Cosmonauts. Biographies of Soviet cosmonauts.

Planet Earth, Pleistocene, savannas of equatorial Africa.

A small tribe of Pithecanthropus is on the verge of extinction. Nature has not endowed them with powerful fangs, sharp claws, or fast legs, but glimpses of consciousness flicker in their eyes. It is probably these qualities that attracted the attention of some highly developed extraterrestrial civilization to them, which carefully cultivates the seeds of Reason wherever they can be found. Pithecanthropus becomes experimental subjects in a grandiose space experiment.

One night, a block of completely transparent substance appears in a river valley. At dusk, when the tribe returns to the caves, an unusual stone suddenly makes a strange vibrating sound, which attracts the Pithecanthropus like a magnet. In the gathering darkness, the crystal comes to life, begins to glow, and bizarre drawings appear in its depths. The enchanted Pithecanthropus does not know that in these moments the device examines their brain, evaluates their abilities, and predicts possible directions of evolution. The crystal calls to itself first one, then the other, and they, against their will, make new movements: naughty fingers tie the first knot on Earth, the leader takes a stone in his hands and tries to hit the target. Lessons continue every night. Over the course of a year, the life of the tribe changes beyond recognition - now Pithecanthropus knows how to use a set of simple tools and hunt large animals. Eternal hunger and fear of predators recede into the past, and time appears for the work of thought and imagination. The mysterious monolith disappears as suddenly as it appeared. His mission has been completed - an animal endowed with intelligence has appeared on Earth.

XXI century American researchers find on the Moon, already inhabited by humanity, the first irrefutable evidence of the existence of an extraterrestrial civilization.

As the chairman of the National Astronautics Council, urgently called to the Moon, learns, magnetic reconnaissance detected a powerful distortion of the magnetic field in the area of the Tycho crater, and excavations in the center of the anomaly discovered at a six-meter depth a parallelepiped of ideal proportions made of a super-strong black substance unknown on Earth. The most striking thing about this find is its age: geological analysis suggests that the monolith was buried here about three million years ago.

When the lunar dawn comes and the black monolith catches a ray of sunlight for the first time after three million years of imprisonment, a piercing electronic scream sounds in the headsets of people standing around. This signal is detected by space monitors and probes, and the central computer, having processed the information, makes a conclusion: a directed energy pulse, clearly of artificial origin, rushed from the surface of the Moon in the direction of Saturn.

All this is known only to a handful of people, because the consequences of the shock that humanity will inevitably have to endure are unpredictable.

Interplanetary space. Spaceship "Discovery". The first months of the flight pass in serene calm. The two awake crew members, Frank Poole and David Bowman, are on watch every day, performing routine duties. The other three are immersed in an artificial hypothermic sleep, from which they will awaken only when Discovery enters orbit of Saturn. Only these three know the true purpose of the expedition - possible contact with an extraterrestrial civilization, while Poole and Bowman consider the flight to be an ordinary research flight. Those who prepared the expedition decided that it was necessary for the Security and Interests of the nation.

In essence, the ship is not controlled by people, but by the sixth member of the crew, Eal - the brain and nervous system of Discovery, a heuristically programmed algorithmic computing machine. Eal, created through a process similar to the development of the human brain, can rightfully be called a truly thinking machine, and he speaks to people in a real figurative human language. All of EAL's capabilities are aimed at fulfilling the given expedition program, but the contradiction between the goal and the need to hide it from his human colleagues gradually destroys the integrity of his “psyche”. The machine begins to make mistakes, and finally a crisis comes: hearing the astronauts’ negotiations with the Earth about the need to turn off EAL and transfer control to the Center, he makes the only possible decision: to get rid of the people and complete the expedition on his own. He simulates an antenna failure, and when Frank Poole goes into outer space to replace the unit, EAL kills him: the jet capsule flies at full speed towards the astronaut. And the next moment, the stunned Bowman sees on the screen that the boat is moving away from the ship, dragging the body of his dead friend along with it on a safety rope. Frank Poole will be the first person to go to Saturn.

