How many kilometers from the earth to the moon. For some reason, all the remaining planets of the solar system fit exactly between the earth and the moon.

Space has always interested man. Distant, unknown and mysterious: the possibilities of space travel and the discovery of new distant worlds have invariably excited man. The closest celestial body to us is the earth’s satellite, the Moon, so it is not surprising that even at the dawn of space exploration, man tried to fly to this celestial body. We will tell you how long it takes to fly to the Moon and talk about the history of its exploration.

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The Battle for Space: History of Exploration

The Soviet Union was the first to send a man into space, thereby winning an unspoken competition with the United States of America. In response to this, they began to develop their own lunar program, which initially implied orbital flights of the satellite, and subsequently the landing of people on the Moon.

It is impossible to calculate how much money was spent on this program. Experts note that in comparable prices the implementation of this program is estimated at $500 billion. Especially for such flights, NASA developed the Saturn 5 rocket, which made it possible to reach the Moon in 3-4 days. This launch vehicle was the most powerful rocket at that time, which could cover a huge distance of several hundred thousand km from the Earth to our satellite in the shortest possible time.

The first person to set foot on the surface of the Moon was the American Neil Armstrong, who in 1969, as part of the Apollo 11 mission, was able to land the lunar module near the Sea of ​​Tranquility. Subsequently, several successful American manned missions were sent, and in total about a dozen astronauts visited the surface of the satellite, conducted numerous studies and brought more than 20 kilograms of lunar soil to Earth.

A few years later, interest in the Moon waned, and it was decided to curtail the expensive flight program. This is explained by the high cost of manned flights, so the United States and the Soviet Union decided to concentrate their attention on near-Earth space exploration and the construction of manned stations in Earth orbit. Flying into Earth orbit was much easier and cheaper, and the creation of an orbital station made it possible to significantly advance the development of space research.

Interest in long-distance flights faded for almost 30 years. Only today, when humanity is thinking about research and, has interest in our satellite reappeared, which is considered as a possible transshipment base for long-distance interplanetary flights. Humanity has made a significant step forward in the field of rocket science, which allows not only to reduce the cost of such flights, but also to make them much faster and safer.

History of the conquest:

How long does it take to fly to the moon?

The satellite orbits the Earth in a slightly flattened elliptical orbit. Therefore, the distance from the Earth to the Moon can vary from 355 to 404 thousand kilometers. It is difficult for many of us to imagine such a distance from the Earth to the Moon. To overcome this path, you will need:

  • If you walk, then it would take 9 years of continuous walking.
  • By car, which moves at about 100 kilometers per hour, it would be possible to reach the Moon in 160 days.
  • By plane, capable of accelerating to 800 km/h, it takes about 20 days to fly.
  • On a spaceship Apollo, which accelerated to speeds of several thousand kilometers per hour, could reach the Moon in 72 hours.
  • Flight time on a modern spacecraft is 9 hours.

Theoretically, a flight to the Moon on modern rockets, even despite a distance of 380–400 thousand kilometers, is not particularly difficult. There is no need to select the time for launch of the launch vehicle, since the minimum and maximum distance to the satellite is not so great. The duration of such flights is only a few days, which makes it possible to solve the problem of radiation in space, which increases during solar flares.

Modern heavy rocket launch vehicles, which are being developed specifically for flight to Mars, could also be used for flights to the Moon and back. In this case, a flight over a distance of 400 thousand km would take 15–17 hours one way. The only nuance of such flights is that it is necessary to initially equip a lunar base where the descent modules would land, which would allow us to study our satellite or even live on the base for a certain time.

Prospects for long-distance flights and exploration missions

Disputes about the feasibility of exploring the Moon and flying to our satellite do not subside to this day. If initially, at the dawn of human exploration and conquest of space, interest in such flights, even despite a distance of several hundred thousand km, was extremely high, then later people simply realized the futility of setting up a base on the Moon, which did not have any mineral resources, that and made such expensive flights simply pointless.

