut orbital station. From August 19 to 27, 1982, she made her first flight into space as a research cosmonaut on the Soyuz T-7 spacecraft. She worked on board the Salyut-7 orbital station. The flight duration was 7 days 21 hours 52 minutes 24 seconds. From July 17 to July 25, 1984, she made her second flight into space as a flight engineer on the Soyuz T-12 spacecraft. While working on board the Salyut-7 orbital station on July 25, 1984, she was the first woman to perform a spacewalk. The time spent in outer space was 3 hours 35 minutes. The duration of the space flight was 11 days 19 hours 14 minutes 36 seconds. During 2 flights into space she flew 19 days 17 hours 7 minutes. After the second space flight, she worked at NPO Energia (Deputy Head of the Chief Designer Department). He is qualified as a 2nd class test cosmonaut instructor. In the late 80s, she was engaged in public work and was the first deputy chairman of the Soviet Peace Fund. Since 1989, he has become increasingly involved in political activities. In 1989 - 1991 she was a people's deputy of the USSR. In 1990 - 1993 she was a people's deputy of the Russian Federation. In 1993 she left the cosmonaut corps, and in 1994 she left NPO Energia and focused entirely on political activities. Deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation of the first and second convocations (since 1993; faction of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation). Member of the Defense Committee. From January 16 to January 31, 1996, she headed the Temporary Commission for Control over the Electronic Voting System. Member of the Central Council of the All-Russian socio-political movement “Spiritual Heritage”.

Elena Vladimirovna Kondakova (born 1957 in Mytishchi) was the third Russian female cosmonaut and the first woman to make a long flight into space. Her first flight into space took place on October 4, 1994 as part of the Soyuz TM-20 expedition, returning to Earth on March 22, 1995 after a 5-month flight at the Mir orbital station. Kondakova's second flight was as a specialist on the American space shuttle Atlantis as part of the Atlantis expedition STS-84 in May 1997. She was included in the cosmonaut corps in 1989.

Since 1999 - Deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation from the United Russia party.

It is almost impossible to briefly describe human space exploration. Behind every small achievement there is a huge amount of scientific and design work. Let us recall Brodsky’s poem “Space Exploration”. It largely reflects the significance and scale of all projects:

“... reported that a man had soared into space.

And I lay there without raising my eyelids,

and thought about the many-sided world.

I reasoned: yawn or notice,

but still about small and great

If we find out, it will be by accident."

Space and the USSR

The USSR's space exploration developed at a rapid pace. It is believed that modern Russia has become the legal successor of most technologies. As we know, large-scale programs are constantly evolving; they do not stand still. For this reason, every new flight is full of scientific breakthroughs. Russia's space exploration has slowed down a bit. But definitely, we should be proud that our country is able to undertake such advanced projects. We are one of the few countries where the dream of boys and girls to become an astronaut is quite real. The exploration of space by man is just beginning, but this was followed by a brief and vivid prehistory. Let's look at everything in chronological order and interesting facts.

Space reveals its secrets

Theses on the topic of space exploration vary widely, depending on the nature of the information provided. Of course, this process occurs gradually. In fact, each stage, just sounding in words, implies years of painstaking work. Moreover, these are tens of billions of invested funds. For this purpose, everything is used, from the latest materials to theories and guesses. Perhaps the profession of astronauts is one of the most risky in the world.

Undoubtedly, the space exploration in the photo is fascinating and impressive. But this is done only by the most courageous people who have a powerful reserve of health and the ability to make difficult decisions in emergency situations. In addition, thanks to orbital telescopes, the ISS and many other projects, a lot of systematic data has been obtained. They form the basis of human knowledge about this unknown place. In the end, even reputable scientists have more questions than answers. Despite the fact that they are engaged in revealing secrets. And space exploration, as a global problem, is considered by many countries. Meanwhile, they don’t even have their own spaceports.

Why is it necessary to conquer space by man?

At the moment, experts identify a large number of reasons for this. It is not only the thirst for knowledge that drives projects for human exploration of outer space:

• Survival. In a certain situation, humanity may be on the verge of extinction. It is assumed that only evacuation to another planet will help save the remnants of civilization.

• Mining. It is believed that asteroids have the most valuable deposits. Accordingly, therefore, human exploration of outer space plays an economic role. Rare earth metals are not as rare in other star systems. Thus, this will solve many problems.

• The ability to counter global threats. Now comets and asteroids have been elevated to this rank. Previously, these theories only frightened viewers from TV screens, but the Chebarkul meteorite that fell near Chelyabinsk in 2013 showed the full power of cosmic bodies.

Stages of space exploration

At the moment, people have only been able to conquer near-Earth orbits. And more distant spaces were opened only to uninhabited vehicles. Fascinating pictures of space exploration are just encoded images transmitted by radio telescopes. The percentage of study is negligible, but this is already a significant contribution. It is worth noting that space exploration and ocean exploration are similar. After all, humanity faces truly limitless challenges.

Results and goals

At the moment, successes have been achieved only in the research of asteroids and comets, the Sun, and nearby planets. Everything else is based on theories, the confirmation of which will have to wait a very long time.

The next stage is the distant planets of the solar system. Then exit from it and move to other galaxies. But none of the modern earthly technologies are able to create something suitable for such travel. Therefore, a revolutionary breakthrough is needed.

It is impossible to strictly distinguish stages. Because everything is in the formative stage, the taxonomy of disciplines is constantly changing. In addition, quite often individual fragments of previous developments are completely crossed out by new discoveries.

Science and space

The science of space exploration is called astronautics. Perhaps this is the most complex discipline, requiring a lot of research work, large investments and the highest level of training of scientists.

First artificial satellite

As you know, the first device in Earth orbit was the so-called Sputnik-1. It was so popular that in the Soviet Union even Christmas tree decorations and badges were made in its shape. The exploration of outer space by the USSR put an end to the efforts of the Americans on October 4, 1957. Because it was then that the first spherical satellite entered orbit, transmitting back a signal about a successful launch. The sole purpose of its launch was to test theories. In the end, space exploration in the 50-60s ceased to seem like a ghostly task. It also provoked a surge in a huge amount of science fiction, flooding the pages of books and television screens.

The device consisted of two welded hemispheres made of magnesium alloy and four stabilizers, which simultaneously played the role of transmitting antennas. The total weight of the device did not exceed 88.5 kg.

First spacecraft launch

Only the Sputnik-5 project was able to obtain this proud name. Indeed, it was in it that the specially trained dogs Belka and Strelka flew. They returned safely to earth on August 19, 1960. In fact, this was a dress rehearsal for Gagarin's space exploration. Because these animals are warm-blooded, which made it possible to transfer the effect on their bodies to humans. Of course, after their return, research on them was carried out very carefully, and both dogs lived safely to a ripe old age.

