Brief history of space exploration. History of Russian cosmonautics. The beginning of the space age

Introduction:

In the second half of the XX century. humanity stepped on the threshold of the universe - went out into outer space. The road to space was opened by our Motherland. The first artificial satellite of the Earth, which opened the space age, was launched by the former Soviet Union, the first cosmonaut in the world is a citizen of the former USSR.

Cosmonautics is a huge catalyst for modern science and technology, which has become one of the main levers of the modern world process in an unprecedentedly short period of time. It stimulates the development of electronics, mechanical engineering, materials science, computer technology, energy and many other areas of the national economy.

In scientific terms, humanity seeks to find in space the answer to such fundamental questions as the structure and evolution of the Universe, the formation of the solar system, the origin and development of life. From hypotheses about the nature of the planets and the structure of the cosmos, people moved on to a comprehensive and direct study of celestial bodies and interplanetary space with the help of rocket and space technology.

In space exploration, mankind will have to study various areas of outer space: the Moon, other planets and interplanetary space.

The current level of space technology and the forecast of its development show that the main goal of scientific research using space means, apparently, in the near future will be our solar system. The main tasks will be the study of solar-terrestrial relations and the Earth-Moon space, as well as Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and other planets, astronomical research, medical and biological research in order to assess the impact of flight duration on the human body and its performance.

In principle, the development of space technology should outstrip the "Demand", associated with the solution of urgent national economic problems. The main tasks here are launch vehicles, propulsion systems, spacecraft, as well as supporting means (command-measuring and launch complexes, equipment, etc.), ensuring progress in related branches of technology, directly or indirectly related to the development of astronautics.

Before flying into the world space, it was necessary to understand and put into practice the principle of jet propulsion, learn how to make rockets, create a theory of interplanetary communications, etc.

Rocketry is far from a new concept. To create powerful modern launch vehicles, man went through millennia of dreams, fantasies, mistakes, searches in various fields of science and technology, accumulation of experience and knowledge.

The principle of operation of a rocket lies in its movement under the action of the recoil force, the reaction of the flow of particles thrown from the rocket. In a rocket. those. in an apparatus equipped with a rocket engine, the exhaust gases are formed due to the reaction of the oxidizer and fuel stored in the rocket itself. This circumstance makes the operation of the rocket engine independent of the presence or absence of a gaseous medium. Thus, the rocket is an amazing structure that can move in airless space, i.e. not a reference, outer space.

A special place among Russian projects for the application of the jet principle of flight is occupied by the project of N. I. Kibalchich, a famous Russian revolutionary who, despite his short life (1853-1881), left a deep mark on the history of science and technology. Having extensive and deep knowledge of mathematics, physics, and especially chemistry, Kibalchich made home-made shells and mines for the Narodnaya Volya. The "aeronautical device project" was the result of Kibalchich's long research work on explosives. He, in essence, for the first time proposed not a rocket engine adapted to any existing aircraft, as other inventors did, but a completely new (rocket-dynamic) apparatus, a prototype of modern manned spacecraft, in which the thrust of rocket engines serves to directly create a lift the force that keeps the craft in flight. Kibalchich's aircraft was supposed to function on the principle of a rocket!

But since Kibalchich was imprisoned for an attempt on the life of Tsar Alexander II, then the project of his aircraft was discovered only in 1917 in the archives of the police department.

So, by the end of the last century, the idea of using jet instruments for flights gained large scale in Russia. And the first who decided to continue research was our great compatriot Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935). He became interested in the jet principle of motion very early. Already in 1883 he gave a description of a ship with a jet engine. Already in 1903, Tsiolkovsky, for the first time in the world, made it possible to design a scheme for a liquid rocket. Tsiolkovsky's ideas were universally recognized as early as the 1920s. And the brilliant successor of his work, S.P. Korolev, a month before the launch of the first artificial satellite of the Earth, said that the ideas and works of Konstantin Eduardovich would attract more and more attention as rocket technology developed, which he turned out to be absolutely right!

The beginning of the space age

And so, 40 years after the design of the aircraft created by Kibalchich was found, on October 4, 1957, the former USSR launched the world's first artificial Earth satellite. The first Soviet satellite made it possible for the first time to measure the density of the upper atmosphere, to obtain data on the propagation of radio signals in the ionosphere, to work out the issues of launching into orbit, thermal conditions, etc. The satellite was an aluminum sphere with a diameter of 58 cm and a mass of 83.6 kg with four whip antennas 2 long, 4-2.9 m. The equipment and power supplies were placed in the sealed housing of the satellite. The initial parameters of the orbit were: perigee height 228 km, apogee height 947 km, inclination 65.1 deg. On November 3, the Soviet Union announced the launch of the second Soviet satellite into orbit. In a separate pressurized cabin were the dog Laika and a telemetry system for recording her behavior in weightlessness. The satellite was also equipped with scientific instruments for studying solar radiation and cosmic rays.

On December 6, 1957, an attempt was made in the USA to launch the Avangard-1 satellite using a launch vehicle developed by the Naval Research Laboratory. .

On January 31, 1958, the Explorer-1 satellite was launched into orbit, the American response to the launch of Soviet satellites. By size and

mass he was not a candidate for champions. Being less than 1 m long and only ~15.2 cm in diameter, it had a mass of only 4.8 kg.

However, its payload was attached to the fourth, last stage of the Juno-1 launch vehicle. The satellite, together with the rocket in orbit, had a length of 205 cm and a mass of 14 kg. It was equipped with outdoor and indoor temperature sensors, erosion and impact sensors to determine micrometeorite flows, and a Geiger-Muller counter to register penetrating cosmic rays.

An important scientific result of the satellite's flight was the discovery of the radiation belts surrounding the Earth. The Geiger-Muller counter stopped counting when the apparatus was at apogee at an altitude of 2530 km, the height of the perigee was 360 km.

On February 5, 1958, a second attempt was made in the United States to launch the Avangard-1 satellite, but it also ended in an accident, like the first attempt. Finally, on March 17, the satellite was launched into orbit. Between December 1957 and September 1959, eleven attempts were made to launch Avangard-1 into orbit, only three of them were successful.

Between December 1957 and September 1959, eleven attempts were made to launch the Avangard

Both satellites contributed a lot to space science and technology (solar batteries, new data on the density of the upper atmosphere, accurate mapping of islands in the Pacific Ocean, etc.) On August 17, 1958, the first attempt was made in the United States to send from Cape Canaveral to the vicinity Moon probe with scientific equipment. She was unsuccessful. The rocket rose and flew only 16 km. The first stage of the rocket exploded at 77 from the flight. On October 11, 1958, a second attempt was made to launch the Pioneer-1 lunar probe, which also turned out to be unsuccessful. The next several launches also turned out to be unsuccessful, only on March 3, 1959, Pioneer-4, weighing 6.1 kg, partially completed the task: it flew past the Moon at a distance of 60,000 km (instead of the planned 24,000 km).

Just like when launching an Earth satellite, the priority in launching the first probe belongs to the USSR; on January 2, 1959, the first man-made object was launched, which was launched on a trajectory passing close enough to the Moon, into the orbit of the Sun satellite. Thus, "Luna-1" for the first time reached the second cosmic velocity. "Luna-1" had a mass of 361.3 kg and flew past the Moon at a distance of 5500 km. At a distance of 113,000 km from the Earth, a cloud of sodium vapor was released from a rocket stage docked to Luna 1, forming an artificial comet. Solar radiation caused a bright glow of sodium vapor and optical systems on Earth photographed the cloud against the background of the constellation Aquarius.

