Space Exploration By Mrs. Blackmer

Early Space Exploration People have been observing the night sky for thousands of years. Their observations have been recorded in cave paintings and rock art. These early observations were made without the use of telescopes or any other devices. They were able to see the phases of the moon, some of the larger features of the moon, some planets, and many stars. Basically they were able to see what you are able to see with your own eyes in the night sky. People have been observing the night sky for thousands of years. Their observations have been recorded in cave paintings and rock art. These early observations were made without the use of telescopes or any other devices. They were able to see the phases of the moon, some of the larger features of the moon, some planets, and many stars. Basically they were able to see what you are able to see with your own eyes in the night sky.

Early Space Exploration The Early Mayans in Central America had built many observatories to study the night sky. There is one in Chichén Itzá, in Mexico, that was built about 900 A.D.

The Telescope When the telescope was invented about 400 years ago, it changed the way people saw objects in space. It allowed people to more details of the objects in space. The first possible person to use a telescope to observe the sky was an Italian scientist by the name of Galileo. He first used his telescope in He used his telescope to observe the moon, sun, and planets. It had two curved pieces of glass, or lenses. There was one lens at each end of a long tube.

The Telescope Then about fifty years later in 1668, an English scientist by the name of Sir Isaac Newton invented a telescope that produced sharper images of the objects in space. His telescope had two mirrors and one lens.

The Telescope The first radio telescope was built in 1936 by Grote Reber of Wheaton, Ill., U.S. It was built to detect radio waves coming from objects in space.

Space Race The modern age of space exploration, the Space Age, began on October 4, 1957 when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1. Sputnik 1 was an artificial satellite that was about twice the size of a soccer ball. It carried instruments to measure the density and temperature of Earth’s upper atmosphere. It orbited Earth for 92 days.

Space Race Three months later the United States sent Explorer 1 to orbit the Earth. The space exploration race was now on. In October 1959 the Soviet Moon probe, Luna 3, sent back the first pictures of the dark side of the Moon. In 1961 Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first man to leave the Earth’s atmosphere and orbit our planet. Also in 1961 the United States Mercury program sent the first Americans into space.

Space Race The race continues… An unmanned landing on the moon was accomplished in 1966 with the Soviet craft Luna 9. The US Apollo 8 carried men around the moon in 1968 and Apollo 11 carried the first men to walk on the surface of the moon in Manned flights have not gone farther than the Moon, but many unmanned probes have been sent close to planets like Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

First Astronauts The first astronauts and cosmonauts (Russian astronauts) were neither men nor women. They were animals! Scientists were not sure what affect space travel would have on humans. In 1948 the United States began to send monkeys up in rockets to see what happened as they left and returned to Earth’s atmosphere. The Soviet craft, Sputnik 2, was launched in November 1957 with a dog named Laika aboard. For the next several years dogs and monkeys were the first “astronauts” in space. Besides animals, most of the first astronauts were men selected from the military. The first women were selected for the space shuttle programs, although Russia used women much earlier in their programs.

Early Astronauts Yuri Gagarin was the first human being to orbit the Earth. He was aboard Sputnik 2, a Soviet spacecraft. Alan Shepard became the first United States astronaut in He traveled in space only 15 minutes before he splashed down into the ocean. John Glenn (U.S.) orbited the Earth in Scientists watched him carefully as he ate a meal to see how food was affected in space. Valentina Tereshkova, a Soviet cosmonaut, became the first woman in space when she flew Vostok 6 around the Earth 48 times in June In 1969 Neil Armstrong (U.S.) became the first man to walk on the surface of the Moon. As his foot touched the Moon he said, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Beyond the Moon In 1977 the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 space probes were launched. These space probes have sent back pictures of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. They are still traveling through space beyond the solar system.

Beyond the Moon Other early space probes include Viking I and Viking II. They landed on Mars in They photographed their landing sites and sent back data about the planet’s soil and atmosphere. Since 1981, space shuttles have been used to lift heavy cargoes into orbit and as labs for carrying out scientific research in space. They also provide a place to launch, bring back, and repair satellites.

Beyond the Moon The Hubble Space Telescope was launched in It takes photographs of space. Its images are five times as sharp as those from any telescope on Earth.

Beyond the Moon The launch of the first modules of the International Space Station in 1998 marked the beginning of a new era in space exploration. As many as seven scientists at a time will be able to live and work in space. When finished, the station will be nearly 80 m (about 260 ft) long and have a mass of more than 455,000 kg. In the future, larger stations could have enough room for a thousand people or more.