Man in space

On April 12, 1961, the Vostok-1 spacecraft successfully launched the world's first man into orbit. He became a citizen of the Soviet Union, Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin. This event was preceded by an atmosphere of the strictest secrecy, and of course careful preparation. Despite losing the space race, all states greeted him as a hero. After a successful landing, a real world tour began, awarding various medals, honoring him as a hero.

Further, the history of space exploration did not end, and the Vostok ships had multiple continuations. This name is still used by Russia for encoding in its programs. As you know, April 12 was declared as International Aviation and Cosmonautics Day.

First moon landing

American space exploration has always followed on the heels of the USSR. Tired of falling behind, they launched the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, which landed on the Moon. The first person to set foot on the surface of the satellite was Neil Armstrong. Later he gained worldwide fame. The stay in these conditions lasted 2.5 hours, after which the return to Earth was carried out.

Skeptics still question this mission, but there are real reasons for this. In order to launch from our planet, you need to build a cosmodrome and have huge reserves of fuel. How the United States did it about 50 years ago still remains a mystery. And why hasn't anyone repeated this yet? Note that the evidence was considered to be a package of lunar soil brought back.

Salyut orbital stations

In February 1971, immediately after the American lunar mission, the history of space exploration was marked by a new event. At this time, the USSR launched the first station into orbit of our planet. The crew consisted of three cosmonauts, and in total the project lasted 175 days. So, it was more profitable than doing short-term launches. Subsequently, this history of space exploration was often embellished in magazines. Naturally, in the conditions of the Cold War and the Iron Curtain, everyone believed that all this was pursuing only military goals. But there was no attack from a great height. As a result, years will pass, and all of humanity will use these developments for new research.

First international space station

Space exploration took on a completely different meaning when people began to live in orbit for a long time. The last project turned out to be so expensive that a group of countries, led by the United States, accepted Russia in 1990. Currently, there is only one station operating in outer space, although the USSR had independent experience in similar projects earlier. In 1993, Al Gore and Viktor Chernomyrdin signed all the documents necessary for assembly.

Research and Development

The actual number of modules is unknown, but construction continues. First of all, there is constant research into the pros and cons of space exploration. Innovative materials are also being developed that can withstand specific conditions. The radiation conditions of electronics in outer space, the functioning of the human body and related problems are studied. In addition, the growth of plants, the behavior and reproduction of animals, and bacterial colonies are not neglected.

A few facts about the ISS

Let's list the most interesting information, often not included in numerous news and space reports:

— An astronaut is a scientist. They have a special program that is required to be completed daily. In addition, reports are regularly sent to earthly laboratories. Scientific research concerns mainly new materials.

— The ship has many life support systems thought out to the smallest detail. For this reason, they take up the lion's share of usable space. After all, seemingly simple things here in orbit are extremely difficult to provide.

— The orbital station is the most expensive and long-term international project. In fact, according to various estimates, 150-200 billion dollars have already been invested in it, not counting the costs of developing and operating support centers on Earth.

Already in space

— After the launch, all expedition participants are prescribed physical training. It has been proven that one month of using weightlessness, when there is no walking or other loads, will already lead to atrophy of the neck muscles, and the head will simply stop holding up. Therefore, there is a specific gym on board.

— The problem of washing dirty laundry was solved in an interesting way. It simply drops onto our planet and then burns up over the oceans in the atmosphere. Moreover, the same container delivers clean things to the crew. Obviously, it is too expensive to transport water, powder and washing machines into orbit.

First intercontinental ballistic missile

It is interesting that the championship in the creation of suborbital space jet aircraft rightfully belongs to Germany. The famous designer Wernher Von Braun managed to conduct experimental tests of the so-called Project A9 “America” in January 1945. The ultimate goal of this giant, weighing 100 tons, was the industrial centers of the United States located on the east coast. Most of the mass consisted of two stages and solid fuel, and use could most likely have a psychological effect. The declared flight range was 5000 km, and the practical ceiling was no more than 60 km. But the trajectory was sufficient to enter orbit at first escape velocity.

The impact of space exploration on policy

Churchill’s carelessly dropped phrases at international conferences made the USSR an international threat, and as a result, the whole world came to the brink of conflict. Subsequently, an arms race began, where Soviet scientists took the lead. They created the R7 rocket, with a range of almost 9000 km. Of course, the US followed a year later. In fact, combined with nuclear weapons, it completely changed military doctrine. Indirectly, these developments can be considered one of the impetuses for the exploration of nearby outer space.

So, in the modern world there are two ways to become the first in this field. The first involves flights above ground level, when the rocket merges with the terrain for radars. And the second, of course, is to enter orbit to strike strictly from above at a given target.

Cosmonautics today tomorrow and always

We can say with confidence that in the exploration of nearby outer space, the colonization of Mars is considered a real task for the current 10-20 years. In addition, scientists demonstrate beautiful videos with 3D animation and launch unmanned aerial vehicles. In addition, they are deploying research self-propelled robotic vehicles that collect data.

A few simple truths

• Health of astronauts. We are a complex biological structure. Which, after all, has become accustomed to functioning under certain conditions for millions of years. In addition, a constant level of magnetic field and gravity is enough. If a person’s posture is disturbed, then as a result all internal organs do not work properly. However, on the red planet, distorted gravity will force all systems to work in a different way. In other words, the consequences of this have not been studied. Magnetic fields and pressure differences will also have a detrimental effect. The spacesuit and settlements in capsules are not a panacea. It turns out that Saturn and Jupiter will not be able to be mastered, because there a monstrous attraction will act on a person there.

• A successful landing is possible, but what about the return launch? While on Earth, humanity is building the most complex spaceports for launch. However, this is physically impossible to do on Mars. It turns out that any mission will have a one-way ticket.

• Energy and materials, food and hygiene will be a big problem. It is probably possible to melt the Martian ice. But there is no guarantee that the resulting water will not kill the first person to set foot on this planet.

Achievements in space exploration

As a result, one conclusion can be drawn from everything said above. Achievements in space exploration must be gradually accumulated, in parallel with the development of technology. A common view of the problem allows us to say that we will need at least 100 years for safe travel around the solar system. Current generations only need to increase their experience and develop astronautics.

Sergey Kalenik writes: “There is a well-known paradox - if you are inside a spaceship flying almost at the speed of light, time slows down for you. Such a ship needs only 25 years to reach the visible edge of the universe, although for those remaining on earth these two decades will stretch into 14 billion years.