However, today, when humanity is thinking about the first flights to Mars and the colonization of the Red Planet, it is the Moon that for some time can become a transshipment base, which, in turn, will simplify long-distance interplanetary flights. Our satellite can actually become a testing ground, which will make it possible to subsequently populate Mars and other habitable planets.

With the development of technology, flights to our natural satellite have become significantly easier, and setting up a habitable base here no longer seems like something out of science fiction. Flying to the Moon has become easier and safer. In the next ten years, such flights, despite the distance to the Moon of almost 400 thousand km, will become commonplace, and people will once again return to exploring the far radius of the Earth.

If you were at least a little interested in the topic of space and our place in it, then you definitely wondered: what is the distance from the Earth to the Moon.
The increased attention to the Moon can be explained very simply. This is because it is a natural satellite of our planet. Moreover, it is located closest to the Sun among all the satellites. That is, it is inextricably linked with us. It is also worth noting that it is in second place in brightness and fifth in magnitude. But this is only relative to the solar system.

How they used to calculate the distance from the Earth to the Moon

As you know, the satellite of our planet was discovered back in . What’s interesting is that even then people began to wonder at what distance from it it was.
Many scientists have resorted to different methods to calculate the distance between the Earth and the Moon.
Now, thanks to modern and space technology, we have visited it, studied and measured everything that is possible. But how did ancient astronomers calculate this interval?
In fact, the Moon is the first cosmic body whose distance could be determined. As it turned out, scientists from Ancient Greece did this first.


For example, Aristarchus of Samos. He determined the angle between the Sun and Moon to be 87 degrees. It follows that the planet’s satellite is 20 times closer than our main star. Now we know that this is an erroneous view. Of course, at that time the astronomer used available tools for calculations, and did not have the knowledge that is available to us. But in any case, he made his contribution in this matter.


Several hundred years before our era, Eratosthenes of Cyrene determined the radius of the Earth. Interestingly, it is not much different from modern indicators. But the very fact of using the radius of the planet and calculating the distance to the satellite even at that time was simply shocking. Even if the ancient calculations are not entirely correct, it was they who laid the foundation for the consideration of this issue.
For example, another scientist Hipparchus of Nicea, based on observations of the movement of our satellite, expressed his opinion. He believed that the Earth-Moon gap was 60 times larger than the radius of the planet.


Modern calculations

Now astronomers not only calculate the distance between the Earth and the Moon, but also calculate the movement of our satellite. After all, as it became known, he is constantly moving. Therefore, the space separating us is also changing.

In fact, based on the collected knowledge, methods have emerged that make it possible to measure the space between space objects with high accuracy.
Modern calculations are based on Brown's theory, which was developed in the 19th and 20th centuries. Already at that time, it used a trigonometric formula with more than 1400 elements. Moreover, she described the movement of the Moon.

At the moment, different methods are used to measure the gap between astronomical bodies. For example, the radar method. Indeed, it allows you to determine the distance with an accuracy of several kilometers.


One of the specific measurement techniques was the laser ranging method. Using it, the distance is determined with slight inaccuracy (just a few centimeters). It uses corner reflectors that were installed on the Moon. Interestingly, for this purpose, the entire Apollo program was launched in the 1970s. As a result of successful operations, several reflectors were delivered and installed on the surface of the planet’s satellite. Thus, scientists were able to conduct laser ranging sessions. As a result, the most accurate distance from the Earth to the Moon was determined.
In addition, theoretical calculations have the same reliability.


What is the distance from the Earth to the Moon?

