Countries at large have turned to the Moon – Photo: AFP
news page Conversation Several questions arise: Why do missions fail? What is the secret of success in space missions?
run to the moon
So far, the Moon is the only celestial body that man has observed. Undoubtedly, humans are the first to go to the Moon as it is the closest planet to us at a distance of 400,000 km.
However, only four countries have successfully achieved “soft landings” on the lunar surface—landings where spacecraft survive.
The Soviet Union was the first country. Luna 9 (Moon 9) landed safely on the Moon in February 1966, almost 60 years ago.
Four months after Luna 9, the Americans landed Surveyor 1 in the stormy ocean of the Moon in June 1966.
China was the next country to join the “moon club” with the Chang’e 3 spacecraft in 2013.
And now India has also reached the moon with Chandrayaan-3.
Missions from Japan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Israel, Russia, the European Space Agency, Luxembourg, South Korea, and Italy have also achieved some “measures of success” with missions flying through the Moon’s orbit.
events are not uncommon
On August 19, 2023, the Russian space agency Roscosmos announced that “communication with the Luna 25 spacecraft has been disrupted”. Attempts to contact the spacecraft on 20 August were unsuccessful, leading Roscosmos to determine that Luna 25 had crashed.
Luna 25’s failure is reminiscent of two famous Moon accidents in 2019.
In April 2019, the Israeli lander Beresheet landed after a gyroscope failed during braking and ground crew lost contact.
And in September 2019, India sent the Vikram lander to the lunar surface, but it was unable to “survive” after landing.
Space is still full of risks
Space mission is a risky job. More than 50% of landings on the Moon were successful.
Even small satellites entering Earth’s orbit have achieved success rates of only between 40 and 70%.
Why do so many unmanned missions fail?
There are many reasons for this: technical difficulties, lack of experience and even the political context of each country.
However, there is also a fact: rocket launches into space are not very common in national plans.
There are approximately 1.5 billion cars and 40,000 aircraft in the world. In contrast, in the history of aerospace, fewer than 20,000 rockets of all types have been launched into space.
Too many things still go wrong with planes today and in the world of road traffic.
So it is not realistic to claim that space flight will solve all problems immediately, be it the rocket launch phase or the rarefied phase of trying to land on the globe. It is strange.
In the long term, to be able to do long distance space travel, there are many things that need to be solved.
Some problems soon appear to be solved, such as better radiation shielding, self-sustaining ecosystems, autonomous robots, air and water extraction, and the problem of zero gravity.
If going to the Moon is being considered for a research mission, so scientists will have time to step back and carefully consider every detail, it is surely better than betting on a race for political power, p. According Conversation,
thrilling race to the moon
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