Bowman tries to wake up one of the sleepers, but hears a sound that makes his heart go cold: the outer hatch doors open and air from the ship rushes into the abyss of space. He manages to escape in the emergency chamber, put on a spacesuit and turn off the higher centers of the electronic brain. He remains alone millions of kilometers from Earth. But the ship’s engines and navigation systems are in full working order, communication with Earth has been restored, and its emergency supply of oxygen will last for months. The expedition continues, and Bowman, now aware of its ultimate goal, reaches the giant dead Saturn. He was ordered to begin examining the system from the eighth satellite of Saturn, Iapetus. The entire surface of Iapetus, devoid of an atmosphere, is black, reminiscent of charcoal in structure - except for a white plateau of a strikingly regular oval shape with a black mark in the center, which turns out to be exactly the same black monolith as on The moon, only of gigantic size.

The experiment that began three million years ago has ended. The monolith on Iapetus - the Star Gate Guardian - was installed by the same creatures, not at all similar to humans, who sent a mysterious crystal to Earth and buried a black block on the Moon. Their efforts were not in vain: the Earth really gave birth to Intelligence capable of reaching other planets, and confirmation of this was the signal from the lunar monolith, which sent a message to Iapetus.

David Bowman decides to board Iapetus in a capsule, and its approach awakens the powers contained in the Stargate. The upper edge of the black monolith suddenly goes deeper, the capsule begins to fall into a bottomless shaft. It was the Star Gate that opened.

Time stops - the clock stops counting seconds - but perception and consciousness continue to work. Bowman sees the black walls of the “mine”, and in the gap there are a myriad of stars “scattering” from the center. He is aware that something inaccessible to his understanding is happening with time and space, but he does not feel fear, feeling that he is under the protection of an infinitely powerful Mind. He ends up hundreds of light years from Earth. The capsule strives for a giant red star, into the kingdom of flame, but when the journey ends, Bowman thinks he has gone crazy - he is in an ordinary earthly hotel. Only after some time does he realize that all this is a decoration made by the owners for a guest from a TV movie two years ago. Bowman goes to bed and falls asleep - for the last time in his life. He merges with the cosmic mind, losing his physical body, acquires the ability to move in time and space with the effort of thought and saves his home planet from an impending nuclear disaster.

Planet Earth, Pleistocene, savannas of equatorial Africa.

A small tribe of Pithecanthropus is on the verge of extinction. Nature has not endowed them with powerful fangs, sharp claws, or fast legs, but glimpses of consciousness flicker in their eyes. It is probably these qualities that attracted the attention of some highly developed extraterrestrial civilization to them, which carefully cultivates the seeds of Intelligence wherever they can be found. Pithecanthropus becomes experimental subjects in a grandiose space experiment.

One night, a block of completely transparent substance appears in a river valley. At dusk, when the tribe returns to the caves, an unusual stone suddenly makes a strange vibrating sound that attracts the Pithecanthropus like a magnet. In the gathering darkness, the crystal comes to life, begins to glow, and bizarre drawings appear in its depths. The enchanted Pithecanthropus does not know that in these moments the device examines their brain, evaluates their abilities, and predicts possible directions of evolution. The crystal calls to itself first one, then the other, and they, against their will, make new movements: naughty fingers tie the first knot on Earth, the leader takes a stone in his hands and tries to hit the target. Lessons continue every night. Over the course of a year, the life of the tribe changes beyond recognition - now Pithecanthropus knows how to use a set of simple tools and hunt large animals. Eternal hunger and fear of predators recede into the past, and time appears for the work of thought and imagination. The mysterious monolith disappears as suddenly as it appeared. His mission is completed - an animal endowed with intelligence has appeared on Earth.

XXI century American researchers find on the Moon, already inhabited by humanity, the first irrefutable evidence of the existence of an extraterrestrial civilization.

As the chairman of the National Astronautics Council, urgently called to the Moon, learns, magnetic reconnaissance detected a powerful distortion of the magnetic field in the area of the Tycho crater, and excavations in the center of the anomaly discovered at a six-meter depth a parallelepiped of ideal proportions made of an ultra-strong black substance unknown on Earth. The most striking thing about this find is its age: geological analysis suggests that the monolith was buried here about three million years ago.

