NATS1530 F20 SpaceFlight and Exploration

Lesson 1 Learning Outcomes: A History of Space Exploration

Knowledge
● The Kármán line: the boundary at which earth's atmosphere is too thin for air flight
(100km above sea level)
- Boundary of air fight and space flight
● Impactor: craft which returns data before intentionally crashing into body's surface
(hard landing)
● Lander: craft which achieves a soft landing and remains at the landing site
● an EVA: EVA or Extra Vehicular Activity is one of the activities that are commonly
performed by astronauts in order to repair man-made satellites. This activity could
last a few hours outside the spacecraft and helped by a robot arm called Canadarm
(created by Canadian Engineer)
● Orbiter/satellite: a craft in orbit around another body / planet.
● Rover:craft which moves on bodys surface w camera- soft landings
● Flyby: space maneuver in which a craft passes by an body without entering into
orbit/ around body

Describe the following milestones in the history of space exploration:

1. the man-made object to breach the Kármán line
- Vengeance 2 / V2 Rocket
- Went 105km above sea level - was originally a WWII missile
- Invented in 1942 by Werner Von Braun, a German Rocket scientist
- Became the most sophisticated weapon in WWII missile - killed thousands of
people (after-bombing effect in allied city such as London)
- The man-made object to breach the Kármán line; V2 Rocket, a German
missile made during world war ll made by a german rocket scientist Werner
Von Brun
2. the 1st photographs of Earth were taken from space
- Photos of earth taken by US military (brauns team) by attaching a camera to
V2 rocket
- This mission was assisted by Werner Von Braun with another U.S rocket
scientist
- Photos taken just above karman line - captured every 1.5 seconds
- The rocket fell back to Earth, camera was destroyed, however the film
survived
- The 1st photographs of Earth were taken from space; Taken in 1946 by the
US military with the support team of Werner Von Brun using a camera
attached along with a V2 rocket

3. the 1st lifeforms launched into space

 - American and Soviet military launched animals (steel canister of fruit flies) in
pods attached to V2 rockets
- Testing survivability in space
- Fruit flies were alive, unharmed
- Next sent a monkey - chose for adaptability and survivability
- Rhesus Monkey - found in large amount in Asia
- Only few monkeys survived (1959)
- Soviets chose dogs (Laika) - more success - built safer rockets
- The 1st lifeforms launched into space; In 1950 the US launched animals in
pods attached to the V2 rocket first animal was a fruit fly, second was a
rhesus monkey from Asia due to their ability of surviving in several
environments. But Soviet Union sent female dogs.
4. Sputnik - 1st unmanned satellite
- Launched in 4th October
- Soviets launched satellite Sputnik 1 into earth orbit- transmit radio signals
- Made from aluminium, weigh 180 pounds, size of a beach ball, equipped with
ability to transmit radio signals
- “Man Made moon” lasted 3 months, performed 1500 orbits of the Earth
- Fell because of air resistance - burned up the atmosphere while reentering the
earth.
- Sputnik; In 1957, the Soviet Union launched an Unmanned satellite into earth's
orbit. Transmit radio signals, after 3 month Sputnik fell down from space
since there was no heat shield which the satellite didn’t have.
5. Project Mercury - 1st manned space missions
- Astronauts launched into space via unpiloted space pods (attached at top of
rocket)
- Had no long term effects/ advantages/ value - just to be Soviet (achieve
political value) - useless
- 7 Man was picked from the army - had excellent condition, plenty of flying
experiences, shorter than 5 foot 11
- Actual intention why they were chosen - star quality
- 1960, NASA first manned mission: to launch astronaut into space with a
space pod attached to a rocket
6. the 1st human in space
- 1961, Soviet Yuri Gaggarin launched into watch orbit, beating out the first
mercury (US) flights (1962)
- Placed in a capsule, had some manual controls
- Operated by operator system in Kazakhstan
- Did a whole orbit, 108mins after launch
- Landed safely back to Earth
- Equipped with spy tech - Soviet Govern would not fund the mission
 - 1962, the Soviet Union successfully launched a human in space named Yuri
Gargain beating project Mercury created by NASA.
7. the 1st EVA
- First space walk
- 1965, by Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, who spent 12 minutes and 9
seconds outside the Voskhod 2 spacecraft
- Equipment : a suit + 45 minutes of oxygen, 5 meter core to help him perform
EVA.
- Mission : install a camera, located outside of the satellite (Voskhod 2)
- Mission almost ended tragically - Yuri’s suit inflated - made him stuck while
trying to get back inside his satellite
- Forced to lowered the suit pressure (risky because of rapid decompression)
- Unseated properly inside the craft - ended spinning and fell hundreds of km
from landing site (western Russia) - forest
- (Extra Vehicular Activity) Soviet cosmonaut Leonav that performed a walk
from satellite on the earth orbit
8. the 1st unmanned lunar missions
- Soviet Luna 1 Missions orbited the moon, impacted it, and took 1st photos
- Soviet Luna 2 was an impactor
- Soviet Luna 3 was a flyby
- In 1959, Soviet Luna orbited around the moon, impacted it, and took the first
picture of the moon.
9. the 1st human on the moon
- NASAs Apollo mission landed Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon's
surface 1969 - Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. - help them to land on the moon
- Americans achieved it first
- Since then 12 americans walked the moon, last one being in 1972
- Apollo Mission - symbol of the country to claim space
- July 16, 1969, NASA launched Apollo 11 by 3 astronauts. Neil Armstrong &
Buzz Aldrin
10. the 1st planetary missions
- NASAs Mariner 2 visits venus but didnt have a camera and was a flyby(1962)-
1st Mariner blew up
- Two of Nasa’s mariner visit venus
- (1965-1970) first planetary impactor and lander
- (1971) first planetary orbiter: NASAs Mariner 9 achieves orbit around Mars
and maps out most of the planets surface
- (1976) first Mars landers: NASAs Vikings 1 and 2 achieve soft-landings on
Mars
- (1977) first planetary rover: NASAs Sojourner rover is deployed by Pathfinder
lander
11. NASA's Space Shuttle
 - A fleet of rocket driven reusable spaceship - pilotable
- Operated from 1989-2011 (retired because of aging)
- Hauled humans and cargo into space for satellite maintenance & trips to the
International Space Station
- It’s the world's most safest, cost effective, human flight system to space. It
pulls humans and Cargo into space for satellite maintenance and trips to
international space stations.
12. the International Space Station (ISS)
- 1st international space habitat launched into earth-orbit
- Nearly continuously occupied and used to conduct experiment in the space
environment (want to become a doc for spaceships to get gas, etc)
- Robonaut 2 is always on ISS
- ISS about $200billion usd - the most expensive invention of all time
- NASA wants to build a space shuttle which doesn’t require them a huge
budget to send astronauts into space. Without the rocket coming back to
earth. ( International collaboration)
Comprehension

