Space exploration sends humans or machines into space to visit other planets and objects in space. Humanity has dreamed of visiting the stars for hundreds of years, but it wasn`t until 1969 that the first person went to the moon. It can take up to six months to send humans to study Mars just to get there. Even simple things like making sure you have enough to eat are difficult when you have to pack everything into your spaceship before you leave. You can`t come back if you forget something! Exploring Mars comes at a significant financial cost, as about two-thirds of all spacecraft destined for Mars have failed before they have even completed their missions, with some failing before they have even begun. Such a high failure rate can be attributed to the complexity and large number of variables involved in an interplanetary journey, and has led researchers to jokingly talk about the Galactic Great Ghoul,[39] which thrives on a regime of Martian probes. This phenomenon is also informally referred to as the «Martian curse». [40] Contrary to the overall high failure rates in Mars exploration, India is the first country to make its first attempt. India`s Mars Orbiter (MOM)[41][42][43] mission is one of the most profitable interplanetary missions ever undertaken, with a total approximate cost of ₹450 crore (₹73 million). [44] [45] The first mission of an Arab country to Mars was taken over by the United Arab Emirates. The Emirates Mars mission is scheduled to launch in 2020. The unmanned exploration probe was called «Hope Probe» and is sent to Mars to study its atmosphere in detail.
[46] The dwarf planet Pluto poses significant challenges to the spacecraft due to its large distance from Earth (which requires high speed for reasonable travel times) and low mass (which currently makes it very difficult to capture in orbit). Voyager 1 could have visited Pluto, but the controllers instead opted for a close flyby of Saturn`s moon Titan, resulting in a trajectory incompatible with a flyby of Pluto. Voyager 2 never had a plausible trajectory to reach Pluto. [53] With the full completion of the ISS[6] to STS-133 in March 2011, U.S. space exploration plans are still evolving. Constellation, a Bush administration program for a return to the Moon by 2020[7], was deemed insufficiently funded and unrealistic by a group of experts in 2009. [8] The Obama administration proposed a revision of Constellation in 2010 to focus on developing the capability of manned missions beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO), expanding ISS operations beyond 2020, transferring the development of NASA`s human crew launchers to the private sector, and developing technologies that allow missions to: that go beyond LEO. such as Earth-Moon L1, Moon, Earth-Sun L2, near-Earth asteroids and Phobos or Martian orbit. [9] This endorsement has been criticized by scientists as the essence and continuation of colonialism.[83][84][85][86] manifests in particular fate, which does not reconcile space exploration with science and a less integrative field. [81] The beginnings of space exploration were motivated by a «space race» between the Soviet Union and the United States. The launch of the first artificial object into Earth orbit, the Soviet Sputnik 1, on October 4, 1957, and the first landing of the American Apollo 11 mission on July 20, 1969, are often considered milestones for this first period. The Soviet space program reached many of the first milestones, including the first living being in orbit in 1957, the first manned space flight (Yuri Gagarin aboard Vostok 1) in 1961, the first spacewalk (by Alexei Leonov) on September 18.
March 1965, the first automatic landing on another celestial body in 1966 and the launch of the first space station (Salyut 1) in 1971. After the first 20 years of exploration, the focus shifted from point flights to renewable hardware such as the Space Shuttle program and competition to collaboration with the International Space Station (ISS). In 2017, the lunar campaign was approved by Space Policy Directive 1, which used various ongoing spacecraft programs such as Orion, the lunar gateway, commercial lunar payload services, and the addition of an undeveloped manned lander. The space launch system will serve as the main launcher for Orion, while commercial launchers are planned to launch various other elements of the campaign. [67] NASA requested $1.6 billion in additional funding for Artemis for fiscal year 2020,[68] while the Senate Budget Committee requested a five-year budget profile[69] from NASA, which is required for congressional evaluation and approval. [70] [71] Satellites are used for a variety of purposes. Common types include military (espionage) and civilian Earth observation satellites, communication satellites, navigation satellites, meteorological satellites, and research satellites. Space stations and manned spacecraft in orbit are also satellites. Humanity`s interest in heaven was universal and enduring.
People are pushed to explore the unknown, discover new worlds, push the boundaries of our scientific and technical boundaries, and then move on. The intangible desire to explore and challenge the limits of what we know and where we have been has brought benefits to our society for centuries. Exploring human space helps answer fundamental questions about our place in the universe and the history of our solar system. By addressing the challenges associated with human space exploration, we are developing technology, creating new industries, and helping to promote peaceful ties with other nations. Curiosity and exploration are vital to the human mind, and the challenge of going further into space will invite today`s global citizens and tomorrow`s generations to join NASA on this exciting journey. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST or «Webb») is a space telescope that succeeds the Hubble Space Telescope. [61] [62] The JWST will provide significantly improved resolution and sensitivity to Hubble, enabling a wide range of investigations in the fields of astronomy and cosmology, including the observation of some of the most distant events and objects in the universe, such as the formation of the first galaxies. Other objectives are the understanding of the formation of stars and planets as well as direct imaging of exoplanets and novas. [63] The first surface interplanetary mission that returned at least limited surface data from another planet was the landing of Venera 7 in 1970, which sent data back for 23 minutes from Venus to Earth. In 1975, Venera 9 was the first to return images of the surface of another planet and images of Venus.
In 1971, the Mars 3 mission made the first soft landing on Mars, returning data for nearly 20 seconds. Later, much longer-term surface missions were carried out, including more than six years of surface operation on Mars by Viking 1 from 1975 to 1982 and more than two hours of transmission from the surface of Venus by Venera 13 in 1982, the longest Soviet planetary surface mission ever carried out. Venus and Mars are the two planets outside Earth where humans have carried out surface missions with unmanned robotic spacecraft. Manned exploration of the moon began in 1968 with the Apollo 8 mission that successfully orbited the moon, the first time an alien object was orbited by humans. In 1969, the Apollo 11 mission marked the first time humans set foot on another world. The inhabited exploration of the moon did not last long. The Apollo 17 mission in 1972 marked the sixth landing and the most recent human visit. Artemis 2 will pass in front of the Moon in 2022.
Robotic missions are still vigorously pursued. The Space Agency and space policy[81] regularly refer to exploration as human nature. [82] We humans have been venturing into space since October 4, 1957, when the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite in orbit around the Earth. This happened during the period of political hostility between the Soviet Union and the United States, known as the Cold War. For several years, the two superpowers competed for the development of missiles called intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) to transport nuclear weapons between continents. In the USSR, rocket designer Sergei Korolev had developed the first intercontinental ballistic missile, a rocket called R7, which was to launch the space race. This competition reached its climax with the launch of Sputnik. Carried on an R7 rocket, the Sputnik satellite could beep from a radio station. After reaching space, Sputnik orbited the Earth once every 96 minutes. Radio beeps could be detected on the ground when the satellite passed it, so people around the world knew it was really in orbit.
When the U.S. realized that the USSR had capabilities that surpassed U.S. technologies that could endanger Americans, the U.S. became concerned. Then, a month later, on November 3, 1957, the Soviets carried out an even more impressive space project.