In the summer of 1822, professor of astronomy at the University of Munich, Franz Paula von Gruytuisen (1774-1852), announced the discovery of the ruins of the "city" near the Schroeter crater. This lunar formation resembled a fragment of a spider web and included low, straight ramparts diverging at an angle of 45 degrees and connected by bridges. At the end of the network are the "ruins of the citadel". The total area of the “city of Gruytuisen”, according to various estimates, was about 15 hectares.
The lunatic citadel
After Gruytuisen discovered his lunar "city", a stormy controversy immediately arose between astronomers about the nature of this unusual surface formation. Selenologists were divided into two groups. Most of them defended the naturalness of this lunar phenomenon, and the few followers of Gruytuisen - artificiality. More than a century has passed, but the discussion has not subsided. The baton from the founder of Russian ufology, Felix Yuryevich Siegel, was taken over by the enthusiast of "non-traditional selenology" Alexei Viktorovich Arkhipov.
Sketch by Franz Paul von Gruytuisen.
Views of the "city of Gruytuisen" on the Moon. In the bottom photo it is highlighted with a white rectangle. The dilapidated crater Schreter, above and to the left is the “city of Gruytuisen”. (Looks like a "Christmas tree" from the mountains above and to the left of the crater with a central slide)
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In the midst of a lunar day, when the Sun is at its maximum height above the horizon, a mysterious chain of paired light spots becomes noticeable, limiting a dark curved stripe on both sides. From the west and east of the "city" there are strange triangular "fields" covered with faint stripes.
Despite the unusual structure of the "ruins of the city" and its environs, the prevailing point of view among professional selenologists is that these lunar relief formations are of natural origin. A similar pattern of the terrain could well have arisen during the movement and cooling of lunar lava flows among a complex multi-level relief.
Hilly obstacles could play a decisive role here, causing several lava waves diverging at an angle to each other. Almost the same pattern can be seen on the surface of a flowing liquid, such as a stream.
"City of Gruytuisen" is located on the outskirts of the Znoya Bay, from which a lava flow once flowed, judging by the location of the frozen wave crests. If we assume that the ridges of the “city” ramparts were formed as a result of the movement of lava flows, then the structure of the location of the ramparts, which seems to be geometrically correct, becomes generally clear.
The heat of passion around the lunar "city" has led to the creation of various volumetric laboratory models using wax and paraffin, simulating lava melt. On the exact model of the lunar surface, streams of wax and paraffin mixtures were "launched", and then the frozen relief was studied. Such modeling made it possible to understand how lava flowing around natural obstacles could form an unusual landscape of the lunar "city", including radial rays extending from the hill and the bridge between them.
Of course, neither direct observations nor modeling could convince ufologists of the natural nature of the "ruins of the city of Gruytuisen". It is possible that the final point in this century-old history will be put by another lunar mission aimed at the area of an amazing phenomenon resembling the ruins of artificial structures.
Secrets of the night luminary
Here the version of the Moon as a planetary spacecraft comes to the fore. The arrival of this "planetoid ship" is associated with a number of biological catastrophes in the history of the Earth, considering them as "purposeful natural disasters" designed to help the homo sapiens species enter the historical arena.
Where could our night light come from, by whom and for what purpose it was created, why did it “dock” exactly to our planet? What could have happened to the crew of the "indigenous Selenites"? Or maybe the amazing "planetoid ship" is a kind of "space tomb" served by numerous cyber-automata?
With the passage of time, the hypothesis of the "spaceship moon" began to acquire more and more new details. From ufological research we learn that “a super spacecraft must be a very rigid metal structure. The probable thickness of its walls is two or two and a half tens of kilometers."
At the same time, great attention is paid to substantiating the external appearance of our satellite: “To protect the ship from unnecessary heat loss, its creators covered the surface with a special heat-shielding coating. Its thickness is several kilometers. It was there that the meteorites formed countless craters, and the impacts of the planetoids formed the beds of the lunar seas, which were subsequently filled with a secondary heat-shielding mass.
