Space: is something that has always fascinated humanity, from astronomers in ancient Greece to trillion dollar corporations today. Humanity has made incredible advancements in the space program since its conception. From putting men on the moon to having a space station the size of a football field which regularly houses astronauts from all around the world. Now there is talk of in the future having people living on Mars. Space exploration has been rapidly growing ever since it was started in 1957 when the Soviets and United States created their own missile programs (A Brief History of Space Exploration, n.d). Russia started the space race when they launched the first satellite ever into space, Sputnik. The technological advancements that Sputnik 1 made was to be able to transmit data and fly at such a low orbit. Sputnik paved the way for many new techniques that are common today such as meteor detection and radio transmissions (Sputnik 1, n.d). Sputnik not only spurred space technologies, it also directly caused the United States to further its space program. One of the United States advancements in Space was Explorer, which was the first United States’ satellite, was created in direct response to the Soviet Union’s Sputnik satellites. All of the United States’ counter actions to Russia led to NASA being founded (Garber, 2007). In 1970 Russia also launched another advancement of space exploration, the Almaz space station. Almaz was Russia’s first functional space station designed to hold three astronauts and be in space for two to three years. This space station ended up launching for 13 days until a fault in its welding caused it to depressurize and fail; Russia would end up telling the world that it was widely successful (History of the Almaz space station, n.d). Russia was not the only one who was making advances in space technology. The United States was simultaneously developing their space program. The height of NASA’s space achievements were the moon landing. On July 20th, 1969, NASA completed the goal that President John F. Kennedy set earlier: to put men on the moon (Loff, 2015). Another technological advancement that has helped shape space exploration today was Columbia, the first shuttle in space. Created in 1981, Columbia was an effective way to ferry astronauts in and out of space. Columbia flew 28 missions before it burnt up upon reentry into the atmosphere on January 16, 2003, killing all seven crewmembers (Howell, 2013). Columbia was destroyed minutes before it was supposed to land at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Later it was concluded that the source of the explosion was an issue at launch back in January. A piece of insulation fell off and damaged one of the shuttle wings resulting in this catastrophic event (Columbia Disaster, n.d). Space travel has come a long way from where it has started with new technology, ideas, and goals. A modern marvel that the world has pulled off is the International Space Station. The ISS was built entirely in space by bringing each individual piece up there from Earth (Sharp, 2016). The project was started in 1998 and was fully finished ten years later with the collaboration of over 15 countries (History and Timeline of the ISS, n.d). The ISS is the size of a football field and weighs 861,804 pounds. The ISS has been of
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The current plan is to send astronauts away from earth using the Orion Capsule. Orion’s goal is to host four astronauts for 21 days into deep space. Orion is still in development and is likely it will not see action until 2023; they are still facing several issues with the actual design and logistics of the program (Clark, 2015). NASA still has to figure out a fuel-efficient propulsion system so they can travel far without running out of fuel. In order to accomplish this NASA has reached out to 12 different companies in a search for help on this new and unknown technology. If these companies can develop the technology, NASA is willing to pay them 400,000 to 1 million dollars per year of work (Wall, 2015). Once completed NASA’s plan is to send astronauts to areas where only probes and satellites have been sent to gather even more information (Clark,
The current plan is to send astronauts away from earth using the Orion Capsule. Orion’s goal is to host four astronauts for 21 days into deep space. Orion is still in development and is likely it will not see action until 2023; they are still facing several issues with the actual design and logistics of the program (Clark, 2015). NASA still has to figure out a fuel-efficient propulsion system so they can travel far without running out of fuel. In order to accomplish this NASA has reached out to 12 different companies in a search for help on this new and unknown technology. If these companies can develop the technology, NASA is willing to pay them 400,000 to 1 million dollars per year of work (Wall, 2015). Once completed NASA’s plan is to send astronauts to areas where only probes and satellites have been sent to gather even more information (Clark,