When the lunar dawn comes and the black monolith catches a ray of sunlight for the first time after three million years of imprisonment, a piercing electronic scream sounds in the headsets of the people standing around. This signal is detected by space monitors and probes, and the central computer, having processed the information, makes a conclusion: a directed energy pulse, clearly of artificial origin, rushed from the surface of the Moon in the direction of Saturn.

All this is known only to a handful of people, because the consequences of the shock that humanity will inevitably have to endure are unpredictable.

In essence, the ship is not controlled by people, but by the sixth member of the crew, Eal - the brain and nervous system of Discovery, a heuristically programmed algorithmic computing machine. Eal, created through a process similar to the development of the human brain, can rightly be called a truly thinking machine, and he speaks to people in a real figurative human language. All of EAL's capabilities are aimed at fulfilling the given expedition program, but the contradiction between the goal and the need to hide it from his human colleagues gradually destroys the integrity of his “psyche”. The machine begins to make mistakes, and finally a crisis comes: hearing the astronauts’ negotiations with the Earth about the need to turn off EAL and transfer control to the Center, he makes the only possible decision: to get rid of the people and complete the expedition on his own. He simulates an antenna failure, and when Frank Poole goes into outer space to replace the unit, EAL kills him: the jet capsule flies at full speed towards the astronaut. And the next moment, the stunned Bowman sees on the screen that the boat is moving away from the ship, dragging the body of his dead friend along with it on a safety rope. Frank Poole will be the first man to go to Saturn.

Bowman tries to wake up one of the sleepers, but hears a sound that makes his heart go cold: the outer hatch doors open and air from the ship rushes into the abyss of space. He manages to escape in the emergency chamber, put on a spacesuit and turn off the higher centers of the electronic brain. He remains alone millions of kilometers from Earth. But the ship’s engines and navigation systems are in full working order, communication with Earth has been restored, and its emergency supply of oxygen will last for months. The expedition continues and Bowman, now aware of its ultimate goal, reaches the giant dead Saturn. He was ordered to begin a survey of the system from the eighth satellite of Saturn, Iapetus. The entire surface of Iapetus, devoid of an atmosphere, is black, reminiscent of charcoal in structure - except for a white plateau of a strikingly regular oval shape with a black mark in the center, which turns out to be exactly the same black monolith as on The moon, only of gigantic size.

The experiment that began three million years ago has ended. The monolith on Iapetus - the Guardian of the Star Gate - was installed by the same creatures, not at all similar to humans, who sent a mysterious crystal to Earth and buried a black block on the Moon. Their efforts were not in vain: the Earth really gave birth to Intelligence capable of reaching other planets, and confirmation of this was the signal from the lunar monolith, which sent a message to Iapetus.

Good afternoon, my dear reader. Your honorable servant, like millions of boys born in the Soviet Union, dreamed of becoming an astronaut. I didn’t become one, due to my health and, strange as it may sound, my height. But the distant and unknown space attracts me to this day.

In this article, I want to tell you about such interesting and truly cosmic things as launch vehicles and the payload that they delivered into outer space.

Intensive space exploration began in the middle of the Third Five-Year Plan, after the end of the Second World War. Active development was carried out in many countries, but the main leaders were naturally the USSR and the USA. The championship in the successful launch and delivery of the launch vehicle from PS-1 (the simplest satellite) into low-Earth orbit belonged to the USSR. Before the first successful launch, there were as many as six generations of rockets and only the seventh generation (R-7) was able to reach the first cosmic speed of 8 km/s in order to overcome gravity and enter low-Earth orbit. Space rockets originated from long-range ballistic missiles by boosting the engine. First, I'll explain something to you. A rocket and a spaceship are two different things.

The rocket itself is just a means of delivering a spacecraft into space. This is the first 30 meters in the picture. And the spacecraft is already attached to the rocket at the very top. However, there may not be a spaceship there; anything could be located there, from a satellite to a nuclear warhead. Which served as a great incentive and fear for the powers. The first successful launch and placement of a satellite into orbit meant a lot for the country. But most important of all is the military advantage.

