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Space exploration is the use of space technology to physically explore outer space, with both human spaceflight and robotic spacecraft.

Introduction While the observation of objects in space—known as astronomy—pre-dates reliable recorded history, it was the development of large liquid-fueled rocket engines during the early 20th century that allowed space exploration to become a practical possibility. Common rationales for exploring space include advancing scientific research, uniting different nations and ensuring the future survival of humanity.

Space exploration has often been used as a proxy competition for geopolitical rivalries such as the Cold War. The early era of space exploration was driven by a "Space Race" between the Soviet Union and the United States; the launch of the first man-made object to orbit the Earth, the USSR's Sputnik 1, on October 4 1957, and the first Moon landing by the American Apollo 11 craft on July 20 1969 are often taken as the boundaries for this initial period. The Soviet Union achieved many of the first milestones, including putting the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin aboard Vostok 1 in 1961, and completing the first spacewalk (by Aleksei Leonov in 1965). In 1971, the Soviets launched the first space station, Salyut 1.

After the first 20 years of exploration, focus shifted from one-off flights to renewable hardware, such as the Space Shuttle program, and from competition to cooperation as with the International Space Station. From the 1990s onwards, private interests began promoting space tourism. Larger government programs have advocated manned missions to the Moon and possibly Mars sometime after 2010.

Various criticisms of Space Exploration are sometimes made, on cost or safety grounds, but the people of many countries are nevertheless usually supportive of programs.

History First orbital flights , in 1957, became the first living being to be launched into space.The first successful orbital launch was of the Soviet Union unmanned Sputnik I (Satellite I) mission on October 4, 1957. The satellite weighed about 83 kg (184 pounds), and is believed to have orbited Earth at a height of about 250 km (150 miles). It had two radio transmitters (20 and 40 MHz), which emitted "beeps" that could be heard by any radio around the globe. Analysis of the radio signals was used to gather information about the electron density of the ionosphere, while temperature and pressure data was encoded in the duration of radio beeps. The results indicated that the satellite was not punctured by a meteoroid. Sputnik 1 was launched by an R-7 Semyorka rocket. It incinerated upon re-entry on January 3, 1958.

This success led to an escalation of the American space program, which unsuccessfully attempted to launch Vanguard 1 into orbit two months later. On January 31, 1958, the U.S. successfully orbited Explorer I on a Juno rocket. In the meantime, the Soviet dog Laika became the first animal in orbit on November 3, 1957.

First human flights The first human spaceflight was Vostok 1 (East 1) , carrying 27 year old cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on April 12, 1961. The spacecraft completed one orbit around the globe, lasting about 1 hour and 48 minutes. Gagarin's flight resonated around the world; it was a demonstration of the more advanced Soviet space program and it opened an entirely new era in space exploration — human spaceflight. The U.S. first launched a person into space within a month of Gagarin's flight with the first Project Mercury flight, by Alan Shepard. However, orbital flight was not achieved by the United States until Mercury-Atlas 6 flight February 20, 1962. Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, orbited the Earth 48 times aboard Vostok 6 in June of 1963. China first launched a person into space 42 years after the launch of Vostok 1, on 15th October 2003, with the flight of Yang Liwei aboard the Shenzhou 5 (Spaceboat 5) spacecraft.

Key people in early space exploration The dream of stepping into the outer reaches of the Earth's atmosphere was driven by rocket technology. The German V-2 rocket was the first rocket to travel into space, overcoming the problems of thrust and material failure. During the final days of World War II this technology was obtained by both the Americans and Soviets as were its designers. The initial driving force for further development of the technology was a weapons race for inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) to be used as long-range carriers for fast nuclear weapon delivery, but in 1961 when USSR launched the first man into space, the U.S. declared itself to be in a "Space Race" with Russia.

Other key people included:

Discoveries Humans The earliest discoveries related to the simple fact that humans could survive in zero gravity. Once the Russians had progressed to flights that were longer than a few hours, space adaptation syndrome appeared; where the sickness and disorientation due to the removal of gravity caused physical symptoms.

In space stations the effects of zero gravity on bones and skeletal muscles has become more evident, where the human body becomes progressively more optimised for zero-gravity to the extent that return to the Earth become problematic and humans become progressively more Human_adaptation_to_space.

