Sahil

February 15, 2009

Third Hour

Rough Draft: Space Exploration: Modern Times

            Space Exploration is the use of astronomy and space technology to explore space. So the question is how we find a way to get out of this galaxy and explore others. To learn this we must look at the past achievements, the targets we used to and still do explore, we must learn about the dangers of the area we plan to travel to, and we must learn about this frontier we call the Milky Way. 

Achievements

            1957, the Cold War, Sputnik (co-traveler) gets launched by the soviets into outer space orbiting the Earth in about 96 minuets. This was the start of the space race and a new way to explore space. Sputnik 1 or Sputnik was the first man-made satellite in space and took off on R-7 rockets indented to fire at the U.S if war broke out.

            Then a month later Sputnik 2 took off holding Laika, the first mammal in space. Unfortunately Laika died within a couple of hours after liftoff and then Sputnik 2 was officially dubbed Muttnik.

            Then in 1961 Vostok 1 was launched into space with the first human named Yuri Gagarin, and in 1963 Valentina Tereshkova was the first women in space aboard Vostok 6.

            Later in 1969 the famous words “That’s one small step for man; one giant leap for man-kind” were spoken by Neil Armstrong of the U.S when Apollo 11 landed on the moon.

            Then 20 years later competition turned into cooperation as the first and only international space station (ISS) was in orbit. 16 countries are represented in the ISS, the U.S, the U.K, France, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Brazil, Japan, Norway, and Russia.

            On July 4^th 1997 the Pathfinder rolled over Mars’s rocky terrain, unfortunately 2 months later signals were lost. Then in 2004 the Spirit and Opportunity got a taste of Mars and are still operating today.

Targets of Exploration

            The Sun

                        The Sun has never been physically observed because of its heat and its ability to generate space weather, which is stuff like geomagnetic storms created by the magnetic pull of the sun. Even satellites that are orbiting Earth are occasionally hurt by space weather which can damage them or disrupt connections.

            Mercury

                           In January 2008 Mariner 10 and Messenger made close orbit observations of Mercury and otherwise the exploration of Mercury as played a minor role, mostly because it is the closest planet to the sun and the heat is intense.    

            Venus

                        Venus was the first planet besides Earth for a flyby view and landing missions. The landing missions were later were cancelled once Venera 4 went inside Venus’s atmosphere and discovered how hostile the surface there is. Then Mariner 2 took flyby photos of the “sister planet”.   

Moon

                        Russian’s were first to take photos of the far side of the moon and discovered that the far side of the moon is more heavily cratered than the visible side of the moon. The Apollo missions were the first to bring moon walks and land on the moon.

            Mars

                        Exploration of Mars has been important to many countries so that they could answer questions such as if there are aliens, did it once be habitable, and did their once be water on Mars.

Asteroids

                        Until space travel asteroids were the smallest of specks in even the largest of telescopes. Once space travel was invented a probe by the name of Galileo entered the asteroid belt and examined the ones that could be a possible threat to mankind.

            Jupiter

                        Jupiter is the largest gas planet and has only been visited by probes because there has been no sign of any surface, only its rocky core. Besides that, Jupiter’s 63 (and counting) moons have been visited like Io.

Saturn

                        Like Jupiter, Saturn has only been visited by NASA probes, and has no surface. Also flyby shots have been taken. Besides that Saturn has one artificial satellite in orbit, Cassini-Huygens. Also scientists are debating how many moons Saturn really has because its rings have many of thousands of ice and rock particles.

            Uranus

                        In 1986 Uranus was visited by Voyager 2, up till now there has been no other mission to Uranus and Voyager 2 discovered that it was on a 97.77 degree tilt. Voyager 2 also observed Uranus’s rings and discovered 10 new moons.

            Neptune

                        Like Uranus, Neptune has only been visited by one probe, Voyager 2. Voyager 2 measured and calculated that Neptune has the highest wind speed ever recorded. After this mission a possibility of a probe to orbit Neptune was put in but was never given any serious thought.

Pluto

                        Pluto is the hardest planet to visit because of its great distance. Voyager 1 could have visited Pluto but scientist opted against it ending in a tragic Triton flyby. Instead of having a flyby of Triton Voyager 1 ended up in a flyby of Pluto itself.  