The launch vehicles themselves, until the first successful launch, have only an alphanumeric designation. And only after recording the successful launch of the payload to a given height, they receive a name.

The 8K71 (R-7) intercontinental ballistic missile, like the well-known ball with four antennas, which it launched into space, also became a “Sputnik”. This happened on October 4, 1957.

Here is the very first artificial satellite PS-1 undergoing the final check of all systems.

PS-1 in space. (picture is not original shooting)

Just five months later, another launch vehicle (8A91) Sputnik 3 was launched. Such a short period of development is due to the fact that the first launch vehicles could lift a payload of several kilograms into space, and the launch from PS-1 on board , was only the first goal against the USA. When the Americans accepted the fact that the USSR had overtaken them in the race for first place in space, they began to finish their rockets with a vengeance. The USSR needed to get ahead of the United States again and create a rocket that could launch a ton payload into space. And this is, after all, a real threat. Who knows what one could stuff such a missile with and send it to Washington? And Sputnik 3 was just the first rocket, with a payload of 1300 kg.

Launch vehicle "Sputnik". On the left are three satellites that he put into orbit around the earth.

There was already nuclear hysteria in the United States. In kindergartens, schools, factories and factories, endless exercises began in case of a nuclear strike. This was the first time that the Americans had nothing with which to resist the USSR. Intercontinental ballistic missiles can reach the USSR in 11 minutes. A nuclear charge can arrive from space much faster. Of course, all this is too complicated to really think so. But fear has big eyes.

By the way, here’s something else to add to the erudite’s collection: How long do you think a rocket flies into space? An hour, two? Maybe half an hour?
To reach an altitude of 118 km, the rocket takes approximately 500 seconds, which is less than 10 minutes. An altitude of 118 km (100 km) is the so-called Karman line, where aeronautics becomes completely impossible. It is generally accepted that a flight is considered to be in space if the Karman line has been overcome.

The rocket is indeed American, but this drawing very successfully depicts the earth’s atmosphere and transition points.

The third rocket was Luna. The USSR, seeing the futile attempts of the Americans, with their capitalist system, where the rocket is built not by the state, but by private companies that are more interested in profit than in the space race, began to think about flying to the moon. And already on December 2, 1959, the launch vehicle (8K71), by equipping it with a third stage (block “E”), successfully set off towards our cause of ebb and flow. They could have done it earlier, but due to developing self-oscillations, the launch vehicles were destroyed in flight at 102-104 seconds. And only after installing hydraulic damper blocks in the fuel systems, the rocket successfully reached...heliocentric orbit and became the first artificial satellite of the sun. And all due to failure to take into account the propagation time of the AMS (automatic interplanetary station) radio command.

The next launch vehicle was the Vostok 8K72. He then flew to the moon in September 1959 and successfully dropped there the Luna-2 spacecraft and a couple of pentagons with symbols of the USSR.

The Vostok launch vehicle standing on a pedestal at VDNKh in Moscow.

Two metal pentagons with the symbols of the USSR, sent along with AMS-2 to the moon.

(After this success, the Americans began to build a pavilion where they decided to film a film about the landing on the moon. Just kidding.) On October 4, the same year, a similar rocket was launched from the Luna-3 spacecraft, which for the first time in the history of mankind was able to photograph the reverse side Moons. Making ordinary Americans cry, huddled in a corner. Since, unfortunately, the moon on the other side is absolutely the same and there are no lunar parks or lunar cities on it.

The far side of the moon. 1959

Korolev was in full swing planning to launch a man into space and therefore, in complete secrecy, a life support system for man in space was being developed. The Sputnik series spacecraft was launched on May 15, 1960. It was the first prototype of the Vostok satellite, which was used for the first human space flight.

