70 years ago on Earth for the first time received a radio signal reflected from the moon

Modern technology surpasses the dreams and ideas of the current day of our ancestors. People communicate with each other without problems, even if they live on opposite sides of the globe. NASA is planning a manned expedition to Mars, ESA - to the moon. In space and on other planets, quite a lot of different devices work.

With these devices stable communication is maintained, even New Horizons transmits a large amount of information , being from the Earth in billions of kilometers. In the 40s of the last century, all this was still impossible, but scientists have already taken the first steps. So, on January 10, 1946, specialists from the USA recorded the first terrestrial radio signal reflected from the surface of the moon. At 11:58 local time (New Jersey) such a signal was sent, and after 2.5 seconds its reflection was recorded on Earth.


On the left - registration of the sent signal, on the right - registration of its reflection from the surface of the moon. The

experiment was conducted as part of Project Diana , the name of the project was in honor of Diana, the goddess of the moon. According to some modern experts, the project itself and its results marked the beginning of the American space program. It was the cornerstone, a launching pad for space communications and modern radio astronomy.

Despite the interesting result, the project participants did not even think that all this was the beginning of the space program or the first steps of the program of man’s landing on the moon. The main objective of the project was to find out whether the moon can reflect the radio signal. No more, no less. At that time, people did not think about landing on the moon.

Now similar technologies are used to study distant planets and control a large number of spacecraft. In addition, it was thanks to this technology that scientists were able to determine the distance to the moon with an accuracy of a millimeter. Project Diana was one of the most minor projects for his contemporaries. But, as it turned out, it was he who opened the sky to earthlings.