The first mysterious discovery of the Chinese lunar rover: the Moon is not the same color as the Americans. The Chinese lunar rover "Jade Hare" resumed work Where no American has gone before

On December 2, 2013, the historic launch of the Chang'e-3 spacecraft took place on the Long March-3B launch vehicle. And already on December 6, the devices reached the orbit of the Moon. For some time they revolved around a celestial body at a distance of 100 kilometers above its surface. Now China is proud to announce that on December 14, 2013, the Chang'e-3 spacecraft with the Yutu (Jade Hare) rover on board made a soft landing, and by today the lunar rover had already begun its work...

Someone is deceiving someone

The Chinese rover Yutu, the Jade Hare, became the first vehicle to make a soft landing on the Moon after the last Americans, the crew of Apollo 17, Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmit, left it in December 1972.

In December 2013, the “hare” successfully landed on the moon and transmitted images from its arrival site. And they revived the debate that had died down about what color the Moon is? In Chinese photos it is brown. In the sky - silver. The Moon is approximately the same color in numerous photographs taken by American astronauts directly on the surface of our natural satellite. This surface is either white or grayish-silver in the sun. And in the shadows it’s dark.

The Chinese photographed the surface of the Moon without the hare - it is brown.
Photo: Xinhua

The American lunar rover of the Apollo 17 expedition rides on the gray Moon. Photo: NASA

The famous American researcher of anomalous phenomena, Joseph Skipper, was the first to say that there was something wrong with the color of the Moon several years ago. He accused NASA of a dirty trick. They say that for some mysterious reason the agency processed lunar images posted on official websites in the public domain. The real color of the objects was removed from all of them, making the landscapes black and white. Like in an old movie.

Skipper's suspicions were strengthened by the photograph he found, one of those taken by the crew of the last Apollo. The photo shows Eugene Cernan planting an American flag and taking a photo of himself, holding the camera at arm's length. Shmit walks around the lunar module, which is located in front of both the flag and the astronaut's spacesuit, which are bright and colorful. And the lunar surface is black and white. As usual.

The moon is gray, but the helmet reflects brown. Photo: NASA

But look at the glass of the helmet. It reflects both the lunar module and the surface on which it stands. The surface is brown. Just like in Chinese photographs from 2013. And it looks like this is the real color of the Moon.

“I don’t know why NASA whitened the images,” says Joseph Skipper. - They're probably hiding something. After all, as a rule, by removing the natural color of an object, its structure is masked. And the structure, in turn, can reveal certain details that should not come to the attention of the uninitiated.

According to the researcher, part of the photo with the flag was simply not processed due to an oversight. And the trick was revealed.

But the Chinese didn’t process anything at all. They didn't know it was supposed to be like that. The Americans did not warn them.

All shades of chocolate

Members of the Apollo 10 crew also testified that the Moon is brown. Then, in May 1969, the pilot of the lunar module was the same Eugene Cernan, the commander was Thomas Stafford, and the pilot of the command module was John Young. The astronauts were choosing a landing site for Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, who would be the first to set foot on the moon just a couple of months later.

The surface of the Moon taken from Apollo 10. Photo: NASA

Cernan and Stafford undocked from the command module and approached the surface to within 100 meters. We examined its color in detail. A detailed report was compiled about this. And they took pictures.

In the report of the Apollo 10 crew, pardon the pun, it is written in black and white that the Moon is sometimes light brown, sometimes reddish-brown, sometimes the color of dark chocolate. But not gray at all.

And in some photographs taken from Apollo 10, it is generally green with bright red splashes.

Strangely, the photographs of Cernan, Stafford and Young were the last in which the Moon had color. Then, starting with the first American landing, it became black and white.

In this photo the Moon is green. Photo: NASA

By the way, the astronauts from Apollo 17 also found something amazing in color right next to the landing site. On Earth there were enthusiastic and many times repeated cries: “I can’t believe it... It’s incredible... It’s orange... It’s like something is rusty here.” We are talking about soil that astronauts are trying to collect in a bag. She was probably brought to Earth. But no one has yet reported what the find was.

INSTEAD OF A COMMENT

There's some secret here

USSR pilot-cosmonaut Alexey Leonov, who was friends with Stafford, explained to me about the color of the Moon at one time: it’s all about the film on which it was shot and the reflectivity of the surface.