Since the Moon is in constant motion, the path to it also changes accordingly. A planet's satellite periodically approaches or moves away from the Earth. For this reason, scientists calculate the average distance. It is important that it is measured between the axes of the centers of the bodies. Moreover, the measurement occurs in kilometers, which are determined by the periods of movement of objects, their phases, cycles and periods of interaction.
For now The distance from the Earth to the Moon is 384399 km. However, the average of this interval is often considered 384400 km.
In addition to everything, you need to know that every year the distance between us and our satellite increases by about 4 cm. This is mainly due to the spiral movement of the planet in its orbit, during which the force of gravity decreases. Which, as you know, holds the body.


In conclusion, we can say that the constant movement of cosmic bodies requires attention. Because with this movement the characteristics and spacing between objects change. Of course, modern astronomy continues to observe and study space. And this definitely matters a lot.

Movement is life

Aristotle

Some interesting facts

The Moon is the only astronomical object visited by man (not counting the Earth).
There is a so-called moon illusion. At the moment when it lies below the horizon line, an optical illusion occurs. More precisely, its size seems to us larger than when it is high in the sky.
As you know, light is the fastest in the world. It takes him a little more than a second to cover the distance from the Earth to the Moon.
In theory, all the planets of our solar system would fit in the gap between the Earth and the Moon.


Space has been of interest to humanity since ancient times. Mysterious, unknown and distant: the possibilities of space travel, as well as the discovery of new distant worlds, have always excited man. The closest celestial body to the Earth is the Moon, so it is not surprising that even at the initial stage of space exploration, man tried to get to this particular celestial body. Below we will tell you how long it takes to fly to the Moon and touch on such an interesting topic as its foundation.

History of space exploration

The Soviet Union was the first to send a man into space, surpassing the United States in this regard. In response, the states began to work on developing their own lunar program, which initially involved orbital flights of the satellite and, in the future, landing people on the Moon.

It is impossible to calculate how much money was spent on this program. Experts note that the implementation of this program in comparable prices is estimated at $500 billion. NASA developed the Saturn 5 rocket specifically for these flights, which could reach the Moon in three to four days. At that time, it was the most powerful rocket, capable of covering long distances of several hundred thousand kilometers from the Earth to our satellite in the shortest possible time.

The first person to set foot on the surface of the Moon was American Neil Armstrong. In 1969, as part of the Apollo 11 mission, the lunar module was able to land near the Sea of ​​Tranquility. Subsequently, several American manned missions were carried out. About a dozen astronauts visited the Moon, conducted many studies and were able to bring more than 20 kg of lunar soil to Earth.

After a few years, interest in the Moon disappeared, and it was decided to curtail the expensive flight program. This is explained by the high cost of manned aircraft, so the Soviet Union and the United States decided to concentrate their attention on the construction of orbital stations in earth orbit and near-Earth space exploration. It was cheaper and easier to fly into Earth orbit, and the creation of an orbital station made it possible to make a serious push in space exploration.

However, interest in long-distance flights disappeared for almost 30 years. Only today, when humanity began to think about the colonization and exploration of Mars, interest in our satellite reappeared. The moon was used as a transit base for interplanetary flights over long distances. Humanity has made a serious step forward in the field of rocket science, which has made it possible not only to make such flights cheaper, but also to make them safer and faster.

History of the conquest:

  • The Soviet research apparatus reached the Moon for the first time in 1959.
  • First successful landing on the Moon – 1966.
  • Neil Armstrong's expedition landing - 1969.
  • The last manned flight to the Moon today was 1972.

Distance to the Moon

The Moon revolves around the Earth in a slightly flattened elliptical orbit. For this reason, the distance from the Earth to the satellite can vary from 355 to 404 thousand km. It’s hard for many of us to imagine such distances. How long will it take to cover this path?

  • In a car with an average speed of about 100 km per hour, it would be possible to reach the Earth's satellite in 160 days.
  • If you walked, it would take nine years of continuous walking.
  • On a plane that can accelerate to 800 kilometers per hour, it would take about twenty days to fly.
  • On the Apollo spacecraft, whose speed was several thousand kilometers per hour, it was possible to reach the Moon in 72 hours.
  • A modern spacecraft can reach the moon in 9 hours.

