Y8 Science Project

Earth's history in space began with the Soviet Union's satellite Sputnik 1 - the worlds first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched on 4th October 1957, heralding the start of the 'Space Age' .Sputnik was very advanced in terms of its technology. There were 4 radio 'masts' to relay back to earth, and instruments for recording the conditions in space. All of its machinery was fitted in an area of a beach ball(58cm). It was launched into a low earth orbit, and remained in active orbit for three weeks.Its orbit was heavily calculated, and it was decided that it would orbit at an angle of 65.1 degrees. This flight path meant that Sputnik would orbit the earth in a very fast and efficient time- 90 minutes. The batteries then died, but it remained in orbit for 3 more weeks, until it burnt up on re-entry through the earth's atmosphere. It had a power of 1 watt, and weighed just 83.6kg on launch. Sputnik also caused concern for other countries though, in particular the USA, who began to develop their space programs. From this point on, the battle between the Soviet Union and the USA for cosmic supremacy was known as the 'Space Race'.

The global effects of Sputnik were unprecedented The space race kick-started a new era of political, military,technological and scientific advances. Sputnik was the start of the famous Apollo missions, the first man on the moon and ultimately, the Cold War (the 'conflict that never was' between the USSR and the USA). Sputnik was perhaps the most important and influential man-made object in our history of exploration.

We now move forward just a few weeks, to the 3rd November 1957, when the USSR decided to take the next step in space exploration -Sputnik 2. The successor to the successful Sputnik 1, it was created to house a living thing as it entered space, and return it safely. The living thing in question was Laika- the space dog. Her travel beyond earth paved the way for human transport, and helped develop safe and secure spacecraft for the future. Unfortunately, Sputnik 2 was not the victory that the Soviet Union hoped, as Laika died in orbit due to overheating within hours.With the rest of the world's interest in the Sputnik series at its peak, the USSR decided to keep the true cause of Laika's death a secret, to not be looked down on by their rivals, America. They claimed that Laika was subjected to lack of oxygen before the launch. However, we only found the true cause of her death in 2002.

Even though Sputnik 2 failed its primary mission - most likely thanks to a rushed building procedure - the lessons learnt from it helped all future spacecraft to be safer, and more reliable for the time when humans took our first ventures into space.

Yuri Gagarin was a Soviet astronaut who set the next milestone - the first human to go to space. This opened the world's eyes to the true possibilities that mankind could achieve. His mission was wildly successful, and pushed the USSR ahead in the space race. Their capsule, the Vostok 1, completed one orbit of earth on 12th April 1961.Gagarin became an international celebrity and was awarded many medals and titles. Vostok 1 was Gagarin's only spaceflight, but he served as the backup crew to the Soyuz 1 mission, which ended in a fatal crash, killing his friend and fellow astronaut Vladimir Komarov. Fearing for his life, Soviet officials banned Gagarin from further spaceflights. But, thanks to Gagarin, space travel would never be the same.

Anyone who watched on as Neil Armstrong and Apollo 11 touched down on the Moon will never forget it. The moment humans reached another celestial body, the world changed. All at once, 'Space fever' spread across the world, and the event was broadcast all around the world. And even after Apollo 11, the missions continued, expanding our reach, beyond earth.

The story of Apollo 11 started with the building of Saturn V. To this day, the Saturn V remains the tallest, heaviest, and most powerful rocket ever brought to operational status, and holds even more records for the biggest payload sent from earth. It was launched 13 times from the Kennedy Space Centre, and was used not just for the Apollo missions, but to launch Skylab, the first American space station. The Saturn V's size and capacity dwarfed all other previous rockets at the time. With the Apollo spacecraft on top, it stood 111 m tall, and it was 10 m in diameter. Fully fuelled, the Saturn V weighed 2,950,000 kg and had a capacity estimated at 118,000 kg, but was designed to send at least 40,000 kg to the Moon.It is one of the most famous and recognisable rockets in the world

The moon landing was not just the rocket however - the crew were also painstakingly trained and selected, and instantly became celebrities worldwide. They were: Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. Perhaps the most famous of the crew is Neil Armstrong - the commander of Apollo 11. The crew spent years in general training, and 6 months in training for the groundbreaking Moon landing.

The launch took place on 16th July 1969, and, as the rocket made it to space, the USA had successfully given their answer to the USSR's programs, and the American space programs from then on were always in the public eye.

Once on their way to the moon, the lunar module's systems and instruments were used to measure the conditions of the capsule, and provide contact to the control centre millions of miles below. This would not have been possible without the Apollo guidance computer, which, at the time, was one of the most advanced computers of its day. It was capable of controlling almost every aspect of the module, and had a total power usage of 55 watts.

The Apollo 11 mission was one of the pinnacles of technology and cutting edge science -and is of course an amazing achievement by mankind.