Replica of the Sputnik spacecraft

The Sputnik 2 spacecraft was not intended to return to earth. But still, a decision was made to send a living creature into orbit. It was a beautiful mongrel named Laika. She was found in one of the dog shelters. We selected her according to the principle - white, small, not purebred, since she should not be picky about food. 10 dogs were selected, of which only three passed the selection and testing. But one was expecting offspring, and the other had congenital curvature of paws and was left as a technological one. Scientists have developed a feeding system, twice a day, a sewage system and performed a small operation to implant sensors. One was placed at the ribs and the other at the carotid artery to monitor breathing and pulse. Laika was sent into space on November 3, 1957. Having made incorrect calculations in thermal regulation, the temperature in the ship rose to 40 °C and within 5 hours the dog died from overheating, although the flight was designed for 7 days (the oxygen reserve of the ship). Laika was doomed from the very beginning. Many workers who participated in the experiment were morally depressed for a very long time. The Western press reacted very negatively to this flight and TASS transmitted information about the dog’s well-being for another seven days, although the dog was already dead.

Laika. She was the first living creature to go into space, but without a chance to return.

The Sputnik 4 spacecraft was created to study the operation of the life support system and various situations associated with human flight into space: a doll 164 cm tall and weighing 72 kg was sent on it. After four days of flight, the satellite deviated from the planned course and at the beginning of braking, instead of entering the atmosphere, it was thrown into a higher orbit, after which it was no longer able to return to the atmosphere in the planned mode. The wreckage of the satellite was found in the middle of the main street in the town of Manitevac in the US state of Wisconsin, which seemed to hint.

The remains of Sputnik 4 in the middle of the main street in the town of Manitevac in the US state of Wisconsin.

Sputnik-4

1. Photographic equipment; 2. Descent vehicle; 3. Orientation system cylinders; 4. Instrument compartment;
5. Antennas for telemetry systems; 6. Brake propulsion system; 7. Solar orientation sensor;
8. Vertical builder; 9. Program radio link antenna; 10. Radio intelligence system antenna

After this incident, every two months, there were launches on Vostok launch vehicles of some representatives of the earth’s fauna. In July, the dogs Chaika and Chanterelle were launched, but unfortunately, at the 19th second of flight, the side block of the first stage of the launch vehicle collapsed, causing it to fall and explode. The dogs Chaika and Lisichka died.

The first dogs to fly into space on a re-entry spacecraft (descent module).
Unfortunately, they were not destined to return.

And in August 1960, our two prides, Belochka and Strelochka, made a successful flight! But write down the following information in your piggy bank: Together with Belka and Strelka, there were 40 mice and 2 rats on board. They spent 1 day and 9 hours in space. Shortly after landing, Strelka gave birth to six healthy puppies. One of them was personally asked by Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev. He sent it as a gift to Caroline Kennedy, daughter of US President John F. Kennedy.

Belka and Strelka, the first dogs to return from space.

On board Sputnik 5 there were not only dogs, but also such cute rats.

In December of the same year, Sputnik 6 was launched. The crew of the ship were dogs Mushka and Pchelka, two guinea pigs, two white laboratory rats, 14 black mice of the C57 line, seven hybrid mice from SBA and C57 mice and five outbred white mice. A series of biological experiments that included research into the possibility of flights of geophysical and space rockets of living beings, observation of the behavior of highly organized animals under the conditions of such flights, as well as the study of complex phenomena in near-Earth space.
Scientists have conducted studies of the impact on animals of most factors of a physical and cosmic nature: altered gravity, vibration and overload, sound and noise stimuli of varying intensity, exposure to cosmic radiation, hypokinesia and physical inactivity. The flight lasted just over a day. On the 17th orbit, due to a failure of the braking engine control system, the descent began in an off-design area. It was decided to destroy the device by detonating the charge, in order to prevent an unplanned fall onto foreign territory. All living beings on board died. Despite the fact that the device was destroyed, the objectives of the mission were fulfilled, the collected scientific data was transmitted to Earth using telemetry and television.

Dogs Mushka and Bee before flying into space.

After this incident, there were two more successful and one not so successful launches of Vostok missiles. The Americans were indignant and every day they became more and more gloomy and intercepted encrypted signals in every possible way and tried to decipher them, but suffered failures.

