High resolution map of the far side of the moon. Google Moon Interactive App
The Moon is a natural satellite of the Earth. The planet's closest satellite to the Sun, since the planets closest to the Sun, Mercury and Venus, do not have satellites. The second brightest object in the earth's sky after the Sun and the fifth largest natural satellite of a planet in the solar system. The average distance between the centers of the Earth and the Moon is 384,467 km (0.002 57 AU, ~ 30 Earth diameters). The Moon is the only astronomical object outside the Earth visited by humans.
The first artificial object to overcome the Earth's gravity and fly near the Moon was the Soviet Luna 1 station. The first satellite to reach the surface of the Moon was Luna 2. The first satellite to take photographs reverse side Moon, there was the Luna 3 station. All these three lunar programs were successfully completed in 1959. The first successful soft landing on the Moon was carried out by the Soviet Luna 9 station. The American Apollo lunar program began in the early 60s of the last century with President Kennedy's statement that the United States would launch a man on the Moon before the end of the 60s. As a result of this program, the United States managed to carry out 6 successful flights to the Moon between 1969 and 1972. After the completion of the Apollo program, research on our natural satellite virtually ceased for a period of more than 30 years. Only at the beginning of this century, several countries, including Russia, the USA and China, announced the start of their lunar programs, the results of which should be the return of man to the Moon.
Who hasn’t dreamed of seeing the surface of the Moon, and some even of visiting there, but alas, this is only possible if you are an astronaut or work at a space research center. In fact, this was indeed the case once upon a time, but now anyone can see the surface of the Moon from a Japanese satellite, all they have to do is find free time. to watch the broadcast on your computer. The picture is presented online around the clock; to activate the video, you only need to connect the device to the Internet. This is a unique opportunity to see in real time what the planet looks like and what features of the landscape are on its surface. Of course, the satellite cannot cover the entire planet; its lens is aimed at one of the sides of the Moon, but the video changes over time, because the camera moves and so does the planet. When you look at this lifeless space, you understand that humanity has inherited one of the most beautiful planets in the galaxy. You will have enough time to study the surface of the Moon, the broadcast does not stop for a second, if you look closely you can see small craters and mountains and riverbeds left by objects or phenomena unknown to man. Satellite broadcast is available to any network user, regardless of your geographic location, you can activate the video at a time convenient for you. If necessary, the player has the ability to expand the video to fill the entire screen, so objects in the frame become larger and easier to see.
For the first time, the North American Space Agency (NASA) has posted high-resolution photographs of the Apollo lunar program on the Internet. Over 9,000 shots high resolution, which no one except specialists had ever seen before, were recently posted on the Flickr photo hosting site for free use. According to NASA, this is only the first step towards popularizing photographic documents of the Apollo program, and in the near future they will be posted on open access and other photographs.
The Apollo program operated from 1961 to 1975. During this period to natural satellite 11 manned expeditions were sent to Earth, of which 9 reached the Moon, 6 successfully landed on its surface, and one, due to an accident, was forced to fly around the Moon without landing and return home (the other 2 carried out preparatory tasks and landing on the Moon was not planned). The cost of the thirteen-year program was $25 billion (139 billion in 2005 dollars), which is almost 10 times less (!) than the costs of the 9-year war in Iraq.
The six successful expeditions were Apollo 11, Apollo 12, Apollo 14, Apollo 15, Apollo 16 and Apollo 17. Apollo 13 almost suffered a tragedy due to an accident on board. It was decided to cancel the landing on the Moon, the crew was ordered to transfer from the service module to the landing module, and were emergency sent back to earth.
Especially for the readers of this blog, I posted all 9,000 photographs and made a selection of photographs from several expeditions of the Apollo lunar program.
02. Apollo 11 Expedition - July 20, 1969 First successful landing on the Moon| The lunar lander carrying Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin has undocked from the service module and is heading towards the surface of the Moon. The third crew member, Michael Collins, remained in the service module.
03. The first photo of the surface of the Moon after landing.
04. Unfortunately, this collection does not contain photographs of the exit of Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the moon. From the porthole, the staircase down which Armstrong was descending was not visible. His exit was recorded only by a television camera mounted on an external stand, through which a live broadcast was made to Earth. A few minutes later, Armstrong moved her to another location. All that Edwin Aldrin could photograph in those minutes was the American flag that Armstrong stuck into the lunar soil and a television camera standing in the distance.
