Cosmos has long been interested in humanity. Mysterious, unexplored and distant: the possibilities of space travel, as well as the discovery of new distant worlds, have always worried man. The nearest celestial body to the Earth is the Moon, so there is nothing surprising in the fact that even at the initial stage of space exploration, man tried to get exactly to this celestial body. Below we will tell you how much time to fly to the moon and touch on such an interesting topic as its foundation.

History of space exploration

The first to send a man into space was the Soviet Union, overtaking the United States in this regard. In response, the states began to work on the development of their own lunar program, which initially involves satellite orbital flights and in the future and landing people on the moon.

How much money was spent on this program can not be calculated. Experts note that in the implementation of this program in comparable prices is estimated at 500 billion. NASA developed the Saturn 5 rocket specifically for these flights, which could reach the Moon in three to four days. At that time it was the most powerful rocket, which is capable of conquering large distances of several hundred thousand kilometers from the Earth to our satellite as soon as possible.

The first person to set foot on the surface of the moon is an American Neil Armstrong. In 1969, as part of the Apollo mission, 11 managed to land a lunar module near the Sea of ​​Tranquility. Later several US manned missions were completed. About a dozen astronauts visited the Moon, who conducted many studies and were able to bring on Earth more 20 kg of lunar soil.

After a few years, interest in the moon was gone, and it was decided to wind down an expensive flight program. This is due to the high cost of manned aircraft, so in the Soviet Union and the United States decided to focus on the construction of orbiting stations in Earth orbit and near-Earth space exploration. It was cheaper and simpler to fly into Earth orbit, and the creation of an orbital station made it possible to make a serious push in space exploration.

However, interest in distant flights disappeared almost 30 years. Only today, when humanity was thinking about the colonization and exploration of Mars, interest in our satellite has reappeared. The moon was used as a transshipment base for interplanetary flights over long distances. Mankind has made a serious step forward in the field of rocket science, which made it possible not only to reduce the cost of such flights, but also to make them safer and faster.

Conquest history:

• The Soviet research apparatus first reached the moon - 1959 year.
• The first successful landing on the moon - 1966 year.
• Landing Neil Armstrong Expedition - 1969 Year.
• The last manned flight to the moon for today is 1972.

Distance to the Moon

The moon revolves around the earth in a slightly flat elliptical orbit. For this reason, the distance from the Earth to the satellite can vary from 355 to 404 thousand km. Many of us find it hard to imagine such a distance. How long will it take to overcome this path?

• By car with an average speed of about 100 km per hour, one could get to the Earth satellite in 160 days.
• If you walk, it would take nine years of uninterrupted walking.
• By plane, which can accelerate to 800 kilometers per hour, would have to fly for about twenty days.
• On the Apollo spacecraft, whose speed is several thousand kilometers per hour, it was possible to get to the moon in 72 hours.
• A modern spacecraft can fly to the moon in 9 hours.

The flight to the moon on modern rockets, theoretically, is not particularly difficult, despite the large distance in 380-400 thousand km. There is no need to select the time for the launch of the launch vehicle, since the maximum and minimum distance to the moon is not so great. The duration of such flights is only a few days, which allows to solve the problems of radiation in space, which only increases with flares on the Sun.

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Heavy modern rocket carriers, which were created specifically for the flight to Mars, could also be used for flights to the moon and in the opposite direction. In this case, a flight at a distance of 400 thousand km would take approximately 15-17 hours in one direction only. The only subtlety of such flights was the need to initially equip the lunar base, where the landing modules would land, which would allow the exploration of the moon and even live on the base for a certain time.

Perspectives of research missions and long-haul flights

Disputes about the feasibility of the study of the satellite of the Earth and flights to it have not subsided to the present day. If initially, at the first stages of space exploration and conquest, such flights were of serious interest, even despite the long distance, then with time, it became clear that equipping the base on the Moon is unpromising. The satellite did not have any minerals, which made expensive flights to the moon meaningless.

But today, when humanity thought about flights to Mars and the colonization of the Red Planet, for some time the Moon could become a transshipment base, which would greatly simplify long-range interplanetary flights. In fact, our satellite can become a testing ground, which will allow in the future to inhabit Mars and other habitable planets.

In parallel with the development of technology, flights to the natural satellite of the Earth have been substantially simplified, and the arrangement of the orbital base on it no longer seems unreal. Fly to the moon has become much safer and easier. Such flights in the next 10 years, despite the distance to the moon almost 400 thousand kilometers, will become commonplace, and people will return to the study of the far-range Earth.

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