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Essay on future of space exploration
Essay on future of space exploration
Essay on future of space exploration
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Gene Kranz and Apollo 13
On April 17, 1970, Gene Kranz brought the Apollo 13 spacecraft
safely back to earth demonstrating extraordinary courage and heroism. The
hit film, Apollo 13, chronicles Kranz's struggle to devise the plan that would
bring the ship and its crew of three astronauts home after its oxygen system
failed.
Kranz retired from NASA in 1994 after 37 years of federal service, and
is currently a consultant and speaker. "Failure is not an option", the
motto that carried him through the Apollo 13 crisis, is a major theme of his
motivational message.
After receiving his BS degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Parks
College of St. Louis University in 1954, Kranz was commissioned in the US
Air Force and flew high performance jet fighter aircraft, including the F-80,
F-86 and F-100. In 1958, he worked as a Flight Test Engineer for McDonnell
Aircraft, developing the Quail Decoy Missile for B-52 and B-47.
Kranz joined the NASA Space Task Group at Langley, Virginia in
1960, and was assigned the position of Assistant Flight Director for Project
Mercury. He assumed Flight Director duties for all Project Gemini Missions,
and was Branch Chief for Flight Control Operations. He was selected as
Division Chief for Flight Control in 1968 and continued his duties as Flight
Director for Apollo II Lunar Landing before taking over the leadership of
the Apollo 13 "White Team". Kranz renamed his team the "Tiger Team"
during the Apollo 13 mission as a crisis management term he borrowed from
the military. He was discharged from the Air Force Reserve as a Captain in
1972.
Kranz has received numerous awards and honours, including the
Presidential Medal of Freedom, which he received from President Nixon for
As a result of the successful mission that landed the first men on the moon, called the Apollo 11 mission, many people were inspired to provide commentary on this landing. Although these texts describe unique individual purposes about this landing, they all effectively support their purposes through the use of several rhetorical devices.
Armies and Navies have clashed since antiquity, but the airplane that enables aerial combat is barely a century old. Airplanes saw widespread combat in the First World War, and, despite the doubts and financial concerns of military leaders of the time, the brave men who fly them have gained their own dedicated military division, the United States Air Force. Billy Mitchell, through his charisma and an image that endeared him in American culture, was an instrumental figure in developing the modern Air Force.
Apollo 11 was such a huge historical turning point because, it not only affected the United States, but it affected the entire world. It was one of the first mass worldwide event, and an estimated 600 million people watched. Apollo 11 caused the world to think more about space and all
July 21, 1969. American astronaut Neil Armstrong, radios to earth: “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” The control room in Houston, Texas bursts with cheering and applause. Kennedy’s Project Apollo put America in the lead in the Space Race. The Space Race between the Soviet Union and the United States was a very big deal. The Apollo Program worked towards establishing the technology to meet other national interests in space, develop man’s capability to work in the lunar environment, and to promote nationalism and achieve preeminence in space for the United States.
In 1961, the United States of America was embroiled in the Cold War with the Soviet Union. This confrontation was taking place not only on land, sea and air, but in space as well. On May 25th, 1961 recently elected US President John F. Kennedy addressed a joint session of Congress, during which he outlined his now famous Man on the Moon challenge. It was through this ambitious dream that the creation of the National Aeronautical Space Administration (NASA) came about, which President Kennedy challenged to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. Although he didn't live to see the achievement of his dreams, the United States successfully landed Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin on the moon on July 20, 1969 and brought them home safely1. It was President Kennedy's passionate beliefs that come through not only in his style of writing but in his delivery of the speech that drive home his point and get Congress, Industry and the American people to take up his call to arms.
"10,9, ignition sequence start, 6,5,4,3,2,1, zero. All engines running. Liftoff! We have a liftoff! Thirty-two minutes past the hour. Liftoff on Apollo 11!" (Apollo 1) It all began with the emotions that the new television brought to the average family. The television was not popular until the 1950s (before). The tv was not so popular because of the price this tehnology had in the 1950s. As time passed on it began to get cheaper and cheaper, obviously this made it more affordable for family to obtain.
