Dawn. We don't know anything yet.
The usual "Latest News" …
And he is already flying through the constellations, The earth will wake up with his name.
- K. Simonov
Silence of endless spaces - and only 20 years for a cosmic dream.
The "space race" that unfolded between the USSR and the USA was a cornerstone in the development of civilization. Starting to the stars required the most sophisticated and sophisticated technique ever created by human hands. For the first time in history, people have managed to see the far side of the moon. See other worlds up close - mysterious, bizarre, sometimes scary, but still fantastically beautiful landscapes of Venus and Mars … Today these poor quality black-and-white pictures inspire mystical awe - here every pixel is formed by radio waves flying through millions of kilometers of outer space.
Yet the main achievement was different. Looking into the eyes of infinity, humanity realized the paramount importance of non-pragmatic research. The terrifying scale of the Universe and the true meaning of man in this world became clear.
The first image of the far side of the Moon, transmitted by the Soviet interplanetary station "Luna-3", 1959
In fact, the ambitious space programs of that era made no practical sense. The presence of people in orbit was limited to gymnastic tricks in zero gravity and entries in the flight log about the number of tubes of space food eaten. All the serious work was done by automata - meteorological and reconnaissance satellites, communications satellites, space observatories and orbital interceptors. Placement of military and scientific equipment in space did not require the creation of manned spacecraft with a complex and cumbersome life support system.
Astronauts were sent into low Earth orbit partly out of interest, partly because of the vanity inherent in the human race. With a firm belief that someday the collected data will be useful in planning long-distance space missions - to the Moon, Venus, Mars. Somewhere beyond the asteroid belt - to the outskirts of the solar system. And again a question arose, to which there was no specific answer. Why risk the lives of people on missions where the presence of automatic probes is even doubtful?
There is a touch! There is a mechanical grip!
Docking in low-earth orbit
Unlike spy satellites, automatic interplanetary stations went into a black void, taking with them hundreds of millions of Soviet rubles and American dollars. At the same time, without any specific impact. Unacceptable conditions on the surface of other celestial bodies have been known for a long time. Subsequently, the calculations were confirmed by data from ground-based spectrographs and radio telescopes. Not a single planet has been found, except for the Earth, where water in a liquid state could exist. Not a single celestial body with an atmosphere even in the least resembling that of the earth. Then what is the point of flying into these dead worlds?
Panorama of Venus transmitted by the Venera-13 descent vehicle. The temperature overboard was + 470 ° C. Pressure - 90 Earth atmospheres (equivalent to a diving depth of 900 m below sea level). The device worked in such conditions for 2 hours and 7 minutes.
One expedition to Mars would be enough to make sure it is empty and sterile. Nevertheless, the USSR and the USA with endless persistence sent automatic stations and rovers to the Red Planet with the hope of finding … signs of water that flowed along the slopes of Martian craters half a billion years ago. It's naive and funny. And not a single piece of ice has yet been found. It all boils down to controversial discussions around hydrogen-containing compounds on the surface of Mars.
The closest distance from Earth to Mars is 55 million kilometers. Alas, modern spacecraft are forced to fly differently - along the semi-ellipsoid. In this case, the path to Mars is typically 260 million km. The minimum speed to enter the departure trajectory to the Red Planet is 11.6 km / s, the travel time is 259 days.
Multi-month flights along a semi-elliptical trajectory (a consequence of low speeds of interplanetary probes, accelerated by "chemical" rocket engines). Permanent malfunctions and malfunctions in spacecraft, unreliable mechanics and primitive electronic equipment. Three out of four launches to Venus and Mars were usually disastrous. But no difficulties could stop the space explorers: rows of stations, one after another, were sent annually to distant worlds. What for? Nobody will give a concrete answer.
