THE HISTORY OF SPACE EXPLORATION
Introduction
Heaven has always attracted the attention and dreams of the human being. The aspiration to reach space, began in literature. In 1634 the first science fiction novel was published, Somnium, by Johannes Kepler, which tells a hypothetical trip to the moon. Later, in 1865, in the fiction work entitled from Earth to the Moon, Julio Verne wrote about a group of men who traveled to the moon using a gigantic cannon. In France, Georges Méliès took Verne’s novel to create Le Voyage Dans La Lune, one of the first science fiction films in which he described an incredible trip to the moon.
While some visionary writers aroused the curiosity of the human being to reach the outer space, there were those who would be the pioneers of space exploration. Among these pioneers are the aeronautical engineers Pedro Paulet, Robert Hutchings Goddard, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky Russia, Hermann Oberth Germany, Wernher von Braun Germany and Sergey Koroliov Soviet Union.
Developing
From the invention that the Chinese made of gunpowder, experiments were made with rockets. However, Pedro Paulet Mostajo (Peru), Robert Hutchings Goddard), Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and Hermann Oberth (Germany) stood out as the pioneers in the conception of rocket. These scientists were responsible for this science to take their first steps.
Pedro Paulet designed and built the first rocket engine in 1897. The engine weighed 2.5 kilograms, had a 200 -pound thrust, experienced 300 explosions per minute and was driven by fuel composed of nitrogen and gasoline peroxide. In 1902 Konstantin Tsiolkovsky designed a ship to retropropulsion for interplanetary trips by guiding in the designs and the prototype called ‘autoboido’ that in 1895 had designed Pedro Paulet Mostajo. In 1926, Robert Hutchings Goddard created and launched the first rocket driven by liquid fuel (gasoline and oxygen) from Auburn, Massachusetts, USA.
In 1912, American professor Robert Goddard and German Hermann Julius Oberth (in 1923) perfected their experimental engines based on Paulet’s initial conception. Goddard managed to advance more and built various small rockets. He specialized in building rockets driven by liquid fuel. Several of his projects presented concepts that until today are used in modern rockets, such as the stabilization of flight with the use of gyroscopes.
In Nazi Germany, German engineers developed a project that would result in Missile V-2. V-2 were driven by alcohol and liquid oxygen. The engines generated a maximum of 72,574 kgf (160,000 lbf) of thrust, developing a speed of 1.341 m/s, with a range from 321 to 362 km. These were used to bomb Paris and London in 1944. These missiles were an important basis for what would come after.
The principle of operation of the rocket motor is based on Newton’s third law, the Law of Action and Reaction, which says that ‘a reaction corresponds to all action, with the same intensity, same direction and contrary sense’. Thus, the rocket will move up as a reaction to the pressure exerted down the combustion gases in the motor combustion chamber. That is why this type of motor is called reaction propulsion.
In the 1930s, the enthusiasm with the rockets was very large in the USA. UU., as in the Soviet Union. With the defeat of Germany in World War II, the USA. UU. and the Soviet Union captured most of the engineers who worked on the development of the V-2. Particularly important for the US. UU. It was the recruitment of Wernher Von Braun, one of the main German projectists, official and engineer of the SS, who actively participated in the US Balistic missile program. UU. And after the first steps of the American space program.
Historically, the space exploration began with the launch of the Sputnik artificial satellite by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957, in the Baikonur cosmodrom. This event caused a space race for the conquest of space between the Soviet Union and the United States that culminated with the arrival of man to the moon.
The first living being in space was the Soviet bitch Laika. She arrived in space in 1957 aboard the Sputnik II spacecraft, and died four days later, due to the heat in the reentry. Various animals were used at the beginning of space exploration to prove the effect of radiation, the absence of gravity and the conditions of external space on living organisms. Before the Laika dog, it was the Albina and Tsyganka bitches, used by the Soviet Union on Sub-Form Flights.
On the United States side, the first primates were Albert 1 and Albert 2, who died in 1949 at the Punta de Rocket V-2. Sputnik V, the last Sputnik mission, was thrown into space on August 19, 1960 with the Belka and Strelka dogs, forty hamsters, two mice and some plants. Korab-Sputnik missions carried the dogs Pchelka, Mushka, Chernuschka and Zviózdochka.
After these experiments with living beings, space exploration begins by the human being. And it is with the Soviet Yuri Gagarin (1934 – 1968) who on April 12, 1961, on a 48 -minute orbital flight, aboard the Nave Vostok 1 pronounces the famous phrase of him: ‘The earth is blue’. Subsequently, the first woman arrives, also Soviet, Valentina Tereshkova, who on June 16, 1963 turned 46 turns around the earth aboard the ship Vostok VI.
The launch of the Sputnik and the sending of the first man to space are due, to the Soviet Serguéi Koroliov, the engineer-chief of the Soviet space program, who managed to convince Nikita Jrushchov, leader of the Soviet Union at the time at that time, to invest in the space program. It was he who had the idea of taking people to the moon.
Four months after the launch of the Sputnik I, the USA. UU. They responded with their first satellite, Explorer I, on January 31, 1958. The number of land artificial satellites and space probes launched by the USA. UU. And by the Soviet Union they multiplied in the early space race. The Sputniks of the Soviet Union followed, in addition to the Explorer I, the Vanguard I, II and III of the USA. UU., A large number of communication satellites, meteorological and spies.
In the mid -1960s both, EE. UU. and Soviet Union, had launched so many satellites, in addition to the Sputniks, the Soviets had launched 12 satellites of the Cosmos series, and the USA. UU. They had launched 16 exploers satellites and more than 38 discoverer recognition satellites, just to mention some.
The initial achievements of the Soviet Union in the space race, which include the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, and the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin, challenged the USA. UU., whose space program still took the first steps. The first American would go to space only on May 5, 1961, only on a sub-aorbital flight.