After the accident, Gene Krantz relied on the skills and expertise of his people. A successful leader builds a strong team, but a leader must be able to separate himself/herself from the team to make the best decision. In Apollo 13, Gene empowered his team to come up with a solution for the air scrubbers. By addressing the most critical problem first, he afforded the team time to work on the other problems. The scrubbers were the most critical or they all would have suffocated. By encouraging the team to share expertise and professional opinion and separates himself by taking it all into consideration when making the decision.
On April 10th James "Jim" Lovell, John L. Swigert, and Fred W. Haise embarked on one of the most historic missions in NASA history. Three days later on April 13th, while performing a routine stir on the O2 tanks, the Apollo 13 mission suffered a terrible electrical malfunction and was forced to make an emergency return mission. The movie has forever contributed two phrases to our everyday cultural vocabulary, "Houston we have a problem", communicated by Jim Lovell, and "Failure is not an option", voiced by Gene Kranz.
Ron saw this in the real footage, so in his film, Ed Harris (who plays
People make bad choices in life every day, some may be recovered from whereas others have fatal consequences. A reporter named Jon Krakauer wrote a biography called Into The Wild which is about a young man named Chris McCandless who makes a fatal decision which lead to his demise in Alaska. Aron Ralton's book called Between a Rock and a Hard Place is about his near death experience from making a bad choice. His perseverance and problem solving skills become his salvation in the hot and dry terrain of Utah. Chris and Aron were both eager for adventure and both had a love for nature and the outdoors. Chris died because he lacked Aron's prior knowledge of survival tactics, making Chris ill prepared for his journey.
All of the Apollo crews and mission control teams were well trained to operate under high-stress situations. All three crew members were previously test pilots, so they were all experienced in dealing with high-risk situations with no room for error. They were able to effectively communicate the problems they were experiencing back to the crew members in mission control. Both parties were able to communicate calmly and clearly, with little to no change in tone as the accident transpired. The ground crew members related all information to the flight crew, not withholding any information that they deemed pertinent to the
“A Separate Peace” begins with the main character, Gene Forrester, returning to the Devon School for boys in search of two places from his youth that he has an emotional connection to. The first place is the marble steps of the First Academy Building, and the second is the tree by the river which he finds “smaller, shrunken by age” (Knowles, 14). He comes here so that he can resolve what happened there seventeen years ago and move on with his life; to find peace within himself.
Michael Useem’s “Race to Save Apollo 13” centers around the role of flight director Eugene Kranz in the return of the damaged spacecraft containing three American astronauts. It tells of how problems arose in the mission after the explosion of an oxygen tank which took out two fuel cells on the spacecraft Odyssey. Kranz’s responsibility during the mission was to come up with solutions to all the problems and to return the astronauts home safely. “Race To Save Apollo 13” shows how he managed to solve all the issues that came up during the mission under the immense pressures. In his telling of Kranz’s actions during the course of the mission, Useem shows Kranz to demonstrate the leadership principles of organization, communication, and the ability
Louis Armstrong was known as the King of jazz, a trumpeter and singer who was one of the most influential figures in jazz music. Famous for his innovative methods of playing the trumpet and cornet, he was also a highly talented singer blessed with a powerful voice. Known for his skills on being able improvise, he would bend and twist the many lyrics and melody of a song with dramatic effect. As his popularity grew in the mid-20th century America when racism was more prevalent, he was one of the first African-American entertainers to be highly popular among both the white and the colored segments of the society. Fondly nicknamed Satchmo or Pops by his fans, he is often regarded to be the founding father of jazz as a uniquely American art form. Born into poverty in New Orleans, he had a very difficult childhood after his father abandoned the family. As a young boy, he