Cole Rhea
Cornelius, Myers
1/27/2004
SPACE EXPLORATION
For years the people of earth have explored the final frontier.........SPACE. From getting out of the atmosphere to landing a research craft on mars and sending satellites there and beyond, humans have been searching space. Let's see how we did.
Let's start off with satellites. The successful launch of sputnik in 1957 by the Soviet Union began an all out race to space. Launched in 1977 NASA's twin Voyager space probes studied space. Voyager 1 studied Jupiter and Saturn and is now traveling out of the solar system. Voyager 2 studied the same planets along with Uranus and Neptune. There are shinny gold disks on each probes body called "sounds of earth" bearing messages, sounds and pictures from our planet. The Hubbell telescope has also played a major role in space exploration. Hubbell was designed in the 70's and was launched in 1990.
Buzz Aldrin walks on the moon, July 20, 1969
Aldrin poses on the Moon, allowing Armstrong to ph...
Buzz Aldrin salutes the U.S. flag on Mare Tranquil...It orbits about 600 kilometers above earth. It uses state-of-the-art instruments to provide stunning views of the universe. It continues to use state-of-the-art instruments because it's upgraded every few years. It has had a total of 93 in- orbit improvements. It has had traveled a total of 1.489 billion miles and taken over 7.3 terabytes of pictures and film (that's like filling a PC completely everyday for 10 years.)
So now lets talk about the moon missions. During a pre-flight test for what was to be the first manned Apollo mission, fire claimed the lives of three U.S. astronauts; Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Rodger Chaffee. After the disaster the mission officially designated Apollo 1. Apollo 13 was to be the 3rd mission to land on the moon. An explosion in one of the oxygen tanks crippled the spacecraft during the flight and the crew were forced to orbit...