What happens if the Earth leaves its orbit? Changing the inclination of the orbit What happens if the earth changes its orbit.

There are many disaster movies. We know what to expect if asteroids hit the planet, if tidal waves hit New York, or if a cruise ship suddenly capsizes and / or is attacked by a sea monster.

Unfortunately, by focusing our attention on these unlikely disasters, filmmakers have neglected the most incredible disasters.

What happens if the moon disappears?

What happens if the moon just ceases to exist? The first natural phenomenon that stops working is the ebb and flow. Ocean ebb and flow occurs due to the action of the force of gravity between the Earth and the Moon, their movement relative to each other. The sudden disappearance of the moon will completely turn this system upside down. Some movement will take place. The waves will continue to roll on the western coasts of the continents due to the rotation of the Earth.

Or at least it will be at first, since what is happening on Earth will become unpredictable. Having lost the Moon, the Earth will begin to move unstably, like a children's toy whirligig, which, losing its rotation speed, sways, but does not fall yet. It will be a terrible pitching! The Earth will move either rotating perpendicular to the plane of its orbit (in other words, one of the hemispheres, southern or northern, will be on the sunny side all the time, while the other hemisphere will remain in constant darkness), then, rotating almost parallel to the plane of the orbit (which will lead to the disappearance of the change of seasons, since all days will last equally long).

The death-wrecking precession will continue long enough to kill the last survivors. As long as it lasts, ordinary natural disasters will not let us get bored. The moon exerts a gravitational effect on both land and sea, and, according to some, it is the cause of the movement of continents.

As a result, there will be a surge in volcanic activity and earthquakes. At the same time, all plants and animals whose breeding and migration periods depend on the lunar cycle will be completely confused. Shock in populations of fish, birds and insects will cause deformations in local ecological systems and lead to hunger and the collapse of society.

Plus, the nights will be darker - and even harder to see.

What happens if the Earth stops spinning?

How important is the rotation of the Earth around its axis? For centuries, no one cares if it rotates at all.

What exactly happens depends on how quickly the Earth stops spinning. If it stops spinning instantly, everything that is not fixed on it will fly to the east. (Anything that gets fixed is likely to split in two.) Survival will depend on how close you are to the pole (so if at the equator you are carried away to the east at a speed of almost 1610 km / h, then the closer you are to the poles, the lower the speed will be).

If the Earth's rotation slows down over several weeks, more people will experience an incipient loss of power in motion. It would be better for them to calculate exactly in what position the Earth will stop and race as fast as they can toward the border between light and darkness. The termination of the Earth's rotation would mean the end of the change of day and night. Half of the world would be constantly facing the sun, and the other half would plunge into eternal darkness.

One small but very interesting consequence of stopping the rotation of the Earth: everything on the planet will get a little heavier. The rotation of the earth exposes us to centrifugal force - a constant pushing outward, similar to what we feel when sitting in a car when it turns sharply. This outward force reduces our "weight" by about one hundred and forty-two grams for every forty-five kilograms of weight. If we are not carried away through the air, it will be more difficult than ever for us to move and move objects on Earth.

The centrifugal force is most felt at the equator. And this is felt not only by a person, but also by water. Since the centrifugal force opposes the force of gravity, water at the equator accumulates higher. In the middle part of the Earth there is a bulge of water, which, when the rotation of the Earth stops, is eliminated by a drop in the water level, which will flow towards the poles. If it does not freeze and the flow is rapid, the water will inundate vast areas of the world to the north and south, while exposing land in the equator.

So if you want to survive, head to the middle of the planet.

What happens if the Earth's orbit changes significantly?

It depends on how drastically the orbit changes. The zone suitable for the existence of life in our solar system is located between one hundred forty-two million kilometers and two hundred and four point four million kilometers from the Sun. Since we are now at a distance of almost 150 million kilometers from the star, it becomes clear that we would prefer to move away, and not get closer, if the choice was ours.