The Hubble Space Telescope

            The Hubble Space telescope or HST is the telescope taken in orbit in the 1990’s by the space shuttle Discovery. Named after the astronomer Edwin Hubble, the Hubble Space Telescope maybe not the first but, by far the best.

            Space telescopes were originally proposed in 1923, but not until 1970 was the Hubble Space Telescope proposed. But then the launch date proposed was postponed due to technical delays, budget problems, and the Challenger disaster. Then the Hubble Space Telescope was launched in the 1990’s. The Hubble Space Telescope is the only space telescope to be able to be fixed by astronauts. There have been 4 missions to fix up the Hubble Space Telescope. 1 has been to fix the mirror which had a flaw, 2, 3A and 3B was to replace parts with more modern instruments, and now the 5^th mission and final has been postponed till March 2009.

              Once the 5^th and final mission has taken place, scientists at NASA hope that the Hubble Space telescope will be replaced by the newly improved James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The James Webb Space Telescope is supposed to exceed the Hubble Space Telescope by far although it will only be visible by infrared, instead of infrared, visible spectrum, and ultraviolet. The main goal for scientists is that the James Webb Space Telescope should be able to see planets, stars, comets, asteroids, black holes etc. that are farther away than even the Hubble Space Telescope eye can see. The James Webb Space Telescope will be launched by Ariane 5.

Milky Way

            The Milky Way or the galaxy is one of the thousands of galaxies in the Universe. TI is where are solar system is located. Our Milky Way is a spiral galaxy and is located in the group called Local Galaxies. We are located in between the outer rim and inner rim, and it is thought to believe that in the middle of the galaxy there is a black hole. In the Milky Way there are 200 to 300 million stars and the oldest one is about 13.2 million years old. 

Black Holes

            According to Einstein’s theory, black holes are a region of space where it’s gravitational is so strong not even electromagnetic radiation or visible light can escape. It is said that a black hole has any amount of mass.

            If you were to go inside a black hole you would essentially feel nothing until you get closer to the center. Then something called tidal force happens. Tidal force is when one part of your body is experiencing more gravitational pull than another part. It is known as “stretching” and this will happen until your body gets torn apart.

             Inside a Black hole you wouldn’t see much. Just particles heading to the center. Images far away would look distorted because a black hole can bend light. To tell the truth nothing special ever happens when you’re in a black hole. It is pretty much just black.

            Space is a frontier filled with options. It is said it does not end, so with each little step we only map more and more of the Universe but never all of it, so 100 years from now someone could be reading or writing a report on space. Well this pretty much concludes what we were and are still trying to explore, and like some people say, to find the answer of the future you must look at the past.

Bibliography

"Milky Way." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 25 Feb 2009, 18:57 UTC. 26 Feb 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Milky_Way&oldid=273243821>. (Feb-13th)

Bunn, Ted. Black Holes FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) List. http://cosmology.berkeley.edu/Education/BHfaq.html.(Feb-14th)

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/photos/uncategorized/2009/01/08/supermassive_black_hole_2.jpg (Feb- 15th)

"Space exploration." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 25 Feb 2009, 22:41 UTC. 26 Feb 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Space_exploration&oldid=273294892>. (Feb-13)

                        “Hubble Space Telescope”. NASA. http://hubble.nasa.gov/. (Feb-14th)

"Hubble Space Telescope." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 25 Feb 2009, 21:38 UTC. 26 Feb 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hubble_Space_Telescope&oldid=273280596>. (Feb-13th)

"Black hole (disambiguation)." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 22 Feb 2009, 04:40 UTC. 26 Feb 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Black_hole_(disambiguation)&oldid=272421059>. (Feb-13th)

                “The Milky Way Galaxy”. http://seds.org/messier/more/mw. (Feb-14th)

http://s.ngm.com/2007/11/hubble/img/hubble-text.jpg (Feb-15th)

http://michaelgr.files.wordpress.com/2007/05/hubble-space-telescope-001.jpg (Feb-15th)

http://www.usbible.com/Astrology/milky_way.gif (Feb-15th)

http://images.spaceref.com/news/2004/07.20.04.apollo.11.lg.jpg  (Feb-15th)

                Microsoft Encarta 2006 DVD                                    Encyclopedia Britannica 2005 DVD