My Science School

         The Soviet Union and USA are pioneers in lunar explorations. However, America’s early missions to reach the Moon either failed or met with little success though they had strong scientific objectives.

           After a series of embarrassing failures, the last three spacecraft of the Ranger series - Ranger 7, Ranger 8 and Ranger 9— worked out as planned. All the three returned with high resolution photographs of the Moon. The quality of the photographs increased as the spacecraft moved closer to the Moon. The images showed craters, with the last images displaying craters less than a metre across. These were evidences of the impact origin of the lunar craters. There was no way that volcanism could produce similar craters of all sizes, hundreds of kilometres away from each other.

            The US launched five Lunar orbiters that were designed to acquire high resolution images of potential Apollo landing sites after the Ranger Mission. It looked for the views of special craters, rills and mountains, and 100 mm resolution images of much of the entire Moon. This was followed by Lunar Surveyors and the grand Apollo Mission.

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          While playing darts, you aim your dart to an exact point on the dart board. Or else, you will probably miss the target. But this won’t work for a spacecraft if it is to land on the Moon. Wonder why?

          Your dart board is a stationary object while the Moon is always in motion. In addition to that, a spacecraft always travels in a curve. Therefore the scientists always aim for a point in space. But they do not choose a random point. They calculate the time that the Moon would take to reach the exact point.

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          Luna 16, Luna 20 and Luna 24 had something in common- their ability to collect lunar soil and bring it back to the Earth for further analysis.

          Luna 16 was Soviet Union’s first robotic probe to collect samples of lunar soil from Mare Fecunditatis and return to the Earth. It was a huge success for the Soviet Union; Luna 16 marked the first fully automatic recovery of soil sample from the surface of a celestial body. Luna 20 was sent to the Moon in 1972, two years after the success of Luna 16. It returned soil samples from a mountainous area known as Terra Apollonius. It obtained lunar soil with the help of a drilling apparatus.

          Luna 24 was the last spacecraft that belonged to the Soviet Union’s Luna Programme. This probe was sent in 1976 and landed in Mare Crisium. The scientists of the Soviet Union claimed the presence of water in the lunar soil samples returned by Luna 24.

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          Landing on the Moon was Man’s eternal dream. But before that, a lot of things about the Moon had to be known. This was to reduce the risks an astronaut has to face when he landed on the Moon. Lunar probes were sent to the Moon to gather as much information as possible and to ensure the safety and success of a manned mission.

          Lunar probes were unmanned, computer controlled spacecraft. Much of what we know about the lunar environment comes from the studies conducted using these lunar probes. They confirmed that the surface of the Moon is firm enough for a spaceship to land.

          Some probes were put into an orbit around the Moon. These probes took a lot of pictures of our satellite from different angles that helped in finding a suitable site for landing a manned mission.

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          Luna 10 was the first spacecraft to not only orbit the Moon, but the first to orbit any celestial body other than the Earth. A probe sent to study the lunar environment; it confirmed the Moon’s lack of atmosphere. It also made the first measurements of the lunar soil composition.

          Luna 10 was a predecessor to astronaut orbital missions. It was 1.5 metres tall and the base was 75 centimetres in diameter. It contained seven instruments including devices for measuring infrared emissions from the Moon, low energy X-ray detectors, and a bank of charged particle detectors. A radio system was installed in Luna 10 for gravitational and radio occultation studies.

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          In earlier days, most often, when a probe hit the surface of the Moon, it was either damaged or destroyed completely. When the probe lands smoothly on the surface without damaging the vehicle or anything on board, it is said to have a soft landing.

          After a dozen failed attempts, Luna 9 made the first successful soft landing on the Moon. Luna 9 landed in Oceanus Procellarum, showing a rough surface free of deep dust. It also sent back the first close-up images of the Moon. This unmanned space mission was carried out by the Soviet Union in 1966.

          It was developed and designed under the guidance of Sergei Korolev. The spacecraft weighed 99 kilograms and it used a landing bag to reduce the impact of landing. But, it bounced several times before coming to rest.

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          The Soviet Union’s Moon mission advanced with each lunar probe. Luna 3 was another feather in the Soviet Union’s hat; it took the first ever photographs of the far side, the side of the Moon that can never be seen from the Earth.

          Luna 3 was the third space probe to be sent to the vicinity of the Moon. Though the pictures that it captured were of poor quality, Luna 3 did manage to create a lot of excitement when they were published. These photographs showed mountainous terrains that were very different from the near side.

          Luna 3 had a cylindrical shape with hemispherical ends, and both the ends held protruded antennas. The upper hemisphere held the cameras with temperature and radiation resistant films.

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          On 12 September 1959, the Soviet Union launched Luna 2. It became the first spacecraft to reach the surface of the Moon. Also, it was the first man-made object that made contact with another celestial body.

          It was the sixth spacecraft of the Soviet Union’s Luna Programme and was nicknamed Lunik 2. The other missions that either failed to launch or did not show good results were left unnamed. Luna 2 had a design similar to that of Luna 1. The spacecraft was spherical in shape and had antennas that projected outwards. The mission was not only a success; it also challenged the spacecraft technology of the Americans.