It is difficult to imagine that it was possible to deviate from the course by eight million kilometers, but of all the unlikely disasters, this is the most possible. It seems that past mass extinctions have been linked to changes in climate caused by changes in Earth's orbit. Lower temperatures and varying amounts of rainfall lead to changes in vegetation and habitat conditions, causing the death of mammals, from large species to rodents. The end of the world is not expected. People are resourceful and will come up with something.

And this change brings some hope and fear at the same time. The Earth's movement is not as stable as one might think. For all the time of its existence, the Earth alternately moves around the sun, then along an ellipse, then around a circle. The tilt of the earth's axis fluctuates between 22.1 and 24.5 degrees (much weaker than if it had lost the moon).

About 23 million years ago, the Earth moved around the Sun strictly in a circle, and its axis had a slight tilt. Scientists say the rotation resulted in favorable seasons, the difference between maximum and minimum temperatures was negligible, and changes in the shape of the ice sheet over Antarctica may have prevented the spread of global warming.

Such encouraging news is now being taken seriously by astronomers. Some have suggested using the gravitational pull of asteroids to put the Earth in a better orbit. This could solve all of our climate change problems! There is only one "but": we can lose the moon.

Oscillations of the shape of the Earth's orbit and axis and glaciation in the Oligocene and Miocene

Then what were they? The answer to this question was unexpectedly obtained after studying the Paleogene and Neogene deposits of Antarctica and China.
According to the research results of Gabriel Bowen, Robert Deconto from the University of Massachusetts and David Pollard from the University of Pennsylvania, the formation of the ice sheet in Antarctica after the Eocene-Oligocene catastrophe (34 million years ago) occurred in two stages. O The volume of ice increased sharply in the first 40-50 thousand years of the Oligocene epoch, then there was an epoch of warming lasting about 100 thousand years, followed by the second 40-50 thousand-year stage of the ice sheet growth.
With the same 100-thousand-year periodicity since the beginning of the Oligocene, lakes appeared and disappeared in Tibet, which was attested by Guillaume Dupont Nivet and his colleagues from the Netherlands and China. to the plane of the ecliptic (orbit) and the shape of the Earth's orbit from circular to elliptical - similar to the Quaternary.
According to Zhetang Guo and his colleagues from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, after the Oligocene-Miocene catastrophe, about 24 (23) million years ago, the Great Asian deserts arose north of the Tibetan plateau. This is supported by the accumulation of 231 layers of ancient brownish wind-blown dust called loess. Loess was deposited in the period from 24-22 to 6.2 million years ago between layers of red clay. It is noteworthy that each such layer was formed over about 65 thousand years.

The main reason for the Earth wobble is global catastrophes

Thus, we have three cases of the same type. Global catastrophes at the turn of the Eocene and Oligocene, Oligocene and Miocene and Pleistocene and Holocene, which were accompanied by a displacement of the earth's axis by 15-30 degrees, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions all over the earth, floods, glaciations and an abrupt change in the species diversity of fauna and flora.

At the turn of the Eocene and Oligocene, ancient whales (Archeoceti), dinocerates, most of the titanotherium (brontoteria) and creodonts became extinct. At the turn of the Paleogene and Neogene periods, the giant Indricotherium and Titanotherium became extinct. At the turn of the Pleistocene and Holocene, mammoth and woolly rhinos became extinct.

After these catastrophes, along with a sharp global climate change (u, u), a periodic slightly less distinct climate change and the deposition of specific deposits began, associated with a repeated change in the inclination of the earth's axis to the plane of the ecliptic and the shape of the earth's orbit (?) That is,The earth acquired oscillatory movements, which manifested itself in the swaying of its axis.(swinging the planet around a conditional straight line to the plane of its orbit) andplanet wobble in orbit.
The reason for such oscillatory movements of the Earth were global catastrophes, which were associated with collisions with the planet of asteroids, flights of some other planets or celestial bodies near it, or nuclear wars of gods and demons who possessed super-powerful weapons (and here).
As if in confirmation of this, the "Mahabharata" says that the giant snake Sheshu wrapped its rings around the Earth in order to save it from excessive swaying.