The ufologists also do not ignore the structure of the "planetoid ship": "Inside the Moon under the metal hull, there should be quite a significant free space intended for mechanisms serving the movement and repair of the space supership, devices for external observations, some structures that ensure the connection of the armor plating with the internal the content of the moon.
It is possible that 70-80% of the Moon's mass located in its depths behind the "service belt" is the "payload" of the ship. Guesses about its content and purpose go beyond reasonable assumptions."
At the same time, it is believed that “if we take into account that the heat-shielding layer of the artificial Moon played a very important role in its life, then for the inhabitants of the Moon it was not at all indifferent that the impacts of oncoming meteorites tore off large pieces of this casing from its metal body….
Lunar inhabitants. Engraving from an English reprint of 1836. In the background are the huts of the intelligent beavers and their inhabitants.
For this purpose, “pipelines” leading from the “machines” located in the “service area” were quickly brought to the exposed places. These machines prepared a powdery mass that was brought out onto the bare surface of the moon and covered it.
It is clear that this "powder" could not cover all the "seas" with an even layer. But the creators of the Moon foresaw for this case the possibility of oscillatory motion of the surface of the Moon, which allowed the grains of dust-grains of sand to form a kind of "fluidized layer". They "flowed" like a liquid, filling all the depressions of the Moon, forming an almost ideal layer over hundreds of kilometers of the area of the "lunar seas".
Very rare element
After an uncontrollable flight of ufological fantasies, it seems that any mention of lunar settlements should cause a skeptical reaction. However, in reality, this is far from the case.
There are a number of serious scientific projects considering various possibilities of using lunar resources to solve earthly problems. First, we are talking about long-term scientific bases, then about the most real lunar cities and, finally, about ambitious plans for terraforming (bringing climatic conditions to a state suitable for the habitation of terrestrial animals and plants) of our natural satellite.
It is known for certain that the moon lacks essential organic minerals such as oil, gas, and coal. Most likely, there are no rich ore deposits there either. However, even the poor reserves of local raw materials - iron, aluminum and titanium - are very important for the self-sufficiency of local industries, for example, shipyards and energy.
In addition, the surface layer of the lunar soil, which consists mainly of the regolith mineral, contains a rare element on Earth, helium-3. This isotope can provide fuel for the thermonuclear energy of the future, meeting the needs of not only the lunar population, but also earthlings.
When using helium-3, long-lived radioactive waste does not arise, and therefore the problem of their disposal, which is so acute in the operation of reactors for fission of heavy nuclei, disappears by itself.
Habitable base
However, the creation of thermonuclear energy, apparently, is a matter of the future, and tomorrow's lunar cities will supply electricity to conventional nuclear reactors and powerful solar panels.
The first lunar cities, probably, will be mainly inhabited by scientists, power engineers and spacecraft. After all, among other things, our satellite should become a launching pad for near and distant space missions, and someday interstellar flights.
This photo was taken during the Apollo 15 flight. The Apollo 11 crew also reported about mysterious lights on the lunar surface. From unofficial sources it is known that incomprehensible luminous objects approached Apollo 12 and pursued Apollo 13.
Lunar workshops and factories will also provide the necessary resources for large space stations in high Earth orbits, where space production will be deployed on an industrial scale.
We can confidently predict that the most important stage in the development of the Moon will be the creation of a permanent habitable base on its surface. And here it is very important that some lunar rocks contain abnormally large amounts of water and even there are signs of the presence of water ice deposits. There are technical solutions for obtaining oxygen for breathing.
The lunar world, thanks to its exotic landscapes, will surely become a Mecca for space tourism, and this can attract a significant amount of funds for various research and production programs. In the distant future, the Moon will be called upon to become the largest staging post for goods and people in the solar system.
Undoubtedly, centuries will pass, and the Earth will have a younger sister with an atmosphere, vegetation and real seas. Well, the lunar cities of this new center of space expansion of mankind will be populated by the most real Selenites - the descendants of earthlings who risked moving to their satellite …
Oleg FAYG