Luna-2, launched on September 12, 1959, made the world's first flight to another celestial body. Instruments were placed in the 390.2-kilogram sphere, which showed that the Moon does not have a magnetic field and a radiation belt.

Automatic interplanetary station (AMS) "Luna-3" was launched on October 4, 1959. The weight of the station was 435 kg. The main purpose of the launch was to fly around the Moon and photograph its opposite side, invisible from the Earth. Photographing was carried out on October 7 for 40 minutes from an altitude of 6200 km above the Moon.

man in space

April 12, 1961 at 9:07 Moscow time, a few tens of kilometers north of the village of Tyuratam in Kazakhstan at the Soviet Baikonur cosmodrome, an intercontinental ballistic missile R-7 was launched, in the nose compartment of which the Vostok manned spacecraft with Air Force Major Yuriy was located Alekseevich Gagarin on board. The launch was successful. The spacecraft was launched into orbit with an inclination of 65 degrees, a perigee altitude of 181 km and an apogee altitude of 327 km, and completed one revolution around the Earth in 89 minutes. On the 108th mine after launch, he returned to Earth, landing near the village of Smelovka, Saratov Region. Thus, 4 years after the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite, the Soviet Union for the first time in the world carried out a manned flight into outer space.

The beginning of the space age

On October 4, 1957, the former USSR launched the world's first artificial Earth satellite. The first Soviet satellite made it possible for the first time to measure the density of the upper atmosphere, to obtain data on the propagation of radio signals in the ionosphere, to work out the issues of launching into orbit, thermal conditions, etc. The satellite was an aluminum sphere with a diameter of 58 cm and a mass of 83.6 kg with four whip antennas 2 long, 4-2.9 m. The equipment and power supplies were placed in the sealed housing of the satellite. The initial parameters of the orbit were: perigee height 228 km, apogee height 947 km, inclination 65.1 deg. On November 3, the Soviet Union announced the launch of the second Soviet satellite into orbit. In a separate pressurized cabin were the dog Laika and a telemetry system for recording her behavior in weightlessness. The satellite was also equipped with scientific instruments for studying solar radiation and cosmic rays.

On December 6, 1957, an attempt was made in the USA to launch the Avangard-1 satellite using a launch vehicle developed by the Naval Research Laboratory. .

On January 31, 1958, the Explorer-1 satellite was launched into orbit, the American response to the launch of Soviet satellites. By size and

Masse, he was not a candidate for champions. Being less than 1 m long and only ~15.2 cm in diameter, it had a mass of only 4.8 kg.

An important scientific result of the satellite flight was the discovery of the radiation belts surrounding the Earth. The Geiger-Muller counter stopped counting when the apparatus was at apogee at an altitude of 2530 km, the height of the perigee was 360 km.

Between December 1957 and September 1959, eleven attempts were made to launch the Avangard

Both satellites contributed a lot to space science and technology (solar batteries, new data on the density of the upper atmosphere, accurate mapping of islands in the Pacific Ocean, etc.) On August 17, 1958, the first attempt was made in the USA to send from Cape Canaveral to the vicinity Moon probe with scientific equipment. She was unsuccessful. The rocket rose and flew only 16 km. The first stage of the rocket exploded at 77 from the flight. On October 11, 1958, a second attempt was made to launch the Pioneer-1 lunar probe, which also turned out to be unsuccessful. The subsequent several launches also turned out to be unsuccessful, only on March 3, 1959, Pioneer-4, weighing 6.1 kg, partially completed the task: it flew past the Moon at a distance of 60,000 km (instead of the planned 24,000 km).

Just like when launching an Earth satellite, the priority in launching the first probe belongs to the USSR; on January 2, 1959, the first man-made object was launched, which was launched on a trajectory passing close enough to the Moon, into the orbit of the Sun satellite. Thus, "Luna-1" for the first time reached the second cosmic velocity. "Luna-1" had a mass of 361.3 kg and flew past the Moon at a distance of 5500 km. At a distance of 113,000 km from Earth, a cloud of sodium vapor was released from a rocket stage docked to Luna 1, forming an artificial comet. Solar radiation caused a bright glow of sodium vapor and optical systems on Earth photographed the cloud against the background of the constellation Aquarius.

The spacecraft consisted of two compartments. The descent vehicle, which was also the cosmonaut's cabin, was a sphere 2.3 m in diameter, covered with an ablative material for thermal protection during atmospheric entry. The spacecraft was controlled automatically, as well as by the astronaut. In flight, it was continuously supported with the Earth. The ship's atmosphere is a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen at a pressure of 1 atm. (760 mm Hg). "Vostok-1" had a mass of 4730 kg, and with the last stage of the launch vehicle 6170 kg. The Vostok spacecraft was launched into space 5 times, after which it was declared safe for human flight.

Four weeks after Gagarin's flight on May 5, 1961, Captain 3rd Rank Alan Shepard became the first American astronaut.

Although it did not reach low Earth orbit, it rose above the Earth to an altitude of about 186 km. Shepard, launched from Cape Canaveral in the Mercury-3 spacecraft using a modified Redstone ballistic missile, spent 15 minutes 22 seconds in flight before landing in the Atlantic Ocean. He proved that a person in zero gravity can manually control a spacecraft. Spacecraft "Mercury" was significantly different from the spacecraft "Vostok".

It consisted of only one module - a manned capsule in the shape of a truncated cone with a length of 2.9 m and a base diameter of 1.89 m. Its pressurized nickel alloy shell had a titanium skin to protect it from heating during atmospheric entry.

The atmosphere inside the "Mercury" consisted of pure oxygen at a pressure of 0.36 atm.

On February 20, 1962, the USA reached Earth orbit. The Mercury 6 was launched from Cape Canaveral, piloted by Navy Lieutenant Colonel John Glenn. Glenn stayed in orbit for only 4 hours and 55 minutes, completing 3 orbits before successfully landing. The purpose of Glenn's flight was to determine the possibility of human work in the spacecraft "Mercury". Mercury was last launched into space on May 15, 1963.

On March 18, 1965, the spacecraft Voskhod was launched into orbit with two cosmonauts on board - the commander of the ship, Colonel Pavel Ivarovich Belyaev, and the co-pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov. Immediately after entering orbit, the crew purged themselves of nitrogen by inhaling pure oxygen. Then the airlock compartment was deployed: Leonov entered the airlock compartment, closed the cover of the spacecraft hatch and for the first time in the world made an exit into outer space. The cosmonaut with an autonomous life support system was outside the spacecraft cabin for 20 minutes, sometimes moving away from the spacecraft at a distance of up to 5 m. During the exit, he was connected to the spacecraft only by telephone and telemetry cables. Thus, the possibility of the astronaut's stay and work outside the spacecraft was practically confirmed.

On June 3, Gemeni-4 was launched with captains James McDivitt and Edward White. During this flight, which lasted 97 hours and 56 minutes, White left the spacecraft and spent 21 minutes outside the cockpit, testing the possibility of maneuvering in space using a compressed gas hand-held jet pistol.