05. If a photojournalist had been on the Moon at that time, Armstrong’s exit he filmed might have looked something like this. Here Armstrong filmed Aldrin's entrance. At this moment it was important not to slam the hatch behind us. There was no handle on the outside of the exit hatch. If the hatch had slammed shut, the astronauts would have been unable to enter the module and return to Earth.
06. As you know, the first words that Neil Armstrong uttered when he first stepped onto the lunar surface were: “One small step for man, but giant leap for mankind.”
07. Footprint of one of the astronauts in the lunar soil.
08. Few people know that the first object that the astronauts threw onto the surface from open door, there was a bag of garbage (!). Very human, isn't it?
09. Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin walk on the moon. One poses, the other takes photographs.
10. Lunar workdays have begun. Edwin Aldrin installs a solar wind collector screen. It was a sheet of aluminum foil 30 cm wide and 140 cm long and was intended to trap helium, neon and argon ions.
12. Edwin Aldrin deploys a seismometer.
14. Soil samples are taken.
15. Edwin Aldrin poses next to the flag. This photograph has been the subject of heated debate for many years. Conspiracy theorists argued that the supposedly waving flag indicates that the filming was done not on the moon, but on the earth, and here the action of the wind fluttering the flag is evident. Fortunately, anyone can now go into the photo archive of this expedition and view all the photographs that were taken that day. The bend of the flag fabric is the same in all photographs, which eloquently demonstrates the absurdity of conspiracy theorists’ suspicions. When the wind moves the fabric of the flag, its shape will change every second and it is almost impossible to repeat it.
16. It is known that when preparing the first expedition to the Moon, engineers proceeded from the assumption that over the billions of years of the moon’s history, a layer of dust several feet thick had accumulated on its surface. Therefore, the “legs” of the landing module were made long, with the expectation that during landing they would drown in dust. To the surprise of NASA developers and engineers, the layer of dust on the Moon turned out to be no more than 3-5 cm. Does this indicate the young age of the Moon, and therefore the Earth? There's a lot to think about.
17. The astronauts spent 2.5 hours on the lunar surface. When they returned to the lander, they threw away several more items that they no longer needed - backpacks portable system life support (the same ones they carried with them), outer lunar shoes and a camera (the cassettes with the footage, of course, were saved). This was necessary to minimize the take-off weight of the module.
18. Commemorative plaque: “At this place, people from planet Earth first set foot on the Moon in July 1969 AD. We come in peace on behalf of all mankind.” The lower block of the landing module, on the stand of which the sign was attached, remained on the Moon.
19. The road home. The Apollo 11 lunar lander, after taking off from the Moon, approaches the command module that was waiting for it in orbit.
20. Apollo 12 Expedition - November 19, 1969. Second moon landing| Earth rising over the Moon.
21. Another Earthrise. Continuous phrase: "Earthrise."
22. View of the lunar surface from the landing module window.
23. Night on Earth.
24. One of the main tasks of the Apollo 12 crew was to find the robotic Surveyor 3 spacecraft, which landed on the Moon 2.5 years earlier. The crew successfully completed this task and landed the lunar module 200 meters from the Surveyor. In the photo, crew commander Charles Conrad stands next to the Surveyor 3 spacecraft. The astronauts removed some parts from it and took it with them to earth. Scientists were interested in how these objects were affected by their long stay on the Moon. The Apollo 12 lander is in the background.
25. Apollo 15 Expedition - July 30, 1971. Fourth moon landing| This expedition was the first time a lunar vehicle was used.
26. Astronauts David Scott and James Irwin spent almost three days on the Moon. During this time, they made three trips to the surface with a total duration of 18.5 hours.
27. Wheel tracks of a lunar car. The astronauts traveled 28 kilometers on it.
28. One of the astronauts installs scientific equipment.
29. The lunar car was developed by Boeing engineers. The wheels are made of woven steel wire. The car was running on electric batteries and could reach speeds of up to 13 km/h, and even more. However, high speed was undesirable, since under lunar conditions the lunar vehicle weighed 6 times less than on earth, and at high speed he was thrown violently on uneven surfaces.
30. Relatively weak gravity was the reason that when walking, a lot of lunar dust rose, which settled on clothes. Pay attention to the astronaut's feet, black with dust.
31. Apollo 16 Expedition - April 21, 1972. Fifth moon landing| Unlike previous landings, which were made on more or less flat surfaces, Apollo 16 landed in a mountainous area, on plateaus.
