A prominent astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first “visitor” to the Moon, once said of his legendary journey: “A small step for man, but a huge leap for humanity.” Armstrong became not only the first researcher of the Moon, but also a dreamer who brought humanity closer to the realization of the boldest plans

More than half a century has passed since the first man landed on the Moon, and the era of space exploration has continued ever since. Elon Musk is already planning to conquer Mars, however, according to the financial report of Virgin Galactic, for the “pleasure” of visiting space, those who wish will need to pay about $ 450,000 per place. Do you think only dreams? I want to believe that this plan will one day come true, as the prophecies of science fiction writers about the development of the moon were realized.

Today in the National Museum of Cosmonautics named after S.P. Koroliov we can see many interesting exhibits that have become real evidence of the realization of dreams of space exploration. And the real lunar soil, or regolith, from different parts of the Moon, is also here. Imagine that there are only 382 kg of lunar soil and rocks on Earth, brought from the moon by 12 astronauts of the Apollo mission, who made six successful expeditions. These cosmic discoveries have different mineral composition. The Zhytomyr Museum contains two types of rocks: volcanic (lava) and those resulting from the crushing, mixing and sintering of lunar rocks when meteorites fall.

According to the decision of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), adopted after the Apollo program, access to almost 75% of lunar soil samples is closed. Unique space “trophies” are stored in Texas, in a special laboratory of the lunar soil of the Johnson Space Center. There are also samples that came to the Laboratory after the exchange of results between American and Soviet researchers after the completion of space missions “Luna-16, -20, -24”.

Exposition “Space” in Zhytomyr National Museum of Cosmonautics named after S.P. Koroliov contains many interesting exhibits, but those 18 small particles weighing a total of 9 milligrams under a magnifying glass are really impressive! If you look closely, you will see that the lunar soil is like sand or crushed mountain soil. This similarity is not only external. In their composition, these amazing crumbs are also similar to rocks, so scientists are conducting research with them on growing plants. Who knows what the results of such work will turn into in a few years. Maybe soon people will really be able to live on the moon?

Today, Ukrainian scientists are actively continuing to study outer space. A team of scientists from NASA-administered Artemis is working to deliver a manned spacecraft to the moon and build infrastructure there. Further plans – to send astronauts to Mars.

By the way, Zhytomyr residents are among those who plan to explore outer space. These are Serhiy Yakimov, who in 2013 decided to apply for a mission to colonize Mars MarsOne and passed to the final hundred, and Oleksiy Pakhunov, who works for Ilon Mask as a senior software developer. It is quite possible that they fell in love with outer space at first sight on the lunar soil, which can be seen today in the exhibition “Space”.

So if you haven’t seen this unearthly wonder yet – go to the museum!
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