The moon landing was just the start of the USA's human focused space initiative. They continued to push the limits of technology in a quickly changing world with Apollo 12, 14, 15 and 16. These were all huge successes, with the unfortunate exception of Apollo 13. Apollo 13 was destined to be yet another mission to put a man on the moon, like 11 and 12; but there was a focus on gathering and inspecting the lunar surface. It looked set to be one of the best space missions yet, with unprecedented power, and communications. However, once past earth's atmosphere, the small errors in the capsules construction began to show. In the rush to produce another resounding victory for the USA, the oxygen tanks were made faulty, and tank number 1 ruptured, and the resulting explosion damaged other elements of the lunar module. The crew lost heat, and much of their power. The mission was instantly aborted, and after a treacherous descent, the crew all returned safely. NASA deemed Apollo 13 a 'successful failure', because of the experience gained in rescuing the crew.

The Voyager space program was intended to take a man-made object further into space than ever before. There have been 2 modules launched - Voyager 1 and 2. Voyager 1 also had a 'golden record', which contained information about earth and our culture for any intelligent life. Humans were now reaching out to find life in deep space.

The launch and development of Voyager 1 was fairly uneventful, and the same applies for Voyager 2. They were launched in the 1970's and mapped the surface of Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto. Both are now in interstellar space, setting new records for space exploration and relaying what they find to the deep space branch of NASA.

The Space Shuttle program was the fourth human spaceflight program carried out by NASA, which was used for routine transportation for crew and cargo from 1981 to 2011. Its official name, Space Transportation System , was taken from a 1969 plan for a system of reusable spacecraft.The Space shuttles showcased a revolutionary feature - they could be re-used again and again. The mission relied on brand-new technologies that had never been used before. More advanced than any previous aircraft or spacecraft, it included a number of technological firsts that would be essential for more than 100 successful missions in orbit. Boosters contribute the main thrust to lift the shuttle off the pad to 150,000 feet, while three main engines that burn for the entire ascent into space. Each engine produces about 400,000 pounds of thrust at liftoff, and is one of few rocket engines that can be reused for multiple flights.

The Shuttle was the most complex flying machine ever built and required sophisticated software to ensure a successful operation. Due to the unstable aerodynamic nature of the shuttle, constant computer help would be needed for rudimentary flight tasks and the safe operation of the spacecraft. This was previously unheard of, and people were sceptical at first. However, it proved to be a great success, with space flight now easier and simpler than ever before.

There is a reason,though, that Space Shuttles are not used today. There were problems with 2 of the 4 shuttles made. These were Challenger and Columbia. Challenger blew up in the ascent to space due to an external tank explosion, that broke apart the shuttle and killing all 7 crew. Even after this, NASA continued the project, making many successful flights. After a few years, the public had regained their trust in the space shuttles. This was until Columbia in 2003, which also exploded, but this time while it was coming back to earth. This also proved fatal for all 7 crew, as well as the shut down of the shuttle program.

Mars has become a recent obsession for us. We have developed amazing rovers, with cutting edge science, to tell us as much as they can about the red planet. There have been 3 rovers launched from 2003, starting with the Opportunity and Spirit. These were high tech rovers, with more instruments on board than any rover before. Because of the high amount of instruments and components, Spirit and Opportunity had to have more automation. They had the computing power to calculate 16000 possible routes on Mars every second, and decide the most efficient path. They were also very robust, using many new materials, including Solimide, a foam that can absorb shock from almost any direction, and retain these properties down to subzero conditions, ideal for the rovers.

The goal for Opportunity and Spirit was to determine 4 things : was there any life on Mars, what is the climate like, what is the geology like and to prepare for human habitation. The first rover mission was perhaps the most important, because without them, we wouldn't know half of what we know today.

The most recent rover to be launched was Curiosity - and the only rover still on the surface of Mars. It is covered in technology for exploring. These include a camera that is capable of seeing the chemical composition of an item in real time, and a UV sensor. It also has a high-gain, and low-gain antenna, for giving information back to earth. Curiosity is carrying a nuclear power source to charge its batteries and fuel its onboard systems throughout its mission on Mars. The system uses heat from the decay of plutonium to generate electrical power to charge the rover's batteries. Curiosity was scheduled to be abandoned, but it was so useful that its operation was extended indefinitely, and continues to give us knowledge of the red planet.

The International Space Station is a modular space station in low Earth orbit. The ISS program is a multi-national project between five space agencies: NASA, Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA (Canada).This makes it one of the most ambitious space projects to date.It is the largest artificial object in space and the largest satellite in low Earth orbit, regularly visible to the eye from Earth's surface.Many different astronauts have been sent up there to give us information about the conditions of living in space in the long-term, and the station could serve as a link to Moon missions in the future.