It's the same with technological progress. Progress is a shock wave, sweeping away everything in its path like a tsunami - if today a person thought of putting on a skin, then tomorrow he will jump in a spacesuit on the moon - what's the difference?

But inside this wave, on board “progress” it will always seem as if we are crawling like turtles. Hand on heart, which of us considers the USSR to be the best state in the world that has done the impossible throughout its history?

1. Gagarin, Sputnik, Lunokhod - hackneyed cliches. Like Che Guevara T-shirts. Space has turned into a boring routine - now there are dozens of people constantly in orbit and no one cares about them. But the conquest of space is perhaps the most exciting journey in human history. Fascinating if you know the true story and not the propaganda picture on TV.

2. I think in 300 years the USSR will look like ancient Rome or the French empire under Louis - an idealistic society obsessed with the idea of ​​progress and mega construction projects, which died under the weight of its own intellect and was then condemned by its descendants.

How will the USSR be remembered in history?

In total, there were three mega-projects in the twentieth century: the creation of the atomic bomb, the space race and the computer revolution. We won space in a clear way - the American program ended with the collapse of the shuttles and since 2011, “all space” has been transferred to the Russians. Russian is the only official language of space; anyone leaving our planet is now required to know it (oh, it’s a pity Men in Black was filmed too early).

Moreover, all the space technologies in the world are now ours - I bet we are selling fifty-year-old rockets and ships, and in France we are building a new cosmodrome in Kourou, which is a complete copy of Baikonur. The earth makes all its plans for the development of the outside world with an eye on Moscow.

How did the Russians manage to privatize the entire universe for themselves? This is a whole story, fascinating but confusing - sit in your chairs and put on your spacesuits, our flight will successively pass through five orbits.

Space is the backbone of the twentieth century. Its essence and secret. Therefore, the flight will not be easy. We'll take a look behind the scenes of history, politics, art and the world as you know it. In short, you already understand that now everyone will receive butthurt.

First Space Velocity: Space Tourism

3. For the past forty years, reality has been saying no, no, and no to the space exploration program. It turned out that there is no economic benefit, the flights themselves are very expensive and dangerous to life, and what is going well (communications satellites, extraterrestrial astronomy) does not require the presence of people in space and is the fruit of the development of electronics, not aeronautics. That is, a “rocket” is an ax, a primitive weapon. This is a dead-end branch of progress and there is nothing more to come up with here. There is not much difference between Chinese fireworks and a rocket to the moon. This is a primitive, albeit functional, weapon.

Therefore, all ideology, all projects, all the drive of the cosmic extravaganza are a thing of the past. By inertia, the space theme will always be interesting, but the peak of the 50-70s has passed. All science fiction works have been written on this topic.

All that remains is tourism and this can be seen throughout space fiction - the hero of 2001: A Space Odyssey is clearly a tourist. And the alien heroine of the film seems to be visiting the pyramids of ancient Egypt. I’m not even talking about Star Trek or Starship Troopers.

There's just one catch. Remember how they didn’t want to let the first tourists into space? I think the point here is that everyone who has flown into space receives a special status and joins some closed club, the members of which do not complain about life. And then someone wants to buy himself a membership in it... just like some moneybag decided to buy himself a membership in the club of those who climbed Everest. But the rules are just that, to change them - tourism is the only future of space, there is nothing else to do there. But to stand on a par with Gagarin... not many people understand what this means.

4. Yuri Gagarin is the greatest person in history, his name will be remembered even when the others are forgotten, because he is the first person to leave the earth. To appreciate this phrase, imagine that our civilization will perish, but what may remain from it is the memory of one person, whose name this will be?

5. Here is a monument erected in honor of Columbus 600 years after his voyage.

No less majestic buildings stand in all countries of the new world. Columbus is their main historical and epic character, like the ancient Zeus or Jesus Christ. But who is he compared to the first cosmonaut? But this is not the main thing. The fact is that it is impossible to jump higher than Gagarin. This is the last hero of humanity. There is nothing more significant than the first flight into space, nothing at all. Even Neil Armstrong stands infinitely lower than Yuri Alekseevich in the world pantheon, despite the colossal efforts of American propaganda.

This is the meaning of space tourism, the attractiveness of space - you cannot go to a new world on the same ship with Columbus and then boldly say I was there. You cannot again be the first to climb Everest or reach the North Pole or sink to the bottom of the Mariana Trench; there is nothing exceptional about that anymore. Space is so far from everything that we have seen and know that a flight to the stars will probably always be a mystical event. I don't mind spending any money on the flight to Gagarin.

But in space, money doesn't matter. This is why Roscosmos, being a space monopolist, simply doesn’t care about the opportunity to earn trillions from tourism and blocks its development in the West for the same reasons as the applicants for space tourists. And without Roscosmos, the very idea of ​​tourism will remain at the level of naive crafts of those same failed tourists.

It turns out that a person is superfluous in space, but maybe a cold vacuum is suitable for war?

Second Space Velocity: The SDI Program and Star Wars

The Cold War began with Churchill's famous Fulton speech. The USA and the USSR spent half a century on an arms race. A kind of war of attrition, when both countries produced thousands of tanks, planes and missiles. which did not even fire - they were simply written off to the reserve to make room for new models. And so on for fifty years until one of the players breaks down.

6. This is a key moment in the history of space, so I will dwell on it in more detail.

In Fulton, Churchill proposed that the Americans divide the world and rule as three - the USA, England and the USSR. America decided to be the mistress of the sea and did not really calculate its strength. For such a decision, the states had an atomic bomb, a hundred aircraft carriers and a fleet of jet aircraft giving complete air supremacy. It seems like world domination is guaranteed...

Only now, in the Korean War of the fifties, everything became clear - instead of an easy expeditionary walk, American troops were surprised to discover that the Koreans had ultra-modern MIG-15 jet fighters - made in the USSR but with English engines. Appreciate the English treachery - English units stood in South Korea side by side with the Americans, but they fired at them from English weapons, albeit with Korean hands.

The Americans are stubborn guys, with each new round of the Cold War they put more and more expensive toys into the ring, and each time the USSR sarcastically copied and improved the presented samples. Have you built a fleet of bombers capable of reaching Moscow? Khrushchev sarcastically declares that we are making intercontinental missiles like sausages. Missiles that can hit every city in America faster than you can refuel your planes.

7. The Americans wiped themselves off and on June 5, 1961, launched the Chrome Dome program - according to which strategic bombers with atomic bombs were always in the air on the borders of the USSR. However, the B-52s turned out to be not the best vehicles for long duty missions and began to fall. Fully loaded with atomic bombs.