Unfortunately, space exploration has not been without casualties. On January 27, 1967, the crew preparing to make the first manned flight under the Apollo program died during a fire inside the spacecraft, having burned out in 15 s in an atmosphere of pure oxygen. Virgil Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee became the first American astronauts to die in spacecraft. On April 23, a new Soyuz-1 spacecraft was launched from Baikonur, piloted by Colonel Vladimir Komarov. The launch was successful.

On orbit 18, 26 hours and 45 minutes after the launch, Komarov began the orientation for entry into the atmosphere. All operations went well, but after entering the atmosphere and braking, the parachute system failed. The cosmonaut died instantly at the moment the Soyuz hit the Earth at a speed of 644 km / h. In the future, the Cosmos claimed more than one human life, but these victims were the first.

It should be noted that in terms of natural science and production, the world is facing a number of global problems, the solution of which requires the combined efforts of all peoples. These are the problems of raw materials, energy, control over the state of the environment and the conservation of the biosphere, and others. A huge role in their cardinal solution will be played by space research - one of the most important areas of the scientific and technological revolution.

Cosmonautics vividly demonstrates to the whole world the fruitfulness of peaceful creative work, the benefits of combining the efforts of different countries in solving scientific and national economic problems.

What problems do astronautics and astronauts face?

Let's start with life support. What is life support? Life support in space flight is the creation and maintenance during the entire flight in the living and working compartments of the K.K. such conditions that would provide the crew with sufficient performance to perform the task, and the minimum likelihood of pathological changes in the human body. How to do it? It is necessary to significantly reduce the degree of impact on a person of adverse external factors of space flight - vacuum, meteoric bodies, penetrating radiation, weightlessness, overloads; supply the crew with substances and energy without which normal human life is not possible - food, water, oxygen and net; remove waste products of the body and harmful substances released during the operation of spacecraft systems and equipment; to provide human needs for movement, rest, external information and normal working conditions; organize medical control over the health of the crew and maintain it at the required level. Food and water are delivered into space in appropriate packaging, and oxygen is in a chemically bound form. If you do not restore the products of vital activity, then for a crew of three people for one year you will need 11 tons of the above products, which, you see, is a considerable weight, volume, and how will all this be stored during the year ?!

In the near future, regeneration systems will make it possible to almost completely reproduce oxygen and water on board the station. It has long been used water after washing and shower, purified in the regeneration system. Exhaled moisture is condensed in the refrigeration and drying unit and then regenerated. Breathing oxygen is extracted from purified water by electrolysis, and hydrogen gas, reacting with carbon dioxide coming from the concentrator, forms water that feeds the electrolyzer. The use of such a system makes it possible to reduce the mass of stored substances in the considered example from 11 to 2 tons. Recently, it has been practiced to grow various types of plants directly on board the ship, which makes it possible to reduce the supply of food that must be taken into space, Tsiolkovsky mentioned this in his writings.
space science

Space exploration helps a lot in the development of sciences:

On December 18, 1980, the phenomenon of a runoff of particles from the Earth's radiation belts under negative magnetic anomalies was established.

Experiments carried out on the first satellites showed that near-Earth space outside the atmosphere is not "empty" at all. It is filled with plasma, permeated with flows of energy particles. In 1958, Earth's radiation belts were discovered in near space - giant magnetic traps filled with charged particles - high-energy protons and electrons.

The highest intensity of radiation in the belts is observed at altitudes of several thousand km. Theoretical estimates showed that below 500 km. There should be no increased radiation. Therefore, the discovery during the flights of the first K.K. areas of intense radiation at altitudes up to 200-300 km. It turned out that this is due to the anomalous zones of the Earth's magnetic field.

The study of the natural resources of the Earth by space methods has spread, which in many respects has contributed to the development of the national economy.

The first problem that confronted space researchers in 1980 was a complex of scientific research, including most of the most important areas of space natural science. Their goal was to develop methods for thematic interpretation of multi-zone video information and their use in solving problems of the Earth sciences and economic sectors. These tasks include: the study of global and local structures of the earth's crust to understand the history of its development.

The second problem is one of the fundamental physical and technical problems of remote sensing and aims to create catalogs of the radiation characteristics of terrestrial objects and models of their transformation, which will allow analyzing the state of natural formations at the time of shooting and predicting their dynamics.

A distinctive feature of the third problem is the orientation towards the radiation of the radiation characteristics of large regions up to the planet as a whole, using data on the parameters and anomalies of the Earth's gravitational and geomagnetic fields.
Exploring the Earth from space

Man first appreciated the role of satellites in monitoring the state of agricultural land, forests and other natural resources of the Earth only a few years after the onset of the space age. The beginning was laid in 1960, when with the help of meteorological satellites "Tiros" map-like outlines of the globe were obtained, lying under the clouds. These first black-and-white TV images gave very little insight into human activity, and yet it was a first step. Soon new technical means were developed that made it possible to improve the quality of observations. Information was extracted from multispectral images in the visible and infrared (IR) regions of the spectrum. The first satellites designed to take full advantage of these capabilities were the Landsat. For example, the Landsat-D satellite, the fourth in a series, observed the Earth from an altitude of more than 640 km using advanced sensitive instruments, which allowed consumers to receive much more detailed and timely information. One of the first areas of application of images of the earth's surface was cartography. In the pre-satellite era, maps of many areas, even in the developed regions of the world, were inaccurate. The Landsat images have corrected and updated some of the existing maps of the United States. In the USSR, images obtained from the Salyut station turned out to be indispensable for reconciling the BAM railway.

In the mid-1970s, NASA and the US Department of Agriculture decided to demonstrate the capabilities of the satellite system in forecasting the most important agricultural crop, wheat. Satellite observations, which turned out to be extremely accurate, were later extended to other agricultural crops. Approximately at the same time, in the USSR, observations of agricultural crops were carried out from satellites of the Cosmos, Meteor, and Monsoon series and the Salyut orbital stations.

The use of satellite information has revealed its undeniable advantages in assessing the volume of timber in the vast territories of any country. It became possible to manage the process of deforestation and, if necessary, to give recommendations on changing the contours of the deforestation area from the point of view of the best preservation of the forest. Thanks to satellite images, it has also become possible to quickly assess the boundaries of forest fires, especially the “crown-shaped” ones, characteristic of the western regions of North America, as well as the regions of Primorye and southern regions of Eastern Siberia in Russia.

Of great importance for humanity as a whole is the ability to observe almost continuously the expanses of the World Ocean, this "forge" of weather. It is above the depths of ocean water that monstrous forces are born of hurricanes and typhoons, bringing numerous victims and destruction to the inhabitants of the coast. Early warning to the public is often critical to saving the lives of tens of thousands of people. Determining the stocks of fish and other seafood is also of great practical importance. Ocean currents often curve, change course and size. For example, El Nino, a warm current in a southerly direction off the coast of Ecuador in some years can spread along the coast of Peru up to 12 degrees. S . When this happens, plankton and fish die in huge numbers, causing irreparable damage to the fisheries of many countries, including Russia. Large concentrations of unicellular marine organisms increase the mortality of fish, possibly due to the toxins they contain. Satellite observation helps to identify the “whims” of such currents and provide useful information to those who need it. According to some estimates by Russian and American scientists, the fuel savings, combined with the "extra catch" due to the use of information from satellites obtained in the infrared range, yields an annual profit of $ 2.44 million. The use of satellites for survey purposes has facilitated the task of plotting the course of ships . Also, satellites detect icebergs and glaciers dangerous for ships. Accurate knowledge of snow reserves in the mountains and the volume of glaciers is an important task of scientific research, because as the development of arid territories, the need for water increases dramatically.