Readmy works about the catastrophes of the Paleogene, Neogene and Quaternary periods, changes in the position of the earth's axis and climate on Earth in the sections "Great Catastrophes", "Peace in the Paleogene. The flourishing of Hyperborea", "Peace in the Oligocene and Neogene. Reduction of the area of ​​Hyperborea", "Peace in Pleistocene. Great glaciations and exodus from Hyperborea "

Section "Great Catastrophes"

I invite everyone to further discuss this material on the pages

Original Russian Text © A.V. Koltypin, 20 11

I, the author of this work A.V. Koltypin, I authorize to use it for any purposes not prohibited by applicable law, provided that my authorship is indicated and a hyperlink to the site or

"... I'm starting a series of works on how the universe really looks like.

Are you ready reader? Well, then hang on and take care of your psyche. Now it will be true. But, first, answer me one question:

How is astronomy different from astrology?

In astrology, there are 12 signs of the zodiac, and in astronomy there are 13 constellations. The Serpent is also added to the well-known ones. In astrology, all signs are divided into months, number 12 with approximately equal number of days - a tribute to the metric system. In astronomy, everything is different: the circle has 360 degrees and each constellation has its own angular dimensions. The constellations are different and their angular values ​​are different. If you translate them into radians, and radians into days, it becomes quite clear that the constellations have different durations in days. That is, the Sun, moving in different constellations, passes them for a different number of days.

Taurus - 05/14 - 06/23

Gemini 23.06 - 20.07

Cancer 07.20 - 11.08

Leo 11.08 - 17.09

Virgo 17.09 - 21.10

Libra 21.10 - 22.11

Scorpio 11.22 - 11.30

Zmeelov 30.11 - 18.12

Sagittarius 12/18 - 01/19

Capricorn 01.19 - 02.16

Aquarius 16.02 - 12.03

Pisces 12.03 - 18.04

Aries 18.04 - 14.05

As you can see, according to astronomical observations, the real constellations of the Sun are located in completely different intervals and the astronomical months are all different: from 8 days to 42.

Not only does the Earth revolve around the Sun, but the Sun revolves around a certain center in the plane of the ecliptic. If you imagine a geometric figure of a torus, similar to a donut, then in the middle of the torus itself are the zodiacs, which we can observe from the places where humanity lives on the planet. At the poles, there is a different picture of the starry world. So the solar system moves along the inner side of the donut, and in the donut itself the stars are visible to us.

When the Sun is in one of the constellations of the Zodiac, we cannot see exactly which one it is in, since the white day and the sun blinds us, and the stars in the sky are not visible. What do astrologers do? At exactly 12 at night, they look at the sky and see which constellation is the highest, and then take the exact opposite in the Zodiac SIGN drawn in a circle, where all months are almost equal. This is how it is determined in which constellation the Sun is now standing. But this is a lie. After all, I showed that the constellations have different sizes in the sky, which means that the Sign Zodiac accepted in the world is just a convention. That is, the signs of the zodiac actually represent fictitious months that have nothing to do with the annual cycle.

Looking ahead, I want to say that this whole system with a torus is not stationary, but moves along a certain axis, while the planets of the solar system move along a small spiral around the sun, and the sun along a large one inside the torus. ... "

Ecology

Earth has four seasons as it orbits the sun once, all along with an increase and decrease in daylight hours over the six months that occur between the winter and summer solstices.

We also live in a 24-hour daily cycle during which the Earth revolves on its axis, moreover, there is a 28-day cycle of the Moon's rotation around the Earth. These cycles are repeated endlessly. However, there are many subtleties hidden within and around these cycles that most people are unaware of, cannot explain, or simply do not notice.

10. Highest point

Fact: The sun does not necessarily reach its highest point at noon.

