Race through the icy haze and meet the sunrise over the Ocean of Storms. See with your own eyes the other side of the moon. See the narrow crescent of the Earth, hovering in the velvet black above the Lorenz crater. Walk at an altitude of 200 km above the surface of our satellite, examining the smallest details of its relief. Countless craters and plains at the bottom of dry "oceans". A bizarre alternation of crests and dark gaps, emphasized by a dazzlingly bright Sun shining in the void of endless space.
Can you imagine what will be seen by the daredevils who decide to contribute to the exploration of outer space? For the first time in 50 years since the last manned expedition to orbit the Moon!
Outbreaks from the fall of new meteorites? Clouds of dust rising? The latest equipment will allow you to see what has escaped the eye of the American Apollo. Radon emissions from the interior of the Moon due to the impact of the tidal force of the Earth. Gas and dust clouds and anomalous glow in the Aristarchus crater. Electrical flares generated by mechanical stress and ionization of lunar rocks.
The first image of the rise of the Earth above the lunar surface, transmitted by the Lunar Orbiter-1, 1966
All this is for you to see! Participants of an incredible expedition of one million kilometers, on the border of the possibilities of modern science and technology. For only $ 150 per kilometer.
Your name will remain on the pages of the history of astronautics. You will get the attention of all the world's media. This is your step into immortality.
The technical side of the issue.
Expedition risks? They are minimal. The daring design is based on proven Soviet technology that meets the highest safety standards. Simple and reliable ship "Soyuz-TMA-M". A new look at the old principles, in which the best achievements of the present and the past were combined. Upgraded cockpit, updated flight instrumentation system, increased fuel capacity, fully digital control and digital telemetry data transmission system.
Soyuz is ready to fly!
But will the small Soyuz have enough strength for such a difficult and long journey? How to turn a 7-ton orbital "taxi" into a full-fledged spacecraft capable of gaining a second space speed and circling the Moon? In this regard, specialists from RSC Energia and their American partners from the Space Adventures company. Ltd has a ready-made solution: an additional household compartment and an upper stage "DM".
"Soyuz TMA-7"
In detail, it looks like this:
A, B, C, D, D - this is how the stages of the legendary N-1 launch vehicle were designated. The Soviet lunar program suffered a fiasco, and the only thing that now reminds of the once great rocket is the family of upper stages "D", which are the fifth stage of the N-1-L3 system with engines powered by kerosene and liquid oxygen. Upper stages of type "D" are regularly used to launch interplanetary stations and launch satellites into geostationary orbit. For example, the DM-SL modification is used as part of the Zenit-SL LV used under the Sea Launch program.
A similar unit is supposed to be used to accelerate the Soyuz spacecraft during its flyby of the Moon.
As for the additional household compartment, its creation was left to the mercy of the Americans. There is no specific data on this yet.
Probe program
Everything new is well forgotten old. "Probe" - this was the designation of the Soviet spacecraft of the "lunar race" period of 1964-70, designed to study the Moon, Venus and Mars from a flyby trajectory. And if the first four spacecraft were ordinary automatic interplanetary stations (as a rule, they failed their main program), then subsequent launches under the Probe program pursued a different, much more important and mystical goal. The USSR secretly tested ships intended for a manned flyby of the Moon (index - 7K-L1).
Unlike a full-fledged landing on the moon, which required a super-heavy launch vehicle N-1, a lunar orbiter LOK and a landing module LK, a manned flyby required much simpler and cheaper means. The 7K-L1 spacecraft was a modernized version of the Soyuz spacecraft launched by the heavy (but quite realistic) UR-500 Proton launch vehicle with a D series upper stage.