Over the seven years of the program, five planes crashed, the last incident being the finale of the program.

In 1968, a fire broke out on board one of the cars - the third pilot placed three soft foam pillows under his seat, which blocked the ventilation of the heating system and ignited. The crew ejected and the plane crashed onto the ice near Greenland. There were four hydrogen bombs of one and a half megatons each on board - two were found, one crashed and released seven kilograms of weapons-grade plutonium into the atmosphere, and the fourth is still being sought by treasure hunters in the rocks of Greenland.

And the Americans scattered dozens of such bombs around the world - this is where the help for global terrorism lies. The Chrome Dome then had to be collapsed under international pressure.

But in general, this example is indicative - all their other military programs and, of course, the American space program developed in the same vein. It’s not because America has bad engineers or cowardly pilots - they are the best in the world, it’s just that this is not enough for super tasks, they need super qualities - those that lie not in the field of logic or education, but in the very basis of the national character.

By the early 1980s, a brilliant idea had matured in America to transfer the Cold War from earth to space. After watching Star Wars, President Reagan announced the launch of the Strategic Defense Initiative. Its essence is terribly simple - we are building a fleet of hundreds of super-powerful combat lasers that will shoot down ballistic missiles on takeoff.

The idea, by the way, is very sound, because missiles such as the SS-18 can only be intercepted on takeoff; after ten minutes of flight, its warhead is divided into 200 parts that are constantly maneuvering and evading interception - it is no longer possible to shoot them down. To the lasers - a fleet of Shuttle shuttles that service the lasers and can also carry a supply of nuclear missiles on board. Despite the Hollywood scale, it was the swan song and the last breakthrough of the states - which led to complete defeat.

8. The fact is that a feature of the socialist economy is its absolute concentration and unlimitedness. Simply put, the entire USSR was one company, and its economy did not have any special restrictions; it was possible to afford any programs such as the construction of hundreds of nuclear submarines, a huge army or an ocean-going fleet - all this without mobilization and martial law.

Let me explain with an example. Under Khrushchev, they somehow became concerned about housing for workers, and within a decade, the majority of the country’s residents received their own apartments. Of course, these were inferior Khrushchevs, but at that time they were a luxury even for Europe. The scale is impressive - 300 million square meters of housing were built. One meter for every resident of the country.

So, Khrushchevkas are temporary housing for workers in which they were supposed to live until 1980, when communism came. “Temporary housing” is tin houses for migrant workers building Moscow City skyscrapers. Now imagine the scale of these tin houses in the land of the Soviets and you can imagine the skyscraper that these workers built. With such a scale of the economy, the “shuttle” is one tooth long. The USSR built an entire fleet of nuclear submarines and did not notice it. And one such boat costs as much as the average European country.

9. Already in 1987, the Energia launch vehicle launched the Polyus combat laser into orbit - it was immediately drowned in the ocean, so as not to escalate the conflict - the USSR was then conducting propaganda under the slogan “no weapons in space,” etc. Next year, Buran makes its only flight, and does so in fully automatic mode without a crew.

Unmanned mode is not just a triumph of engineering that has not yet been achieved by anyone, but an unambiguous signal to the states. Indeed, in 1984, a Soviet laser locator “highlighted” a flying shuttle with its guidance system - the shuttle lost contact with the ground, all electronics turned off, and the crew “felt acutely unwell.” Those. even tracking the target disabled the “space bomber”, what can we say about the consequences of a combat salvo?

Suddenly it turned out that the Americans had nothing to catch in space - the USSR had developed its own shuttle in a couple of years and could easily mass-produce it, not to mention laser weapons.

10. In 1989, an American delegation came to the USSR to inspect all these achievements in person and came to the conclusion that it was time to end the Cold War. In exchange, the United States accepts the Fulton proposal and abandons the idea of ​​world domination. Not even 40 years have passed!

But now, without the British colonial empire and the Soviet bloc, such a political system looks very funny - America has 95% of its military power, but it cannot even capture the Middle East. I’m not even talking about the rising China and the EU. Even North Korea is wiping its feet on the Americans - this is the result of the entire space race.

The third cosmic speed: How we made America

Space is, by and large, a propaganda product. All these satellites and flights had as their ultimate goal the picture on TV. Remember what became the symbol of television? Yes, broadcast from the moon.

11. That is why the real symbol of television is Neil Armstrong.

The world's first artificial satellite - what could be purer, more romantic and sublime than this monument to humanity? To all enthusiasts, researchers, mad scientists and tireless designers who have laid down their lives on the altar of space for generations. But the worst thing about dreams is that they come true.

12. I think the world’s reaction to this event was best described by Stephen King, who became a writer on October 4, 1957:

The first time I experienced horror - real horror, not an encounter with demons or ghosts living in my imagination - was one October day in 1957. I just turned ten. And, as expected, I was in a movie theater - the Stratford Theater in downtown Stratford, Connecticut.

One of my favorite films was playing, and the fact that it was shown, and not a Randolph Scott western or a John Wayne action film, turned out to be quite appropriate. The Saturday afternoon when the real horror hit me was Earth vs. the Flying Saucers.

And just at the moment when, in the last part of the film, the aliens are preparing to attack the Capitol, the tape stopped. The screen went dark. The cinema was packed with children, but, strangely enough, everyone was quiet. If you think back to the days of your youth, you will remember that a crowd of kids have many ways to express their irritation if a movie is interrupted or starts late: rhythmic clapping; the great cry of the children's tribe “We want cinema! We want a movie! We want a movie!”; candy boxes flying into the screen; pipes made from popcorn bags, and who knows what else. If someone has a firecracker in their pocket since the Fourth of July, he will certainly take it out, show it to his friends so that they will approve and admire it, and then light it and throw it towards the ceiling.

But on that October day, nothing like that happened. And the film didn't break - they just turned off the projector. And then something unheard of happened:

The lights were turned on in the hall. We sat, looking around and blinking from the Bright light, like moles. The manager came onto the stage and raised his hand, asking for silence - a completely unnecessary gesture.
[…]
We sat on chairs like mannequins and looked at the manager. He looked worried and sick - or maybe it was the lighting that was to blame. We wondered what kind of disaster had forced him to stop the film at the most tense moment, but then the manager spoke, and the trembling in his voice confused us even more.

“I want to inform you,” he began, “that the Russians have launched a space satellite into orbit around the Earth. They called it... "satellite".

