On January 4, 1959, at 5:57 Moscow time, the Soviet interplanetary station Luna-1D flew up to the Earth’s satellite. The moon was 6 thousand km away. For that time, it was a fantastic achievement. Earthlings have taken the first step towards the exploration of other planets. Soviet scientists were the first in the world to launch an automatic station that approached the Moon and gave us new knowledge about space. Izvestia remembers how it was.
How to create a moonlight
In October 1957, the whole world learned the Russian word “sputnik”. Thus began the space age. And in the spring of 1958, Sergei Korolev, in an interview with the president of the Academy of Sciences Mstislav Keldysh, said that it was time to break out of near-Earth space and “attack the Moon.” And it was, in the words of the chief designer, a “dream in the drawings”, almost ready to be realized. Keldysh supported the lunar program, helped to prove to the Central Committee that this is not a waste of money and effort, that it is necessary both for science and, ultimately, for defense.
The Americans were not asleep either. They understood that it was possible to adequately respond to the “Bolsheviks” for the launch of a satellite and cosmonaut dogs only by reaching at least the vicinity of the Moon. From August to December, they made four attempts to send their device there. But all these launches ended unsuccessfully — the missiles simply did not take off. However, the spirit of competition, the spirit of the star race, spurred on both Soviet and American designers. The Korolevs also had the experience of unsuccessful launches of moonships — in 1958, several rockets did not take off either. The errors were analyzed and taken into account when preparing the launch of the Luna-1 spacecraft.
The future cosmonaut, engineer Georgy Grechko, who developed flight ballistics, recalled how long scientists could not decide what the surface of the Moon was, hard or soft? The chief designer interrupted the discussion in his own manner. He took a notebook and wrote in large letters: “The moon is solid. Korolev.” And everyone began to proceed from this assumption, which has not yet been proven.
It was necessary to increase the speed of the rocket from 8 to 11 km/s. The first space speed was enough to launch the satellite, but now it was necessary to break through near-Earth orbit. The task required new technical solutions. The design of the Vostok was supplemented with a third stage, the so-called block E with the RD-0105 oxygen-kerosene engine, which helped to provide the necessary speed.
The development of the route has turned into a real puzzle. We had to try to get the device closer to the Moon at exactly the time when it can be observed from the territory of the Soviet Union. For the first time, during a space launch, the position of celestial bodies should be taken into account, carefully studying astronomical data. “It was necessary to hit a flying sparrow with a bullet while standing on the platform of a moving train,” said one of the station designers.
Externally, the station resembled the first satellite — it was an aluminum ball with a sealed joint of two hemispheres. On its surface there were four rod antennas, a pin with a magnetometer, two proton traps and two sensors for studying meteor particles. But this ball weighed almost 10 times more than the satellite. Scientists sought not to pollute the mysterious lunar surface. The station was thermally sterilized.
Scientific equipment was placed inside: a magnetometer, a micrometeorite detector, a cosmic ray counter, a chamber in which a kilogram of sodium was stored, with a system for constant heating. There was also a place for state symbols: in the moonlight there was a place for two metal pennants with the coats of arms of the Soviet Union and the inscriptions “USSR, January, 1959”. But the main thing is that under the leadership of Mikhail Ryazansky, scientists managed to provide radio communication, which should not have failed even after the moon landing.
The moonlight was supposed to land like a meteorite — it crashed on the surface of the moon, leaving equipment and pennants on it. This is the maximum task. But first it was necessary to develop a second space velocity, check communication with the Earth at maximum distances, and get information about outer space, about which people knew almost nothing. All this was done for the first time.
Flying with the comet effect
On January 2, 1959, the Vostok-L launch vehicle launched from the site of the cosmodrome, which the whole world would later recognize as Baikonur. Back then, rocket scientists often called him by the name of a nearby village — Tyura-Tam. After the rocket reached its calculated trajectory, the Luna-1 automatic interplanetary station (AMS) separated from it.
On the way to the moon, the technique worked flawlessly. Vostok brought the device to the desired trajectory, the stage safely separated from the launch vehicle. For the first time in history, it was possible to achieve the second cosmic velocity. It is not for nothing that the design was called the first space rocket in TASS reports.
Perhaps the most striking and spectacular experiment of this launch was called the “Artificial Comet” — and it took place on January 3 at 3 hours 56 minutes and 20 seconds Moscow time. At a distance of about 120 thousand km from the Earth, the lunar rover released a cloud of sodium vapor using automation. Dissipating, the cloud glowed orange for several minutes. It could be observed from Earth as a small star. The idea of this safe explosion — the most real spectacle in space — was proposed by astronomers Joseph Shklovsky and Vladimir Kurt.
Astronomer Mstislav Gnevyshev managed to take a photo of this phenomenon at the Mountain Station of the Main Astronomical Observatory near Kislovodsk. The world has received a vivid proof of scientific and technical victory. After that, it was difficult to evaluate the flight skeptically — and even its flaws were perceived as something outstanding. On January 4, American researchers from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Pasadena, California) managed to catch a signal confirming the launch of the USSR, the world’s first interplanetary station.
Flying for decades
The device failed to land. He flew 6 thousand km from the lunar surface, which was thought to be a little, given that the average distance between the two planets is 384,400 km. Most likely, an error in the settings of the ground-based radar equipment affected. The wits noted sarcastically: mathematicians decided to celebrate the New Year after all… And it was impossible to correct the minimal defect in the working order: the technique of correcting spacecraft in flight was only being developed at that time. Another reason is also given: the calculators did not take into account the seconds it takes for the sent command to reach the station. And already at the start, the deviation from the flight path began.
But nevertheless, the first man-made Moon satellite appeared in space. At that time, the moonlight received a new, symbolic name — “Dream”. Indeed, all scientists who are not indifferent to interplanetary travel have dreamed of such a flight for many years, even if it is not quite accurate. Soon the confectionery factories of the Soviet Union began to produce candy-caramel “Dream”, shaped like an automatic lunar station.
On January 5, 1959, at about 10 a.m., communication with the interplanetary station was interrupted. For the first lunar rover, a long free flight began, about the routes of which its creators knew only presumably. But the station has managed to do an incredible amount in a few days of proper operation. Thanks to the data received from Luna-1, the Earth received previously unknown information about the external radiation belt, which helped in the preparation of the first astronauts — the onboard magnetometer worked! Researchers have enriched their knowledge of the Earth’s magnetosphere. It turned out that the Moon does not have its own magnetic field. In addition, lunnik was able to make the first direct measurements of the solar wind, and it was discovered that ionized gas is contained in interplanetary space. Until January 1959, they could not have imagined this, but here they received accurate evidence. In short, for the first time, scientists were able to “reach out” to a neighboring planet and conduct exploration of the lunar space.
Most likely, the station is rushing through space in our time — and continues its journey in orbit between Mars and Earth. The time will come — and, perhaps, the researchers will find out the details of her fate.
Technology was rapidly improving, and the Royals were already preparing not only for new launches of satellites and automatic stations, but also for manned space flights. After this flight, the Soviet Union led the development of near-lunar space for several years, surprising the world with scientific and technical breakthroughs. Korolev constantly complicated the tasks — and sometimes they could be performed brilliantly. In September 1959, the new spacecraft made a hard landing on the Moon, and a month later, the new Soviet lunar rover transmitted to Earth the first-ever photographs of the far side of the Moon. These were all real discoveries. And in the winter of 1966, Luna 9 was the first in the world to make a soft landing on the planet of lovers. This is how Soviet spacecraft discovered the lunar route. And this path began on January 4, 1959.
Source: iz.ru
Source: iz.ru