Spy photo obtained by American intelligence who deciphered the radio broadcast code from Sputnik 6

On April 12, 1961, the USSR delivered its final blow and sent Yura into space on the same launch vehicle, in the Vostok-1 spacecraft, which completed one revolution around the Earth and landed at 10 hours 55 minutes. To understand what the Vostok-1 spacecraft is, I will give its overall characteristics:

Vehicle weight - 4.725 tons;
The diameter of the sealed housing is 2.2 m;
Length (without antennas) - 4.4 m;
Maximum diameter - 2.43 m

(As I wrote above, I’m not an astronaut, I just had the opportunity to sit in a similar apparatus on the ground.) This is a very uncomfortable aircraft, I’ll tell you. With my height of 190 cm, it was extremely uncomfortable to sit in a bucket chair, and even in a spacesuit. Therefore, Gagarin was selected based on height, weight and health. (170/70/excellent) But even Gagarin most likely felt uncomfortable in such a tiny capsule.

The Vostok lander and next to it the ejection seat.

I would like to note that the first human flight was fully automatic, but Yura could switch the ship to manual control at any time. To do this, it was necessary to enter a special security code to disable the automation, which was in a sealed envelope, which was in an egg, an egg in a duck, a duck... in short, before the flight, Korolev whispered this code to Yurka, who knows? And everything was done so that no one knew how the human nervous system would behave in space and whether he would go crazy. Therefore, the code for manual control was placed in an envelope that only a sane person could open.

Our universal pride!

I want to tell you some interesting details about the first human flight.

Gagarin was still “Kedr”.

Rocket launches always occur at uneven times.

At 9:57 Gagarin personally waved to the President of America as he flew over it.

The bus carrying the astronauts to the rocket is blue.

The same bus.

Gagarin could refuse the flight at any time, and he would be replaced by Titov, who in turn could be replaced by Nelyubov.

It is better to tie pencils in space. By the way, due to weightlessness, ordinary fountain pens cannot write in space.

During the descent of the spacecraft, due to problems in the braking and propulsion system, the ship began to rotate for 10 minutes with an amplitude of a full rotation of 1 second. Gagarin did not scare Korolev and calmly reported about the emergency situation, which speaks of his nerves of steel. All Vostok type descent vehicles land along a ballistic trajectory, which leads to overloads of up to 10 g. In addition, the ship gets very hot and crackles wildly in the lower layers of the atmosphere, which can put a lot of pressure on the psyche. When the ship reaches 7 km above the ground, the astronaut is ejected and descends separately from the descent vehicle using his own parachutes. What is ejection on the Vostok ship? When the descent vehicle releases the parachute and the speed gradually drops from 900 km/h to 72 km/h, a pyrotechnic charge is triggered under the astronaut’s seat and the chair and the astronaut whistlingly fly into free fall. Then the astronaut must have time to detach from the chair and parachute down to the ground on his own. And this is under wild overloads, constant fear and distrust of automation. After ejection, Gagarin’s oxygen supply valve did not work and he began to suffocate. After some time, the valve opened and Yura took a deep breath. When the parachute opened, he began to drift straight into the Volga. Let me remind you that the water in April is a little cold and he was again on the verge of death, and his ability to maneuver with the help of slings saved him. I think it’s impossible to put into words what he managed to endure in just over an hour. It was worth it. Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin, the most famous (contemporary) person on earth who has ever lived.

During descent, the capsule begins to burn in the lower layers of the atmosphere.

The parachute opens at a speed of 900 km/h

The capsule lands at a speed of 7 m/s

This is how the descent module burns out.

Pre-launch check of all systems.

Korolev, without hiding his excitement, communicates with Gagarin during the flight.

The most famous person on the planet!

On the cover of Time magazine.

On the cover of Life magazine.

But he himself was very modest.

With this I will finish the first part about the space exploration of the USSR. If you are interested in a continuation, I will be happy to write. Later I will talk about other countries, including the USA, which have also done a lot in this area of activity.

