Space Exploration

Past, Present, and Future

World’s First Accurate Star Map

• Hipparchus created the world’s first accurate star map

• This occurred around 130 B.C.

• He used his own knowledge of math and observations of the movements of the stars

Galileo and the Telescope

• Galileo Galilei successfully used the first telescope

• This occurred in 1609• He made improvements to the first

telescope and was able to magnify objects 3-30 times

• He used the telescope to discover 4 of Jupiter’s moons, the cycles of Venus, and was one of the first to study sunspots

First Satellite to Orbit Earth

• The Sputnik Satellite of the USSR was the first satellite to orbit Earth

• This occurred on October 4, 1957• A satellite about 58 cm in diameter, about

83.6 g, travelled 29,000 km/hour, it had a beeping radio beacon

First Human in Orbit

• Yuri Gagarin was the first human in orbit• This happened on April 12, 1961• He used a USSR developed spacecraft named

Vostok 1

Apollo Moon Landing

• NASA sent Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the moon, they were the first men on the moon

• This happened on July 20, 1969• They flew to the moon in the Apollo 11 space

craft with a moon lander, named “Eagle”

Voyager 1 Space Probe

• NASA sent the Voyager 1 Space Probe into space• This was sent on September 5, 1977, and is still

in space today• They sent the U.S. robotic space probe into

space, it is the farthest man-man object in space, first to leave our solar system, it has done a detailed photo study of Jupiter/Saturn, it also carries a golden record with details of life on Earth in case it is discovered by intelligent life

Hubble Space Telescope

• NASA sent out Hubble• It was launched in 1990• It was launched from a shuttle, it takes photos

of deep space, it has taken photos that give us the deepest look into the Universe so far

International Space Station

• Americans, Europeans, Japanese, and Russian space programs working together on space station

• Orbit assembly started in 1998 and will in in 2012

• It is the largest artificial satellite to orbit Earth, can be seen from the ground with the naked eye, carries out research

Virgin Galactic Commercial Space Flight

• Richard Branson/Virgin Group sends out this flight

• First test in 2010, will send out flights in the future

• Normal people from Earth can buy a ticket to travel to space, cost 200,000 dollars per ticket, it’s a 6 passenger craft, will take you to space for 6 minutes