Earth The Americans were the first to discover the existence of the Van Allen belts around the Earth. These belts contain radiation trapped by the Earths magnetic fields, which currently prevent habitable space stations from being placed above 1000km.

Moon The Russians were the first to take pictures of the far side of the moon; something that was never visible to humans. It was discovered that the far side was somewhat different, more heavily cratered.

The American Apollo mission returned rocks from the moon, that support the theory that the Moon was once part of the Earth.

Mars Unlike early somewhat fanciful reports from astronomers viewing the moon, no canals, and certainly no advanced lifeforms are present on the surface of Mars, but the presence of microscopic organism have not been ruled out.

Criticisms Many criticisms of space exploration are particularly critical of exploration carried out by means of human spaceflight. It is more expensive to perform certain tasks in space with humans rather than by robots or machines. Humans need large spacecraft that contain provisions such as a hermetic and temperature controlled cabin, production of breathable air, food and drink storage, waste disposal, voice- and other communication systems, and safety features such as crew escape systems, medical facilities, etc. There is also the question of the security of the spacecraft as whole; losing a robot is nowhere near as dramatic as human loss, so overall safety of non-human missions is not as much of an issue. All of these extra expenses have to be weighed against the value of having humans aboard. Some critics argue that those few instances where human intervention is essential do not justify the enormous extra costs of having humans aboard. However, others argue, with some reason, that many tasks can be more effectively accomplished by human beings.

Other critics, such as the late physicist and Nobel prize winner Richard Feynman, have contended that space travel has never achieved any major scientific breakthroughs. However, others have counter-argued that, besides the large (and otherwise unavailable) amount of planetary data returned by spacecraft, there have been many indirect scientific achievements: development of the modern computer, lasers, etc.

Some critics contend that in light of the huge distances in space, human space travel will never be able to do more than achieve an earth orbit or at best visit our closest neighbours in the solar system—barring any advances in the at present purely theoretical idea of Faster-than-light—and even this will consume large amounts of money and will require complex spacecraft that will accommodate only a handful of people. Supporters of human space travel state that this is irrelevant, because its real value lies in providing a focal point for national prestige and patriotism. They suggest that this was the reason why the Presidency of Bill Clinton cooperated closely with Russia on the International Space Station: it gave Russia something to take pride in, and as such became a stabilizing factor in post-communist Russia. From this point of view, the ISS was a justifiable cash outlay.

Some people also have moral objections to the huge costs of space travel, and say that even a fraction of the space travel budget would make a huge difference in fighting disease and hunger in the world. However, compared to much more costly endeavors, like military actions, space exploration itself receives a very small percentage of total government spending (nearly always under 0.5%), and it is also frequently pointed out by pro-space advocates that the long term benefits could outweigh the short-term costs. In addition, the successful launches of Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne, a privately constructed, reusable space plane developed for only $25 million dollars, has further diminished the impact of cost-based criticisms.

Support The research that is done by space exploration agencies such as NASA and RKA is one of the reasons supporters justify government expenses. Some even claim that space exploration is a necessity to mankind and that staying in our home planet will lead us to oblivion. Some of the reasons are lack of natural resources, comets, nuclear war, worldwide epidemic etc. Stephen Hawking renowned British theoretical physicist said that "I don't think the human race will survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space. There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet. But I'm an optimist. We will reach out to the stars."

NASA has produced a serices of Public Service Announcement videos supporting the concept of space exploration.

Overall, the public remains largely supportive of both manned and unmanned space exploration. According to an Associated Press Poll conducted in July 2003, 71% of U.S. citizens agreed with the statement that the space program is "a good investment", compared to 21% who did not.

This is not to say that space exploration advocates do not criticize existing programs. Some supporters of space explorations, such as Robert Zubrin, have criticized on-orbit assembly of spacecraft as unnecessary and expensive, and argue for a direct approach for human exploration, such as Mars Direct.

Twenty-first-century space advocates continue to work towards more advanced spacecraft, rotating space stations, lunar bases, and colonies on Mars. Some of these visions will most likely come true, though significant obstacles remain.

Space colonization Space colonization, also called space settlement and space humanization, would be the permanent autonomous (self-sufficient) human Space habitat of locations outside Earth, especially of natural satellites or planets such as the Colonization of the Moon or Colonization of Mars, using significant amounts of In-Situ Resource Utilization.

