-
Casinos for you
Explore the History of Space Travel and SpaceX Plans for Colonising Mars
By Shane Addinall Jun 06, 2020SpaceX’s first manned shuttle launch since 2011 has sparked fresh interest in outer space and mars colonisation. Enjoy this trip through the history of space travel and what SpaceX foresees as the future of Mars.Since mankind first lay on the ground gazing into the inky night to watch the stars and other satellites cross the heavens, there have been people who dreamt of the day they could pull back the veil to see what exists beyond our atmosphere.
After hundreds of space missions, the great beyond seemed to lose some of its lustre and the American Space Shuttle program launched its final mission on July 8th, 2011. However, thanks to Elon Musk, billionaire philanthropist and tech entrepreneur, the first manned shuttle was launched by SpaceX on June 3rd, 2020!
Elon Musk shared his vision saying:
“You want to wake up in the morning and think the future is going to be great - and that’s what being a spacefaring civilization is all about. It’s about believing in the future and thinking that the future will be better than the past. And I can’t think of anything more exciting than going out there and being among the stars.”
To celebrate this great achievement join us as we take a look at the history of space travel and what the SpaceX program could mean for the future of humanity.
✓Eureka! We Can Use a Rocket!
Most of the hype we see around the space race in movies and on television focuses on the cold war era where Russia and America were each striving to be the first nation to plant their proverbial and literal flags in space.
However, thanks to the research of space historian Robert Godwin, we know that the first person to conceptualise rocket-based space travel was Scottish astronomer and minister of the Church of Scotland, William Leitch.
In his 1861 essay entitled "A Journey Through Space" he used Newton’s law of motion to explain that because rockets used internal combustion they would both allow rockets to leave the earth’s atmosphere and propel the rocket forward in the vacuum of space.
It would be more than 40 years before Soviet rocket scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky would postulate the same ideas and write the works would which inspire the success of the Soviet space program.
✓Buzzing in Space
In order to test the potential impact of space travel, radiation and weightlessness on human beings both Russia and the USA sent mice, rats, dogs and chimps into space. The most famous of these being Laika, the stray dog Russia sent into orbit without a re-entry plan because waiting to formulate one would have meant the US would potentially have beat them to orbit.
However, the first earth creatures ever rocketed into space were not mammals but rather fruit flies. Back in 1947 the US technically launched captured German V-2 rockets into space. The U.S. Air Force defined space as being anything past the 50-mile marker, while the international definition is the 100 km mark.
The rockets bearing the fruit flies reached the 109 km marker before the capsule was ejected and the fruit flies were safely parachuted back to earth.
✓Ready, Set, Space Race
October 4th, 1957 saw Russia launch the Sputnik 1. This gave the USSR the accolade of being the first nation to put a functioning satellite into orbit. It is theorised that at any given time the earth has in excess of 500 functioning satellites in orbit.
Having beaten the USA into orbit the Russian space program sent a space-probe, the Luna 2, to the moon. Without the correct propulsion system, onboard the probe crash-landed on the moon’s surface. Had it been a manned flight all astronauts aboard the probe would have died.
It was this failed approach that seemed to make Russia hesitant to land a manned shuttle on the moon even though they were the first to put cosmonauts into orbit. Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space on April 12th, 1951 and Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space on June 16th, 1963.
✓One Small Step
Having solved the landing problem the USA made its final soft landing before sending a manned voyage to the moon on May 30th, 1966 when it successfully landed a robotic spaceship, the Surveyor 1. The geographic data collected by Surveyor 1 was invaluable in helping American scientists plan their landing strategy.
In 1969 NASA launched the Apollo 11 space mission and successfully put both Commander Neil Armstrong and Pilot Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin on the moon.
Neil Armstrong became both the first person to walk on the moon and the first person to misspeak on the moon at the same time when he said:
"That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind."
Given the excitement of such a momentous occasion, he forgot the article “a” and ended up saying that the event was both a small step for mankind and a giant leap for mankind at the same time.
✓Houston, We Have a Problem!
The line “Houston, we have a problem” has become a bit of cliché, being used flippantly to tease someone blowing a small problem out of proportion or to in fact make light of a serious situation.
This is because the line is pulled from the 1995 film, Apollo 13, starring Tom Hanks and Kevin Bacon. In the film Tom Hanks says “Houston, we have a problem.” when stirring the oxygen tanks causes a near-fatal error.
When astronaut John Swigert discovered that the Apollo 13 shuttle had been crippled by an explosion he is recorded as advising the NASA Mission Control Center (which is based in Houston, Texas):
"Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here"
While the 1970 Apollo 13 crew never get to walk on the moon their story has become one of legend and is a triumphant tale of calm under pressure and the ingenuity of the NASA space team. Despite a devastating explosion in space all members of the crew made it home.
✓The Challenger Disaster
During the 70s France, China and other nations begin sending satellites and astronauts into space as space-fever grips the planet. However, for the most part, it is still Russia and the USA who dominate in terms of shuttle launches.
The world was shocked when on January 28th, 1986 the space shuttle Challenger did the unimaginable and exploded a mere 73 seconds after taking off killing the entire crew
It is widely held by investigators that the crew could have escaped the failing shuttle had NASA only approved escape modules. However due to the cost of including an escape solution and the additional weight NASA determined that the “shuttle's expected high reliability” precluded its need for an ejection system.
✓The End of an Era
In 2011 NASA finally retired its Space Shuttle Program, a year later than George W. Bush had intended when he began the programs shutdown in 2004.
Bush had planned for the program to assist in the completion of the International Space Station and then shutdown, allowing NASA’s annual budget of $17 million to be reallocated to a program focused on normalising regular space travel from earth to the moon, and then onto Mars.
Both Boeing and SpaceX were touted as the companies who would lead the US in commercial low-orbit flights and trips to the International Space Station when Shuttle Program ended. However, neither company was able to meet the proposed 2010/2011 deadline.
✓SpaceX: Commercial Space Travel & Beyond
As the first private company to return a shuttle from low-orbit and being the first to use a commercial spacecraft to deliver goods to the International Space Station SpaceX continues to make incredible strides in commercialising space travel.
One of the cornerstones of their mission was to successfully launch a manned shuttle and then have the rocket return to earth for reuse rather than burning up on re-entry.
“Following the commercial model, a rapidly reusable space launch vehicle could reduce the cost of travelling to space by a hundredfold. While most rockets are designed to burn up on reentry, SpaceX rockets can not only withstand reentry but can also successfully land back on Earth and refly again.”
They achieved this on June 3rd, 2020 with the launch of the manned Falcon 9 shuttle and the successful recovery of its rockets.
Always pushing the envelope Elon Musk has set the SpaceX program an ambitious new target. He aims to send the first series of unmanned cargo ships to Mars in 2022, followed by the first manned shuttles in 2024!
Paul Wooster, SpaceX principal Mars development engineer said:
“We’re really excited about the possibilities of doing both, having bases on the moon while we’re also setting up these cities on Mars.”
2024 is not a year that Musk pulled out of thin air, according to astronomists Earth and Mars will be in their closest orbit for years in 2024 making it the ideal time to send out our first batch of intergalactic settlers.
Tags
Related Blog Posts
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.
Join the conversation!
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.
Write a comment