32. Morning jog?))
33. The astronauts have clearly gotten comfortable on the Moon. A lunar car parked near the landing module, scientific equipment, and a working astronaut. There is no longer that wariness and uncertainty that is visible in the photographs of Apollo 11.
34. One of the astronauts got the lens dirty.
35. A beautiful shot of the Earth suspended in space. We humans live somewhere on this planet. We are born, we die, we create something, we fight for some reason.... How petty and insignificant all this seems from afar, from space.
36. The surface of the Moon as the lunar module approaches.
37. Apollo 17 Expedition - December 11, 1972. Sixth and final moon landing| Thanks to the lunarmobile, astronauts were able to move several kilometers away from the landing module and descend to the bottom of huge craters.
38. During the next landing in the lunar vehicle, crew commander Eugene Cernan hooked the wing above one of the wheels with a hammer sticking out of his pocket and tore it off. If on Earth such a breakdown is not considered serious, then on the Moon everything is different. Due to the absence of a wing, dust rose during movement, which settled on the astronauts’ clothes and on the instruments of the lunar vehicle. The black color of the dust attracted heat and created the threat of overheating. The astronauts had to urgently look for a way out of the situation. They managed to attach the wing using duct tape.
39. Collection of soil samples. The astronaut's clothes are stained with lunar dust.
40. Lunomobile against the backdrop of one of the mountains.
41. Lunar relief.
42. Return of the last lunar expedition. Dawn on Earth.
43. Huge ocean spaces. Oh, if only part of these spaces were dry land.
44. Our dear blue ball.
46. The relief surface of the Moon and the rising Earth.
48. The astronauts who visited the Moon were the only people who could look at the lunar craters without a telescope.
49. During the Apollo 17 expedition, the astronauts drilled 8 wells 2.5 meters deep. Explosives weighing from 50 grams to 2.5 kg were placed in the wells. After the astronauts left the Moon, on command from Earth, the explosives were detonated and scientists used instruments to measure the speed of propagation of seismic waves.
50. On his way home, astronaut Ronald Evans performs a routine inspection of his spacecraft.
52. Crew commander Eugene Cernan and astronaut Ronald Evans.
53. What kind of device is so unusual? Looks like someone's brain under glass.
54. Ronald Evans shaves on his way to Earth.
55. The America Command and Service Module awaits docking with the Lunar Module, which last time launched from the surface of the Moon. The flight of Apollo 17 became the longest manned flight to the Moon. A record number of lunar rock samples were brought to Earth. Records were set for the duration of astronaut stay on the lunar surface and in lunar orbit. Apollo 17 was the most productive and almost problem-free lunar expedition.
56. More than 40 years have passed since the last time man walked on the moon. Will people return to the moon again? And is there any point in flying to the Moon again if it is now known for certain that there is nothing valuable there?
57. The Apollo lunar program is completed. The last look at the mountain range on the surface of the Moon, which rises above the Earth every night and illuminates our fields with its white light, is reflected as a light path in our seas, and shines through our windows while we sleep.
Photos: NASA
Photo archive of all 9,000 photos in full resolution can be found on photo hosting
Photo by Google Moon. Screenshot from the application
Employees Google regularly delight their users with a variety of new applications. They did not forget about astronomy lovers and everyone interested in stars, planets and other celestial objects. Google's 3D moon map is just for such people.
As you know, “Moon” means “moon” in English. Therefore, the name of this application (Google Moon maps) speaks for itself.
Google Moon Maps is used by many people today. And the company's developers continue to improve these cards more and more and make them even more convenient for users. So in the summer of 2005 it appeared Google app Moon online. Its appearance was timed to coincide with a significant date - the anniversary of the landing of the manned spacecraft Apollo 11 on the surface of the Moon. By the way, Google Moon does not show the spaceship on the moon due to its too small size, but the wheel tracks from the lunar rovers are visible!
Application Features
Generally this application refers to the larger Google Earth. You cannot download Google Moon; it comes bundled with the Google Earth application. It is worth noting that this is very popular app among modern users. It has already been downloaded several million times. With its help, anyone, sitting at home on the couch, can go on a trip to any destination globe. A very unusual and attractive opportunity for everyone.
Possibilities
The appearance of the “Moon” mode further expanded the capabilities of the application. Now the user can also travel on the Moon. By selecting this mode You can use the following add-ons:
— go wander on the surface of the Moon directly to the places where the astronauts of the large-scale Apollo mission landed, and read their comments;
— see rare video footage of which was filmed by participants in the Apollo mission;
- admire various models spacecraft in 3D;
- look at circular panoramic photographs, enlarge them and try to find traces of the mission participants. Their coordinates for Google Moon are available on the World Wide Web.