The help of astronauts in the creation of the largest cartographic work - the Atlas of Snow and Ice Resources of the World is invaluable.

Also, with the help of satellites, oil pollution, air pollution, minerals are found.
space science

Within a short period of time since the beginning of the space age, man not only sent robotic space stations to other planets and set foot on the surface of the moon, but also revolutionized the science of space, which has not been equaled in the entire history of mankind. Along with the great technological advances brought about by the development of astronautics, new knowledge about the planet Earth and neighboring worlds was obtained. One of the first important discoveries, made not by the traditional visual, but by another method of observation, was the establishment of the fact of a sharp increase with height, starting from a certain threshold height, in the intensity of cosmic rays previously considered isotropic. This discovery belongs to the Austrian WF Hess, who in 1946 launched a gas balloon with equipment to great heights.

In 1952 and 1953 Dr. James Van Allen conducted research on low-energy cosmic rays when launching small rockets to a height of 19-24 km and high-altitude balloons in the region of the north magnetic pole of the Earth. After analyzing the results of the experiments, Van Allen proposed placing on board the first American artificial earth satellites, fairly simple in design, cosmic ray detectors.

On January 31, 1958, with the help of the Explorer-1 satellite launched by the United States into orbit, a sharp decrease in the intensity of cosmic radiation was detected at altitudes above 950 km. At the end of 1958, the Pioneer-3 AMS, which covered a distance of more than 100,000 km in a day of flight, registered using the sensors on board the second, located above the first, the Earth's radiation belt, which also encircles the entire globe.

In August and September 1958, at an altitude of more than 320 km, three atomic explosions were carried out, each with a power of 1.5 kW. The purpose of the tests, codenamed Argus, was to investigate the possibility of radio and radar communications being lost during such tests. The study of the Sun is the most important scientific problem, the solution of which is devoted to many launches of the first satellites and AMS.

The American "Pioneer-4" - "Pioneer-9" (1959-1968) from near-solar orbits transmitted by radio to Earth the most important information about the structure of the Sun. At the same time, more than twenty satellites of the Interkosmos series were launched to study the Sun and near-solar space.
Black holes

Black holes were first discovered in the 1960s. It turned out that if our eyes could only see X-rays, then the starry sky above us would look very different. True, the X-rays emitted by the Sun were discovered even before the birth of astronautics, but they did not even suspect about other sources in the starry sky. They stumbled upon them by accident.

In 1962, the Americans, having decided to check whether X-rays were coming from the surface of the Moon, launched a rocket equipped with special equipment. It was then that, processing the results of observations, we were convinced that the instruments had noted a powerful source of X-ray radiation. It was located in the constellation Scorpio. And already in the 70s, the first 2 satellites, designed to search for research on X-ray sources in the universe, went into orbit - the American Uhuru and the Soviet Kosmos-428.

By this time, things were starting to become clear. Objects that emit X-rays have been linked to barely visible stars with unusual properties. These were compact clumps of plasma of negligible, of course by cosmic standards, sizes and masses, heated to several tens of millions of degrees. With a very modest appearance, these objects possessed colossal X-ray power, several thousand times greater than the full compatibility of the Sun.

These are tiny, with a diameter of about 10 km. , the remains of completely burned out stars, compressed to a monstrous density, should have somehow declared themselves. Therefore, neutron stars were so readily "recognized" in X-ray sources. And it all seemed to fit. But the calculations refuted the expectations: the newly formed neutron stars should immediately cool down and stop emitting, and these were X-rays.

With the help of launched satellites, the researchers found strictly periodic changes in the radiation fluxes of some of them. The period of these variations was also determined - usually it did not exceed several days. Only two stars rotating around themselves could behave in this way, one of which periodically eclipsed the other. This has been proven by observing through telescopes.

Where do X-ray sources draw their colossal radiation energy from? The main condition for the transformation of a normal star into a neutron one is the complete attenuation of the nuclear reaction in it. Therefore, nuclear energy is excluded. Then, perhaps, this is the kinetic energy of a rapidly rotating massive body? Indeed, it is large for neutron stars. But it only lasts for a short time.

Most neutron stars exist not alone, but in pairs with a huge star. In their interaction, theorists believe, the source of the mighty power of cosmic X-rays is hidden. It forms a disk of gas around the neutron star. At the magnetic poles of the neutron ball, the matter of the disk falls onto its surface, and the energy acquired by the gas is converted into X-rays.

Cosmos-428 also presented its own surprise. His equipment registered a new, completely unknown phenomenon - X-ray flashes. In one day, the satellite detected 20 bursts, each of which lasted no more than 1 second. , and the radiation power increased tenfold in this case. Scientists called the sources of X-ray flashes BARSTERS. They are also associated with binary systems. The most powerful flares are only a few times inferior to the total radiation of hundreds of billions of stars located in our Galaxy in terms of the energy emitted.

Theorists have proven that the "black holes" that make up binary star systems can signal themselves with X-rays. And the cause of occurrence is the same - accretion of gas. However, the mechanism in this case is somewhat different. The internal parts of the gaseous disk settling into the "hole" must heat up and therefore become sources of X-rays.

Only those luminaries whose mass does not exceed 2-3 solar ones end their “life” with the transition to a neutron star. Larger stars suffer the fate of a "black hole".

X-ray astronomy has told us about the last, perhaps the most turbulent, stage in the development of stars. Thanks to her, we learned about the most powerful cosmic explosions, about gas with a temperature of tens and hundreds of millions of degrees, about the possibility of a completely unusual superdense state of matter in "black holes".

What else gives space for us? Television (TV) programs have not mentioned for a long time that the transmission is via satellite. This is further evidence of the tremendous success in the industrialization of space, which has become an integral part of our lives. Communication satellites literally entangle the world with invisible threads. The idea of creating communication satellites was born shortly after the Second World War, when A. Clark in the October 1945 issue of the magazine "World of Radio" (Wireless World) presented his concept of a relay communication station located at an altitude of 35880 km above the Earth.

Clark's merit was that he determined the orbit in which the satellite is stationary relative to the Earth. Such an orbit is called a geostationary or Clarke orbit. When moving along a circular orbit with a height of 35880 km, one revolution is completed in 24 hours, i.e. during the Earth's daily rotation. A satellite moving in such an orbit will constantly be above a certain point on the Earth's surface.

The first communication satellite "Telstar-1" was nevertheless launched into low earth orbit with parameters of 950 x 5630 km, this happened on July 10, 1962. Almost a year later, the launch of the Telstar-2 satellite followed. The first telecast showed the American flag in New England with the Andover station in the background. This image was transmitted to the UK, France and the US station in pc. New Jersey 15 hours after satellite launch. Two weeks later, millions of Europeans and Americans watched the negotiations of people on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean. They not only talked but also saw each other, communicating via satellite. Historians may consider this day as the birth date of space TV. The world's largest state-owned satellite communications system has been created in Russia. Its beginning was laid in April 1965. the launch of satellites of the Molniya series, which are launched into highly elongated elliptical orbits with an apogee over the Northern Hemisphere. Each series includes four pairs of satellites orbiting at an angular distance of 90 degrees from each other.