Flight to the Moon on modern rockets is theoretically not particularly difficult, despite the long distance of 380-400 thousand km. There is no need to select the time for the launch of the launch vehicle, since the maximum and minimum distance to the Moon is not so great. The duration of such flights is only a few days, which makes it possible to solve the problems of radiation in space, which only increases during solar flares.

Heavy modern launch vehicles, which were created specifically for flights to Mars, could also be used for flights to the Moon and back. In this case, a flight at a distance of 400 thousand km would take approximately 15-17 hours in one direction only. The only subtlety of such flights was that it was necessary to initially equip a lunar base where the descent modules would land, which would allow exploration of the Moon and even living on the base for a certain time.

Prospects for exploration missions and long-distance flights

Disputes about the feasibility of exploring the Earth's satellite and flying to it continue to this day. If initially, at the first stages of space exploration and conquest, there was serious interest in such flights, even despite the great distance, then over time, it became clear that setting up a base on the Moon was futile. The satellite did not have any mineral resources, which made expensive flights to the Moon pointless.

But today, when humanity is thinking about flights to Mars and the colonization of the Red Planet, for some time the Moon could become a transshipment base, which would significantly simplify long-distance interplanetary flights. In fact, our satellite can become a testing ground, which will allow us to populate Mars and other habitable planets in the future.

In parallel with the development of technology, flights to the Earth’s natural satellite have become significantly easier, and setting up an orbital base on it no longer seems unrealistic. Flying to the Moon has become much safer and easier. In the next 10 years, such flights, despite the distance to the Moon of almost 400 thousand kilometers, will become commonplace, and people will once again return to exploring the far radius of the Earth.

One of the main character traits of any person is curiosity. It is to her that humanity owes most of the scientific discoveries and the benefits of technological progress based on them. Since ancient times, people have peered with interest at the night sky, in which countless stars shone, and the Moon slowly floated across the sky. It is not surprising that since then the dream of visiting some celestial body has not left man.

The invention of the telescope confirmed the assumption that the Moon is at a minimum distance from the Earth. From that moment on, science fiction writers in their novels sent intrepid travelers to this celestial body. It is interesting that the proposed methods were fully consistent with the spirit of their time: a projectile, a rocket based on a jet engine, the anti-gravity substance cavorite (H. Wells), etc. True, no one could say exactly how long to fly to the Moon.

Quite a lot of time has passed since then. Although the term “many” is applicable to the duration of human life, for history only a moment has passed. Nowadays, natural is increasingly seen not just as an abstract flight goal, but as the basis for the bases of the future. These could be settlements under a super-strong dome, sealed cities under the surface, automatic observatories and refueling stations for spaceships. Truly, the flight of fancy has no limits. It’s surprising that many people don’t even know how far it is to the moon.

Now the distance from the Earth to the satellite has been calculated with high accuracy. Therefore, knowing the speed, you can calculate how long it will take to fly to the Moon. It is known that the distance between the central points of these celestial bodies is 384,400 km. But since to determine the travel time you need to know the path between the surfaces, you need to subtract the radius values. For the Earth it is 6378 km, and for the satellite it is 1738 km. The exact answer to the question: “How long does it take to get to the moon?” suggests the need to take into account the features of the orbit of our natural satellite. As you know, the Moon is close to an oval (that is, elliptical), so the path length varies within as much as 12%, which is quite a lot. So, at the closest approach (perigee) the distance is 363,104 km, but at the farthest point (apogee) it is already 405,696 km. Considering the sum of their radii, we subtract the known values ​​from the smaller number and the result is 354,988 km. This is the distance from the Earth to the lunar surface.