In a famous speech in 1961, John F. Kennedy launched the challenge of ‘send men to the moon and bring them safe’ before the decade ended. In his famous speech at his university the words of him were: we choose to go to the moon. We Choose To Go To The Moon In This Decade and Do The Oher Things, Not Becouse they are easy, but scholauses they are hard ‘We decided to go to the moon. We decided to go to the moon in this decade and do other things, not because they are easy, but because they are difficult ’.
From then on, the USA. UU. They launched an ambitious manned space program that began with the Mercury program, which used a capsule with capacity for an astronaut in maneuvers in earth orbit, followed by the Gemini program with capacity for two astronauts, and finally the Apollo program, whose ship I had capacity for three astronauts and land on the moon.
The first astronauts in Circunnavegar the Moon were the crew of Apollo 8, Frank Borman, James A. LOVELL, JR. and William a. Anders, on Christmas night 1968. Due to problems in their Zond missions, the Soviets were not able to bring men to the orbit of the moon. Only the unmanned zond missions, Zond 5 and Zond 6, did so in September and November 1968. After this, there were still the unmanned missions Zond 7 and Zond 8 that circumnave the moon in 1969 and 1970. And these occurred after the e -manned flights. UU. to the moon.
Finally, the goal of reaching the Moon was achieved on July 20, 1969 by Apollo 11, after taking off on July 16 and returning to Earth on July 24. Where the phrase of the first astronaut became famous to step on the moon, Neil Armstrong: ‘A little step for man, but a great leap for humanity’.
In 1975, the Apollo and Soviet Soyuz 19 ships made a space coupling, on the first joint mission of the NASA space agency of the USA. UU. and from the Soviet Space Agency. Later, with the fall of communism, this cooperation between the two countries would intensify and would end up participating together in the construction of the space station
The International Space Station meant a great advance in space technology, useful for the realization of experiments and for the study of the land from space. In addition, important for future manned space trips, since it allows to study the effects of microgravity on the human body for long periods of time.
After the fall of communism, cooperation and financing of the US. UU, allowed to develop with MIR a technology that is being applied today at the International Space Station. The ISS is a permanent space research station. 16 countries participate in their development: United States, Canada, Japan, Russia, 11 countries belonging to the European Space Agency and Brazil.
The ISS, when completed, would measure approximately 90 m for 70 m, which is more than four times the size of the mir. The construction of the ISS began in 1998 with the connection of the Russian Control Module with the American Node Node. The current ‘International Space Station’ was born from the space program ‘Freedom’ developed by the US. In 1984, President Ronald Reagan officially mentioned the intention of developing a permanent orbital station, which would later be known as Freedom Station.
Countries such as Canada, Europe and Japan were invited to join this project and the agreements arrived with the Canadian Space Agency and the European Space Agency in September 1988, and with the Government of Japan in March 1989. However, in response to successive budgetary restrictions and protests on an unmanageable administrative structure, the administration of the presidency and NASA Dan Goldin administrator, requested a redesign of the station within a period between spring and summer of 1993.
Three alternatives for the space program were developed, of which the first was chosen, named by Clinton as Alpha Station. A simplified version of the Freedom project. This option later became the International Space Station. The conditions that were established for the development of the station included:
- The use of the most possible hardware and systems already developed for the Freedom station, approximately 75% of its designs were incorporated for the ISS program.
- The continuous commitment of all international companies in the project.
- And a design that could be implemented within strict budgetary restrictions.
In September 1993, a program development plan thought for the new ISS was built. The PIP was coordinated with the agreement of all the parties committed at that time. On this plan, NASA reached a resolution with the US government and Congress, for which, the ISS would be developed with a $ 2 budget.1 billion per year, up to a total of $ 17.4 billion.
For its part, NASA promised that the project would develop with the $ 2.1 annual billion, without the need for additional budgets that may arise. In return, the program would not suffer other possible redesign. Finally, administration and congress accepted. Meanwhile the negotiations between the US governments.UU. And Russia continued on the issue of cooperation, once the end of the Cold War.
In the process of this negotiation, participation by Russia was suggested in the space station program. On December 6, 1993, an official invitation was formulated to Russia to participate as one more member in the space project and, a little later, Russia accepted the joint invitation of Japan, Europe and Canada.
With the purpose of supervising these agreements, the US agency formed a new office for this new program, located at the Johnson Space Center. Currently, 16 countries work in the ISS project: USA, Canada, Russia, Japan, Italy, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Norway, France, Spain, Germany, Great Britain, Sweden, Switzerland and Brazil.
On November 20, 1998, a Russian proton rocket placed in orbit the first module of the future ISS, the Russian module Zarya, designed to provide the initial energy and propulsion station. Shortly after node 1 (Unity) joined him. Other modules came later and the first permanent crew came in 2000. In this space the astronaut teams of the five space agencies that are in the project rotate.
- NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Agency)
- FKA (the Russian Federal Space Agency)
- Jaxa (the Japanese space exploration agency)
- CSA (the Canadian Space Agency)
- That (the European Space Agency)
conclusion
It is the largest artificial object in terrestrial orbit. Complete a turn every 92 minutes and is about 408 km from the earth’s surface although its height varies due to atmospheric friction and repeated propulsions to recover a safe orbit. The inclination is 51.6 °. The ISS orbit is located within the Earth’s atmosphere, in the layer called Termosphere.
The station has reached approximate dimensions of 110 m × 100 m × 30 m, with a habitable volume equivalent to a 10x10x10 cube although distributed in a network of modules. According to the plans, it should be kept in operations at least until 2024. Thanks to the station there is permanent human presence in space, since at least two people have inhabited it since November 2, 2000 continuously.
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