On the basis of the Molniya satellites, the first Orbita deep-space communication system was built. In December 1975 The family of communications satellites was replenished with the Raduga satellite operating in geostationary orbit. Then came the Ekran satellite with a more powerful transmitter and simpler ground stations. After the first development of satellites, a new period in the development of satellite communications technology began, when satellites began to be launched into a geostationary orbit in which they move synchronously with the rotation of the Earth. This made it possible to establish round-the-clock communication between ground stations using new-generation satellites: the American "Sincom", "Early Bird" and "Intelsat" and the Russian ones - "Rainbow" and "Horizon".

A great future is associated with the deployment of antenna systems in geostationary orbit.

On June 17, 1991, the ERS-1 geodetic satellite was launched into orbit. The main mission of the satellites would be to observe the oceans and ice-covered parts of the land in order to provide climate scientists, oceanographers and environmental organizations with data on these underexplored regions. The satellite was equipped with the most advanced microwave equipment, thanks to which it is ready for any weather: the "eyes" of its radar instruments penetrate fog and clouds and give a clear image of the Earth's surface, through water, through land - and through ice. ERS-1 was aimed at developing ice maps, which would later help to avoid many disasters associated with the collision of ships with icebergs, etc.

For all that, the development of shipping routes is, figuratively speaking, only the tip of the iceberg, if we only remember the interpretation of ERS data on the oceans and ice-covered expanses of the Earth. We are aware of the alarming predictions of a general warming of the Earth, which will lead to the melting of the polar caps and rising sea levels. All coastal zones will be flooded, millions of people will suffer.

But we do not know how correct these predictions are. Long-term observations of the polar regions with ERS-1 and the ERS-2 satellite that followed it in late autumn 1994 provide data from which to draw conclusions about these trends. They're building an "early warning" system for the melting ice.

Thanks to the images that the ERS-1 satellite transmitted to Earth, we know that the ocean floor with its mountains and valleys is, as it were, "imprinted" on the surface of the waters. So scientists can get an idea of whether the distance from the satellite to the sea surface (with an accuracy of up to ten centimeters measured by satellite radar altimeters) is an indication of rising sea levels, or is it a “fingerprint” of a mountain on the bottom.

Although originally designed for ocean and ice observations, ERS-1 quickly proved its versatility on land as well. In agriculture and forestry, in fisheries, geology and cartography, specialists work with data provided by the satellite. Since the ERS-1 is still operational after three years of its mission, scientists have a chance to operate it with the ERS-2 for general missions as a tandem. And they are going to receive new information about the topography of the earth's surface and provide assistance, for example, in warning about possible earthquakes.

The ERS-2 satellite is also equipped with the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment Gome instrument, which takes into account the volume and distribution of ozone and other gases in the Earth's atmosphere. With this device, you can observe the dangerous ozone hole and the ongoing changes. At the same time, according to ERS-2 data, UV-b radiation close to the ground can be removed.

Against the backdrop of the many global environmental problems that both ERS-1 and ERS-2 must provide the foundational information to solve, shipping route planning seems like a relatively minor outcome of this new generation of satellites. But it is one of those areas where the opportunities for commercial use of satellite data are being used particularly intensively. This helps in funding other important tasks. And this has an effect in the field of environmental protection that can hardly be overestimated: faster shipping lanes require less energy. Or consider oil tankers that ran aground in a storm or crashed and sank, losing their environmentally hazardous cargo. Reliable route planning helps to avoid such disasters.

In conclusion, it would be fair to say that the twentieth century is rightly called the "age of electricity", the "atomic age", the "age of chemistry", the "age of biology". But the most recent and, apparently, also its fair name is “space age”. Mankind has embarked on a path leading to mysterious cosmic distances, conquering which it will expand the scope of its activities. The cosmic future of mankind is a guarantee of its continuous development on the path of progress and prosperity, which was dreamed of and created by those who worked and are working today in the field of astronautics and other sectors of the national economy.

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Humanity originated in Africa. But not all of us stayed there, for more than a thousand years our ancestors spread throughout the continent and then left it. When they got to the sea, they built boats and sailed vast distances to islands they might not have known existed. Why?

Probably for the same reason why we and the stars say, “What's going on out there? We could get there? Perhaps we could fly there.”

Space is, of course, more hostile to human life than the surface of the sea; being able to escape Earth's gravity entails a lot more work and expense than taking a boat off the coast. But back then, boats were the cutting edge technology of their time. Travelers carefully planned their dangerous journeys, and many of them died trying to find out what was beyond the horizon. The conquest of space in order to find a new habitat is a grandiose, dangerous, and perhaps impossible project. But that never stopped people from trying.

1. Takeoff

Gravity resistance

Powerful forces conspired against you - in particular, gravity. If an object above the Earth's surface wants to fly freely, it must literally shoot upward at speeds in excess of 25,000 miles per hour. This entails large financial costs.

For example, it took nearly $200 million to launch the Curiosity rover to Mars. And if we talk about a mission with crew members, then the amount will increase significantly.

The reusable use of flying ships will help save money. Rockets, for example, were designed to be reusable. and as we know, there are already attempts at a successful landing.

2. Flight

Our ships are too slow

Flying through space is easy. It's a vacuum, after all; nothing slows you down. But when launching a rocket, difficulties arise. The greater the mass of an object, the more force is needed to move it, and rockets have a huge mass. Chemical propellants are great for initial boost, but precious kerosene burns up in minutes. Impulse acceleration will make it possible to fly to Jupiter in 5-7 years. That's a hell of a lot of in-flight movies. We need a radical new method for developing airspeed.

Congratulations! You have successfully launched a rocket into orbit. But before you break out into space, a piece of an old satellite will appear out of nowhere and crash into your fuel tank. That's it, there are no more rockets.

This is a space junk problem, and it's very real. The "American Surveillance Network" for outer space has detected 17,000 objects - each the size of a ball - rushing around the Earth at speeds greater than 17,500 miles per hour; and nearly 500,000 more debris smaller than 10 cm. Launch adapters, lens caps, even a splash of paint can bleed through critical systems.

Whipple's shields - layers of metal and Kevlar - can protect you from tiny parts, but nothing can save you from a whole satellite. There are about 4,000 of them in Earth orbit, most of them killed in the air. Flight control helps avoid dangerous paths, but it's not perfect.

Pushing them out of orbit is not realistic - it would take an entire mission to get rid of just one dead satellite. So now all the satellites will fall out of orbit on their own. They will blast extra fuel overboard and then use rocket boosters or a solar sail to head down to Earth and burn up in the atmosphere.

4. Navigation

There is no GPS for space

The "Deep Space Network", antennas in California, Australia, and Spain, are the only navigational tool for space. Everything that launches into space, from student project satellites to the New Horizons probe roaming the Kopeyre Belt, depends on them.

