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HAVE THE MAN WALKED ON THE MOON?

PARTE II: WHY DID NOT THE SOVIETS GO TO THE MOON?

artticle published on 26 October 2020


        From the short presentation of the space missions conducted by USA and USSR, in Part I, one can notice that, generally speaking, the results are similar.  Both powers achieved significant results in the Space Race. During the beginning period, the Soviets had a lot of successes and were on the top, taking into consideration their achievements: first satellite, first man in space, first astronaut outside a space ship and so on. Lately, the gap was closed. The Soviets have kept the supremacy in Venus exploration, while NASA has focused on Mars, where they have performed amazingly. The Soviets succeeded to get close enough to Halley Comet and collected interesting information. Although they did not send manned ships to the Moon, they intensely explored it, including a remote rover landing (Lunohod 1) which was active 11 months.[1] The Soviet scientists’ achievements were on the same level with the US scientists’ ones. It is necessary to add that nowadays, NASA uses Russian rockets, even based on Soviet projects, to perform space missions. Both powers also suffered major failures: aborted missions, explosion of rockets on the pad or in the air, death of astronauts and so on. In main, one can assess that it is difficult to make a statement about the Space race winner: USA or USSR? But this is less important. All I mentioned above bring up a question: why did not the Soviets go to the Moon?

          The answer is quite simple: Van Allen radiation belt. What is this? The Van Allen radiation belt is a zone of energetic charged particles, most of which originate from the solar wind. The particles are captured by and held around a planet by that planet’s magnetic field. It surrounds Earth, containing a nearly impenetrable barrier that prevents the fastest, most energetic electrons from reaching Earth.[2] The main constituents of the belts are believed to come from solar wind and cosmic rays. The belt is divided into two belts - outer and inner. The inner belt extends from roughly 600 miles to 3,700 miles, that is, from 1,000 km to 6,000 km above the earth's surface. The outer belt extends from 9,200 miles (15,000 km) to 15,600 miles (25,000 km) above the surface.[3] The Soviet scientists assessed that the living things were not able to resist the radiation beyond the Van Allen radiation belt.[4] And the medium distance between Earth and Moon is 384,000 km.

          What happened? During the beginning period of the Space Race, the Soviets launched space ships whose ”crews” consisted of animals and plants and they noticed that the living thing could not survive beyond the protection provided by magnetic field of Earth. Additionally, US physicist James A. Van Allen discovered the radiation belt in 1958. In honor of him, the belt was named Van Allen. The Soviets missions programs’ leaders did not risk sending astronauts beyond the protective shield. They did not have the technology for this.

          By studying, as much as I could, the Soviet and Russian articles regarding the manned ships lunar landing, I noticed they did not directly contest the success of lunar landing and the presence of men on the Moon. On the other hand, they also did not support this matter. They merely provide information about cosmic radiation and the danger posed by them, Van Allen belt and the impossibility of living thing to survive outside its limits.



[1] Article Lunokhod, on-line publication Space.com, on Internet at https://www.space.com/35090-lunokhod-1.html.

[2] Article What are the Van Allen radiation belts?, May 2020, on-line publication Space Center Houston, on Internet at https://spacecenter.org/what-are-the-van-allen-radiation-belts/.

[3] Article Definition of 'Van Allen Radiation Belts', on-line publication The Economic Times, on Internet at https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/definition/van-allen-radiation-belts.

[4] Article ОСВОЕНИЕ ЛУНЫ, chapter АПОЛЛОН 11. ИМИТАЦИЯ УДАЛЕННОГО ЛАНДШАФТА ЛУНЫ. СТЕРЕОСКОПИЧЕСКИЙ МЕТОД ПРОВЕРКИ МАТЕРИАЛОВ LRO and chapter ТОЧНЫЙ РАСЧЕТ ТРАЕКТОРИИ ПОЛЕТА АПОЛЛОН 11, АПОЛЛОН 14, АПОЛЛОН 15 И АПОЛЛОН 17 ЧЕРЕЗ РАДИАЦИОННЫЙ ПОЯС ЗЕМЛИ. ДОЗЫ РАДИАЦИИ, on-line publication ГОРОДСКОЕ ПОСЕЛЕНИЕ ГОРОД ЕРМОЛИНО, section РАЗДЕЛЫ НОВОСТЕЙ, on Internet at https://ligaspace.my1.ru/news/2013-02-24-434 and https://ligaspace.my1.ru/news/2011-04-10-301. 



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