The restored data of the Apollo mission helped to solve the mystery of the "heating of the moon"

As you know, the Americans were not on the moon, these are all reptiloids . US astronauts visited the moon several times. The Apollo missions helped to learn a lot about the Earth’s natural satellite, including some surface features. The active phase of the experiments lasted from 1971 to 1977, during which time NASA scientists discovered many interesting things, including the strange process of heating the surface of the moon. True, the measurement results for 1974 were lost, so the experts could not name the reason for what was going on - everything looked very strange.

But now, when a group of researchers from the University of Texas discovered and recovered this data, everything became clearat least partially. As it turned out, the experimenters themselves could become the cause of the rise in the temperature of the Moon, and in 1974 they conducted research, the purpose of which was to understand how quickly the moon cooled.

Astronauts of the Apollo missions 15 and 17 drilled holes in the surface, about 2.3 meters deep. Then they measured the temperature at different depths. It was, one might say, a long-term experiment, and no one had buried the drilled holes.

The temperature at the Apollo landing site 15 was studied from July 1971 to January 1977. At the landing site of the Apollo, 17 the temperature was measured from December 1972 to September 1977. The data were recorded on tape and placed in a special storage. After 1974, the cassettes were stored in another place, so several data sets, measurements of the temperature of the lunar surface, turned out to be in different places. Information for 1974 was generally considered lost, as mentioned above.

And it was 1974 that was of great interest to scientists, since after 1971 the temperature of the surface of the moon began to rise for no apparent reason. And the information for 1974 was like a link between different time points.

In 2010, researchers from the University of Texas discovered the missing data recorded on 440 tapes. Unfortunately, many of them were spoiled . But technology has gone far ahead in the past time, and for 8 years of work, scientists were able, using various methods, to recover data even on very badly damaged media. Information managed to digitize and study. By the way, there were more than 4 thousand cassettes, and now only one-tenth is found. Nevertheless, even this information helped to understand the reason for the heating of the moon.

So, the recovered data showed that the surface layers of the soil were heated most of all. And it turned out that the heat went from top to bottom, and quite quickly. Up until the end of 1977, when the observations were completed, the surface temperature was getting higher. But what was the reason?

After studying photographs of the astronaut landing site, it turned out that people and equipment removed a thin layer of weathered regolith with a high albedo. Opened a darker layer of lunar soil, which was heated faster than the regolith with a high reflectivity. Thus, the more actively the work at the landing site went, the faster the dark ground opened and the surface was heated.

“In the process of installing scientific instruments, you in any case affect the environment in a certain way,” the researchers report says. As it turned out, it was precisely in the case of astronauts that the impact was critical, the temperature factor began to appear.

In more detail all that happened is described in the authoritative scientific journal Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets .

Now they are going to the moon. The President of the United States, Donald Trump, has repeatedly stated his desire to start exploring the natural satellite of the Earth again. Not only NASA, but also private companies are looking for opportunities to go to the moon to establish at least a small colony. For example, Jeff Bezos recently announced that his company should have enough resources to create at least a small settlement of people, even without the support of NASA and ESA.

According to Bezos, if a person goes to the Moon, and begins to extract useful resources there, it will help to preserve the resources and atmosphere of the Earth. In this case, the heavy industry will be located on the satellite, where almost free energy. There is water there too, about which scientists have repeatedly reported. So in the relatively near future, we can expect if not a full-fledged colony, then at least regular flights of people to the moon.

In addition to the Americans, the Chinese are also showing an active interest in the exploration of the Moon, who are now developing their own space program for the exploration of the near space.