TheTechnological Advances in Space Exploration

(2)

Space exploration is our human response to curiosity about the earth, the moon, the

planets, the sun and other stars, and the galaxies. Manned and unmanned space

vehicles venture far beyond the boundaries of the earth to collect valuable information

about the universe. Human beings have visited the moon and have lived in

space stations for long periods. Space exploration helps us see the earth in its true relation

with the rest of the universe. Such exploration could reveal how the sun,

the planets, and the stars were formed and whether life exists beyond our own world. We

do not know the boundaries of the universe or what advances can come out of these

explorations so we must thrust our emotions into the unknown and have an open mind to

the possibilities. So while the average person is wondering what space has to offer the

person do not realize the many missions that have already went on in this field.

The exploration of bodies in the solar system began within a few years of the first

satellites.

In 1926 American scientist Robert H. Goddard launched the world's first liquid-

propellant rocket.

Then both U.S. and Soviet space engineers set their sights on the Moon.

Early Soviet launches in 1958 all failed and were never announced. Several U.S.

launches also failed, although two of them (Pioneers 1 and 3) reached nearly

100,000 km into space before falling back to Earth. In 1958 a great leap occured

when The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was formed.

This program is what runs all the space ideas and puts them into action

The first probe to escape Earth's gravity was the Soviet LUNA 1, launch on

(3)

Jan. 2, 1959, which passed the Moon and continued into interplanetary space

. The U.S. probe Pioneer 4, launched two months later,

followed the same path. Later Soviet probes either hit the

Moon or passed it and took photographs of the hidden far side, relaying them back to

Earth. The space age began on Oct. 4, 1957. On that day, the Soviet Union launched

Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite to orbit the earth.

The first manned space flight was made on April 12, 1961, when Yuri A. Gagarin,

a Soviet cosmonaut, orbited the earth in the spaceship Vostok 1.

Space probes have vastly expanded our knowledge of outer space, the planets, and

the stars. In 1959, one Soviet probe passed close to the moon and another hit the moon.