A. C. Clark
2001: A Space Odyssey
Planet Earth, Pleistocene, savannas of equatorial Africa.
A small tribe of Pithecanthropus is on the verge of extinction. Nature has not endowed them with powerful fangs, sharp claws, or fast legs, but glimpses of consciousness flicker in their eyes. It is probably these qualities that attracted the attention of some highly developed extraterrestrial civilization to them, which carefully cultivates the seeds of Intelligence wherever they can be found. Pithecanthropus becomes experimental subjects in a grandiose space experiment.
One night, a block of completely transparent substance appears in a river valley. At dusk, when the tribe returns to the caves, an unusual stone suddenly makes a strange vibrating sound that attracts the Pithecanthropus like a magnet. In the gathering darkness, the crystal comes to life, begins to glow, and bizarre drawings appear in its depths. The enchanted Pithecanthropus does not know that in these moments the device examines their brain, evaluates their abilities, and predicts possible directions of evolution. The crystal calls to itself first one, then the other, and they, against their will, make new movements: naughty fingers tie the first knot on Earth, the leader takes a stone in his hands and tries to hit the target. Lessons continue every night. Over the course of a year, the life of the tribe changes beyond recognition - now Pithecanthropus knows how to use a set of simple tools and hunt large animals. Eternal hunger and fear of predators recede into the past, and time appears for the work of thought and imagination. The mysterious monolith disappears as suddenly as it appeared. His mission is completed - an animal endowed with intelligence has appeared on Earth.
XXI century American researchers find on the Moon, already inhabited by humanity, the first irrefutable evidence of the existence of an extraterrestrial civilization.
As the chairman of the National Astronautics Council, urgently called to the Moon, learns, magnetic reconnaissance detected a powerful distortion of the magnetic field in the area of the Tycho crater, and excavations in the center of the anomaly discovered at a six-meter depth a parallelepiped of ideal proportions made of an ultra-strong black substance unknown on Earth. The most striking thing about this find is its age: geological analysis suggests that the monolith was buried here about three million years ago.
When the lunar dawn comes and the black monolith catches a ray of sunlight for the first time after three million years of imprisonment, a piercing electronic scream sounds in the headsets of the people standing around. This signal is detected by space monitors and probes, and the central computer, having processed the information, makes a conclusion: a directed energy pulse, clearly of artificial origin, rushed from the surface of the Moon in the direction of Saturn.
All this is known only to a handful of people, because the consequences of the shock that humanity will inevitably have to endure are unpredictable.
Interplanetary space. Spaceship Discovery. The first months of the flight pass in serene calm. The two awake crew members, Frank Poole and David Bowman, are on watch every day, performing routine duties. The other three are immersed in an artificial hypothermic sleep, from which they will awaken only when Discovery enters orbit of Saturn. Only these three know the true purpose of the expedition - possible contact with an extraterrestrial civilization, while Poole and Bowman consider the flight to be an ordinary research flight. Those who prepared the expedition decided that it was necessary for the Security and Interests of the nation.
In essence, the ship is not controlled by people, but by the sixth member of the crew, Eal - the brain and nervous system of Discovery, a heuristically programmed algorithmic computing machine. Eal, created through a process similar to the development of the human brain, can rightly be called a truly thinking machine, and he speaks to people in a real figurative human language. All of EAL's capabilities are aimed at fulfilling the given expedition program, but the contradiction between the goal and the need to hide it from his human colleagues gradually destroys the integrity of his “psyche”. The machine begins to make mistakes, and finally a crisis comes: hearing the astronauts’ negotiations with the Earth about the need to turn off EAL and transfer control to the Center, he makes the only possible decision: to get rid of the people and complete the expedition on his own. He simulates an antenna failure, and when Frank Poole goes into outer space to replace the unit, EAL kills him: the jet capsule flies at full speed towards the astronaut. And the next moment, the stunned Bowman sees on the screen that the boat is moving away from the ship, dragging the body of his dead friend along with it on a safety rope. Frank Poole will be the first man to go to Saturn.
Bowman tries to wake up one of the sleepers, but hears a sound that makes his heart go cold: the outer hatch doors open and air from the ship rushes into the abyss of space. He manages to escape in the emergency chamber, put on a spacesuit and turn off the higher centers of the electronic brain. He remains alone millions of kilometers from Earth. But the ship’s engines and navigation systems are in full working order, communication with Earth has been restored, and its emergency supply of oxygen will last for months. The expedition continues and Bowman, now aware of its ultimate goal, reaches the giant dead Saturn. He was ordered to begin a survey of the system from the eighth satellite of Saturn, Iapetus. The entire surface of Iapetus, devoid of an atmosphere, is black, reminiscent of charcoal in structure - except for a white plateau of a strikingly regular oval shape with a black mark in the center, which turns out to be exactly the same black monolith as on The moon, only of gigantic size.
The experiment that began three million years ago has ended. The monolith on Iapetus - the Guardian of the Star Gate - was installed by the same creatures, not at all similar to humans, who sent a mysterious crystal to Earth and buried a black block on the Moon. Their efforts were not in vain: the Earth really gave birth to Intelligence capable of reaching other planets, and confirmation of this was the signal from the lunar monolith, which sent a message to Iapetus.
David Bowman decides to board Iapetus in a capsule, and its approach awakens the powers contained within the Stargate. The upper edge of the black monolith suddenly goes deeper, the capsule begins to fall into a bottomless shaft. It was the Star Gate that opened.
Time stops - the clock stops counting seconds - but perception and consciousness continue to work. Bowman sees the black walls of the “mine”, and in the gap there are a myriad of stars “scattering” from the center. He is aware that something inaccessible to his understanding is happening with time and space, but he does not feel fear, feeling that he is under the protection of an infinitely powerful Mind. He ends up hundreds of light years from Earth. The capsule strives for a giant red star, into the kingdom of flame, but when the journey ends, Bowman thinks he has gone crazy - he is in an ordinary earthly hotel. Only after some time does he realize that all this is a decoration made by the owners for a guest from a TV movie two years ago. Bowman goes to bed and falls asleep - for the last time in his life. He merges with the cosmic mind, losing his physical body, acquires the ability to move in time and space with the effort of thought and saves his home planet from an impending nuclear disaster.

