Space Exploration
Overview
Human Activity in Space and its Foundations: An Overview
The title image is a photo of Neil Armstrong on the Moon.
Human activity in space has its roots in the development of balloon flight from the eighteenth century, followed by power flight in the early twentieth century, and the rocket flights carried out by Robert Goddard. From the mid-twentieth century to the early twenty-first century it occurred in an atmosphere of international competition, with national accomplishment at the forefront and scientific discovery a close second as goals. By the mid-1970s international cooperation had begun, although the national space infrastructures remained separate. By the 2020s, while there has been considerable activity in Earth orbit, only six U.S. expeditions have visited the Moon and missions beyond the Moon have been uncrewed.
Learning Objectives
Evaluate how global social, political, and technological trends have shaped contemporary life.
Identify, explain, and assess the historic impact and significance of efforts in space exploration.
Key Terms / Key Concepts
Robert Goddard: U.S. physicist, engineer, and inventor who built and launched the atmospheric rockets that paved the way for space flight
V-2 rocket: ballistic missile developed by Germany during World War II
Between 1926 and 1941 Robert Goddard—a U.S. physicist, engineer, and inventor—launched thirty-four rockets with his team; these rockets reached altitudes as high as 2.6 kilometers and speed as great as 885 kilometers per hour. His developments in rocketry, including multi-stage and liquid-fuel rockets, paved the way for the rockets that reached Earth orbit, the Moon, and other bodies in the solar system. The next major advances in atmospheric rocketry occurred during World War II.
From September 1944 through March 1945 Germany launched over a thousand V-2 rockets against Britain, France, and Belgium. Since the late thirties the Nazi rocket program had been designing and building ballistic missiles with which to strike Allied cities such as London and Paris. The Nazis sought to damage the British and French economies and demoralize British, French, and Belgium citizens with their V-1 and the V-2 rockets. At the end of the war and for several years afterward the U.S. and Soviet governments brought over 1600 and 2000 scientists and engineers from the German program, respectively. These engineers and scientists helped to construct the postwar Soviet and U.S. space programs. For instance, Wernher von Braun was an aerospace engineer brought from Germany to the U.S; he participated in the development of the Saturn V rocket used in the Apollo program.
Soviet-U.S. Space Race
From the end of World War II to the early seventies the space race between the U.S. and the Soviet dominated the human presence in space. The space race was actually a succession of space races with progressively more ambitious goals, culminating in the first crewed expeditions to the Moon. These races were for national prestige and the technological advances that came with the efforts. As far as public support was concerned these goals were easy for people to understand and appreciate, whether in a democratic society, such as the U.S., or an authoritarian society, such as the Soviet Union. These goals also inspired other nations with the resources to join the competition, including China and India.
Learning Objectives
Evaluate how global social, political, and technological trends have shaped contemporary life.
Identify, explain, and assess the historic impact and significance of efforts in space exploration.
Key Terms / Key Concepts
Sputnik: first human satellite in Earth orbit, launched by the U.S.S.R. in October 1957
Apollo 11: first crewed expedition to the Moon, occurring in July 1969
The first race revolved around the first nation to launch a satellite into space. On 4 October 1957 the Soviet Union won this race by launching Sputnik into Earth orbit. A month later the Soviets launched Sputnik II with the first animal passenger, the dog Laika; this second mission ended with Sputnik II and Laika burned up upon reentry into the atmosphere.
In the short-run Sputnik caused panic across the U.S. First, the rocket used to put Sputnik in orbit was similar to the intercontinental ballistic missiles that would be used to carry nuclear warheads between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Many in the U.S. also feared that Sputnik foreshadowed Soviet control of Earth’s orbit. In addition, Americans feared future Soviet advances in space technology. These concerns resulted in increased U.S. space efforts, first and foremost with the establishment of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in July 1958.
The U.S. put its own first satellite into space with the launch of Explorer on 31 January 1958. For the next four years the Soviets and Americans split honors for a string of orbital accomplishments. By the mid-sixties the U.S. dominated the field of uncrewed spacecraft in orbit and across the inner planets.
The same pattern occurred in the Cold War competition over early crewed operations in space, with the Soviets winning the early races, including the first person to reach low Earth orbit and the first person to orbit the Earth several times. The Soviets also won the races for the first multi-person space flight and first spacewalk. In each of these competitions the U.S. followed closely behind.
The central competition in the space race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union was getting a crewed expedition to the Moon and back, which the U.S. won in July 1969. On 12 September 1962 U.S. President John Kennedy identified that as a national goal, with completion by the end of the 1960s. The U.S. government accomplished this through three programs: the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs.