The location of the Sun at its highest point varies depending on the season. This happens for two reasons: the Earth's orbit is an ellipse, not a circle, and the Earth, in turn, is tilted towards the Sun. Since the Earth almost always rotates at the same speed, and its orbit at certain times of the year is faster than others, sometimes our planet either overtakes or lags behind its circular orbit.

Changes associated with the tilt of the Earth are best viewed by imagining points that are close together on the Earth's equator. If you tilt the circle of points by 23.44 degrees (the current tilt of the Earth), then you will see that all points, except those currently located at the equator and the tropics, change their longitude. There are also changes in the time the Sun is at its highest point, they are also related to the geographic longitude at which the observer is located, however, this factor is constant for each longitude.

9. Direction of sunrise

Fact: Sunrise and sunset do not change direction immediately after the solstice.

Most people believe that in the northern hemisphere, the earliest sunset occurs during the December solstice, and the latest sunset occurs during the June solstice. In fact, this is not the case. Solstice are simply dates that tell you the length of the shortest and longest daylight hours. However, changes in time during the midday period are followed by changes in the periods of sunrise and sunset.

During the December solstice, noon is 30 seconds late every day. Since there is no change in daylight hours during the solstice, both sunset and sunrise are 30 seconds late each day. Since the sunset is late at the winter solstice, the earliest sunset already has time to "happen." At the same time, on the same day, the sunrise also comes with a delay, you have to wait for the latest sunrise.

It also happens that the latest sunset occurs a short time after the summer solstice, and the earliest sunrise occurs shortly before the summer solstice. However, this difference is not as significant compared to the December solstice because the eccentricity of the midday time at that solstice is dependent on the midday change due to tilt, but the overall rate of change is positive.

8. Elliptical Earth Orbit

Most people know that the Earth revolves around the Sun in an ellipse, not in a circle, but the value of the eccentricity of the Earth's orbit is approximately 1/60. A planet that revolves around its sun always has an eccentricity between 0 and 1 (counting 0, but excluding 1). An eccentricity of 0 indicates that the orbit is a perfect circle with the sun at its center and the planet rotating at a constant speed.

However, the existence of such an orbit is extremely unlikely, since there is a continuum of possible values ​​of eccentricity, which in a closed orbit is measured by dividing the distance between the sun and the center of the ellipse. The orbit gets longer and thinner as the eccentricity approaches 1. The planet always rotates faster as it approaches the Sun, and slows down as it moves away from it. When the eccentricity is greater than or equal to 1, then the planet once bypasses its sun and flies into space forever.

7. Earth vibrations

The earth periodically goes through wobbles. This is mainly due to the effect of gravitational forces that "stretch" the Earth's equatorial bulge. The sun and moon also press on this bulge, thereby creating the wobble of the earth. However, for everyday astronomical observations, these effects are negligible.

The Earth's tilt and longitude have a period of 18.6 years, which is the time it takes for the Moon to circle through the nodes and create wobbles ranging from two weeks to six months. The duration depends on the earth's orbit around the sun and on the lunar orbit around the earth.

6. Flat Earth

Fact (kind of): The earth is really flat.

Galileo's Catholics were perhaps only slightly correct in their belief that the earth was flat. It so happens that the Earth has an almost spherical shape, but it is slightly flattened at the poles. The equatorial radius of the Earth is 6378.14 kilometers, while its polar radius is 6356.75 km. Consequently, geologists had to come up with different versions of latitude.

Geocentric latitude is measured in terms of visual latitude, which is the angle from the equator to the center of the Earth. Geographic latitude is the latitude from the point of view of the observer, namely, this is the angle consisting of the equator line and a straight line passing under the feet of a person. Geographic latitude is the standard for building maps and determining coordinates. However, measuring the angle between the Earth and the Sun (how far North or South the Sun shines on Earth depending on the time of year) always takes place in a geocentric system.

5. Precession

The earth's axis sharpens towards the top. In addition, the ellipse that forms the Earth's orbit rotates very slowly, making the shape of the Earth's movement around the Sun very much like a daisy.