Each person perceives light in his own way,” said Alexey Arkhipovich. — Some people think it’s a brown shade, others it looks like a different shade. And photography is artificially invented layers. Any film is three colors. And a combination of three colors. The result depends on the processing. Depends on the angle of the light flux. One position of the light flux - one color. The sun is rising - a different color. A surface of the same color can reflect different wavelengths depending on the angle. And this is a different color.

I believe in Alexey Arkhipovich. But I still don’t understand: at first the Moon reflected so that it was brown, and then it began to reflect so that it became black and white on color film. And now she is brown again - in Chinese photographs.

There is some secret here. Or is there some kind of catch?

BY THE WAY…

Where no American has gone before

According to the plan, the Jade Hare was supposed to land on the moon on December 16, 2013 in the Rainbow Bay (Sinus Iridum) of the Mare Imbrium. But for some reason he landed on December 14 and about 400 kilometers to the east - in the Sea of ​​Rains itself.

Landing sites of American and Soviet stations, Apollo landing sites
Photo: NASA

There are no earthly devices near the "Hare". It’s as if the Chinese deliberately chose an untrodden area. The closest is the Soviet station "Luna-17". It's about a thousand kilometers away. Somewhere near it is the Soviet Lunokhod-1, which the Chinese one is very similar in wheels to.

Landing location of the Jade Hare: in the Sea of ​​Rains, not in Rainbow Bay.
Photo: NASA

The Apollo 15 landing site is more than 2,500 kilometers away. Apollo 17 is even further away. Or you could sit next to it to be sure to see the equipment left behind by the astronauts and photograph it. Or, conversely, not see it. To the delight of those who doubt that the Americans landed on the moon. However, the Chinese have their own plans.

Yutu is capable of reaching speeds of up to 200 meters per hour and climbing slopes of up to 30 degrees. Power is provided through solar panels, which will accumulate energy in batteries during the daytime and use it economically during the two-week lunar nights. To heat the device during cold times of the day, radioisotope heaters containing plutonium-238 will also operate.

Let us note that experts in the field of space exploration are still at a loss as to why they decided to “put the Moon on the back burner.” According to experts, the first people who landed on the surface of the Earth’s satellite were exposed to enormous danger and remained alive and well only by a miracle, because the environmental conditions were too harsh even for the highest technologies of that time.

The lunar soil was delivered to Earth and is being studied in laboratories to this day; a detailed map of the satellite has been compiled. "I believe that neither the Russians nor the Americans have returned to the Moon yet because there was no compelling reason to do so. And they still don't," says space policy expert John Logsdon.

But there is still a reason for the Chinese to go to the moon, and it's not just about political vanity or patriotism. Experts from China claim that on the surface of the natural satellite there are deposits of uranium, titanium and various minerals. In addition, this is an excellent place for extracting solar energy, since the Moon has no atmosphere, and therefore no cloudy weather.

There was recently a rumor in the Chinese media that by 2050 they would make a “Death Star” out of the Moon: they plan to establish a military missile base on the satellite to test weapons and launch research and combat missiles into space or to Earth. Even if these plans do not come to fruition, the proposed area for the base will need to be studied.

The element that deserves the most attention, according to the Chinese news agency Xinhua, is helium-3, an isotope of a well-known chemical element common on the Moon, which will become “an energy source ideal for replacing oil and gas.”

In theory, helium-3 mined on the Moon can be used to generate electricity for 10 thousand years, but in practice this is not yet feasible. The necessary thermonuclear fusion reactors simply do not exist.

"Obviously, one day we will exhaust our reserves of fossil fuels such as coal or gas. And the Moon has at least one million metric tons of helium-3," says Ouyang Ziyuan, a cosmochemist and member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Of course, delivering all these resources to Earth will cost cosmic sums, and it is not yet clear whether such expenses will pay off. But perhaps the next spacecraft, Chang'e-4, which will replace Chang'e-3, will be able to deliver invaluable helium-3, and the Chinese will be able to convince the world community of the need for a program for its mass production.