Many past and current concepts for the continued exploration and colonization of space focus on a return to the moon as a "stepping stone" to the other planets, especially Mars. At the end of 2006 NASA announced they were planning to build a permanent moon base with continual presence by 2024.

Space agencies While only the space programs of the United States, Soviet Union/Russia, and China have launched humans into orbit, a number of other countries have space agencies which design and launch satellites, conduct space research, and coordinate national astronaut programs.

Gallery Here are pictures of some space exploration firstsImage:Tereshkova.jpg|Valentina Tereshkova: First woman in spaceImage:Apollo 11 first step.jpg|Neil Armstrong about to take the first step on the Moon; the first human step on an extraterrestrial objectImage:Space Shuttle Columbia launching.jpg] 1981 (NASA)

Image:Mir on 24 September 1996.jpg], which orbited the Earth from 1986 until 2001Image:ISS after STS-117 in June 2007.jpg|International Space Station (ISS) is the first internationally built and owned permanently manned space station

References See also Main list: List of basic space exploration topics

Robotic space exploration programs



Animals in space

Humans in space Main articles: Astronauts and human spaceflight

Recent and future developments

Other

External links

{| border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="2" style="margin: 5px; width: 20%; border: solid 1px #bbb;" align="right"| |-| |-| |-| (From top to bottom) |}

Space exploration is the use of space technology to physically explore outer space, with both human spaceflight and robotic spacecraft.

Introduction While the observation of objects in space—known as astronomy—pre-dates reliable recorded history, it was the development of large liquid-fueled rocket engines during the early 20th century that allowed space exploration to become a practical possibility. Common rationales for exploring space include advancing scientific research, uniting different nations and ensuring the future survival of humanity.

Space exploration has often been used as a proxy competition for geopolitical rivalries such as the Cold War. The early era of space exploration was driven by a "Space Race" between the Soviet Union and the United States; the launch of the first man-made object to orbit the Earth, the USSR's Sputnik 1, on October 4 1957, and the first Moon landing by the American Apollo 11 craft on July 20 1969 are often taken as the boundaries for this initial period. The Soviet Union achieved many of the first milestones, including putting the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin aboard Vostok 1 in 1961, and completing the first spacewalk (by Aleksei Leonov in 1965). In 1971, the Soviets launched the first space station, Salyut 1.

After the first 20 years of exploration, focus shifted from one-off flights to renewable hardware, such as the Space Shuttle program, and from competition to cooperation as with the International Space Station. From the 1990s onwards, private interests began promoting space tourism. Larger government programs have advocated manned missions to the Moon and possibly Mars sometime after 2010.

Various criticisms of Space Exploration are sometimes made, on cost or safety grounds, but the people of many countries are nevertheless usually supportive of programs.

History First orbital flights , in 1957, became the first living being to be launched into space.The first successful orbital launch was of the Soviet Union unmanned Sputnik I (Satellite I) mission on October 4, 1957. The satellite weighed about 83 kg (184 pounds), and is believed to have orbited Earth at a height of about 250 km (150 miles). It had two radio transmitters (20 and 40 MHz), which emitted "beeps" that could be heard by any radio around the globe. Analysis of the radio signals was used to gather information about the electron density of the ionosphere, while temperature and pressure data was encoded in the duration of radio beeps. The results indicated that the satellite was not punctured by a meteoroid. Sputnik 1 was launched by an R-7 Semyorka rocket. It incinerated upon re-entry on January 3, 1958.

This success led to an escalation of the American space program, which unsuccessfully attempted to launch Vanguard 1 into orbit two months later. On January 31, 1958, the U.S. successfully orbited Explorer I on a Juno rocket. In the meantime, the Soviet dog Laika became the first animal in orbit on November 3, 1957.

First human flights The first human spaceflight was Vostok 1 (East 1) , carrying 27 year old cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on April 12, 1961. The spacecraft completed one orbit around the globe, lasting about 1 hour and 48 minutes. Gagarin's flight resonated around the world; it was a demonstration of the more advanced Soviet space program and it opened an entirely new era in space exploration — human spaceflight. The U.S. first launched a person into space within a month of Gagarin's flight with the first Project Mercury flight, by Alan Shepard. However, orbital flight was not achieved by the United States until Mercury-Atlas 6 flight February 20, 1962. Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, orbited the Earth 48 times aboard Vostok 6 in June of 1963. China first launched a person into space 42 years after the launch of Vostok 1, on 15th October 2003, with the flight of Yang Liwei aboard the Shenzhou 5 (Spaceboat 5) spacecraft.