Explain what would happen to an airplane if it tried to breach the Kármán Line. Conversely,
explain what would happen to a satellite if it dropped below the Kármán Line.
● If an airplane breaches the Karman line, it loses the lift force necessary to keep
elevation. Once it loses the lift force, gravity will tilt the airplane head down and
descend into Earth’s atmosphere, until it gets enough air to regenerate the lift force.
Elevation is maintained when the lift force equals the force of gravity that the vertical
force balances out the plane. If a satellite falls below the Karman line, it encounters
the air resistance and the spacecraft is not designed to fly through air. Air resistance
slows the satellite and gravity will bring it down to Earth

Describe the success of the first attempts to send lifeforms into space
● Happened in 1959 The US had first sent up fruit flies in canisters which survived the
launch and descent back into the atmosphere
● Later, rhesus monkeys were sent up with only a small percentage that survived due
to the rocket either blowing up during the launch or died of suffocation.
● First successful rhesus monkey that survived is Ms. Baker and her partner
● Soviet’s sent female dogs and had higher success rates than the US because their
rockets were built safer.

Explain what led to the creation of NASA.

● The Cold War and the fear it had instilled led to the creation of NASA
● The Cold War began after the nuclear bomb was dropped on Japan, which lead to the
end of World War II
 ● The Soviet were the first to success in sending a satellite into Earth’s orbit, but it was
only capable of sending radio signals
● The fear of not knowing what it could do, from the US perspective, led to the creation
of NASA to compete in the space race.
● John F Kennedy promised 9 years before he got assassinated that “America shall
send someone to the moon” due to the Soviet Union always being one step ahead of
them all of the time while launching materials into space

Explain the difference between the Moon’s far side and its dark side.
The dark side of the moon is the side we fail to see due to the sun not reflecting its light off
of it. The far side however, is the side we are unable to see since it never faces earth whether
there be sun or not.

Explain why can't we see the Moon's far side from Earth.
The far side of the moon does not experience the same attraction to the earth that the other
side does. This attraction is similar to a hook, the side with the hook is going to force itself
to face earth for eternity.

Explain why the Moon’s far side is more cratered than the near side.

Describe the purpose of each of the following types of missions and provide an example of
each from the lecture videos:
- orbiter/satellite: a craft in orbit around another body
- impactor: craft which returns data before intentionally crashing into body's
surface (hard landing)
- lander: craft which achieves a soft landing and remains at the landing site
- Flyby: space maneuver in chich a craft passes by an body without entering into
orbit/ around body
- hard- vs soft-landing
- Rover: craft which moves on bodys surface w camera- soft landings

For each of the following 'milestone' planetary missions, state what each mission was the
first to accomplish, and the country responsible for each mission:
- Mariner 2 - American to venus first robotic space probe to be successful as an
planetary encounter (1962)
- Mariner 9 - Robotic probe that lead to exploration of Mars by the NASA mariner
program (1971)
- Pathfinder and Sojourner - In 1997 an American space robotic spacecraft landed on
the base station of Mars that got renamed, it became the first Mars rover named
Sojourner that operated outside of Earth on to the moon system
- Sojourner travelled ~20m while Pathfinder travelled over 20km
 - The Venera missions - Mission by the Soviet Union to gather information about
planet Venus from 1961 to 84
- Vikings 1 and 2 - Spacecraft that had a soft landing on Mars and Viking 1 was first of
the two spacecraft to perform its mission - Viking 2 consisted of an orbiter to land
on Mars identical to Viking 1 mission (1975 - 1983)

Describe what ultimately happens to the crafts that humans launch into space, once their
objectives are accomplished.

The craft that humans launch into space once they are done with their mission is left on the
other planet which they intended to do after they complete the mission. It’s like leaving litter
on the ground without picking it up.