The message was met with absolute, deathly silence. A movie theater full of kids with crew cuts and ponytails, in jeans and skirts, with Captain Midnight rings, kids who had just discovered Chuck Berry and Little Richards and listened to New York radio stations in the evenings with such bated breath, as if they were signals from another planet. We grew up watching Captain Video and Terry and the Pirates! We admired in comics how the hero Casey throws around a whole bunch of Asians like skittles. We saw Richard Carlson in I Lived a Triple Life catching dirty communist spies by the thousands. We paid a quarter to see Hugh Marlowe in Earth vs. the Flying Saucers and received this damning news as a free supplement.

I remember very clearly: the terrible dead silence of the cinema hall was suddenly broken by a lonely cry; I don’t know if it was a boy or a girl, the voice was full of tears and frightened anger: “Let’s show the movie, you liar!”

The manager didn't even look in the direction the voice came from, and for some reason that was the worst part. This was proof. The Russians are ahead of us in space. Somewhere above our heads, squeaking triumphantly, is an electronic ball, designed and launched behind the Iron Curtain. Neither Captain Midnight nor Richard Carlson could stop him. He flew up there... and they called him "satellite." The manager stood still a little longer, looking at us; he seemed to be looking for something else to add, but couldn’t find it. Then he left and the film soon resumed.

13. If the Russians were able to put a satellite into orbit, then America is defenseless against a sudden nuclear strike from the sky. This simple conclusion had far-reaching consequences.

The fear was so strong that in the first days of October 1957, particularly hotheads from the Pentagon proposed “closing the sky,” that is, throwing tons of scrap metal into orbital heights: balls from bearings, nails, steel shavings, which would lead to the cessation of any space launches.

But President Eisenhower acted wiser - he did not block the orbit, or copy Soviet space technology, he copied the Soviet system itself.

14. Based on Soviet models, a single NASA space ministry was created, which was finally headed behind the scenes by the German shadowy genius Wernher Von Braun - he was recruited back in early 1943, but it was painfully contradictory to entrust the American space program to the most famous SS man in the world.

In addition to the creation of NASA, another little-known but key reform for American history was carried out - education reform. The National Defense Education Act copied the Soviet system of higher education, its purpose was to create a single Ministry of Education that selected talented schoolchildren from all over the country to technical universities - this is how the Massachusetts and California Technical Universities, Stanford, Harvard and many other universities acquired their current appearance and fame. Yes, these universities existed before, but until 1958 they were more private shops incapable of solving large-scale problems.

All of them were united into a single “military-industrial-academic complex” and solved clearly assigned tasks - to develop rocket engines or a guidance system. That is why American universities still treat Moscow State University with such reverence, Moscow University is always cited as an example, any news from it is caught with an open mouth, and in any rankings of the hundred best world universities it is invariably in the honorable 50th place - it’s just theirs alma mater and the entire American education system are rooted in this building on Sparrow Hills.

15. Simply put, the real space race began with this reform.

Fourth space: Have the Americans been on the moon?

A little higher, I already noted that the purpose of the race was a propaganda effect - for some reason it was believed that success in space is the primary evidence of the “correctness” of a particular government system.

It may seem crazy now, but crazy people couldn't send a probe to Venus and walk on the moon. There really are two healthy grains in this idea, I will talk about the first below, and the second is precisely the national character.

16. Don’t think that we are talking about some kind of metaphysics, everything here is extremely simple - Russians are natural-born cosmonauts. We live on the moon for nine months a year and wear spacesuits. Hence the utmost rationalism, even critical realism if you like. With us, everything is strictly logical and to the point, not because we are so smart, it’s just that the conditions are like this - I forgot to put on my hat and died. As a result, there are no fools in Russia at all - they live with us for exactly one year, until winter. All this has its consequences at the global level - Russians have composure, ingenuity and endless resistance to stress.

Watch this video from the space station. It first shows the station's spacious American segments. Then the narrow metal Russian ones - they look miserable, but it is in the Russian module that there is an on-board computer, a bathroom, a docking module, emergency systems and rescue modules. Actually, the entire ISS is located in our modules, the rest are not significant.

When the cameraman enters the central hall of the Russian sector, two cosmonauts naturally sit at a table and drink tea under a portrait of Gagarin. These are the Americans on a space expedition - and ours are here at home.

17. When Leonov made his first spacewalk in 1965, a defect in the spacesuit appeared - due to the lack of external pressure, it inflated like a balloon and did not allow him to return to board the ship. There was only air for 30 minutes, and by this time 20 had already passed. Over the next ten minutes, Leonov received the Hero star.

Without being confused, he realized that there was no way out and caused the pressure suit to depressurize, vented the air and climbed headfirst into the airlock chamber. Further more - during landing the automation failed and they had to land the capsule manually - he and Belyaev fell in the remote taiga, where they had to spend two days - which did not make any impression on the astronauts, they even cut down a landing site for a helicopter in a dense forest.

But the Americans' first spacewalk showed a completely different national character. America is warm, and therefore has a southern mentality - when any mistake is not fatal and everything can be replayed. American folk hero is the Big Lebowski and Homer Simpson.

18. On June 3, 1965, the crew of Gemeni 4 was preparing for the first American spacewalk. This was the first multi-day flight of the Americans and the task was too large - to work out all the elements of a long-term stay in space in order to make sure that a flight to the moon was possible and to identify possible problems. And problems were not long in coming - the rendezvous with the rocket stage in orbit failed, Gemeni used up almost all the fuel and the astronauts began to become noticeably nervous. The task was canceled and they decided to move straight to spacewalk. But due to the onset of a panic attack, Edward White had to postpone this task for the third orbit around the earth.

White was nervous for good reason - the entire flight was plagued by mocking engineering errors. Firstly, the Americans failed to create an airlock chamber (!!!) and they simply depressurized the entire ship. But here the main problem lay in wait for them - the engineers took into account the Soviet experience with an inflating spacesuit, but clearly overestimated their capabilities and made the exit hatch completely metal. Instead of rubber gaskets like our ships, they adjusted all the parts to each other with micron precision. Cool, yeah?

19. On the test bench, everything worked perfectly as long as there was a layer of air between the parts - but in a vacuum this layer evaporated and a super-strong subatomic attraction arose between the metal parts. The door had to be broken down with a crowbar to get out, and poor White became very nervous when, upon his return, the hatch could not be opened for more than 10 minutes.

Poor White died on the ground during the first flight of Apollo 1 - the engineers again made an unforgivable mistake and, to save weight, made the ship an atmosphere of pure oxygen - how they came to this decision is unknown, because in a pure oxygen atmosphere any material becomes especially flammable. Three astronauts died instantly, burning alive in the cabin. NASA management was removed from their positions, and all flights were stopped for half a year.