Key people in early space exploration The dream of stepping into the outer reaches of the Earth's atmosphere was driven by rocket technology. The German V-2 rocket was the first rocket to travel into space, overcoming the problems of thrust and material failure. During the final days of World War II this technology was obtained by both the Americans and Soviets as were its designers. The initial driving force for further development of the technology was a weapons race for inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) to be used as long-range carriers for fast nuclear weapon delivery, but in 1961 when USSR launched the first man into space, the U.S. declared itself to be in a "Space Race" with Russia.

Other key people included:

Discoveries Humans The earliest discoveries related to the simple fact that humans could survive in zero gravity. Once the Russians had progressed to flights that were longer than a few hours, space adaptation syndrome appeared; where the sickness and disorientation due to the removal of gravity caused physical symptoms.

In space stations the effects of zero gravity on bones and skeletal muscles has become more evident, where the human body becomes progressively more optimised for zero-gravity to the extent that return to the Earth become problematic and humans become progressively more Human_adaptation_to_space.

Earth The Americans were the first to discover the existence of the Van Allen belts around the Earth. These belts contain radiation trapped by the Earths magnetic fields, which currently prevent habitable space stations from being placed above 1000km.

Moon The Russians were the first to take pictures of the far side of the moon; something that was never visible to humans. It was discovered that the far side was somewhat different, more heavily cratered.

The American Apollo mission returned rocks from the moon, that support the theory that the Moon was once part of the Earth.

Mars Unlike early somewhat fanciful reports from astronomers viewing the moon, no canals, and certainly no advanced lifeforms are present on the surface of Mars, but the presence of microscopic organism have not been ruled out.

Criticisms Many criticisms of space exploration are particularly critical of exploration carried out by means of human spaceflight. It is more expensive to perform certain tasks in space with humans rather than by robots or machines. Humans need large spacecraft that contain provisions such as a hermetic and temperature controlled cabin, production of breathable air, food and drink storage, waste disposal, voice- and other communication systems, and safety features such as crew escape systems, medical facilities, etc. There is also the question of the security of the spacecraft as whole; losing a robot is nowhere near as dramatic as human loss, so overall safety of non-human missions is not as much of an issue. All of these extra expenses have to be weighed against the value of having humans aboard. Some critics argue that those few instances where human intervention is essential do not justify the enormous extra costs of having humans aboard. However, others argue, with some reason, that many tasks can be more effectively accomplished by human beings.

Other critics, such as the late physicist and Nobel prize winner Richard Feynman, have contended that space travel has never achieved any major scientific breakthroughs. However, others have counter-argued that, besides the large (and otherwise unavailable) amount of planetary data returned by spacecraft, there have been many indirect scientific achievements: development of the modern computer, lasers, etc.

Some critics contend that in light of the huge distances in space, human space travel will never be able to do more than achieve an earth orbit or at best visit our closest neighbours in the solar system—barring any advances in the at present purely theoretical idea of Faster-than-light—and even this will consume large amounts of money and will require complex spacecraft that will accommodate only a handful of people. Supporters of human space travel state that this is irrelevant, because its real value lies in providing a focal point for national prestige and patriotism. They suggest that this was the reason why the Presidency of Bill Clinton cooperated closely with Russia on the International Space Station: it gave Russia something to take pride in, and as such became a stabilizing factor in post-communist Russia. From this point of view, the ISS was a justifiable cash outlay.

Some people also have moral objections to the huge costs of space travel, and say that even a fraction of the space travel budget would make a huge difference in fighting disease and hunger in the world. However, compared to much more costly endeavors, like military actions, space exploration itself receives a very small percentage of total government spending (nearly always under 0.5%), and it is also frequently pointed out by pro-space advocates that the long term benefits could outweigh the short-term costs. In addition, the successful launches of Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne, a privately constructed, reusable space plane developed for only $25 million dollars, has further diminished the impact of cost-based criticisms.