But with more missions, the network gets crowded. The switchboard is often busy. So in the near future, NASA is working to lighten the load. Atomic clocks on the ships themselves would cut transmission times in half, allowing distances to be calculated with a single transmission of information from space. And increasing the bandwidth of lasers will process large data packets such as photos or video messages.

But the farther the rockets get from the Earth, the less reliable this method becomes. Sure, radio waves travel at the speed of light, but transmissions into deep space still take hours. And the stars may show you the direction, but they are too far away to tell you where you are.

Deep space navigation expert Joseph Ginn wants to design an autonomous system for future missions that would collect images of targets and nearby objects and use their relative positions to triangulate spacecraft coordinates without requiring any ground control.

It will be like GPS on Earth. You put a GPS receiver on your car and the problem is solved.

5. Radiation

Space will turn you into a bag of cancer

Outside the safe cocoon of Earth's atmosphere and magnetic field, cosmic radiation awaits you, and it's deadly. Besides cancer, it can also cause cataracts and possibly Alzheimer's disease.

When subatomic particles hit the aluminum atoms that make up the spacecraft's hull, their nuclei explode, releasing more ultra-fast particles called secondary radiation.

Solution to the problem? One word: plastic. It's light and strong, and it's full of hydrogen atoms whose small nuclei don't produce much secondary radiation. NASA is testing a plastic that can mitigate radiation in spacecraft or space suits.

Or how about this word: magnets. Scientists at the Space Radiation Shield Superconductivity Project are working on magnesium diboride, a superconductor that would deflect charged particles away from a ship.

6. Food and water

There are no supermarkets on Mars

Last August, astronauts on the ISS ate some lettuce they had grown in space for the first time. But large-scale gardening in zero gravity is tricky. Water floats around in bubbles instead of seeping through the soil, which is why engineers invented ceramic pipes to channel water down to plant roots.

Some vegetables are already quite space-efficient, but scientists are working on a genetically engineered pygmy plum that is less than a meter tall. Proteins, fats and carbohydrates can be replenished through a more varied crop - like potatoes and peanuts.

But all this will be in vain if you exhaust all the water. (The ISS urine and water recycling system needs periodic repairs, and interplanetary crews can't count on adding new parts.) GMOs can help here, too. Michael Flynn, a NASA research engineer, is working on a water filter made from genetically modified bacteria. He compared it to how the small intestine processes what you drink. Basically you are a water recycling system with a useful life of 75 or 80 years.

7. Muscles and bones

Weightlessness turns you into a mess

Weightlessness destroys the body: certain immune cells are unable to do their job, and red blood cells explode. This contributes to kidney stones and makes your heart lazy.

Astronauts on the ISS train to fight muscle wasting and bone loss, but they still lose bone mass in space, and those weightless spin cycles don't help other problems. Artificial gravity would fix all that.

In his laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, former astronaut Lawrence Young conducts tests on a centrifuge: the test subjects lie on their side on a platform and pedal with their feet on a stationary wheel, while the entire structure gradually spins around its axis. The resulting force acts on the legs of the astronauts, vaguely resembling a gravitational effect.

Young's simulator is too limited, it can be used for more than an hour or two a day, for constant gravity, the whole spacecraft would have to become a centrifuge.

8. Mental health

Interplanetary travel is a direct path to madness

When a person has a stroke or heart attack, doctors sometimes lower the patient's temperature by slowing their metabolism to reduce damage from lack of oxygen. It's a trick that could work for astronauts too. Interplanetary travel for a year (at least), living in a cramped spaceship with bad food and zero privacy is a recipe for space madness.

That's why John Bradford says we should sleep while traveling in space. President of the engineering firm SpaceWorks and co-author of a report for NASA on long missions, Bradford believes that cryogenically freezing the crew will cut down on food, water, and keep the crew from mental breakdown.

9. Landing

Probability of an accident

Planet hello! You have been in space for many months or even several years. The distant world is finally visible through your porthole. All you have to do is land. But you are rolling through frictionless space at 200,000 miles per hour. Oh, yes, and then there is the gravity of the planet.

The landing problem is still one of the most urgent that engineers have to solve. Remember the unsuccessful one on Mars.

10. Resources

You can't take a mountain of aluminum ore with you.

When spaceships go on a long journey, they will take supplies from Earth with them. But you can't take everything with you. Seeds, oxygen generators, maybe a few infrastructure building machines. But the settlers will have to do the rest themselves.

Fortunately space is not entirely barren. “Each planet has all the chemical elements, although the concentrations differ,” says Ian Crawford, a planetary scientist at Birkbeck, University of London. The moon has a lot of aluminum. Mars has quartz and iron oxide. Neighboring asteroids are a great source of carbon and platinum ores - and water, once pioneers figure out how to blow up matter in space. If the fuses and drillers are too heavy to take on a ship, they will have to extract the fossils by other methods: melting, magnets, or metal-digesting microbes. And NASA is looking into a 3D printing process to print entire buildings - and there won't be any need to import special equipment.

11. Research

We can't do everything ourselves

Dogs helped humans colonize the Earth, but they wouldn't survive on. To expand into the new world, we will need a new best friend: a robot.

Planet colonization requires a lot of hard work, and robots can dig all day long without having to eat or breathe. The current prototypes are large and bulky, and can hardly move on the ground. So the robots should not look like us, it could be a light steerable bot with claws in the shape of an excavator bucket designed by NASA to dig ice on Mars.

However, if the work requires dexterity and precision, then human fingers are indispensable. Today's space suit is designed for weightlessness, not for hiking on an exoplanet. NASA's Z-2 prototype has flexible joints and a helmet that gives a clear view of any fine-grained wiring needs.

12. Space is huge

Warp drives still don't exist

The fastest thing humans have ever built is a probe called Helios 2. It's no longer functional, but if there was sound in space, you'd hear it scream, as it's still orbiting the sun at speeds greater than 157,000 mph. This is almost 100 times faster than a bullet, but even at that speed it would take approximately 19,000 years to reach our nearest star, Alpha Centauri. During such a long flight, thousands of generations would change. And hardly anyone dreams of dying of old age in a spaceship.

To defeat time we need energy - a lot of energy. Perhaps you could mine enough helium 3 on Jupiter for fusion (after we invent fusion engines, of course). Theoretically, near-light speeds can be achieved using the energy of annihilation of matter and antimatter, but doing this on Earth is dangerous.

“You would never want to do this on Earth,” says Le Johnson, a NASA technician who works on crazy starship ideas. “If you do this in outer space and something goes wrong, you are not destroying a continent.” Too much? How about solar energy? All you need is a sail the size of Texas.

A much more elegant solution to crack the source code of the universe is with the help of physics. Miguel Alcubierre's theoretical drive would compress space-time in front of your ship and expand behind it so you could move faster than the speed of light.

Mankind will need a few more Einsteins working in places like the Large Hadron Collider to unravel all the theoretical knots. It is possible that we will make some discovery that will change everything, but this breakthrough is unlikely to save the current situation. If you want more discoveries, you must invest more money in them.

13. There is only one Earth

We must have the courage to stay

A couple of decades ago, science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson sketched out a future utopia on Mars, built by scientists from an overpopulated, overstressed Earth. His "Martian Trilogy" made a powerful push for colonization. But, in fact, other than science, why do we strive for space?