And this was at the apogee of the lunar race, when the month turned into a year. But who knows, maybe without this failure everything would have only been worse. NASA seriously revised its approach to the matter and began to develop the lunar program much more consistently - first, two flights in automatic mode, then attempts to dock with astronauts on board, and only after flying around the moon, landing. Surprisingly, everything went without disaster and even the infamous Apollo 13 was able to return home.

20. The Soviet lunar program floundered precisely for this reason - no one dared to guarantee the safety of the cosmonauts - the technologies of the 60s were too primitive, they had to be duplicated many times, and all this complicated the already unreliable design.

For example, due to the characteristics of the trajectory on the way back from the moon, the capsule could only land in the equator region; in order to land on the territory of the USSR, it was necessary to first make a braking dive into the atmosphere, slow down to the first escape velocity, rise into space again, and only after that go to landing.

21. Don’t forget that at the technological level we are talking about a Volkswagen beetle that is shot from a huge slingshot. Literally. Here is a photo of spaceships, their size is no larger than an average car.

Or another fact - the Soviet lunar program was four times larger than the American one: first, two lunar rovers with radio beacons and cockpits landed on the moon. Then two ships were sent to the moon - one with astronauts, the other as a reserve - both came in to land at the beacon's signal. In case of problems, the cosmonauts calmly boarded the lunar rover and drove to the spare ship.

Such caution is understandable - Gagarin’s unsuccessful flight would, of course, have caused a stir and greatly damaged the image of the USSR, but still would not have been a disaster - it simply would not have been considered the first flight. The moon is another matter - imagine that the first people died on its surface. This is not just a symbol of failure, it is an eternal shame - they will lie there as long as humanity exists and this is what America or Russia will be remembered for. Such a risk is completely unacceptable, but the Americans saw a chance for themselves and decided to take a risk - they launched their ships without any safety net.

It was not by chance that I mentioned the possibility of Gagarin’s death at the start. This is why almost all the video footage of Gagarin’s launch was filmed after his return. Otherwise, the very existence of such materials would be an extremely dangerous weapon against Soviet power.

22. This is where the legs of the lunar conspiracy grow - undoubtedly, a noticeable part of the video materials from the moon filmed by Apollo was at least retouched, some frames could have been filmed on the ground - a complete copy of the lunar surface, modules and spacesuits were created at the NASA center with ambiguous detail accuracy .

Supporters of the “moon conspiracy” look naive not because it is obvious. “Filming” is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of media preparation for the moonwalk. The moon landing is all that will remain of America in history forever, but it will always be secondary to the first flight. Therefore, it was important to fulfill two tasks in the information space - to snatch as much glory as possible from Gagarin and to have maximum informational influence. Simply put, it was necessary to show humanity a brighter fireworks display despite the second-rate event, and here the entire advertising genius of America appeared.

It’s not noticeable now, but the Americans came in with their crowning number: We speak on behalf of all humanity, not America. Kennedy initially suggested that Khrushchev fly to the moon together, Armstrong should also plant the UN flag, and next to the flag leave a sign with messages from the leaders of 73 countries on earth. The State Commission on the symbolism of the Apollo 11 flight met for 6 months, its result was the following decision (I will give the entire list):

Only the US flag will be unfurled on the moon. Small flags of the 135 UN member countries, as well as the United Nations itself and all US states and territories, will be carried in the lunar module and returned to Earth.

23. The flag of the USSR that flew to the moon with Apollo 11 and pieces of lunar soil, donated to the Soviet Union by the Americans and exhibited at the Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics at VDNKh in Moscow.

It was also planned to send two full-size US flags on the flight with a return flight, which the fighter would first fly over both buildings of the US Congress (they had to be in the command module at all times), a special postmark for cancellation, a “moon letter” in the form of an envelope with a sample a stamp that will be canceled by the crew during the flight, and a cliche for subsequent printing of the commemorative stamp “The First Man on the Moon.”

In addition to the flag, two more objects were supposed to remain on the Moon: a small silicon disk with a diameter of 3.8 cm with miniature statements of US Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon, goodwill messages from leaders or representatives of 73 states, the names of the leaders of the US Congress and members of the four congressional committees responsible for enacting NASA-related laws and the names of senior NASA officials, active and retired, as well as a commemorative metal plaque affixed to one of the Eagle landing stage legs. It depicted both hemispheres of the Earth, oceans and continents without state borders. Below is the text:

The plate was engraved with the signatures of all three crew members and US President Richard Nixon.

The commission also decided that emotions need to be added to the flight, so astronauts can take personal items with them on the flight. Armstrong's personal belongings included a wooden fragment of the left propeller and a piece of fabric from the left upper wing of the Wright brothers' Flyer. Aldrin, at the request of his father, took with him a miniature (5 cm x 7.6 cm in size) autobiography of the “American Tsiolkovsky” Robert Goodard, published in 1966. It became the first book to land on the moon.

The scenarios of all television broadcasts on the ground, the flight emblem, all names and call signs were thought out in detail. There shouldn't be anything stupid or comical about an epic flight. And on the moon, Buzz Aldrin performed a Catholic communion service.

I accepted the holy gifts and gave thanks to the mind and spirit that carried the two young pilots to the Sea of ​​Tranquility. Interesting, I thought, because the very first drink and the very first food served on the Moon was wine and communion bread.

After the flight, Aldrin returned the miniature chalice to Webster Church. Every year on the Sunday closest to July 20, local parishioners there take part in the Lunar Eucharist service. Also in the pockets of the astronauts' suits were the Apollo 1 emblem, commemorative medals of Virgil Grissom, Edward White, Roger Chaffee, Yuri Gagarin and Vladimir Komarov, a small golden olive branch, the same as the other three, which the astronauts would bring to their wives, and silicon disk with messages from presidents. All this was left at the lunar module landing site. With all this, the crew of Apollo 11 had only one off-ship camera. Therefore, studio “imitations” were shown on American television so that viewers could better imagine the exit process itself.

But have you ever wondered what the results of the Apollo mission were?

Yes, the Americans overtook us at the cost of enormous risk, but the Apollo program had to be curtailed quite quickly - it turned out that there was nothing to do on the moon, the technology of the sixties did not even allow one to stay on the surface for a couple of days.

26. From the heights of today, it is clear that the space race was about forty years ahead of its time. Like an atomic bomb. The very early flight in the era of punched cards and magnetic tapes only delayed the real exploration of the moon - now no one is ready to return to the moon. For the same reason, the construction of the ISS is so slow and the development of the entire astronautics is slowing down - all the prizes were already taken in the sixties. It seems that space will remain an uninhabited desert... even NASA abandoned manned missions and switched to using lunar rover technology.

