Preliminary summary of the evening of lectures shared by the Astronomical Society, the Space Society and Orbit Forum on the 35th anniversary of the moon landing
There were two time jumps yesterday in the lecture commemorating the 35th anniversary of the moon landing. The lecture was jointly organized by the Israel Space Association, the Astronomy Association and Orbit - the Student Forum for the Advancement of Space Research. About a hundred people were present at the event at the Air Force House in Herzliya.
The evening was opened by the chairman of the Israeli Astronomical Society who spoke about the beginning of the days of the solar system, about 4.5 billion years ago. Among other things, Fattal pointed out that the moon protects the earth from too great temperature fluctuations. On Mars there is no such protection and therefore the temperature difference between winter and summer there is very large due to the large angle of inclination of its orbit around itself compared to the orbit around the sun. The relative stability of the climate conditions on Earth (even if we take into account the differences between ice ages and warm ages) allowed the formation and development of life.
Fatal listed the four theories regarding the creation of the moon: the first theory holds that it was created together with the earth by chance nearby; that the earth caught a moon that passed by; that the earth turned so fast and split into years; But the most accepted model today is that a body the size of Mars on Earth, shaved off part of the Earth's lighter mantle from the Earth and the remains of these two bodies merged and became the Moon. That is, for the body that is closest to us, we do not know how it was created and this is a good enough reason to study it.
A glimpse into the future
And hence the next time jump: to the thirties of the 21st century. Daniel Rosenberg, chairman of the orbit, student forum for the promotion of space exploration, detailed the various plans of countries around the world regarding the moon. "The question arises as to why they want to return to the moon, which countries are seriously considering landing on the moon, what are their plans.
"The last mission - Apollo 17 was 32 years ago. In 1998, President Bush Sr. proposed a return to the moon and Mars, but the plan cost a trillion dollars. All attempts since then failed to lower the expected cost to a reasonable level. However, the human desire to explore the stars was rekindled due to three main events: the Columbia disaster, the launch of the first Taykonaut, and the American understanding that NASA was not fulfilling its mission.
There has always been a desire to return to the moon, but now it also has political and political support, something that was lacking before. The Columbia disaster hurt American feelings of pride and they want to prove to the world that they are still a power and can return to space. Since Apollo, NASA has not carried out purposeful operations. It built the space shuttle and the space station but they don't have the vision that drives it forward. They worked on momentum. The countries that want to return to the moon are:
* The United States - under Bush's vision, initiates a new space program to explore the moon and Mars and beyond. She has both the ability and the money to implement this plan. International cooperation is a sensitive issue, especially due to the complexity of the International Space Station.
* China - The Shenzhou 5 launch made China the third country in the world capable of sending people into space. China today is on its way to becoming a world power, when space exploration is a prestigious subject and can position it as a power in the world public opinion. Therefore, as long as they are not "equal" in status to the US, cooperation is not in sight.
* Europe - The European Aurora program details how to return to the moon and reach Mars. Europe apparently has the financial means, but without facts on the ground. You will probably cooperate with Russia and/or other countries. Cooperation with the USA is possible only as equals.
* Russia - Russia has an advanced technological capability for space exploration, with experience in manned flights and advanced propulsion. On the other hand, Russia does not have the economic resources. A partnership with Europe is ideal for both parties, when rumors about Russia's possible accession to ESA have already spread.
Rest of the world: Japan and India have advanced space programs and can join as junior partners to one of the other bodies
The Chinese lunar exploration program is probably the most advanced. Similar to Russia in the 2001s and XNUMXs, the Chinese hardly talk about their plans, and the information that comes is partial. An official plan published in XNUMX includes
By 2010 a robotic landing on the moon.
Even the Russians until the nineties did not make any announcement that they were going to the moon. The Chinese prefer to keep their plans secret and do not have an electorate that wants a report on where the money is going. For example, the Chinese will be able to send people around the moon around 2012-2020, using the future Long March 5 launcher, which will put an unmanned module into orbit and then another launch, this time manned, of Shenzhou which will dock with the first module. A similar thing was designed by the Russians, it consisted of two proton launches and was called Podsadaka.
The main problem is that the launch costs to launch a kg into space are higher than a kg of gold. We must therefore reduce the cost of this by orders of magnitude in order for any manned journey to space to be worthwhile. In any case, according to the expected plans, initially it is likely that the teams that will be sent to the moon will be relatively small - up to 6 people. They will stay for dozens of days and carry out advanced research, technology testing and the establishment of infrastructure for a permanent colony. If we want it, by the year 2030 we can establish a permanent colony on the surface of the moon that could serve as a space port for the rest of the solar system. Also, the moon will be used as a place to test technologies that we will need in order to reach Mars and beyond.
The story of the Apollo project
And once again a time jump to the sixties of the twentieth century in the annual Apollo lecture by Tal Inbar, vice president of the Israel Space Association. "Those who asked why fly to the moon and what they are looking for there, the only and exclusive reason why the Americans flew to the moon in the Apollo operation was to beat the Russians in the space race. There is a memorandum written by President Kennedy a week after Gagarin's flight. He appointed his deputy Johnson in charge of the space program.
In this message it was not clear exactly what they would do, but Kennedy, as a practical man, asked that he check how long it would take to establish such a system and how much it would cost. All in all, after one suborbital flight by Alan Shepherd, who spent five minutes in space, Kennedy announced that within ten years a man would be placed on the moon.
A total of 17 Apollo spaceships were launched when Apollo 1 ended tragically, therefore the launch was generally a training mission. Apollo 2-6 were unmanned; Apollo 7 was just a two-week orbit flight where almost everything that could go wrong, did go wrong, including the flu the astronauts got. Apollo 8 - was the first to orbit the moon, Apollo nine was already a mission in which they tested a meeting between spacecraft in orbit around the Earth; Apollo 10 simulated the landing on the moon, without landing when the two astronauts in the lander descended to a height of ten kilometers above the lunar surface, then started the engine and returned.
Apollo 11 was of course the historic mission; Apollo 12 was the second mission to land on the moon. In Apollo 13 - very lucky, successful failure, containers exploded in the service vehicle. Fortunately for them, it was still when the vehicles were connected and thus were helped by the landing spacecraft on the moon to return to Earth; In Apollo 14 remember Alan Shepherd's golf game; In Apollo 15, the astronauts were equipped with an electric car; Apollo 16 and 17 were long missions where the net stay on the moon was three days. Since December 1972, no man has set foot on the moon or even passed the height of 650 kilometers - the height of Hubble. Apollo missions 18, 19 and 20 were planned. When at a certain point also due to the decline in popularity of space flights, the expenses in Vietnam were canceled the three missions. The last Apollo spacecraft was launched in 1975 to rendezvous with the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