It is worth mentioning how the first Chinese lunar rover got its unusual name. It is not difficult to guess that it is rooted in mythology. According to Chinese mythology, once upon a time there lived a beautiful woman named Chang'e (the spacecraft is named after her). She stole from the gods and drank the elixir of immortality and suddenly noticed that her skin and hair began to lighten. The woman jumped and flew high into the sky until she reached the threshold of the Moon Palace. The gods found out that the beauty drank the elixir to become immortal like them, and they were angry with her. To punish the vain woman, they turned her into a three-legged toad and settled her on the moon.

Since then, Chang'e has lived there in the company of the lunar jade hare, who to this day poundes in a mortar the potion of immortality for the gods and his toad companion, who has become the goddess of the Moon and the night sky. Symbolic names for the apparatus and the lunar rover were chosen by popular vote.

In the photographs transmitted by the Jade Hare, the surface of our natural satellite for some reason appears brown, not gray.

The Chinese rover Yutu - the Jade Hare - became the first vehicle to make a soft landing on the Moon after the last Americans, the crew of Apollo 17, Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmit, left it in December 1972.

In December 2013, the “hare” successfully landed on the moon and transmitted images from its arrival site. And they revived the debate that had died down about what color the Moon is? In Chinese photos it is brown. In the sky - silver. The Moon is approximately the same color in numerous photographs taken by American astronauts directly on the surface of our natural satellite. This surface is either white or grayish-silver in the sun. And in the shadows it is dark.

Chinese lunar rover - "Jade Hare" - slides onto the brown surface of the Moon

The Chinese photographed the surface of the Moon even without the “hare” - it is brown.

American lunar rover of the Apollo 17 expedition - rides on the gray Moon

The famous American researcher of anomalous phenomena, Joseph Skipper, was the first to say that there was something wrong with the color of the Moon several years ago. He accused NASA of a dirty trick. They say that for some mysterious reason the agency processed lunar images posted on official websites in the public domain. The real color of the objects was removed from all of them, making the landscapes black and white. Like in an old movie.

Skipper's suspicions were strengthened by the photograph he found, one of those taken by the crew of the last Apollo. The photo shows Eugene Cernan planting an American flag and taking a photo of himself, holding the camera at arm's length. Shmit walks around the lunar module, which is located in front of both the flag and the astronaut’s spacesuit, which are bright and colorful. And the lunar surface is black and white. As usual.

The moon is gray, but the helmet reflects brown

But look at the glass of the helmet. It reflects both the lunar module and the surface on which it stands. The surface is brown. Just like in Chinese photographs from 2013. And it looks like this is the real color of the Moon.

“I don’t know why NASA bleached the pictures,” says Joseph Skipper. - They're probably hiding something. After all, as a rule, by removing the natural color of an object, its structure is masked. And the structure, in turn, can reveal certain details that should not come to the attention of the uninitiated.

According to the researcher, part of the photo with the flag was simply not processed due to an oversight. And the trick was revealed. But the Chinese didn’t process anything at all. They didn't know it was supposed to be like that. The Americans did not warn them.

All shades of chocolate, not gray

Members of the Apollo 10 crew also testified that the Moon is brown. Then, in May 1969, the pilot of the lunar module was the same Eugene Cernan, the commander was Thomas Stafford, and the pilot of the command module was John Young. The astronauts were choosing a landing site for Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, who would be the first to set foot on the moon just a couple of months later.

Cernan and Stafford undocked from the command module and approached the surface to within 100 meters. We examined its color in detail. A detailed report was compiled about this. And they took pictures.

In the report of the Apollo 10 crew, pardon the pun, it is written in black and white that the Moon is sometimes light brown, sometimes reddish-brown, sometimes the color of dark chocolate. But not gray at all.

The surface of the Moon, taken from board

And in some photographs taken from Apollo 10, it is generally green with bright red splashes.

Strangely, the photographs of Cernan, Stafford and Young were the last in which the Moon had color. Then, starting with the first American landing, it became black and white.

In this photo the moon is green

By the way, the astronauts from Apollo 17 also found something amazing in color right next to the landing site. On Earth there were enthusiastic and many times repeated cries: “I can’t believe it... It’s incredible... It’s orange... It’s like something is rusty here.” We are talking about soil that astronauts are trying to collect in a bag. She was probably brought to Earth. But no one has yet reported what the find was.