The need to explore is in our genes, this is the only argument - a pioneering spirit and a desire to know our destiny. “A few years ago, dreams of space exploration occupied our imagination,” recalls NASA astronomer Heidi Hummel. - We spoke the language of brave space explorers, but everything changed after the New Horizons station in July 2015. The entire diversity of the worlds of the solar system has opened up before us.”

But what about the fate and destiny of mankind? Historians know better. The expansion of the West was a land grab, and the great explorers were mostly in it for resources or treasures. Human desire to change places is expressed only in the service of political or economic desire.

Of course, the impending destruction of the Earth can be a stimulus. Deplete the planet's resources, change the climate, and space will become the only hope for survival.

But this is a dangerous line of thought. This creates a moral hazard. People think that if we can start from scratch somewhere on Mars. This is a wrong judgment.

As far as we know, Earth is the only habitable place in the known universe. And if we are going to leave this planet, then this should be our desire, and not the result of a stalemate.

The history of the development of astronautics is a story about people with an extraordinary mind, about the desire to understand the laws of the Universe and about the desire to surpass the usual and possible. The exploration of outer space, which began in the last century, gave the world many discoveries. They concern both objects of distant galaxies and completely terrestrial processes. The development of astronautics contributed to the improvement of technology, led to discoveries in various fields of knowledge, from physics to medicine. However, this process took a long time.

Lost Labor

The development of cosmonautics in Russia and abroad began long before the advent of the first scientific developments in this regard were only theoretical and substantiated the very possibility of space flights. In our country, one of the pioneers of astronautics at the tip of a pen was Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky. "One of" - because he was ahead of Nikolai Ivanovich Kibalchich, who was sentenced to death for the attempt on Alexander II and, a few days before the hanging, developed a project for an apparatus capable of delivering a man into space. It was in 1881, but Kibalchich's project was not published until 1918.

rural teacher

Tsiolkovsky, whose article on the theoretical foundations of space flight was published in 1903, did not know about Kibalchich's work. At that time, he taught arithmetic and geometry at the Kaluga School. His well-known scientific article "Research of the World Spaces with Jet Instruments" touched upon the possibilities of using rockets in space. The development of cosmonautics in Russia, then still tsarist, began precisely with Tsiolkovsky. He developed a project for the structure of a rocket capable of taking a person to the stars, defended the idea of the diversity of life in the Universe, spoke about the need to design artificial satellites and orbital stations.

In parallel, theoretical astronautics developed abroad. However, there were practically no connections between scientists either at the beginning of the century or later, in the 1930s. Robert Goddard, Hermann Oberth, and Esnault-Peltri, an American, a German, and a Frenchman, respectively, who worked on similar problems, knew nothing about Tsiolkovsky's work for a long time. Even then, the disunity of peoples affected the pace of development of the new industry.

Pre-war years and the Great Patriotic War

The development of cosmonautics continued in the 1920s-1940s with the help of the Gas Dynamics Laboratory and the Groups for the Study of Jet Propulsion, and then the Jet Research Institute. The best engineering minds of the country worked within the walls of scientific institutions, including F. A. Tsander, M. K. Tikhonravov and S. P. Korolev. In the laboratories, they worked on the creation of the first liquid and solid propellant rockets, and the theoretical basis of astronautics was developed.

In the pre-war years and during the Second World War, jet engines and rocket planes were designed and built. During this period, for obvious reasons, much attention was paid to the development of cruise missiles and unguided rockets.

Korolev and V-2

The first modern-type combat missile in history was created in Germany during the war under the command of Wernher von Braun. Then the V-2, or V-2, did a lot of trouble. After the defeat of Germany, von Braun was transferred to America, where he began to work on new projects, including the development of rockets for space flights.

In 1945, after the end of the war, a group of Soviet engineers arrived in Germany to study the V-2. Among them was Korolev. He was appointed chief engineering and technical director of the Nordhausen Institute, formed in Germany in the same year. In addition to studying German missiles, Korolev and his colleagues were developing new projects. In the 50s, the design bureau under his leadership created the R-7. This two-stage rocket was able to develop the first and ensure the launch of multi-ton vehicles into near-Earth orbit.

Stages of development of astronautics

The advantage of the Americans in the preparation of vehicles for space exploration, associated with the work of von Braun, remained in the past when on October 4, 1957 the USSR launched the first satellite. Since then, the development of astronautics has gone faster. In the 1950s and 1960s, several animal experiments were carried out. Dogs and monkeys have been in space.

As a result, scientists have collected invaluable information that made possible a comfortable stay in human space. At the beginning of 1959, it was possible to achieve the second cosmic velocity.

The advanced development of domestic cosmonautics was accepted all over the world when Yuri Gagarin poisoned himself in the sky. It was, without exaggeration, the great event of 1961. From that day began the penetration of man into the boundless expanses surrounding the Earth.

October 12, 1964 - an apparatus with several people on board was launched into orbit (USSR);
March 18, 1965 - the first (USSR);
February 3, 1966 - the first landing of the apparatus on the Moon (USSR);
December 24, 1968 - the first launch of a manned spacecraft into Earth satellite orbit (USA);
July 20, 1969 - day (USA);
April 19, 1971 - the first orbital station was launched (USSR);
July 17, 1975 - for the first time there was a docking of two ships (Soviet and American);
April 12, 1981 - the first Space Shuttle (USA) went into space.

The development of modern astronautics

Today, space exploration continues. The successes of the past have borne fruit - man has already visited the moon and is preparing for a direct acquaintance with Mars. However, manned flight programs are now developing less than projects of automatic interplanetary stations. The current state of cosmonautics is such that the devices being created are capable of transmitting information about the distant Saturn, Jupiter and Pluto to Earth, visiting Mercury and even exploring meteorites.
In parallel, space tourism is developing. International contacts are of great importance today. gradually comes to the conclusion that great breakthroughs and discoveries occur faster and more often if the efforts and capabilities of different countries are combined.

Humanity has recently entered the threshold of the third millennium. What awaits us in the future? Surely there will be many problems that require binding solutions. According to scientists, in 2050 the number of inhabitants of the Earth will reach the figure of 11 billion people. Moreover, 94% growth will be in developing countries and only 6% in industrialized ones. In addition, scientists have learned to slow down the aging process, which significantly increases life expectancy.

This leads to a new problem - food shortages. At the moment, about half a billion people are starving. For this reason, about 50 million die every year. Feeding 11 billion would require a 10-fold increase in food production. In addition, energy will be needed to ensure the life of all these people. And this leads to an increase in the production of fuel and raw materials. Can the planet withstand such a load?

Well, do not forget about environmental pollution. With the increase in the pace of production, not only resources are depleted, but the climate of the planet is also changing. Cars, power plants, and factories emit so much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that the emergence of a greenhouse effect is not far off. As the temperature on Earth rises, so will the water level in the oceans. All this will adversely affect the living conditions of people. It can even lead to disaster.

These problems will help to solve Think for yourself. It will be possible to move factories there, explore Mars, the Moon, extract resources and energy. And everything will be like in the movies and on the pages of science fiction.

Energy from space

Now 90% of all earth's energy is obtained by burning fuel in household stoves, car engines and power plant boilers. Energy consumption doubles every 20 years. How much natural resources will be enough to meet our needs?

