Hungarians and Americans on the Moon

Magyar változat

Hungarians in lunar research

Hungary was first included in the scientific map of lunar research in connection with the mapping of the Moon. During his study trip to Hungary, the Italian military engineer and scientist Marsigli made telescope-based drawings of the Moon and published them in 1726, as part of his work dealing with the description of the Danube region. Miksa Hell published a lunar map in 1764 in Vienna as the court astronomer of Maria Theresa. Between 1897 and 1900, László Weinek, as the director of the observatory at the German University in Prague, published one of the very first detailed photo atlases of the surface of the Moon. Geographer Jenő Cholnoky developed several theories about the formation of lunar landforms and drew a fascinating lunar map in the 1930s.

One of the emblematic events of modern lunar exploration was the second successful lunar radar experiment in the world on February 6, 1946, under the direction of Zoltán Bay of the Egyesült Izzó (“United Bulb”) company in Újpest (the first was carried out on January 10 in the United States). The value of the experiment of the Hungarian researchers is emphasized by the fact that they achieved all this in war conditions, starting almost from scratch. At the end of March 1945, when the Soviet military completely looted the Egyesült Izzó, the Moon Radar, developed since the summer of 1944, and the receiving antenna were also taken away. The key to success was Bay’s idea, a method of signal summation that has been used in radio astronomy ever since. This made it possible to amplify the very weak signals reflected from the Moon even with a radar equipment that was much more rudimentary than those available in the United States.

Hungarian-American space and planetary research relations

As a member of the European Space Agency (ESA), Hungary participates primarily in ESA's space programs, but domestic researchers are also involved in educational and research programs in the United States. Since 2001, a formal space cooperation agreement has been in force between the Hungarian and American governments. Professional relationships, on the other hand, go much earlier. Eötvös Loránd University has been making lunar rock samples borrowed from NASA available to students since 1994. Since 1997, Hungarian researchers have regularly participated in the program of the world's largest Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) in Houston, where they report on their planetary research efforts at Hungarian universities and research institutes. Employees of several departments of Eötvös Loránd University are also involved in the mapping of the surface of the Moon and planets, and in the analysis of data from American space probes, partly in the framework of joint research with NASA.

Institutions participating in the aforementioned research

Pilles in space

Perhaps the best-known Hungarian space device, named Pille, has been used several times in American space programs. Due to the small size, weight and power consumption of the Pille, as well as the on-board readability of its data, it is an advantageous radiation dose meter. Bertalan Farkas, a Hungarian cosmonaut, took the first copy of the device into space in 1980. The instrument was noticed by American astronaut Sally Ride, who attended the 1983 International Congress of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) in Budapest. As a result, a battery-powered version was made for NASA, which Ride also tested in 1984 on the Challenger spacecraft’s sixth mission.

In 1996, the American space shuttle Atlantis brought a new microprocessor-equipped Pille to the Mir space station. In addition to routine measurements, Jerry Linenger and Michael Foale also took dose measurements on the spacewalk, creating separate pockets for Pille on their spacesuits. In 2001, the Discovery spacecraft delivered another version of the Pille to the International Space Station (ISS), where James Voss performed about 1,700 measurements with it. Another means of dose measurement are the Hungarian-made radiation trace detectors, which were transferred to the International Space Station in 2009 by the American space shuttle Atlantis.

The newest dose measuring instrument, codenamed TRITEL, which is also suitable for measuring the temporal and spatial distribution of radiation following three measuring telescopes, has also been tested successfully in space. As a result, TRITEL will be housed in the planned Moon-orbiting space station (Lunar Gateway) of the new US-led international lunar exploration program. The central unit of the space station's internal radiation measurement system (IDA) will also be made in Hungary.

Against the solar wind

Cassini (1997–2017), a spacecraft in a large-scale Saturn exploration mission carried out by NASA in international collaboration, studied the ringed planet's magnetic field and its behavior against the solar wind (charged particles emanating from the solar corona). Of the many measuring instruments, researchers at the Research Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics (RMKI) contributed to the development of an on-board magnetometer (MAG) and a plasma spectrometer (CAPS) by building a ground-based monitoring equipment and calibration system (Electronic Ground Support Equipment, EGSE).