Due to both types of precession, astronomers have identified three types of years: a sidereal year (365, 256 days), which has a single orbit with respect to distant stars; an anomalous year (365.259 days), which is the period of time during which the Earth moves from the nearest point (perihelion) to the farthest point from the Sun (aphelion) and back; a tropical year (365, 242 days), lasting from one day of the vernal equinox to the next.

4. Milankovitch cycles

Astronomer Milutin Milankovich discovered in the early 20th century that the Earth's tilt, eccentricity, and precession are not constant. Over a period of about 41,000 years, the Earth completes one cycle, during which it tilts from 24.2 - 24.5 degrees to 22.1 - 22.6 degrees and back. Currently, the tilt of the Earth's axis is decreasing, and we are exactly halfway to the minimum tilt of 22.6 degrees, which will be reached in about 12,000 years. The eccentricity of the Earth follows a much more erratic cycle, lasting 100,000 years, during this period it fluctuates between 0.005 and 0.05.

As already mentioned, at present its indicator is 1/60 or 0.0166, but now it is going down. It will reach a minimum in 28,000 years. He suggested that these cycles caused the ice age. When the tilt and eccentricity values ​​are especially high, and the precessions are such that the Earth is tilted from the Sun or toward the Sun, then we end up with a too cold winter in the western hemisphere, while too much ice melts in spring or summer.

3. Slow down rotation

Due to the friction caused by tides and stray particles in space, the Earth's rotation speed gradually slows down. It is estimated that every century it takes the Earth five hundredths of a second longer to rotate once. At the beginning of the formation of the Earth, the day lasted no more than 14 hours instead of today's 24. The slowing down of the Earth's rotation is the reason why every few years we add a fraction of a second to the length of the day.

However, the time when our 24-hour system will cease to be relevant is so far away that practically no one makes any assumptions about what we will do with the extra time that has appeared. Some believe that we could add a period of time to each day, which ultimately could give us a 25-hour day, or we could change the length of the hour by dividing the day into 24 equal parts.

2. The moon is receding

Each year, the Moon moves 4 centimeters away from its Earth's orbit. This is due to the tides that it "brings" to Earth.

The gravity of the moon, acting on the earth, distorts the earth's crust by several centimeters. Since the Moon rotates much faster than its orbits, the bulges pull the Moon behind them and pull it out of its orbits.

1. Seasonality

The solstice and equinox are symbols of the beginning of the respective seasons, not the middle. This is because the Earth takes time to warm up or cool down. Thus, the seasonality is distinguished by the corresponding length of daylight. This effect is called seasonal lag and varies depending on the geographic location of the observer. The further a person travels from the poles, the less lagging tendency.

Many North American cities tend to lag around a month, resulting in coldest weather on January 21st and warmest on July 21st. Nevertheless, people who live in such latitudes enjoy the warm summer days at the end of August, donning light clothes and even going to the beach. At the same time, the same date on the "other side" of the summer solstice will correspond to approximately April 10th. Many people will only be left in anticipation of summer.

The history of astronautics, like any other industry, contains examples of ingenious decisions when the desired goal was achieved in a beautiful and unexpected way. USSR / Russia was not lucky with the availability of geostationary orbit. But instead of reaching it with heavier rockets or trying to reduce the mass of the payload, the idea of ​​using a special orbit dawned on the developers. Our today's story is about this orbit and the satellites that still use it.

Physics

Speaking about geostationary and highly elliptical orbits, it is necessary to recall such a concept as orbital inclination... In this case, the orbital inclination is the angle between the plane of the Earth's equator and the plane of the satellite's orbit:

If we start from the cosmodrome and begin to accelerate strictly to the east, then the resulting orbit will have an inclination equal to the latitude of the cosmodrome. If we start to accelerate, deviating to the north, then the resulting inclination will be greater. If we, thinking that this should decrease the inclination, begin to accelerate to the southeast, the resulting orbit will also have a greater inclination than our latitude. Why? Look at the picture: when accelerating strictly to the east, our cosmodrome will be the northernmost point of the projection of the orbit (blue line). And if we accelerate to the southeast, then the northernmost point of the projection of the resulting orbit will be north of our cosmodrome, and the inclination of the orbit will be greater than the latitude of the cosmodrome:

Conclusion: when a spacecraft is launched, the initial inclination of its orbit cannot be less than the latitude of the cosmodrome.