Support The research that is done by space exploration agencies such as NASA and RKA is one of the reasons supporters justify government expenses. Some even claim that space exploration is a necessity to mankind and that staying in our home planet will lead us to oblivion. Some of the reasons are lack of natural resources, comets, nuclear war, worldwide epidemic etc. Stephen Hawking renowned British theoretical physicist said that "I don't think the human race will survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space. There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet. But I'm an optimist. We will reach out to the stars."

NASA has produced a serices of Public Service Announcement videos supporting the concept of space exploration.

Overall, the public remains largely supportive of both manned and unmanned space exploration. According to an Associated Press Poll conducted in July 2003, 71% of U.S. citizens agreed with the statement that the space program is "a good investment", compared to 21% who did not.

This is not to say that space exploration advocates do not criticize existing programs. Some supporters of space explorations, such as Robert Zubrin, have criticized on-orbit assembly of spacecraft as unnecessary and expensive, and argue for a direct approach for human exploration, such as Mars Direct.

Twenty-first-century space advocates continue to work towards more advanced spacecraft, rotating space stations, lunar bases, and colonies on Mars. Some of these visions will most likely come true, though significant obstacles remain.

Space colonization Space colonization, also called space settlement and space humanization, would be the permanent autonomous (self-sufficient) human Space habitat of locations outside Earth, especially of natural satellites or planets such as the Colonization of the Moon or Colonization of Mars, using significant amounts of In-Situ Resource Utilization.

Many past and current concepts for the continued exploration and colonization of space focus on a return to the moon as a "stepping stone" to the other planets, especially Mars. At the end of 2006 NASA announced they were planning to build a permanent moon base with continual presence by 2024.

Space agencies While only the space programs of the United States, Soviet Union/Russia, and China have launched humans into orbit, a number of other countries have space agencies which design and launch satellites, conduct space research, and coordinate national astronaut programs.

Gallery Here are pictures of some space exploration firstsImage:Tereshkova.jpg|Valentina Tereshkova: First woman in spaceImage:Apollo 11 first step.jpg|Neil Armstrong about to take the first step on the Moon; the first human step on an extraterrestrial objectImage:Space Shuttle Columbia launching.jpg] 1981 (NASA)

Image:Mir on 24 September 1996.jpg], which orbited the Earth from 1986 until 2001Image:ISS after STS-117 in June 2007.jpg|International Space Station (ISS) is the first internationally built and owned permanently manned space station

References See also Main list: List of basic space exploration topics

Robotic space exploration programs



Animals in space

Humans in space Main articles: Astronauts and human spaceflight

Recent and future developments

Other

External links



BBC - Science & Nature - Space - Exploration
Explore the past and future of space travel with BBC Online ... After only a century of powered flight, we have escaped the confines of planet Earth, and forged our way into the ...

BBC - Science & Nature - Space - Exploration Timeline
Learn about man's voyages into space with BBC Online's guide to space exploration. ... On this day: From 1957 to Present. Explore the history of space travel with On This Day's ...

Space Exploration
Past and future mission timelines, and a history of early launches.

Space Exploration
Welcome to the Space Exploration Web Site. This site is a concise yet comprehensive overview of the immense and expanding field of space exploration.

Space exploration | Science | guardian.co.uk
Space exploration ... Aug 20 2008: Some of the most secret of satellites are also the brightest and easiest to see

BBC ON THIS DAY | Space
21 July 1969: Man takes first steps on the Moon. American Neil Armstrong becomes the first man to walk on the Moon.

CBBC Newsround | SCIENTIFIC DEVELOPMENT | Space exploration debate
Motion: Exploring space is a waste of money ... Teaching ideas. 1. Ice breaker. Read out some of the comments submitted by readers of the Newsround website.

Space exploration - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Space exploration is the use of astronomy and space technology to explore outer space. [1] Physical exploration of space is conducted both by human spaceflights and by robotic ...

VEGA - Space Exploration
VEGA supports many European space exploration missions, the vast majority of which are currently undertaken by the European Space Agency (ESA).

UK Space Exploration
Overview of UK Space Exploration including Historical missions ... Many people do not realise that the United Kingdom has a rich history in the space industry which dates back to ...

 

Space Exploration



 
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