The fourth space race: what is behind the scenes of the space race?

It seems that we have come to the end of our journey, but there is clearly some understatement. Something important is missing, and that important thing is propaganda.

I already said above that the entire space project was built based on the television picture. But this is not the first time that the topic of space has appeared in government propaganda.

27. All Hollywood directors from Kubrick to Lucas were devoted fans of Soviet science fiction. They watched films about the pioneers' journeys to other planets thousands of times and made their own films in imitation of Soviet propaganda. This well-known fact now seems incredible, but all the key American films about space have a very obvious Soviet prototype.

Kubrick shot his Space Odyssey in frame-by-frame imitation of the Soviet blockbuster Road to the Stars, and Star Wars is based on Lucas's favorite film, Planet of Storms. For example, Chewbacca from Star Wars is a modified Russian word for Dog, and so on.

28. Were Soviet filmmakers more skillful than their Hollywood colleagues? Of course yes, because Hollywood itself is a Russian product, it was created by Stanislavsky, who wrote his “system” specifically for the Americans. But the matter here is still somewhat deeper - in the communist ideology itself.

29. It is mistakenly believed that the birthplace of communism is Germany and England, where all the red leaders lived and worked. Like everything cultural in Europe, communism was invented in France. You will laugh, but initially communism was a literary project at the level of Superman comics - the ideas of social equality and justice in themselves were not particularly exciting, so they were wrapped in space travel with blasters and beautiful aliens who would be taught earthly love. In general, everything that teenagers love.

The main body of texts was written by people whose names can be read on the stele near the walls of the Kremlin: Charles Fourier, Auguste Comte, Proudhon, Pierre Leroux and of course my beloved Saint-Simon - an ever-beggar crazy blogger who went for very crazy ideas like Newton's church, which should replace Catholicism and spread to the entire universe. People fly to the planet and the first thing they do is build a church of science named after Newton. All this under the guise of a sexual revolution with common wives and sexual adventures.

As a result, by the 1830s, “Saint-Simonism” had become all the rage. Being a socialist was as cool as being a Beatles fan a century later. In Moscow, a girl could give herself up only for one convincing hint of belonging to the international. Herzen, Belinsky, Ogarev, Anninsky were all devoted fans of communism and laid the cornerstone of socialist ideas in Russia.

30. Stella to the ideologists of communism in the Alexander Garden - now you know why it was so important until it was demolished the other day.

This is how a strong connection between socialism and space arose. This is precisely why the Soviet government was always tinkering with space, planetariums and Tsiolkovsky, and made a mountain of films about the conquest of interplanetary space. This was her invisible backbone.

But in the same way, the socialist core was forever entrenched in science fiction. You will not be able to come across a single work of science fiction where you do not stumble upon socialist ideas. Even if it is a gloomy post-apocalypse like Fallout or a futuristic Avatar, everywhere you will see the kind squint of Grandfather Lenin with freedom-equality-brotherhood.

It’s not surprising that the socialist space program turned out to be better than the capitalist one - it’s just that it’s already two hundred years old. The space fashion of the 1960s is just an echo and shadow of the space hysteria of the early 19th century.

Fifth space: the speed of light is not a redistribution?

All that remains is to look back at the fourteen previous pages and ask the question – what’s next? Spacewalk, orbital station and flight to the moon - is this the limit? This is not even real space, but “near-Earth space”, and what is there, outside the solar system?

31. In the last decade there has been a real revolution in astronomy, equal to the revolution in physics at the beginning of the last century. Moreover, as in the case of the theory of the atomic nucleus, people have not yet realized the full depth of the change in their view of the world. Even specialist astronomers are just beginning to get used to the new picture of the world. The result of this new picture was the 2006 Astronomical Congress, which adopted seemingly far-fetched decisions on a new classification of planets. After all, what difference does it make whether Pluto is considered a planet or just a “double planetoid”?

But we are talking here about changing the entire picture of the world. Previously it was believed that the solar system was the Star itself and the planets circling in close orbits. And somewhere very far away, 40 trillion kilometers away, is the nearest star Proxima Centauri; it probably has the same planets in small orbits. But between the two solar systems is the emptiness of space.

32. Everything changed on November 14, 2003 with the discovery of the planet Sedna in the solar system. The distance to the planet was 14 million kilometers. This fit into the upper limit of the solar system. However, the researchers were further horrified to discover that the aphelion of Sedna’s orbit (maximum distance from the Sun) is 930 AU (139 billion kilometers). The planet's orbital period with such an elongated orbit is more than 10,000 years.

Sedna's habitat is traditionally called the Kuiper Belt. Initially it was believed that this is the location of the bulk of the solar system's comets, that is, objects ranging in size from several tens of meters to several kilometers. Currently, more than 400 objects have been opened in this area, the dimensions of which exceed 200 km. According to modern estimates, there are 35,000 objects larger than 100 km in the Kuiper belt, and the total number of bodies, according to experts, is estimated at several billion.

In the middle of the 20th century, the hypothetical area where comets were located was moved further, to the so-called. "Oort Cloud". This hypothetical spherical shell, surrounding the solar system at a distance of about one light year, was thought to contain billions of comets with a total mass equal to the mass of the Earth. The cloud's coordinates were calculated speculatively by extrapolating the trajectories of known comets.

What is the hypothetical limit of disturbance of a celestial body by the Sun? This distance is exactly halfway between the Sun and Proxima. This is the true size of the grandiose solar system, which has yet to be studied by stunned humanity.

That is, the very first serious study of our own star system radically changed our understanding of the universe - it turned out that space is evenly seeded with matter, only here and there illuminated by the lights of stars. And our own solar system is by no means independent, but is physically united with nearby stars forming a single planetary system.

From here there are two conclusions: space is saturated with planets. Star systems are much closer than we thought and common objects often travel between them.

From which it follows that space is filled with life and makes contacts between civilizations possible at the most primitive stages of development, when they are still of interest and nutritional value to each other. You can reach your neighbors even on a ship with the most primitive nuclear engine.

And such spaceships have already been laid down. The program for their construction is the second bottom of the space race. If you've played Civilization, you'll know what I mean. For example, GPS and Glonass are subprojects of “nuclear space”, because for orientation in deep space it was planned to use pulsars (stars giving constant radio pulses), for the needs of the military, this idea was converted in 1973 into a navigation system for thirty satellites in medium orbit near the earth.

In the 1960s, both superpowers designed and began building the first starships capable of reaching Alpha Centauri, but both programs were unexpectedly terminated immediately after positive test results were obtained from the NERV and RD-0410 engines. Apparently postponed until better times, but already in the 1970s the USSR built a series of military guidance satellites “legend” with low-power nuclear installations on board. And apparently we are still significantly ahead of America in this area, it’s a pity that the area is classified and what is actually happening there is unknown.