From 1961 through 1963 Mercury, the first program, launched six single-person spacecrafts into Earth’s orbit; these were all successfully returned. The goal of Mercury was to see if such a feat could be accomplished with the technology that the U.S. then had, as well as to investigate how astronauts could function in Earth’s orbit.
Gemini, the second program, consisted of ten two-person missions in 1965 – 66 in Earth’s orbit; the mission was to investigate how astronauts would function in missions of a couple of weeks, to carry out activities outside the spacecraft, and to test launching, landing, and docking in space procedures.
Apollo, the third program, aimed at taking three-person crews to the Moon. The first four Apollo missions from October 1968 through May 1969 tested equipment and procedures in preparation for the first crewed mission to the Moon: Apollo 11. After Apollo 11, NASA launched six more Apollo missions through the end of 1972, before cancelling the program, in part because of waning interest among Americans.
The Soviet Union did not succeed in reaching the Moon. The three Soviet space programs that roughly coincided with the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs were the 1961 – 63 Vostok, 1964 – 65 Voskhod, and the 1967 – 91 Soyuz programs. The Soyuz program, roughly analogous to the Apollo program, did not succeed in developing the crewed landing craft and larger spacecraft system necessary for a Moon landing and return to Earth.
Within four years of the Apollo 11 milestone, the U.S. government had terminated the Apollo program and all further human activity on the Moon. The intensity that had driven the U.S. get to the Moon had burned out many Americans’ interest in space. Additionally, interest may have waned due to the decreasing focus on the Cold War space race. Subsequently, the U.S. government pursued less ambitious programs with a space station, robot probes, and the space shuttle program.
The Soviet Union and the U.S. also competed with robot probes in outer space; however, the competition was not as intense because the efforts and their goals were not as visible to average citizens. These probes included targets such as the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, the Martian moon of Phobos, the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, Saturn and its moon Titan, Uranus, Neptune, the Kuiper Belt, and various comets. US space probes explored the solar system and tested new propulsion and sensor technologies. Such robot probes were a fraction of the cost of crewed expeditions.
U.S. Shuttle Program and U.S. and Soviet Space Stations
After the end of the Apollo program the most visible U.S. space effort was the shuttle program. From 1981 to 2011 the five-shuttle fleet crewed by 355 astronauts completed 135 missions. Along with the U.S., astronauts and cosmonauts from fifteen other nations participated. This fleet explored new areas of reusability in the components of the shuttles. The two greatest tragedies in the Shuttle program were the breakup of the Challenger in 1986, shortly after liftoff, and the disintegration of the Columbia in 2003, upon reentry into the atmosphere.
Learning Objectives
Evaluate how global social, political, and technological trends have shaped contemporary life.
Identify, explain, and assess the historic impact and significance of efforts in space exploration.
In addition to other goals, the shuttles transported components of the International Space Station during its construction and shuttle crews participated in that construction. The ISS is an international effort with the U.S. and Russia supplying most of the components and many of the crew members. After completion of the ISS, the shuttles continued to transport supplies, equipment, and astronauts to the ISS.
Along with the International Space Station, which was first crewed in 2000, the U.S. built and crewed Skylab during the 1970s; the Soviet Union launched six small space stations from 1971 to 1986, as well as the Mir space station from 1986 to 2001; and China maintained two space stations from 2011 to 2018 and 2016 to 2019: Tiangong 1 and 2. However, Tiangong 1 was only occupied for twenty days and Tiangong 2 for twenty-six days.
Other National Space Programs
In 2003 China became the third nation to launch a crewed spacecraft. During the 1960s the Chinese government was determined to compete with the U.S. and the Soviet Union in the space race. In 1964 China launched its first rocket into space. In 1970 China launched a satellite into Earth’s orbit: Dong Fang Hong 1. In 1999 China launched its first uncrewed spacecraft into Earth orbit, as part of the Shenzhou program. In 2001 and 2002 China followed the uncrewed Shenzhou 1 mission with three more uncrewed Shenzhou missions: Shenzhou 2 – 4; these were a prelude to Shenzhou 5—the first Chinese crewed mission with astronaut Yang Liwei. China has followed up with several more crewed missions to Earth orbit, including Shenzhou 7, during which a Chinese astronaut carried out a spacewalk. China also has conducted uncrewed missions to the Moon, including orbital missions and three landings on the Moon between 2013 and 2020. In 2020 China followed the U.S. and Russia in launching an uncrewed expedition to Mars, with a landing vehicle reaching the surface of Mars in 2021.
Learning Objectives
Evaluate how global social, political, and technological trends have shaped contemporary life.
Identify, explain, and assess the historic impact and significance of efforts in space exploration.