INSTEAD OF A COMMENT

There is some secret here.

USSR pilot-cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, who was friends with Stafford, explained to me about the color of the Moon at one time: it’s all about the film on which it was shot and the reflectivity of the surface.

Each person perceives light in his own way,” said Alexey Arkhipovich. - Some people think it's a brown shade, others - a different shade. And photography is artificially invented layers. Any film is three colors. And a combination of three colors. The result depends on the processing. Depends on the angle of the light flux. One position of the light flux - one color. The sun rises - a different color. A surface of the same color can reflect different wavelengths depending on the angle. And this is a different color.

I believe in Alexey Arkhipovich. But I still don’t understand: at first the Moon reflected so that it was brown, and then it began to reflect so that it became black and white on color film. And now she is brown again - in Chinese photographs.

There is some secret here. Or is there some kind of catch?

In the photographs transmitted by the Jade Hare, the surface of our natural satellite for some reason appears brown, not gray.

The Chinese lunar rover Yutu, the Jade Hare, became the first vehicle to make a soft landing on the Moon after the last Americans, the crew of Apollo 17, Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmit, left it in December 1972.

In December 2013, the “hare” successfully landed on the moon and transmitted images from its arrival site. And they revived the debate that had died down about what color the Moon is? In Chinese photos it is brown. In the sky - silver. The Moon is approximately the same color in numerous photographs taken by American astronauts directly on the surface of our natural satellite. This surface is either white or grayish-silver in the sun. And in the shadows it is dark.

The famous American researcher of anomalous phenomena, Joseph Skipper, was the first to say that there was something wrong with the color of the Moon several years ago. He accused NASA of a dirty trick. They say that for some mysterious reason the agency processed lunar images posted on official websites in the public domain. The real color of the objects was removed from all of them, making the landscapes black and white. Like in an old movie.

Skipper's suspicions were strengthened by the photograph he found, one of those taken by the crew of the last Apollo. The photo shows Eugene Cernan planting an American flag and taking a photo of himself, holding the camera at arm's length. Shmit walks around the lunar module, which is located in front of both the flag and the astronaut's spacesuit, which are bright and colorful. And the lunar surface is black and white. As usual.

But look at the glass of the helmet. It reflects both the lunar module and the surface on which it stands. The surface is brown. Just like in Chinese photographs from 2013. And it looks like this is the real color of the Moon.

“I don’t know why NASA whitened the images,” says Joseph Skipper. - They're probably hiding something. After all, as a rule, by removing the natural color of an object, its structure is masked. And the structure, in turn, can reveal certain details that should not come to the attention of the uninitiated.

According to the researcher, part of the photo with the flag was simply not processed due to an oversight. And the trick was revealed. But the Chinese didn’t process anything at all. They didn't know it was supposed to be like that. The Americans did not warn them.

All shades of chocolate, not gray

Members of the Apollo 10 crew also testified that the Moon is brown. Then, in May 1969, the pilot of the lunar module was the same Eugene Cernan, the commander was Thomas Stafford, and the pilot of the command module was John Young. The astronauts were choosing a landing site for Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, who would be the first to set foot on the moon just a couple of months later.

Cernan and Stafford undocked from the command module and approached the surface to within 100 meters. We examined its color in detail. A detailed report was compiled about this. And they took pictures.

In the report of the Apollo 10 crew, pardon the pun, it is written in black and white that the Moon is sometimes light brown, sometimes reddish-brown, sometimes the color of dark chocolate. But not gray at all.

And in some photographs taken from Apollo 10, it is generally green with bright red splashes.

Strangely, the photographs of Cernan, Stafford and Young were the last in which the Moon had color. Then, starting with the first American landing, it became black and white.

By the way, the astronauts from Apollo 17 found something amazing in color right next to the landing site. On Earth there were enthusiastic and many times repeated cries: “I can’t believe it... It’s incredible... It’s orange... It’s like something is rusty here.” We are talking about soil that astronauts are trying to collect in a bag. She was probably brought to Earth. But no one has yet reported what the find was.

INSTEAD OF A COMMENT

There is some secret here.

USSR pilot-cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, who was friends with Stafford, explained to me about the color of the Moon at one time: it’s all about the film on which it was shot and the reflectivity of the surface.