For example, the same oil? According to scientists, it will end in as many years as the history of space exploration, that is, in 50. Coal will last for 100 years, and gas for about 40. By the way, nuclear energy is also an exhaustible source.

Theoretically, the problem of finding alternative energy was solved back in the 30s of the last century, when they came up with a thermonuclear fusion reaction. Unfortunately, she is still out of control. But even if you learn to control it and get energy in unlimited quantities, this will lead to overheating of the planet and irreversible climate change. Is there a way out of this situation?

3D industry

Of course, this is space exploration. It is necessary to move from the "two-dimensional" industry to the "three-dimensional". That is, all energy-intensive industries need to be transferred from the surface of the Earth into space. But at the moment it is not economically viable to do so. The cost of such energy will be 200 times higher than electricity generated by heat on Earth. Plus, huge cash injections will require the construction of large orbital stations. In general, we need to wait until humanity goes through the next stages of space exploration, when technology will be improved and the cost of building materials will decrease.

round the clock sun

Throughout the history of the planet, people have used sunlight. However, the need for it is not only in the daytime. At night, it is needed much longer: to illuminate construction sites, streets, fields during agricultural work (sowing, harvesting), etc. And in the Far North, the Sun does not appear in the sky at all for six months. Is it possible to increase How realistic is the creation of an artificial Sun? Today's advances in space exploration make this task quite feasible. It is enough just to place in the orbit of the planet the appropriate device for the Earth. At the same time, its intensity can be changed.

Who invented the reflector?

We can say that the history of space exploration in Germany began with the idea of creating extraterrestrial reflectors, proposed by the German engineer Hermann Oberth in 1929. Its further development can be traced to the work of the scientist Eric Kraft from the USA. Now the Americans are closer than ever to the implementation of this project.

Structurally, the reflector is a frame on which a polymer reflecting the radiation of the sun is stretched. The direction of the light flux will be carried out either by commands from the Earth, or automatically, according to a predetermined program.

Project implementation

The United States is making serious progress in space exploration and has come close to implementing this project. Now American experts are investigating the possibility of placing appropriate satellites in orbit. They will be located directly above North America. 16 installed reflecting mirrors will extend the daylight hours by 2 hours. Two reflectors are planned to be sent to Alaska, which will increase daylight hours there by as much as 3 hours. If reflector satellites are used to extend the day in megacities, this will provide them with high-quality and shadow-free illumination of streets, highways, construction sites, which is undoubtedly beneficial from an economic point of view.

Reflectors in Russia

For example, if five cities equal in size to Moscow are illuminated from space, then thanks to energy savings, the costs will pay off in about 4-5 years. Moreover, the system of reflector satellites can switch to another group of cities without any additional costs. And how will the air be purified if the energy comes not from fuming power plants, but from outer space! The only obstacle to the implementation of this project in our country is the lack of funding. Therefore, space exploration by Russia is not going as fast as it would like.

extraterrestrial plants

More than 300 years have passed since the discovery of vacuum by E. Torricelli. This played a huge role in the development of technology. After all, without understanding the physics of vacuum, it would be impossible to create either electronics or internal combustion engines. But all of this applies to industry on Earth. It is difficult to imagine what opportunities a vacuum will give in such a matter as space exploration. Why not make the galaxy serve people by building factories there? They will be in a completely different environment, in vacuum, low temperatures, powerful sources of solar radiation and weightlessness.

Now it is difficult to realize all the advantages of these factors, but we can say with confidence that simply fantastic prospects are opening up and the topic “Space exploration through the construction of extraterrestrial factories” is becoming more relevant than ever. If the rays of the Sun are concentrated by a parabolic mirror, then parts made of titanium alloys, stainless steel, etc. can be welded. When metals are smelted in terrestrial conditions, impurities get into them. And technology is increasingly in need of ultra-pure materials. How to get them? You can "suspend" the metal in a magnetic field. If its mass is small, then this field will hold it. In this case, the metal can be melted by passing a high-frequency current through it.

In zero gravity, materials of any mass and size can be melted. No molds or crucibles are needed for casting. Also, there is no need for subsequent grinding and polishing. And the materials will be melted either in conventional or in vacuum conditions, “cold welding” can be carried out: well-cleaned and fitted metal surfaces form very strong joints.

Under terrestrial conditions, it will not be possible to make large semiconductor crystals without defects, which reduce the quality of microcircuits and devices made from them. Thanks to weightlessness and vacuum, it will be possible to obtain crystals with the desired properties.

Attempts to implement ideas

The first steps in the implementation of these ideas were taken in the 80s, when space exploration in the USSR was in full swing. In 1985, engineers launched a satellite into orbit. Two weeks later, he delivered samples of materials to Earth. Such launches have become an annual tradition.

In the same year, the "Technology" project was developed at the NPO "Salyut". It was planned to build a 20-ton plant and a 100-ton plant. The device was equipped with ballistic capsules, which were supposed to deliver manufactured products to Earth. The project was never implemented. You will ask why? This is the standard problem of space exploration - lack of funding. It is relevant even today.

Space settlements

At the beginning of the 20th century, a fantastic story by K. E. Tsiolkovsky “Out of the Earth” was published. In it, he described the first galactic settlements. At the moment, when there are already certain achievements in space exploration, you can take on the implementation of this fantastic project.

In 1974, Princeton University physics professor Gerard O'Neill developed and published a galaxy colonization project. He proposed placing space settlements at the libration point (the place where the forces of attraction of the Sun, Moon and Earth compensate each other). Such settlements will always be located in one place.

About "Neal believes that in 2074 the majority of people will move into space and will have unlimited food and energy resources. The Earth will become a huge park, free from industry, where you can spend your holidays.

Model of the O'Nile colony

The professor proposes to start peaceful space exploration with the construction of a model with a radius of 100 meters. This facility can accommodate up to 10,000 people. The main task of this settlement is to build the next model, which should be 10 times larger. The diameter of the next colony increases to 6-7 kilometers, and the length increases to 20.

In the scientific community, the controversy around the O "Nile project still does not subside. In the colonies proposed by it, the population density is about the same as in earthly cities. And this is quite a lot! Especially considering that on weekends you can’t get out of the city there. In cramped parks, few people want to relax.This can hardly be compared with the conditions of life on Earth.But how will these closed spaces deal with psychological compatibility and the desire to change places?Will people want to live there?Will space settlements become places of distribution global disasters and conflicts?All these questions are still open.

Conclusion

In the bowels of the solar system, an incalculable amount of material and energy resources are laid. Therefore, human space exploration should now become a priority. Indeed, in case of success, the resources received will serve for the benefit of people.

So far, astronautics is taking the first steps in this direction. We can say that this is a child, but in time he will become an adult. The main problem of space exploration is not a lack of ideas, but a lack of funds. Huge ones are needed. But if we compare them with the cost of armaments, then the amount is not so big. For example, a 50% reduction in global military spending will make it possible to send three expeditions to Mars in the next few years.

In our time, humanity should be imbued with the idea of the unity of the world and reconsider the priorities in development. And space will be a symbol of cooperation. It is better to build factories on Mars and the Moon, thus benefiting all people, than to multiply the already inflated global nuclear potential. There are people who argue that space exploration can wait. Usually scientists answer them like this: “Of course, maybe, because the universe will exist forever, but we, unfortunately, will not.”