Planet Earth, Pleistocene, savannas of equatorial Africa. A small tribe of Pithecanthropus is on the verge of extinction. Nature has not endowed them with powerful fangs, sharp claws, or fast...
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The story with such an original title is one big dialogue between grandfather Naum and eighth-grader Yurka.

Yurka lives in his grandfather’s house - he rents out a corner to him, since there are no high schools in Yurka’s village. Yurka has only a mother and three other siblings. The boy lives poorly, sometimes there is nothing to eat, but he strives to study.

Despite Yurka’s poverty, his grandfather charges him dearly for housing. In fact, Naum is greedy, with “kulak” habits. He doesn't even get hung up to save money. Only when Yurka has absolutely nothing to eat does his grandfather sell him millet.

Once again the old man is suffering from a hangover, lying on the stove, but he wants to talk. (The adult children have all moved to the city.) Yurka is teaching his lessons - he has no time for talking, especially since he condemns the old man for drunkenness. At the very least, the conversation is going well. Grandfather scolds the achievements of science, and Yurka defends everything new. He says that people gave their lives to fight cholera and rabies... Grandfather defends “traditional healers”, and Yurka - scientific doctors (he himself dreams of becoming a surgeon, even if they are underpaid). Yura talks about the nervous system, which was stunned by his grandfather with vodka, and calls for overcoming the conditioned reflex of getting drunk since retirement. They also talk about space. Grandfather does not understand why to fly there, what is the meaning of this labor-intensive movement, and Yura is going to learn from aliens.

Yura tells how Academician Pavlov, dying, dictated his feelings to the students. Naum only wonders where the academician’s relatives were, because it’s so bad for him alone. Yuri doesn’t argue here, he realized how lonely the old man is. And he suddenly brought the hungry schoolboy a load of lard, which he is a master at making. After eating, Yurka grew rich and even offered to run for vodka for his grandfather, but he decided not to drink. Their relationship moved from a dead point.

The story teaches that, despite different views on everything, people even of different generations can show kindness to each other.

Cosmonauts. Biographies of Soviet cosmonauts.

Picture or drawing Space, nervous system and fat

Other retellings for the reader's diary