35. The latest public information on this topic dates back to 2011 and reports a new attempt by the Americans to enter into a partnership with Roscosmos in the field of nuclear engines. However, already in March 2013, an interview with Denis Kovalevich, head of the Skolkovo space cluster, began to circulate online, in which he said that the development of a nuclear power plant is being carried out without the involvement of foreign specialists, since there are many dual technologies there. “This is a Russian project,” said D. Kovalevich.

36. This was the beginning of the 21st century. We began the 20th century with an attempt at flight and quickly changed our understanding of the world. Our century begins with a revolution in astronomy and the construction of real starships. So is the theme of space dead?

I think it's just beginning.

Space exploration is the process of studying and exploring outer space, with the help of special manned vehicles, as well as automatic vehicles.

Stage I – first launch of the spacecraft

The date when space exploration began is considered to be October 4, 1957 - this is the day when the Soviet Union, as part of its space program, was the first to launch a spacecraft into space - Sputnik-1. On this day, Cosmonautics Day is celebrated annually in the USSR and then in Russia.
The USA and the USSR competed with each other in space exploration and the first battle remained with the Union.

Stage II – the first man in space

An even more important day in the framework of space exploration in the Soviet Union is the first launch of a spacecraft with a man on board, which was Yuri Gagarin.

Gagarin became the first person to go into space and return safe and sound to Earth.

Stage III – first landing on the Moon

Although the Soviet Union was the first to go into space and even the first to launch a person into Earth orbit, the United States became the first whose astronauts were able to successfully land on the closest space body from Earth - the Moon satellite.

This fateful event occurred on July 21, 1969 as part of NASA's Apollo 11 space program. The first person to walk on the surface of the earth was the American Neil Armstrong. Then the famous phrase was said in the news: “This is a small step for a person, but a huge leap for all mankind.” Armstrong not only managed to visit the surface of the Moon, but also brought soil samples to Earth.

Stage IV - humanity goes beyond the solar system

In 1972, a spacecraft called Pioneer 10 was launched, which, after passing near Saturn, went beyond the solar system. And although Pioneer 10 did not report anything new about the world outside our system, it became proof that humanity is capable of reaching other systems.

Stage V – launch of the reusable spacecraft Columbia

In 1981, NASA launched a reusable spacecraft called Columbia, which has been in service for more than twenty years and makes almost thirty trips into outer space, providing incredibly useful information about it to humans. The shuttle Columbia retires in 2003 to give way to newer spacecraft.

Stage VI – launch of the Mir space orbital station

In 1986, the USSR launched the Mir space station into orbit, which operated until 2001. In total, more than 100 cosmonauts stayed on it and there were more than 2 thousand important experiments.

Are your children still one of that rare breed of kids who want to become not travel bloggers, beauty makers and merchandisers, but astronauts? Congratulations! Nowadays, interest in space is no longer so strong, but there are still guys who look at the sky with curiosity and anticipation of a miracle. It is for them that we have put together our cosmically large selection of everything, everything, everything on the theme of space.

And also for those parents who want to captivate their restless children with this topic. Or it’s simply interesting and educational to celebrate Cosmonautics Day. Three, two, one, “Let's go!”

Where to go: 9 interesting sites

Let's start with the fact that you can visit space and its surroundings without leaving your home and without making almost any effort. There are a huge number of incredibly interesting space sites, many of which are interactive.

For those who are a little older and have been in love with space for a long time and for a long time, we suggest trying to watch two popular science series. The first of them is "Cosmos: Space and Time". This is a series of documentary 40-minute videos about the world of space, the possibilities of interplanetary travel and observations of space processes. A lot of money, effort and time were invested in the project, so it looks simply amazing.

Let children's first acquaintance with space be interesting and fabulous. The book contains a map of the starry sky and amazing illustrations by Vitaly Statsinsky. Two cycles of poems, “Star Carousel” and “Cosmic Street,” will teach kids about the constellations easily and cheerfully.

Another book for the littlest space explorers. Non-standard illustrations that will help children learn the Russian alphabet. Interesting vocabulary and amazing facts about space and life in orbit.

The main character of the book is Mashenka, an unusual girl. She is friends with the Moon and the stars, has visited the Sun and traveled throughout the solar system! Which she is happy to tell you about. The book is interactive - you can cut out the planets in it and stick them in the right places to check whether the kids remember their order correctly.

With the help of this book, children will be able to sculpt an entire solar system out of plasticine; instructions are included! We also sculpt UFOs, aliens, satellites, a lunar rover and, in general, space, aka plasticine!

Fun and simple, this book tells the life story of the great scientist Tsiolkovsky, who invented a rocket that opened the way to the stars for people. Very interesting facts, explanations of all complex words and amazing illustrations by Olga Gromova will win the hearts of little space lovers.

And, finally, a book for older children (from 12 years old). An unexpected side of ordinary things, an explanation of complex scientific discoveries in simple language (but with mathematical formulas in the margins) and a real immersion in the world of space.

Where to go: 6 space places in Moscow

And for those who live in Moscow, there are also many great places where you can go to see or listen to something on the topic of space. Almost everywhere some exciting and interesting events are planned for Cosmonautics Day.

Here children are welcome: the large and small star halls, the Sky Park, an observatory, the interactive museum “Lunarium”, the Urania Museum and a 4D cinema. In a playful way, children will be told about the structure of the Universe and complex cosmic phenomena.

Another planetarium is located on Vorobyovy Gory. We admire the cosmic beauties and unique globes of Mars, Earth and the Moon. And here you can stroke the cold side of a real meteorite, see a collection of minerals from Mars and listen to the most interesting lectures on the most cosmic topics.

8 exhibition halls, more than 93,000 exhibits, lectures, excursions and a lot of interesting things. Unique simulators for astronauts, a mini Mission Control Center and 5D virtual travel.

On April 12, the observing season at the observatory opens. So this weekend you can observe the Sun, Moon and Venus through a huge mirror-lens telescope. 841 times magnification! The stars are closer than they seem.

Full-size model of a future space station on Mars. Here you can control a model of the Mars rover, view the Martian landscapes, take interesting master classes and play in the scenery of the space station. And at the Space Academy of the center you can learn everything about the most modern professions.

For those who are ready to leave the capital for a while, it is best to go to Star City. Here children can see special simulators for astronauts, try space food, walk around an 18-meter centrifuge and find out answers to all their questions.

Good luck in exploring the vast expanses of space!

Even more interesting things in our group in