The story so far... Man’s journeys in space The History Department

"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." — Neil Armstrong, July 21 st 1969

Don’t forget about De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats

The Human race had been in space for 51 years before the Mars Curiosity reached the red planet. How much do you know about mankind’s journey to the stars?

After WW2 ended in 1945, the world became dominated by two powerful countries: Russia (the USSR) and the USA. These two ‘superpowers’ had very different views on how the world should be. Even though they had fought on the same side during the war, afterwards they quickly became very distrustful of each other. As relations between the two hardened, a ‘Cold War’ developed. This meant both sides were hostile to each other, but stopped short of actually fighting... just! This would last more than 40 years.

Both of the superpowers competed to show the rest of the world who was best! This is how the SPACE RACE began. The USSR scored the first victory, launching the first man made satellite into space in They called it SPUTNIK. It caused a revelation across the world!

The USSR also won round two of the SPACE RACE – they put the first man into space! On 12 April 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became both the first human to travel into space, and the first to orbit the earth.

It looked like the USA was losing the race! But in 1969, they made it first to the biggest prize yet. What could it be?

On 21 st July 1969, US astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the moon. This moment would change the world...

The Americans landed 6 times on the moon, the last time in Humans haven’t been back since…. The USSR made the next step in the SPACE RACE, completing the first manned space station – ‘MIR’ – in This was important as it showed that people could survive in space for long periods of time. What problems do you think people might face whilst living in space?

The Cold War ended in 1989, with the Space Race replaced by an era of co-operation. The USA and Russia – along with a host of other countries - now work together on many aspects of space exploration, the most well known being the International Space Station (ISS), completed in 2010.

Now that it has been shown that it is possible to reach the moon, and for man to live in space, NASA and others have turned their eyes to the exploration of the solar system. Mars, the ‘red planet’, is our closest neighbour and the one most likely to be able to support life.

Dozens of robotic spacecraft, including orbiters, landers and rovers have been launched toward Mars since the 1960s. These missions were intended to gather data about current conditions, to answer questions about the history of Mars, and as preparation for any possible future human mission to Mars.

Mars Curiosity, the latest - and possibly most revealing mission to Mars yet - landed on the red planet on August 6 th....and this is what we’ve found. You are looking at a real picture of the surface of another world!

Maybe on Mars they’ll get the words right