Based on the distance mentioned above, we can say with absolute certainty how long it will take to fly to the Moon. All that remains to be taken into account is the speed at which it is planned to carry out the desired journey. So, the flight time to the surface of the natural satellite depends on the chosen means of transportation and takes:

160 days when driving a car moving at a speed of about 100 km/h;

Accordingly, an aircraft flying at least 800 km per hour will need “only” 20 days;

The ships of the American Apollo program reached the surface of our satellite in three days and four hours;

Having developed the second at 11.2 km/s, it will be possible to cover the distance in 9.6 hours;

By turning into pure energy (remember Arthur C. Clarke's A Space Odyssey) and traveling at (300,000 km/s), the goal can be reached in a paltry 1.25 seconds;

Well, for the adherents of the saying: “The slower you go, the further you will go!” You will have to spend at least nine years if you continuously walk at a normal pace at a speed of 5 km/h.

Obviously, the question: “How long does it take to get to the moon?” can now be considered resolved. All that remains is to choose a vehicle, then, depending on the decision made, stock up on the necessary patience, the required amount of provisions and hit the road.

384,467 kilometers - this is exactly the distance that separates us from the nearest large cosmic body, from our only natural satellite - the Moon. This begs the question: how did scientists know about this? After all, you really can’t walk from the Earth to the Moon with a meter in your hands!

However, attempts to measure the distance to the Moon have been made since ancient times. The ancient Greek scientist Aristarchus of Samos tried to do this, the same one who first expressed the idea of ​​a heliocentric system! He also knew that the Moon, like the Earth, has the shape of a ball and does not emit its own light, but shines from the reflected light of the sun. He suggested that at a time when the Moon for an observer from Earth looks like a half-disk. Between it, the Earth and the Sun, a right triangle is formed, in which the distance between the Moon and the Sun and between the Moon and the Earth are the legs, and the distance between the Sun and the Earth is the hypotenuse.

Consequently, you need to find the angle between the directions to the Moon and the Sun, and then, using appropriate geometric calculations, you can calculate how many times the Earth-Moon leg is shorter than the Earth-Sun hypotenuse. Alas, the technology of that time did not make it possible to accurately determine the time when the Moon occupies a position at the vertex of the mentioned right triangle, and in such calculations a small error in measurements leads to large errors in the calculations. Aristarchus was mistaken almost 20 times: it turned out that the distance to the Moon was 18 times less than the distance to the Sun, but in reality it was 394 times less.

Another ancient Greek scientist, Hipparchus, obtained a more accurate result. He, however, adhered to the geocentric system, but he understood the reason for lunar eclipses correctly: the Moon falls into the shadow of the Earth, and this shadow has the shape of a cone, the top of which is located away from the Moon. The outline of this shadow can be observed during an eclipse on the disk of the Moon, and by the curve of the edge one can determine the relationship between its cross section and the size of the Moon itself. Given that the Sun is much further away than the Moon, it was possible to calculate how far away the Moon would have to be for the shadow to shrink to that size. Such calculations led Hipparchus to the conclusion that the distance from the Earth to the Moon is 60 Earth radii, or 30 diameters. The diameter of the Earth was calculated by Eratosthenes - translated into modern measures of length 12,800 kilometers - thus, according to Hipparchus, the distance from the Earth to the Moon is 384,000 kilometers. As we can see, this is very close to the truth, especially considering that he had nothing but simple goniometer instruments!

In the 20th century, the distance from the Earth to the Moon was measured with an accuracy of three meters. To do this, several reflectors were delivered to the surface of our cosmic “neighbor” about 30 years ago. A focused laser beam is sent to these reflectors from the Earth, the speed of light is known, and the distance to the Moon is calculated from the time it takes the laser beam to travel “there and back.” This method is called laser ranging.

When talking about the distance from the Earth to the Moon, it should be remembered that we are talking about an average distance, because the Moon’s orbit is not circular, but elliptical. At the point farthest from the Earth (apogee), the distance between the Earth and the Moon is 406,670 km, and at the closest point (perigee) – 356,400 km.