Solar eruptions in STEREO

Coronal mass ejections (charged particle masses ejected from the Sun), and the geomagnetic storms they cause, can be dangerous to satellites, astronauts traveling in space, but even to terrestrial power grids and telecommunication. The main tasks of the two space probes in NASA's STEREO program (2006–) were to spatially track the eruptions and to observe the side of the Sun that is currently invisible from Earth. Although the planned contribution to the manufacturing of the onboard electronics was not implemented, RMKI researchers still were involved in modeling the course of the coronal mass ejections. This was preceded by participation in the construction and evaluation of data from a solar observation probe, a SOHO (1995–) instrument (LION, Low-energy Ion and Electron Detector) launched in collaboration with ESA and NASA.

Weightless crystals

The development of the “space furnace”, which performs crystal growth in the state of weightlessness, started in 1986 in the framework of the Intercosmos collaboration at the University of Miskolc, partly following the lessons learned from Bertalan Farkas' space travel experiments. A contract was signed with NASA in 1992 to further develop the equipment, which was completed in 1991. Between 1995 and 1998, the multi-zone crystallizer operated at NASA's Marshall Space Center (Huntsville, Alabama) with Hungarian technical personnel. Later, in 2000/2001, tests of the device for the International Space Station were carried out there. For budgetary reasons, the program was canceled, but NASA purchased three copies of the equipment already manufactured by Admatis LLC in Miskolc at that time.

The foam in FOCUS

The experiment called FOCUS (FOam Casting and Utilization in Space) was performed by American astronaut Jeffrey Williams on equipment manufactured by Admatis LLC in Miskolc, in the European Columbus module of the International Space Station (ISS) in 2010. The test, which was made possible by an international tender, was used for technological research into the production of homogeneous metal foams.

Puli on the Moon

Founded in 2010, the Budapest-based company Puli Space Technologies LLC is working on the development of a lightweight, inexpensive lunar rover and measurement devices able to operate under lunar conditions. The first device planned to reach the Moon is the “Space Time Plaque,” which is being developed as part of the “Memory of Humanity” project. The “Space-Time Plaque” will be brought to the Moon in 2022 by the Peregrine landing unit of Astrobotic Technology in collaboration with NASA. There is also a space reserved for the Puli lunar rover, which has undergone numerous ground field tests.

By 2023, the Puli “water sniffing” detector (Puli Lunar Water Snooper, PLWS) is scheduled to land on the Moon. In 2020, the concept of the instrument won first prize in the “Moon Resources” category at NASA’s competition to miniaturize the payload to be delivered to the Moon. NASA will provide financial and professional support for a year to further develop a water ice finder that can be mounted on the bottom of the lunar rover.

Research institutes and companies involved in these developments

Sample collections from the Moon

NASA produced twenty sets of thin sections for higher education from samples collected during Apollo missions in the mid-1970s, each consisting of twelve different samples. Next to them, and independently, 201 plexiglass discs were made for high school presentation, each of which included three lunar rock and three lunar regolith samples. The thin sections and the associated plexiglass disc first arrived in Hungary in 1994, at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), with the help of physicist and astronomer Szaniszló Bérczi. One of the twenty sets has been at ELTE for 27 years, with only one year of interruption (1995/96), serving research, education and public outreach.

Hungarian designer of the Apollo lunar rover

The “moon car” (Lunar Roving Vehicle) used in the last three Apollo expeditions, which increased the range of spacewalks and the amount of samples collected by an order of magnitude, was largely designed and operated using the plans of a Hungarian-born engineer, Ferenc Pavlics. He was born in 1928 in Balozsameggyes (Vas county). He graduated from the Budapest University of Technology in 1950 as a mechanical engineer, and then worked at the Mechanical Engineering Design Institute. He emigrated to the United States in 1956. From 1957 he worked at General Motors as a development engineer. In 1969, he proposed a design for the Lunar Roving Vehicle, which was selected for NASA implementation. The rover was successfully manufactured in just 18 months. Pavlics received a NASA Certificate of Appreciation for the special wheel of the rover he designed.