1970 Russian Moon Samples
November 7th 2008 06:26
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The former Soviet Union has the distinction of being the first nation to visit the Moon with the launch of spacecraft Luna 2 in 1959. A storm of controversy arose when Luna 16 (also called Lunik 16). Luna 16 was launched just three days before Apollo 11 landed on the Moon. There was some concern expressed at the time that the Apollo 11 mission would be compromised. The end of 1960’s was when the space race was well under way.
The two superpowers were locked in a race for the ultimate prize landing a human on the Moon. Luna 15 crashed only a few hours after Neil Armstrong stepped on to the Sea of Tranquility. Not to be outdone the Russians did manage to bring back Moon samples by using a robotic Lander Luna 16, the probe landed on the Sea of Fertility on 20th of September 1970.
Luna16 drilled several holes on the Moon’s surface and collected soil and rock samples the samples were transferred to spherical probe attached to the decent engine then fired it’s accent engine for a return to Earth. The capsule, with its 105 grams of lunar soil, reentered Earth's atmosphere at a velocity of 11 kilometers per second. The capsule parachuted down 80 kilometers southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan at 05:25 UT on 24 September 1970 the sample were similar to the samples obtained by the Apollo missions.
A speculation about ancient microorganisms on the Moon was fueled by two biologists at the Russian Academy of Sciences, Stanislav I. Zhmur, Institute of the Lithosphere and Lyudmila M. Gerasimenko, Institute of Biology. They noticed that a few of the particles in the photographs taken under high magnification were virtually identical to fossils of known biological species found on Earth, These fossils are possible evidence for ancient life that had existed elsewhere in space.
There are many theories about the origin of fossilized bacteria found on the Moon. There reason to believe that bacteria from Earth may have been transported to the Moon when Earth was struck by an asteroid releasing massive amounts of debris deep into space some of which deposited on the Moon’s surface eons ago.
A camera from an unmanned surveyor probe that landed on the Moon some 3 years previously and retrieved by the Apollo astronauts was returned to Earth under sterile conditions. The camera opened under laboratory conditions was found to have bacteria that had originated from Earth perhaps when the camera was first assembled and installed by ground technicians. The bacteria had survived the air and waterless environment, the extreme temperatures and radiation on the Moon.
Since then no other county has used a robot spacecraft to bring back samples from space with the exception of the return of comet dust from NASA Stardust mission. A remote mission to bring back samples from space is no mean feat especially in the 1960’s there as so many things that could go a-rye. Which begs the question why send humans to Mars?.
A robot spacecraft could successfully bring back Martian soil samples back to Earth without risking human life, considering that a manned mission would take in excess of 18 months to complete a round trip.
The two superpowers were locked in a race for the ultimate prize landing a human on the Moon. Luna 15 crashed only a few hours after Neil Armstrong stepped on to the Sea of Tranquility. Not to be outdone the Russians did manage to bring back Moon samples by using a robotic Lander Luna 16, the probe landed on the Sea of Fertility on 20th of September 1970.
A speculation about ancient microorganisms on the Moon was fueled by two biologists at the Russian Academy of Sciences, Stanislav I. Zhmur, Institute of the Lithosphere and Lyudmila M. Gerasimenko, Institute of Biology. They noticed that a few of the particles in the photographs taken under high magnification were virtually identical to fossils of known biological species found on Earth, These fossils are possible evidence for ancient life that had existed elsewhere in space.
Luna 16
A camera from an unmanned surveyor probe that landed on the Moon some 3 years previously and retrieved by the Apollo astronauts was returned to Earth under sterile conditions. The camera opened under laboratory conditions was found to have bacteria that had originated from Earth perhaps when the camera was first assembled and installed by ground technicians. The bacteria had survived the air and waterless environment, the extreme temperatures and radiation on the Moon.
Luna 16 Moon samples return capsuel after touchdown
Since then no other county has used a robot spacecraft to bring back samples from space with the exception of the return of comet dust from NASA Stardust mission. A remote mission to bring back samples from space is no mean feat especially in the 1960’s there as so many things that could go a-rye. Which begs the question why send humans to Mars?.
A robot spacecraft could successfully bring back Martian soil samples back to Earth without risking human life, considering that a manned mission would take in excess of 18 months to complete a round trip.
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