снимки спутника наса

Many cultures have an aphorism that expresses the relationship between generations and wealth: one generation to build it, one generation to expand it, one generati

An image of Curiosity descending on its parachute captured from the Mars Reconnaissance orbiter.

Think about that for a moment. In just sixty-five years, roughly a single personпІп‚Б„ўs lifespan, humans have gone from having a single artificial satellite awkwardly orbiting their own planet to having satellites orbiting another planetпІп‚БЂ«satellites that are sophisticated enough to be controlled, positioned so that when, yet another, spacecraft goes whizzing past, a photograph of a parachute opening can be taken and relayed back to Earth.

In August of this year, the endured пІп‚яљseven minutes of terrorпІп‚яњ upon entering the Martian atmosphere and landing on its surface. At four minutes into the landing sequence, CuriosityпІп‚Б„ўs main parachute deployed, amazingly while Curiosity was still traveling supersonically and after nine months of space travel. Despite weighing only 100 pounds, the parachute was subjected to forces in excess of 60,000 pounds upon opening. ItпІп‚Б„ўs the largest parachute ever used outside of the earthпІп‚Б„ўs atmosphere. But what most impressed us about the roverпІп‚Б„ўs landing was that we could watch, albeit with a fourteen-minute relay delay. The world could watch because a satellite we sent earlier is orbiting Mars and was in the correct position to photograph CuriosityпІп‚Б„ўs parachute opening. Astoundingly, shortly after CuriosityпІп‚Б„ўs landing, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) probe was able send back a photo taken by its HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera.

Curiosity Sees Its Shadow on Mars (NASA)

Over the next four decades, the space race ignited by SputnikпІп‚Б„ўs launch would morph from a heated contest in which Russia and the United States each achieved their share of firstsпІп‚БЂ«first human in space (Russian Yuri Gagarin) and (Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin)пІп‚БЂ«into a global collaboration. In November 1998, a little more that forty years after Sputnik launched and NASAпІп‚Б„ўs founding, the two nations would begin the long-term project of launching the pieces and parts that would be assembled into the (ISS), humankindпІп‚Б„ўs first permanent home in space. Fifteen nations have participated in the development, creation, and use of ISS. Russian rockets regularly launch European space probesпІп‚БЂ«for example 2003пІп‚Б„ўs Mars ExpressпІп‚БЂ«into space. With the 2011 end of the space shuttle program, Russian rockets are charged with delivering all human crew and resupply materials to the ISS.

The effect of that fear was writ large across America. Seemingly overnight, K-12 classrooms refocused their curricula to produce future engineers and scientists. Government agencies were realigned. NACA, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, itself founded as a crisis-induced preparation for World War I, was dissolved and reformed as , the National Aeronautics and Space Administration on October 1, 1958. So, this week marks two anniversaries that define the beginning of the Space Age: the launch of Sputnik, the worldпІп‚Б„ўs first man-made satellite, and the formation of NASA, the space agency that would put a human being on the Moon.

Buzz Aldrin on LM Ladder (NASA)

Our colleague wasnпІп‚Б„ўt the only American looking up into the night sky. All over the United States, people were straining to catch a glimpse of the Russian achievement that blazed and glittered through the heavens. Some, mostly children and young adults, watched the satelliteпІп‚Б„ўs trail in awe. Parents, teachers, and leaders, had an altogether different reaction, fear.

That same weekend in DougпІп‚Б„ўs grandparentпІп‚Б„ўs house, a litter of kittens was born. The firstborn, a tiny black-and-white female, was named Sputnika after the Russian artificial satellite that had grabbed so much of the worldпІп‚Б„ўs attention. A little over 1800 miles awayпІп‚БЂ«a distance three times greater than the most distant point in пІп‚Б„ўs elliptical orbitпІп‚БЂ«in Pasadena, California, a young girl whoпІп‚Б„ўd grow up to be a colleague of ours, would go out into the San Rafael hills and try to catch a nighttime glimpse of Sputnik as it passed overhead. Our parents were young adults then, just coming of age in this changing world. When came home from kindergarten fifteen years later, having made a holiday ornament from a Styrofoam ball, a few toothpicks, and silver spray paint, AnnaпІп‚Б„ўs mother declared, пІп‚яљYou made Sputnik.пІп‚яњ

On Friday, October 4, 1957, a gleaming aluminum sphere, roughly the size of beach ball,п'б  weighing 184 pounds and studded with four whip-like antennae, was lofted into orbit around Earth. changed the world in both large and small ways.

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Sputnik, NASA, and Generation SpaceOctober 3, 2012

Space, Science, Aviation, and Writing as a Couple

Sputnik, NASA, and Generation Space « Lofty Ambitions Blog