In order to enter the geostationary orbit (inclination 0 °), the inclination must be reset to zero, but this requires additional fuel (the physics of this process is). The Baikonur cosmodrome has a latitude of 45 °, and, given that spent rocket stages should not fall into China, the rockets are launched to the northeast on routes with an inclination of 65 ° and 51.6 °. As a result, the four-stage launch vehicle 8K78, which launched one and a half tons to the Moon, and almost a ton to Mars, could put only ~ 100 kg into geostationary orbit. Not a single country could fit into such a mass a full-fledged geostationary communications satellite at the beginning of the 60s. I had to come up with something else. Orbital mechanics came to the rescue. The higher the height of the satellite, the slower it moves relative to the Earth. At an altitude of 36,000 km above the equator, the satellite will constantly hover over one point on the Earth (this is the idea behind the geostationary orbit). And if we put a satellite into an orbit, which is an elongated ellipse, then its speed will change dramatically. At the periapsis (the point of the orbit closest to the Earth), it will fly very quickly, but in the area of ​​the apocenter (the point of the orbit farthest from the Earth) it will practically hover in place for several hours. If you mark the path of the satellite with dots at an interval of one hour, you get the following picture:

In addition to almost immobility, at high altitude, the satellite will see a vast area of ​​our planet and will be able to provide communication between distant points. A large inclination of the orbit will mean that even in the Arctic, there will be no problems with signal reception. And if you choose an inclination close to 63.4 °, then the gravitational interference from the Earth will be minimal, and it will be possible to be in orbit practically without correction. This is how the Molniya orbit was born with the following parameters:

1. Pericenter: 500 km


2. Apocenter: 40,000 km


3. Tilt: 62.8 °


4. Circulation period: 12 hours

If we were on a satellite flying in such an orbit, we would see the Earth like this:

Incarnation in iron

The 8K78 rocket could put as much as 1600 kg into a highly elliptical orbit. It was happiness for the developers - it was possible to make a powerful satellite with great capabilities and at the same time "wipe the nose" of the Americans, whose communication satellites did not exceed 300 kg in mass. The resulting device impressed with its characteristics:

The satellite equipment consisted of three 40 W repeaters and two 20 W standby ones, and electricity for them was generated by solar panels with a total capacity of one and a half kilowatts. To receive and transmit data, two steerable parabolic antennas with a diameter of 1.4 meters were used. The device was controlled by a transistor program-time device, the ancestor of modern computers, and the orientation was supported by a unique three-degree power gyroscope. The control system implemented complex algorithms of flight modes with a three-axis orientation. At the working site, the device maintained a constant orientation to the Sun with solar panels, accompanying the Earth with controlled main antennas. After completing the test section, the device rotated according to the infrared vertical data until it took a position parallel to the orbital velocity vector at the periapsis. In the area of ​​the pericenter, according to the commands stored in the memory, he could make an orbit correction.

Top view, clearly visible the cone of the propulsion system and compressed nitrogen balloons for the attitude control system

Bottom view, solar panels are visible, a block of sensors at the end and antennas

It was assumed that the period of active existence of the apparatus will exceed one year, the figure, at that time, was fantastic. The device was named "Lightning", and, looking ahead, let's say that it turned out to be so epochal that both the orbit and the launch vehicle 8K78 were named after him.