The lunar "Probe" - "Soyuz" (aka 7K-L1) differed from the usual "Soyuz" in the absence of a utility compartment (the reduced crew of two cosmonauts had to spend a couple of weeks in the lodgings of the descent vehicle's seats), the presence of a highly directional parabolic antenna for long-range space communications, as well as enhanced thermal protection of the descent vehicle, which was to enter the atmosphere at a second space velocity. The very scheme of the return of the apparatus looked very unusual - 7K-L1 entered the atmosphere over the southern hemisphere of the Earth, partially extinguished the speed to suborbital, and then again, due to the use of aerodynamic forces, ascended into space and finally entered the dense layers of the atmosphere over the territory of our Motherland.
In total, 14 launches of 7K-L1 were made in an unmanned version, of which four (Zond-5, 6, 7 and 8) flew around the Moon and returned safely to Earth, having completed the planned program in full.
At first glance, the statistics are terrible: there are only 4 successful flights for 14 attempts. The reliability of the system is not to hell. However, a closer acquaintance with the Probe program reveals more optimistic details. The biggest problems were caused by the then "raw" launch vehicle "Proton" - five launch vehicles exploded on the launch pad or crashed on the active launch site. "Zond-5B" could not fly anywhere at all - in the course of preparation for launch, the tank of the upper stage "D" burst, from the impact the ship broke away from the carrier rocket and got stuck in the trusses of the launch pad. The attempt does not count!
The rest of the "Probes" were able to go into space, but somehow lost their course due to the failure of the orientation and control systems.
But something else is much more important: if there were cosmonauts on board each of the Probes, all of them, in spite of various circumstances, would have remained alive! Each time, the descent vehicle instantly fired back from the faulty launch vehicle and safely landed on Earth. The Soyuz spacecraft emergency rescue systems are unmatched in the world! The record was held by V. Lazarev and O. Makarov, who suffered an accident on the border of the atmosphere and space (the legend about the "Soyuz-18A"). Despite the dizzying fall from a height of 192 km, Lazarev and Makarov remained intact and soon returned to the cosmonaut corps.
The reliability and safety of the Soyuz spacecraft are amazing.
In the case of the lunar "Probes", problems could arise only for the crew of "Zond-4", which, due to an error in the orientation system, entered the atmosphere along a ballistic trajectory and experienced overloads close to 20g. However, if there were a crew on board, the astronauts might be able to correct the automatic error and return safely to Earth. The same applies to the rest of the "Probes", lost orientation in outer space.
Alas, the assurances of the specialists who worked on the 7K-L1 program about the absolute safety of the lunar mission remained unheard. Suppressed by the tragic death of cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov (1967), the leadership of the Soviet space program demanded 100% confidence in the successful completion of the expedition. When the obvious success was achieved (two successively successful fly-bys of the Moon by the Zond-7 and 8 spacecraft), a message was received from overseas about the landing of NASA astronauts on the Moon. Priority was lost, and the "moon race" lost all meaning. Further studies of the Moon were carried out with the help of automatic apparatus of the Luna and Lunokhod series, which do not require the direct presence of a person in a circumlunar orbit.
Return of the "Probe"
This is how one can call the joint project of RSC Energia and the Americans from Space Adventures, which offers a unique opportunity to visit the unknown expanses of space, finding themselves for several days at a distance of over 300 thousand km from their home planet. And at the same time, write down your name in the rank of the great conquerors of space and, perhaps, make some important discovery.
Realizing (more precisely, buying) your dream is not difficult. The unique expedition will take place as soon as two VIP tickets, worth $ 150 million each, are sold. The third place in the cockpit of the modernized "Probe" will be taken by a professional cosmonaut.
One of two tickets for the first commercial space flight around the Moon on the Russian manned spacecraft Soyuz has been sold. The buyer's name is not disclosed. But this is a well-known person.
- "Space Adventures" continues to whip up the intrigue around the commercial flyby of the moon.
When will the long-awaited flight take place? There is no exact information on this. The dates of the proposed launches have been repeatedly postponed. According to the most optimistic estimates, the first commercial flight around the Moon could take place as early as 2017.
