Seeing off the outgoing year, I would like to talk about the results for our astronautics. The year, as our president will say in a couple of days, was not easy, the year was difficult. Enterprises were in a fever, in general, the entire space industry was shaking so badly. Projects were born, died, crumbled to dust and dust, but nevertheless, we should probably talk about the steps that have been taken in space exploration.
China has made a significant step. His plan for the exploration of the moon turned out to be correct and clearly worked out. Not only did they deliver, they also successfully landed their Chang'e 4 lunar rover on the far side of the moon.
It was possible to congratulate the Chinese conquerors of the Universe, they were the first who could do it.
Others were rushing to the Moon, just some Year of the Moon turned out, but alas, the Israeli Beresheet spacecraft and the Indian Chandrayaan-2 crashed on the surface of the satellite.
However, the road will be mastered by the one walking, or, to use the folklore of the winners, "the path of a thousand li begins with one step."
Few people get it right the first time. But let's see, apparently, the Indian and Israeli flags on the surface of the moon - a matter of time.
It would be interesting to talk about the Russian lunar program, if … however, okay.
Fast forward to Mars. Fortunately, the flight of thought allows.
On Mars, we are run by the Americans. Yes, they lost one rover, Opportunity, with which communication was disrupted during the Martian dust storm last year, and it was not possible to restore it. NASA explained everything by the fact that the rover could not recharge the batteries, probably the solar panels were damaged or clogged with dust.
"Opportunity" was written off, although it actually worked much more than the planned 90 days.
The Curiosity rover, which landed in August 2012, is still operating on Mars.
Plus the stationary geophysical mission Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight), which ended up on the Elysian Plain in November 2018.
In general, the United States on Mars feels, if not at home, then quite at ease. They master it slowly.
Unfortunately, we are before them … as before Mars.
Are we going further? Let's fly. Next we have asteroids. And on the asteroids - the Japanese.
More precisely, a full-fledged representative of Japan, the interplanetary station "Hayabusa 2", which operated until November in orbit around the asteroid Ryugu. The Japanese probe landed on the surface of the asteroid and even bombed it from orbit. A natural explosive bomb to simulate a collision with another celestial body.
Moreover, "Hayabusa 2" was able to collect the debris formed during the explosion and is now taking them to Earth.
It is probably worth noting separately that at the beginning of the Hayabusa 2 mission, a pair of mini-robots launched from the probe made the first successful soft landing on an asteroid in history. Including robots took photographs of the surface and transferred them to the probe.
The distance from Earth to Ryugu is approximately 280,000,000 kilometers.
This is exclusively for management issues. The Hayabusa 2 robots undocked from the vehicle, landed in a designated area, took a photo and transmitted it. Well, for mini-robots - a very excellent task performance.
Of course, they are very far from the Russian android Fedya, who "worked" on the ISS. Slightly less, of course, than 280 million kilometers, but still.
The Americans are also present here (in the sense, in the asteroid belt). Their device OSIRIS-REx arrived at the asteroid Benoit and is also doing something there.
And finally, what we are traditionally strong in. Or we think that we are traditionally strong. That is, manned manned flights.
The outgoing year 2019 was marked by many events. The first is the flight of SpaceX's Crew Dragon, which took off, flew to the ISS, docked to the American Harmony module, then undocked and returned to Earth.
The mission aimed to check all components and systems of the ship and was recognized as successful.
In general, this mission actually means that Russia will lose its monopoly on the delivery of astronauts to the ISS. It is worth noting that one astronaut brought to the ISS replenished the Roscosmos budget by $ 80 million. Apparently, someone will have to tighten their belts.
But this is only half the battle. The second half is the American Boeing's Starliner, which, although it could not catch up with the ISS and dock to it due to a programming error, has demonstrated that it is able to ascend into orbit, fly there and descend back.
Americans are generally strong in their competition. Boeing, no less than SpaceX, would like to gnaw on the space budget, so I am sure that the programmers there will be tolerantly punished and forced to fix all the flaws. And "Starliner" will fly, or rather, learn to fly to the ISS. He already knows the rest.
And what about us? How do we look?
We look great. The role of "bombing" on "sixes" is our everything. Suppose that instead of "shokhi" we have "Soyuz", which is only fifty years old, the main thing is that we were once ahead of everyone. And this must be remembered, proud and all that.
No, of course, one should be proud of the feat of Korolev and Gagarin. It's just that you can't fly far in the past, alas, and today is a vivid example of this. While all progressive countries are exploring the Moon, Mars, flying to asteroids, we regularly transport the Americans to the ISS and supply them with everything they need. Reducing our presence, since there is nowhere especially for our people to work, there are no extra places on the ISS in scientific modules.
Meanwhile, only "shoha", aka "Soyuz", remains for us. With the former "Federation" or, in a new way, "Eagle", everything is still difficult.
The spacecraft is very expensive, very heavy, there is really no launch vehicle for it, that is, we cannot fly to the Moon, it is expensive to the ISS. Therefore, "Union", and this is where all the achievements end.
I would love to talk about achievements, honestly. I already foresee how particularly rabid patriots will blame me for this, but what to do? What is there to be proud of if American, Japanese, Indian, Chinese and any other flag, except for the Russian one, stand on all the achievements of mankind?
I honestly tried to find at least something. Found.
Launch of the Russian-German observatory "Spectrum-RG" ("Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma"). It was launched in July after heaps of transfers from the Baikonur cosmodrome. But in the end they launched it. This is a useful thing, considering that the last time we successfully launched something back in 2011. It was the Spektr-R radio telescope.
And "Spektr-RG" will make it possible to make a complete survey of the sky in the X-ray range.
But even here there is a fly in the ointment, alas. The multipurpose platform "Navigator" is produced by the Lavochkin Design Bureau. Our. The ART-XC telescope also seems to be ours. But … domestic mirrors were poorly made, so it turned out to be impossible to use them.
Rescued … that's right, the Americans!
At the Marshall Space Center (subordinate to NASA, USA), mirrors for the Russian telescope were manufactured. With them, he flew to the place of service.
Actually, that's all. I would very much like to talk about the achievements of Russian cosmonautics, but it is absolutely not my fault that all the achievements today consist in the renaming of everything in a row: ships, factories and similar activities. Alas.
In the meantime, Mr. Rogozin and company are having fun with games with the former Soviet legacy, we are left to watch with quiet sadness as American, European, Chinese, Japanese and other (only non-Russian) ships ply the expanses of the solar system.
And to console yourself with the phrase "But we were the first."
But after twenty years of such rates of "development", this will be very weak consolation.
And yes, back to the title. So what's not visible in the moonlight? That's right, at least some achievements of Russian cosmonautics. True, they cannot be distinguished even when it is sunny. Unfortunately.