The first ISS component was launched in 1998, with the first long-term residents arriving on 2 November 2000. Since then, the station has been continuously occupied for 19 years, and it is the longest serving space station. As of September 2019, 239 astronauts and space tourists from 20 different nations have visited the space station, many of them multiple times. The United States sent 151 people, Russia sent 47, nine were Japanese, eight Canadian, five Italian, four French, three German, and one each from Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom. The ISS is the most expensive man-made object in the world - it cost £150 billion to build

In modern times, space travel is becoming more and more commercialised, and new spacecraft are opening up travel for the public, making space easier and safer than ever before.There is one main downside though - space travel is very expensive, but companies like Virgin Galactic are developing cheaper production methods to help everyone explore space for ourselves.

The space tourism industry started in 2001, when 7 people ascended to the ISS. This sparked an interest in public space travel, and high-tech ways to safely take us past the atmosphere. The price of these flights was $20-25 million - reserving space tourism to the elite. Today, however, we are trying to lower costs to expand our potential for mass exploration into space, and other planets.

Our missions to space are far from done - there are space missions as ambitious as any others being developed right now. Countries all around the world are making new robots and rockets, and we don't plan to stop any time soon. In the next decade, countless space programs are going to be launched. In the near future, NASA plans to send another Mars rover to a crater on the surface of the planet, and SpaceX are planning to launch a fleet of high-tech satellites. Another project is the James-Webb telescope. The James Webb Space Telescope is set to be the successor to the Hubble Telescope and has a planned launch date of 2021. Webb will be launched with the help of the European Space Agency (ESA) who will provide an rocket to set the Webb into orbit. It is the largest, most powerful and most technologically challenging space telescope ever built. Once in orbit, the telescope will become a universal telescope, taking pictures of space for all to use. New technology is being developed too, including harnessing steam power on another planet, and the advancement of nuclear power. Nuclear power has huge potential, and is being used more and more over the last 5 years. It allows us to power our robots and possibly - spacecraft - for much longer than other methods of propulsion. Another emerging idea is the farming of resources on the Moon, and the Sun. The Sun produces more energy in one second than all the energy used in mankind's history. If we can find a way to harvest just a fraction of this energy, we could do amazing things. The Moon is also rich in resources - large deposits of metal and other materials have been found on the lunar surface, and we are planning machines to farm the materials

NASA have also announced that they plan to send the first woman and the next man back to the Moon by 2024. The Artemis mission will take astronauts to the lunar South Pole to learn more about the amount resources such as water and test l technology that could prove useful during future missions to Mars. Another goal will be to see how the human body endures long term space missions.

If we ever want to establish, and maintain a serious human presence on other planets, we will need a lot of energy. Energy is the fundamental resource needed for everything, and in space travel, a lot of energy is required to get us across millions of miles, and we need to use it efficiently. But, we know where we could get it - the Sun. The Sun produces more energy in one second than has ever been used in human history, and is 100 quintillion times ore powerful than our most efficient reactor. If we could somehow harness this energy, we would have the potential to send man further, and faster than ever before, and would give us all the energy we would ever need to colonise a planet. If we decide to even attempt to build a structure like this, the scale is enormous - it would need to wrap around the sun. We would need new source of materials, as earth just doesn't have enough. Mercury is a good option, thanks to it's high quantity of metals. Scientists are researching how make machines that can withstand the heat of the sun, and the freezing cold nights on Mercury, and having access to Mercury's resources would be beneficial to us, not just for the Sun energy gatherer, but for life on earth too.

This method of harvesting the Sun is definitely in the far future, but could be the start of a huge expansion of human life, and the potential is limitless. With (for all intents and purposes) infinite energy, we no longer have any problem getting to other planets or even interstellar travel. Efficiency is much improved, and the better we can make the Sun's energy usable energy, the faster we can travel. And who knows, maybe the Sun is our key to exploring space like never before.

Space is a scary place. But humanity is, and always will be, trying to find out more - to take our knowledge of space to the next level. We have come on in leaps and bounds, and there are no signs of slowing down. Space provides an outlet for mankind, to thrive beyond our small earth and expand our civilisation further than anyone could ever imagine. However, none of what we enjoy today, all of the cutting edge missions, and the possibility of expansion, would be possible without the first steps that we took, decades ago with Sputnik 1. And without Apollo 11, the world would never have had an interest in space at all. Without the Space shuttles, we would not know how to make space travel safe, today.

Today, space travel and exploration is booming, and it is amazing how fast we are progressing into the depths of the unknown. We are slowly making it possible for anyone to go to space, and see what Yuri Gagarin saw in 1961. New technology is being developed faster and faster. Space has been the catalyst to new science and, one day, we could use these advancements, whatever they are and might be, on Earth.

Some would think that we are done with space, that there is nothing left to explore, that everything is too far away - that we have exhausted our Solar system. Even if we just have our Solar system, we will never be done with space, because that is the great thing about space, and planets, and meteors, and stars.

There is always more to explore.