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          Between 1959 and 1976, the Soviet Union carried out a series of robotic spacecraft missions to the Moon known as the Luna Programme. Some of them were orbiters- designed to orbit the Moon- while others were landers-designed to land on the surface of the Moon.

          Out of the twenty-four spacecraft that were sent to the Moon, fifteen were successful. They performed several experiments to study various aspects of the Moon like chemical make-up, gravity, radiation and temperature.

          The failed missions were not given Luna numbers initially. The programme is credited with many notable ‘lunar firsts’ like the first image of the lunar far side, and the first lunar orbiter.

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A label on a pair of Waste<Less denim jeans made by a top American manufacturer proudly announces: “These jeans are made of garbage.” The company has taken the lead in reusing the massive amounts of plastic waste produced by modern society. In the U.S. alone, around a million plastic bottles are used every twenty minutes. A minuscule amount, less than 30 per cent, is recycled.

The company’s partial solution to the problem was to create two lines of clothing – jeans and trucker jackets – that contain 20 per cent recycled plastic. The plastic bottles and food trays collected from dumps are cleaned, sorted and crushed into flakes. A special technology then spins the plastic into polyester fibre. It is blended with cotton fibre, then woven into yarn to create the denim. The denim looks and feels like traditional denim except that the colour on the inner side is brown, green or clear, depending on the colour of the plastic used.

The company reused more than 3.6 million bottles and food trays for the 300,000 Waste<Less jeans and jackets produced in 2013.

 

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          Much before Man landed on the Moon, spacecraft were sent into space. The space race officially began in the 1950s when the former Soviet Union and America began sending a bunch of rockets into space.

          There was a neck-to-neck competition between the two countries. But, the Soviet Union stood one step ahead in the competition with the successful launch of Sputnik I. Their superiority in journeys to the Moon began with the launch of Luna 1.

          Luna 1 created history in 1959; it was the first vehicle to fly near the Moon. It was launched as a part of the Soviet Luna Programme. It became famous as the first spacecraft to leave the geocentric orbit. It could not detect any magnetic field on the Moon as well.

          However, a malfunction in the ground-based control system caused an error in the burn time of the rocket and as a result it could not land on the Moon. Luna 1 was followed by several missions some of which were major flops.

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          For a long time, people believed that there was life on the Moon. The French astronomer Adrien Auzout was one of the first scientists to challenge this idea with observational data. He proposed that no changes were observed on the lunar surface and published his observations in the first volume of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Auzout began his discussion with the changes the lunar inhabitants might observe on the surface of the Earth. They would see moving clouds, the increasing green colours as crops grow, and a decrease in dark areas as forests were cut.

          Such changes that seem natural have never been observed on the surface of the Moon. Thus, he concluded that there was no life on the Moon. Also, since there were no seas or clouds on the Moon, it was unlikely that it had an atmosphere. Though his observations were precise, they did not create any impact on people.

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          In the last week of August 1853, The Sun, a New York newspaper came up with an article series that got America talking. The article series talked about some of the stunning discoveries made by the British astronomer Sir John Herschel.

          Apparently, Sir John Herschel had made a huge new telescope with which he observed the celestial bodies. The article talked in length about Sir John’s most celebrated finding- life on the Moon. The articles talked about creatures on the Moon that were half human and half bat. These creatures built several temples on the Moon. There were also other fantastic animals and oceans. The paper created so much excitement and thousands of copies were sold. But, the article turned out to be a hoax. In fact, even Sir John didn’t know about the discoveries that were attributed to him.

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The concept of eco-city was introduced by Richard Register in his book “Ecocity Berkeley: Building Cities for a Healthy Future (1987).”

The World Bank defines eco-cities as “cities that enhance the well-being of citizens and society through integrated urban planning and management that harness the benefits of ecological systems and protect and nurture these assets for future generations”. Although there is no universally accepted definition of an 'eco-city', among available definitions, there is some consensus on the basic features of an eco-city.

Eco-cities are commonly found to focus on new-build developments, especially in developing nations such as China, wherein foundations are being laid for new eco-cities catering to 500,000 or more inhabitants.

Features of an eco-city:

• Pollution is kept to the minimum.


• Use of fossil fuels is reduced or eliminated.


• Renewable energy sources like wind turbines, solar panels, bio-gas from sewage etc. are used.


• Waste is recycled.


• Buildings are built in accordance with green norms.


• At least 20 per cent of the city surface is covered with water features and green space.


• Energy-efficient public transport, footpaths and biking routes reduce the use of cars.

 

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          Grove Karl Gilbert was an American geologist who proposed that the Moon was formed by the accretion of small rocky particles.

          The American cosmochemist Harold Urey supported this view almost sixty years later. He believed that accretion was a cold process; the Moon formed almost 4.5 billion years ago without any volcanic eruption. Rather, it took shape from cold chondritic material-small meteorite particles with mineral granules.

          This was not true though. Urey was later proved wrong. Apollo observers confirmed that the maria were volcanic lava flows, and the Moon had been hot.

          Urey later came up with another theory about the capture of a moon that was once formed elsewhere in the solar system. This proposition remained popular for a while.

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