How to start your journey?
To go “wandering” on the surface of the Moon, all you need to do is install the “Planet Earth” program on your computer. You can easily do this yourself by downloading it from the open spaces World Wide Web. It is also worth noting that installation is free for each user. And if you don't want to install anything, then full map Google Moon is available on our website.
In 1959, the USSR, for the first time in the world, showed people that it was on the far side of the Moon. The photographs were taken from the Luna-3 automatic interplanetary station. The spacecraft was launched into airless space on October 4 using the Vostok-L launch vehicle. The unique images were sent at three o'clock in the morning on October 7, 1959. The signal was received by the Simeiz Observatory (now part of the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory). Views of the “invisible side of the Moon” transmitted to Earth traveled a distance of 483 thousand kilometers. Peering at the blurry photographs, many wondered “on the spots”: what is on the far side of the Moon? Yes, the quality of the images left much to be desired, but they were obtained! The leader of USSR research received the right to name objects discovered on the surface of the nearest satellite. The whole world learned which sea is on the far side of the Moon - Moscow. Its part, protruding deeply into the land, was called Astronaut Bay. A crater about 60 miles (96.5 km) from it was named after Professor Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, a pioneer of astronautics. The mountain range near the equator proudly sounded like the Soviet one. A dark spot near the border of the visible and invisible parts of the Moon became the Sea of Dreams.
Why is the Moon always visible from Earth only from one side? Because of this, it is impossible to know what is on the far side of the Moon! The reason is that the Moon revolves around the Earth in the same time it takes the Earth to rotate around its axis. Axial and orbital rotation is 27.3 days. Synchronization of movement occurred about 4 billion years ago.
Astrophysical Information system NASA in 1968 released a catalog that contains descriptions of about six hundred anomalous phenomena on the lunar surface. This catalog contains information regarding moving UFOs various sizes and shapes, lunar craters that appear and disappear, rainbow mists, flashes of bright light and the casting of shadows by unknown objects. And Russian astronomer Kozyrev recorded a number of red flashes on the surface of the Moon. Anomalies of this kind were often recorded in the area of one of the largest lunar craters. Its diameter is over one hundred kilometers. It was named "Alphonse". This crater is the most mysterious place on the Moon.
American astronomer Carl Sagan made a statement in the 60s of the last century that caves were discovered on the surface of the Moon, the sizes and shapes of which suggest that they are not natural objects. The internal volume of the largest cave is over one hundred cubic kilometers. At one time, American astronauts said that almost all lunar missions of the Apollo spacecraft in the period from 1968 to 1972 were carefully monitored by representatives of alien civilizations. In addition, cases of contact between astronauts and aliens have been recorded. They communicated with the astronauts using a special code. The theory of the existence of such a cipher was confirmed in 1958 by Japanese astronomer Kenzahuro Toyoda. He managed to see seven giant letters on the lunar surface, which disappeared a few nights later. The appearance of these letters remained inexplicable.
Recently, a quote from Neil Armstrong was leaked to the media. An American astronaut said it immediately after landing on the surface of the Moon: “Oh, Lord! Yes, there are other spaceships here. They are along the far edge of the crater and are watching us! Joseph Shklovsky, a Soviet astrophysicist, suggested that the Moon may well be a huge, inactive alien ship. Somewhat later, a similar version was put forward by radio astronomer Alexey Arkhipov from Russia. He made the assumption that the Moon is nothing more than an alien station, which was created specifically to observe the Earth and its inhabitants.
Scientists and astronomers, including employees of the American space agency, are confident that the world government is hiding information from people regarding the presence of aliens on the Earth’s satellite. But the presence of photographs that captured various buildings and traces of technology left on the lunar soil indicate the opposite. Alien bases are believed to be hidden on the far side of the Moon. Astronauts from the Apollo mission became eyewitnesses of the so-called “lunar kingdoms”. Rumor has it that on the far side of the moon there are towers and castles made of a transparent material that resembles rock crystal. There are also various types of equipment and vehicles that leave traces.
In 2010, photographs allegedly taken by the Cassiopeia probe of the so-called dark side of the Moon were leaked onto the Internet. They sparked heated controversy among both astronomers and conspiracy theorists. Photos show structures in Schrödinger Crater near the Moon's south polar region, but official sources have been unable to provide a clear explanation for the phenomenon.