45 years ago, August 18, 1976, the automatic interplanetary station “Luna-24” made a soft landing in the southeastern area of the Sea of the Crisis of the Earth’s natural satellite. After checking the state of the onboard systems and determining the position of the station on the moon surface on the team from the ground, a primer device was included.
Sea crises – 556 km 2 pool, probably arose as a result of a drop in a massive cosmic body to the surface of the moon 3-4 billion years ago. It is assumed, its lava filling refers to one of the youngest on the moon.
The automatic complex for the delivery of the soil from the Moon-24 moon was created on the basis of the stations “Luna-16” and “Luna-20”, but with some modifications. The main difference from the predecessors was the replacement of a primer device, thanks to which the soil arrived and persisted in the form of a column throughout the drilling process. In addition, the general drilling depth was 225 cm (the actual length of the column of 160 cm) is an order of magnitude deeper than the preceding devices “Luna-16” and “Luna-20”.
After the soil fence on August 19, the landing apparatus went on a return rocket to the ground and after 84 hours it was separated for the entrance to the dense layers of the atmosphere. The apparatus landed in the settlement area 200 km from Surgut. On this, its flight program was fully fulfilled. Now the landing apparatus of the Mission is located at the S. A. Lavochkin Scientific and Production Association Museum (part of the state corporation “Roskosmos”).
The main result of the flight “Luna-24” was the delivery to the Earth of the samples of the lunar soil. The delivered samples from different structural areas completed a series of samples: the sea of abundance (“Luna-16”), its mainland framing (“Luna-20”) and a geological section of the sea crises (“Luna-24”).
In the soil column, 6 layers occurring from the areas of distribution of dark basalt (volcanic) breeds differed. Analysis of the soil carried out on Earth showed the presence of about 60 elements with an elevated content of aluminum and iron. In addition, it was assumed that in the ground there may be water at a concentration of 0.1% by weight. Isotopic analysis of the soil made it possible to determine the age of lunar rocks from the mountain and sea regions and it is better to understand the geological history of the moon.
“Luna-24” became the last apparatus of the Soviet program of the Luna study by interplanetary stations.