Question by doubz: Is there any way the Soviets were the first to send a man to the moon?
I am currently working on a sci-fi project that involves the following premise: that the Soviets secretly shoot their first cosmonaut to the moon before the Apollo 11 landing. This manned moon mission is later covered up due to a catastrophe that befalls the cosmonaut in the lunar environment. In the movie Apollo 18, an LK lunar lander along with its dead cosmonaut are discovered on the moon. Is there any way that the LK or some other Soviet lunar module beat the US to the moon without being detected? I have also been reading about lost cosmonauts, spacemen/women that died or disappeared, perhaps even in the vastness of space. More can be read about them here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Cosmonauts. (I specifically focused on the sections titled “The Torre Bert Recordings” and “Moon-Shot Allegations.”) Might for instance the Lunik spacecraft have drifted out of the earth’s orbit and landed on the moon?
Any expert opinions would be much appreciated, and if you provide links I will be eternally grateful!
Answers and Views:
Answer by Professor Know It All
that’s only science fiction my friend. It certainly did not happen in real life.
Read all the answers in the comments.
What do you think?
Scott Stevenson says
The nice thing about sci-fi is that you can make anything happen. If you're asking if there is any possibility of it having actually happened, the answer is no.
The first problem was the Soviet moon rocket, the N1. The Soviet engineers were very bright, but by the late 60's, they had fallen behind the US in terms of really big rocket engines. As a result, the N1 used smaller engines (30 of them!) clustered together.
Because the number of interactions between engines quickly becomes astronomical as the number of engines go up, they were never able to correct the problems. The net result is that everytime an N1 was tested, it would launch, begin to climb, and what rapidly followed was
a) a fireball
b) a really loud "boom"
c) pieces of the rocket raining down.
Also, there are only certain times you can launch to the moon, depending on where your launch site is (OK, technically you could launch anytime if you had an unlimited amount of fuel, but the amount you could carry limited you to these "launch windows"). We knew when the Soviet launch windows would open, and we were monitoring them. No launches (at least of anything big enough to carry a person) ever happened.
Finally, there is the communications issue. We could monitor Soviet communications and telemetry (and they could monitor ours) and we never picked up any communications from cosmonauts going to the moon.
"Might for instance the Lunik spacecraft have drifted out of the earth's orbit and landed on the moon?"
Sorry, but that simply can't happen. The only way you can get to the moon is by going fast enough to get away from the earth–you can't "drift" there. The only way you can get going fast enough is if you have a big enough rocket, which, as I explained, exploded every time it was launched.
The "lost cosmonaut" hoaxes have a lot of holes in them (as do almost all hoaxes). When you said that you read the wikipedia article you quoted, did you also read the parts where it explained how those things simply couldn't have happened the way the hoaxers claim they did?
IamJoy says
It can't be denied that the Russians had superior rocket technology to the USA, which is why the USA got so scared of Russia getting to the moon that they rushed their men into space to beat them. I think you'd get a better, more intelligent response by asking in specialist forums that deal with space technology. I don't think the people who use this Q&A are likely to give you the info you're seeking.
p.s. Sounds like a great SF story you'll be writing!
jotacar says
Truth is stranger than fiction..and the story that you described is pure fiction.
The Soviets put the first man in orbit, but that was relatively simple. It was many years later that they had the capability to take part in space lab activities.
Only N.A.S.A. had the know-how to put men on the moon. You'll notice that no one else has done it since, although the Chinese are talking about it.