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The sky is not the limit

03 Jan 2021

Mindspark by Thehan Wanasinghe When it comes to space, humans have achieved a lot over the past 50 years. Twelve astronauts have set foot on the moon, the International Space Station (ISS) has had 236 visitors since 2000, and 569 astronauts have gone to space. We’ve launched around 5,000 rockets into space. Right now, our dreams of living on the red planet will become a reality with one special company – SpaceX. SpaceX combines technology and science to make some of the world’s craziest rockets. Founded in 2002 by Elon Musk, SpaceX has become one of NASA’s closest contractors. So what will happen in the next 50 years? SpaceX Starship is SpaceX’s newest project. It’s a fully reusable rocket that has been designed to carry humans and cargo to Mars and beyond. Starship will be the world’s most powerful spacecraft ever made. It’s 120 m tall and 9 m wide. On Starship, it would take six months to reach the red planet. On 10 December, SpaceX launched their eighth Starship prototype. The giant launched into the atmosphere successfully. But unfortunately, due to a harsh landing, the prototype created a huge fireball on the landing pad! SpaceX is working on making Starship a success on this day. Why Mars? Mars is the most Earth-like planet in the solar system and it’s around 140 million miles away from us. Did you know that it’s in something called the “Goldilocks Zone”? That means Mars is close enough to the sun to be able to sustain life, but not too hot that any life is just blasted away or too cold that there’s not enough energy for life forms to survive. According to NASA, there is strong scientific evidence that there is flowing water on Mars (dark narrow streaks called recurring slope lineae along cliffs and crater walls suggest that flowing water continues to shape the surface of Mars). Fourteen spacecraft have been sent to Mars for research. “Curiosity Rover” is the most famous rover sent to Mars by NASA and it is still in operation today. Colonisation of Mars SpaceX is one of the first companies that made plans to colonise Mars. Elon Musk hopes on sending cargo to Mars by 2024, a crewed mission to follow later and to send around a million people by 2050. Their “SpaceX Mars programme” features reusable rockets, human-rated spacecraft, and much more. In our lifetime, we’ll have people going to Mars, setting up a colony, and making humans multi-planetary!   A timeline of human space travel 4 October 1957 The start of the “Space Race” between Russia and the US began with the successful launch of Sputnik 1. This was the first artificial Earth satellite launched into an elliptical, low Earth orbit. The satellite orbited at 29,000 kmph, completing an orbit every 96 minutes, which meant that during the three weeks it was active, it covered the entire surface of the Earth. 3 November 1957 Sputnik 2 carried the first dog to ever go to space: Laika. She was an ordinary street dog in Russia. Unfortunately, Laika died on the spacecraft hours after launch due to overheating. 12 April 1961 Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel into space, launching to orbit aboard the Vostok 3KA-3. Since Gagarin, 568 astronauts have been to space. Out of the 569 astronauts (including Gagarin), only 12 have set foot on the moon! 20 April 1969 Apollo 11 was the first spacecraft that landed humans on the moon. It transported three astronauts on a journey of 240,000 miles, which took 76 hours, and back. Two of the astronauts, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, spent 21 hours on the Moon’s surface collecting lunar material for research, samples of which continue to be tested today, 51 years later. 13 November 1971 Mariner 9 became the first spacecraft to orbit another planet: Mars. Mariner 9 was part of the NASA Mariner programme. It sent over 7,000 images of the red planet to Earth. The orbiter mapped 85% of the Martian surface. 12 April 1981 A new era of space flight began when Space Shuttle Columbia soared into orbit. The shuttle was humankind's first reusable spacecraft. The orbiter would launch like a rocket and land like a plane. The two solid rocket boosters that helped push them into space would also be reused after being recovered in the ocean. 18 June 1983 Valentina Tereshkova is the first woman to have flown in space with a solo mission on the Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963. She orbited the Earth 48 times, spent almost three days in space and remains the only woman to have been on a solo space mission. 20 November 1998 The first component of the ISS was launched into space by a Proton Rocket. The US orbital segment was completed in 2011. Building the complete station required over 40 assembly flights. The ISS is about the size of an international football pitch. 21 December 2015 For the first time in the history of spacecraft, an orbital rocket is successfully landed. SpaceX made this happen. On their way back to Earth’s surface, the boosters communicate with the drone ships autonomously to co-ordinate the landing. The drone ship then brings the booster back to dry land where it can be reused.  


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