The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 replacing the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). NASA, which began operating that same year, is a US government agency responsible for civilian aeronautical and space research programs. One reason NASA was established is because the former Soviet Union had just launched Sputnik 1, a rocket, into space. Sputnik 2, the world's second artificial satellite, was even more successful. It carried an 11-pound female dog, Laika.
About a year before NASA was established, on December 6, 1957, the first US attempt to launch an earth satellite failed when the satellirte's rocket vehicle exploded. The satellite, a 6.4 inch Vanguard test sphere, was undamaged and no one was harmed.
In 1958, the year NASA was started, the US put its first 5 satellites into orbit but failed 8 other times. The US also got one rocket 71300 miles, or about 1/3 of the way to the moon. Dr. James A. Van Allen discovered that the earth is girdled by fields of radiation (the Van Allen belts).
Project Mercury was organized by NASA to get a man to the moon. In 1959 there were four successful lunar probes launched, one American and three Soviet. Nine US satellites were sent into orbit along with the first US experimental weather satellite. Seven military test pilots were chosen to be the US's first astronauts in Project Mercury.
In 1960 the US orbited 14 satellites; the Soviets sent a ``space ship'' with a ``dummy space man'' into orbit, and a space vehicle carrying two dogs, four mice, and a rat was put into orbit and brought back to earth by the USSR.
In 1961 Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. He orbited the earth once on April 12, 1961. The second man in space was Gherman Titov who executed 17 revolutions. Thirty-three US satellites were put into orbit, one carrying a chimpanzee.
In 1962 a US probe passed Venus and radioed back data, the US sent up 3 astronauts, and 3 lunar probes were launched by the US. The Soviets orbited 11 satellites, sent up 2 cosmonauts and launched a probe towards Mars.
In 1963 the US sent an astronaut into orbit and Project Mercury ended. The USSR put a man and a woman into orbit and their fourth lunar probe rounded the moon. In 1964 three interplanetary probes were sent toward Mars, two US lunar probes crashed into the moon, and the Soviets launched the first capsule to carry more than one man into space. (It carried three men).
In 1965 the two US lunar probes crashed but sent back photos first. The Soviets did the first space walk. Two more Soviet lunar probes crashed and a US astronaut did a 20 minute space walk, double the length of the Soviet walk. On July 20, 1969 Apollo 11 landed on the moon. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon's surface.
Twenty-one years ago, the Viking spacecraft ``concluded that the Martian surface was completely sterile, at least in the few square meters within reach of the landers' arms.'' On August 7, 1996, a team of scientists stated that they believed that a Martian meteor may once have contained primitive life. This meter, called ALH 84001, was discovered in Antarctica by an American search team on December 27, 1985. Since then, the stone was believed to be a diogenite, an igneous meteor chipped off the asteroid Vesta. However, three years ago it was revealed that it originated on Mars. ALH 84001 must have crystallized slowly from magma, and then it was fractured by a nearby impact 3.8-4.0 billion years ago. This meteorite later spent some time underwater charged with carbon dioxide at which time carbonate entered cracks in the surface.
Images from an electron microscope show clusters of tiny sausage-like shapes around the carbonates. They may be only flecks of the mineral, but they look like the earliest microfossils on earth which formed 3.5 billion years ago. The carbonate nuggets have dark rims, caused by small embedded grains of magnetite and iron sulfide. You can fit about a billion of these crystals onto the head of a pin. Usually these iron compounds would not exist together, especially with carbonate. However, certain bacteria on earth, particularly anaerobic (oxygen-hating) strains, synthesize them together with ease.
In the meteorite, the distribution of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs (organic molecules based on interconnected benzene rings), is very simple. It resembles what you would expect when simple organic matter decays. Although none of this evidence alone offers final proof that life once existed on ALH 84001, all of it together is very compelling evidence.
However, on the other side of the argument, these carbonates may have become embedded in the meteor after it had already landed on Earth. Another argument against life is that the carbonate ``microfossils'' are 100 times smaller than their ancient terrestrial counterparts. Also, some people believe that the meteor is only 1.3 -1.4 billion years old. This would mean that no life could have ever existed on this meteorite because no water flowed over Mars at that time.
There are three main types of satellites. They are interplanetary, geostationary(GEO), and low earth satellites (LEO). GEO satellites are 25000 miles away and revolve around the earth once per day so that they do not appear to move.They are used in communications, and direct broadcasting such as television and radio. Sometimes they are scientific, but not often. LEO satellites are 300-600 miles away. Every 90-100 minutes they go around the earth. They are used in communications (telephones) and earth resources(optical telescope or radar-radar are always LEO). They are often scientific-the Hubble Space Telescope is a LEO satellite. Both LEO and GEO can be used for signals intelligence (SIGINT). Interplanetary satellites do not orbit around the earth. Instead they head out into space. They are sometimes scientific.
In February 1986 the MIR space station was launched into space by the Soviets. This space station is the world's first truly operational one meant to support crews in space for up to one year. Guest astronauts from other nations routinely visit the MIR. A week-long visit costs $10 million US dollars.
Students at the International Space University in 1988 considered constructing a lunar base using modules that will be available by the year 2000. They could easily form the basis of an outpost on the moon within the first decade of the 21st century. Four modules could be assembled on the lunar surface. Right now NASA's idea of a lunar outpost is an inflatable habitat dome attached to a ``construction shack'' used during its building. Bags of lunar soil coiled at the dome's base would provide protection against radiation. A "road " behind the dome would lead to a landing pad. The base's power is provided by a solar power system.
Terraforming is adapting the physical conditions of other planets to suit human beings so that we can settle there. The concept of terraforming Venus was first proposed in the book The Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon. This book was published in 1930 and proposed electrolysing water and sending the hydrogen into space. In the 1960s Carl Sagan suggested that blue-green algae be genetically- engineered and be deposited on the surface of Venus. This would convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, but would take around a thousand launches to accomplish.
To terraform Mars, we would have to use the greenhouse effect to warm Mars up. The soil on Mars is not fertile enough for anything to grow. This would be done by implanting organisms that absorb nitrogen into themselves in the soil. Then, when they die the nitrogen will go into the soil. Developing a biosphere on Mars may take up to 100,000 years, however. NASA is the most likely organization in this country to begin terraforming in the near future.
NASA has a future filled with many possibilities such as terraforming, colonizing the moon, and building more space stations. It will continue to expand in exciting new possibilities and frontiers in space exploration.
This has updates on everything that NASA is doing right now, as well as other information. A great page.
Copyright © 1999 Katherine Wallace. All rights reserved.
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