Space was an expensive toy that had no practical value. Of course, all the achievements of astronautics were wrapped in a bright political wrapper - the leaders of the superpowers were given priority. But in the end, the successes of the Soviet space program did not save the USSR from perestroika. And the unique NASA expeditions were forgotten and buried in the dust of history. Most of the inhabitants on both sides of the ocean remember only how the Americans crashed two shuttles and flew to the moon in Hollywood pavilions. A cruel mockery of the heroes of the past. Who is interested in Vikings, Pioneers and Voyagers now? And let them fly for 40 years: it's dark in interstellar space and nothing is visible …
Starships go to infinity. Five human-made spacecraft exceeded the third space velocity and entered interstellar space (or will do so soon)
The cosmic euphoria could not last indefinitely. By the beginning of the 70s, the intensity of passions began to gradually fade away. In the 1980s, indignant exclamations were heard: "Enough! We have a lot of unresolved problems here on earth."
A person will endure any hardships of space travel, except, perhaps, their cost.
- L. Dubridge
… Models of lunar lander are lonely in museums. There is no interest in creating super-heavy launch vehicles. Instead of bold projects of the past ("Heavy Interplanetary Ship", USSR or "Saturn-Venus", USA), cautious opinions prevail, such as "Flexible Path" (flyby the Moon and exploration of asteroids closest to Earth), or a complete rejection of manned space exploration. …
In the summer of 2011, the last launch of the Space Shuttle took place. Now the Yankees will not have their own manned spacecraft until at least 2021 (at the same time, a trial launch of the 25-ton Orion spacecraft of the new generation is scheduled for 2014, still in an unmanned version). The situation with the financing of interplanetary expeditions is not in the best way: for the coming years, NASA was left without a "flagship program", all efforts are focused on completing the Webb orbital telescope, which cannot be completed for the tenth year (the estimated launch date is 2018).
Roscosmos is also going through hard times. The long-term collapse, the natural consequence of which was the epic with "Phobos-Grunt" and numerous accidents during launches of carrier rockets - all this did not add to the popularity of space programs. The call "Forward into space!" is now perceived as a mockery.
On the other hand, there is no reason for dissatisfaction here. The current situation has its own objective reasons. The need for a person's presence in space is not obvious. Automatic interplanetary missions are expensive and dubious (let alone manned!) Any talk of industrial exploration of celestial bodies is meaningless as long as the payload is less than 1% of the launch mass of the rocket and space system.
The Ugandan President has proposed an African mission to the moon. Speaking to leading lawyers in the country, Yoweri Museveni said that the Americans and Russians have already sent expeditions to the moon, China and India will soon do so. And only Africans, according to the Ugandan leader, remain in place. Africans should know what the developed countries are doing on the moon.
- News agency France-Presse, 2009.
You can smile at the narrow-mindedness of an African and reproach him for excessive populism. But how far have we gone from him? "With a bare bottom - into space!" They say it's very Russian. But the speakers do not understand that there is little choice: sit in the mud and gaze at the stars. Otherwise, you have to sit in the mud and look into the mud.
The importance of space programs temporarily decreased, but a great dream remained. It is no coincidence that Cosmonautics Day is one of the few truly national holidays in Russia, everyone remembers and knows it. The memory of the grandiose feat committed on April 12, 1961 went far beyond the borders of the country. The image of the smiling "cosmonaut Yuri" is recognizable everywhere. 108 minutes transformed the world, adding a sense of meaning to the entire planet. A touch of infinity creates the feeling that there are things in life that are more important than what we do every day.
And, of course, space is a challenge to earthly science and technology. Sooner or later, astronautics will again be in the focus of modern technologies. And it cannot be otherwise: we are destined to go beyond our "cradle". The study and transformation of the surrounding world on a rapidly progressing scale - perhaps this is the purpose of man.
Every atom in your body is a particle of an exploding star. Perhaps the atoms in your left hand were formed in one star, the atoms in your right in the other. This is the most poetic thing I know about physics. We are all stardust. We wouldn't be here if the stars hadn't exploded. The stars died so that we could be here and now.
- Lawrence Maxwell Krauss, astrophysicist
Maybe we are not leaving this world. Maybe we're going home!
