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Last week was filled with events related to the Moon. First the Russian Luna-25 fell on it, and then it was India's turn to land on Chandrayaan-3. All this naturally raises questions: whether the flight to the moon is really such a brilliant event, and how difficult it is to land on the moon.
1.Why is it so difficult to get to the moon?
Astronauts regularly fly to the ISS, launching more and more new satellites into space, which can give the impression that landing on the moon is not difficult. But in fact, in order to do this, you first need to raise the orbit of the spacecraft so that its highest point (apogee) is behind our natural satellite. To do this, you need to get extra speed, which, in turn, leads to very high fuel consumption.
In addition, after flying around the moon and returning to Earth, the device still cannot land on the moon by parachute. To do this, he first needs to brake, which also requires additional fuel.
2.Is it possible to fly into space without going to the moon?
The Moon is constantly moving in its orbit, and since the orbit is elliptical, its speed of motion is constantly changing. Therefore, it is necessary to calculate in advance all the flight phases of the flight to the place in order to meet it at the desired place.
What happens if you don't go there? It all depends on the initial speed. If it is less than 112 km seconds, then the device will simply return to Earth; If it is greater than or equal to that value, it will leave the Earth-Moon system and become a satellite of the Sun. It may even leave the solar system completely, but for this it needs to be faster than 16 when it leaves the Earth's atmosphere65 km sec.
3. Is it necessary to go into the orbit of the Moon?
During the flight to the moon, landing, and back, the spacecraft usually has to enter a lunar (moon-centric) orbit. Theoretically, you don't need to do this when landing, because during the flyby, you can immediately brake and sit where you need to be.
However, it is often necessary to additionally inspect the site or change the orbital plane in which the equipment rotates in order to land near the pole before landing. In all these cases, maneuvers into lunar orbit are mandatory.
Also into orbit.
The Apollo mission had to go to the moon. After all, the command module remained in a selenium-centric orbit, and its purpose was to return astronauts to Earth. This is done to save fuel.
4.What is a "soft landing"? How easy is it to implement?
Just flying to the moon and landing on the moon is not enough to land. If the speed is not reduced, the device will crash on the surface of the moon - this is often referred to as a "hard landing". A "soft" landing means that after landing, the spacecraft will not be destroyed and will continue to operate.
Reducing the speed of landing on the moon is more difficult and easier than landing on Earth. On the one hand, it does not have an atmosphere that can use friction for braking. On the other hand, the gravitational acceleration of the accelerating device during descent is much smaller here. As a result, lunar probes rely on their own jet engines to achieve a soft landing.
5.How many times has a spacecraft landed on the moon?
To date, there have been 45 moon landings. Twenty-two of these countries were very strict in carrying out automatic detections: the Soviet Union "smashed" its equipment seven times, the United States nine times, Japan twice, Russia, India, China, the European Union and Israel once each.
Automatics made 16 successful soft landings. Of these, 7 belonged to the USSR, 5 to the United States, 3 to China and 1 to India.
The highest achievement of mankind was the soft landing of a spacecraft with astronauts on board 6 times. All this was carried out within the framework of the American Apollo mission. There has not been a single hard landing of a manned vehicle on the moon.
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