Exploitation

Launch vehicle "Molniya-M", a descendant of the launch vehicle "Molniya"

At the time, getting started couldn't have been easy. On June 4, 1964, the first Molniya did not reach orbit due to a launch vehicle accident. On August 22, 1964, the second vehicle was successfully launched into a near-calculated orbit. But the trouble is - both main antennas, which were supposed to duplicate each other, did not open. The investigation established that during the tests on one of the antennas, damage to the cable insulation was found, and the antenna rods, according to the designer's decision, were additionally wrapped with PVC tape. In space, in the shadow of solar panels, the tape froze, and the springs, which were already having difficulty opening the antennas, could not overcome the frozen plastic. The second "Lightning" was lost. For the future, the problem was easy to fix, the springs on the antenna rods were replaced with electric motors, which were guaranteed to fully open the antennas. Finally, on April 23, 1965, the third "Lightning" was successfully launched and was fully operational. There was a nervous moment when the main relay did not want to turn on the first time, but after several tedious minutes of continuous sending commands from Earth to turn on the repeater, it nevertheless turned on. Communication was established between Moscow and Vladivostok via the first Soviet relay satellite:

The first television footage broadcast with the help of "Lightning"

The high signal strength meant that large antennas were not needed to receive it, and relatively small Orbit pavilions began to be built across the country:

A network of satellite broadcasting stations quickly covered the northern and eastern parts of the USSR:

And satellite television from a technical miracle quickly became commonplace, the chairman of the regional committee in the Far East immediately announced that in case of problems with broadcasting programs, he would personally complain to Brezhnev. By 1984, the number of Orbita stations exceeded a hundred, making Soviet satellite TV available even in small towns. The stations relayed the Moscow signal to the local television center, which, in turn, served a significant area.

The first Molniya satellites were unable to cross the one-year lifespan. Due to the fact that the satellite flew four times every day through the radiation belts, the solar batteries began to rapidly degrade. The first "Lightning" was able to live from April to November. Backup solar panels were added to the satellite's design, which were deployed if necessary after the degradation of the main ones. Already "Molniya" No. 7 was able to actively exist from October 1966 to January 1968. For Soviet satellites this was a very long time.

"Lightning" was developed in the Design Bureau of S.P. Korolev, and already in 1965 the production was transferred to Krasnoyarsk "branch number 2" under the leadership of Mikhail Reshetnev. This was the beginning of the glorious history of the enterprise, now known as JSC ISS im. Academician Reshetnev. The Molniya devices were actively developing. The parabolic antenna has been replaced with a four-helix antenna:

Interesting footage of tests and a story about a four-helix antenna:

Additional solar panels

The devices switched to the centimeter wavelength range, learned to broadcast not to the entire country, but to separate time zones, the number of communication channels and their capacity were constantly increasing. Over time, "Lightning" ceased to be used for civilian television broadcasting and became mainly military communications satellites. The last device of the Molniya family, Molniya-3K, was launched in 2001.

Today and tomorrow

Civilian TV broadcasting in the USSR / Russia eventually moved to geostationary orbit. A more load-carrying launch vehicle, Proton, has appeared, which has been launching satellites into the geostationary since 1975. The Orbit pavilion required a twelve-meter movable antenna and was outperformed by the satellite "dishes" that are now ubiquitous. The Molniya satellites have ended their lives. But Molniya's orbit did not die. It is in demand for our high latitudes, and now the "Meridian" communication satellites fly over it, since 2012 the development of the "Arctic" meteorological system has been underway. The unique properties of the orbit are also used overseas - the American military satellite NROL-35, presumably related to the satellites of the missile attack warning system and launched in December 2014, was launched into the Molniya orbit. Who knows, maybe the lightning is in the hands of the girl on the mission emblem - a hint of the name of the orbit?

The variant of the Molniya orbit, the Tundra orbit with an apocenter of 46-52 thousand kilometers and an orbital period of one day, is used by three Sirius XM radio satellites and the Japanese navigation system QZSS.

In the future, the "Molniya" orbit will not be forgotten. The geostationary orbit is overloaded, as an option, the satellites may begin to go into highly elliptical orbits. And even outside the Earth, the invention of Soviet ballistics can be used: in the project of a manned mission to Mars HERRO, it is proposed to use an analogue of the Molniya orbit to control robots on the surface in real time.