Key Terms / Key Concepts
Shenzhou: Chinese crewed space program of the early twenty-first century
India has followed a path into space that parallels the paths of its predecessors: the Soviet Union/Russia, the U.S., and China. On 19 April 1975 the first Indian satellite launched into space aboard a Soviet rocket from the Soviet launch facility at Kapustin Yar. The Indian satellite was named in honor of the Indian astronomer Aryabhata. In 1980 the Indian Space Research Organization(ISRO) launched four Indian satellites on Indian rockets from Indian sites, having established its own indigenous launching capability. In October 2008 the ISRO launched India’s first lunar orbiter, which operated until August 2009. In 2013 India launched its first Mars orbiter, which reached Mars the next year, making India the fourth nation after the U.S., the Soviet Union/Russia, and China to complete such a mission to Mars. In 2019 India launched its second Lunar orbital mission, this one with a lander aboard. However, while the spacecraft reached Lunar orbit, the lander crashed. Along with these other missions, the ISRO also has launched 54 Polar Launch Satellite Vehicle missions into orbit since 1993, with 51 of these missions being successes. The PLSV is an Indian launch vehicle for reaching Earth orbit. In addition, the Indian government plans on building and launching its own space station in the future.
Along with the U.S., Russia, China, and India, other nations—such as France and Japan—have contributed to space exploration and use, along with the European Space Agency. Both France and Japan have launched uncrewed spacecraft into Earth’s orbit, as well as participated in various international efforts.
Human Activity in Space in the Early Twenty-First Century
This expanding international presence in space occurred at the same time as U.S. interest in such efforts was waning. From 2011—when the Shuttle program ended—to 2019, the U.S. did not have its own rocket for space travel, and had to rely on Russia just to get to Earth orbit. While the U.S. government, along with many individuals and groups, have supported specific goals, such as exploring the Moon, Mars, other planets, and a number of their moons, no specific commitments have been made to crewed expeditions or settlements.
Learning Objectives
Evaluate how global social, political, and technological trends have shaped contemporary life.
Identify, explain, and assess the historic impact and significance of efforts in space exploration.
In the early twentieth century the commercialization of space began. This commercialization grew out of the developments in rocketry and built upon it with the development of new launch vehicles. Using extant infrastructure these ventures were able to streamline procedures. By the early twenty-first century this commercialization has progressed into Earth’s orbit for purposes of transportation to space stations such as the ISS, as well as tourism. In July 2021 Virgin Galactic then Blue Origin took tourists into low Earth orbit.
While these diverse efforts have gained a great deal of information, they have not been effectively coordinated, either at the national or international levels. This lack of coordination has been characteristic of space exploration. Most accomplishments have been limited, only requiring the national resources of each of the two Cold War antagonists. Outside of work in Earth’s orbit and robot space probes, both requiring only incremental technological improvements over Goddard’s rockets, all work beyond the Moon has been completed by uncrewed spacecraft. A great deal has been learned and continues to be learned. However, while there are visions for a human presence in space, definitive plans with specific timetables to which one or more nations have committed themselves have not been devised and executed as of the early 2020s.
In the early twenty-first century human activity in space can be divided into two categories, Earth orbit and beyond Earth orbit. In Earth orbit most space activity concerns telecommunications, meteorology, and other sciences. Orbital activity is still easily accomplished by extant rocket propulsion technology, bolstered by advances in other technologies, such as sensors, computers, and energy systems fo these devices. It continues to improve within these limits in propulsion technology.
Space activity beyond Earth orbit is still dominated by exploration as marked by milestones, with no permanent settlements in the foreseeable future on either the Moon or Mars. Space exploration has been limited by the scarce resources allocated by national governments. In particular, governments and the private sector have only made incremental progress in the advancement of propulsion technology. In the early twenty-first century spacecraft were still propelled by the same kind of rockets that Goddard’s team had designed and built. Many around the world hope that the human presence in space will continue to expand, but hopes have not been translated into the necessary commitment of the necessary resources by government and the private sector.
Attributions
Title Image - Neil Armstrong on the Moon, 20 July 1969
- Attribution: NASA photo As11-40-5886, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- Provided by: Wikipedia Commons
- Location: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/Armstrong_on_Moon_%28As11-40-5886%29_%28cropped%29.jpg
- License: Creative Commons CC0 License
Adapted from:
https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/about/history/dr_goddard.html
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mercury/missions/program-toc.html
https://www.space.com/space-tourism-giant-leap-2021-milestones
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Solar_System_exploration
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Columbia_disaster
https://www.timesnownews.com/india/article/these -7-turning-points-in-indias-space-race-made-us-a-global-force/727779#:~:text=India%2C%20too%2C%20is%20one%20of%20the%20leading%20players,launched%20the%20country%20onto%20the%20global%20space%20race