Space Exploration

The Science of Rockets

Atlas rockets have been used for many years since 1950's.The purpose of them is to send probes into space and satellites to orbit Earth. There are three stages to the rockets:Centuar, Atlas, and the payload. The Centaur maneuvers into the proper orbit and releases the payload before falling back to Earth and burning upon reentry of the atmosphere. The Atlas sends the payload into space. The Atlas has been used for many years since it was invented in 1950.

The Space Program

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) it has gegun in 1958. It has had several missions including Apollo 13. Apollo 13 launched April 11, 1970. Two days in an oxygen tank blew up and the Command Module lost electricity and water. They made it around the moon and landed April 17 in the Pacific. Since 1972, three uncrewed spacecrafts have been sent to study the moon: Galileo, Clementine, and Lunar Prospector.There were couple of other missions one of them was Project Mercury which sent one astronaut into space.

Exploring Science Today

A small robot called "Personal Satellite Assistant" is programmed to stay near the astronaut, using internal fans to move around. This robot is also able to get into even the most remote parts of the station. When astronauts need to converse with each other they can use him, and he can also converse back with Control Central. It also has a "videophone" so astronauts can communicate with each other and Mission Control.

Using Space Science on Earth

NASA only gets 1% of the U.S. budget but they predict that for every one dollar put in the economy get 7 dollars.NASA is becoming increasingly worried over these low funds. With limited funds progress is going increasingly slow. NASA points out the basic knowledge of the universe gives us a better understanding of Earth, a lot learned from space exploration. Also exploration of space has made many applications for satellite communications and it supports many jobs. They believe that space travel will help to unlock peoples ideas of boundaries, and help them push the limits.