A Brief History of Space Exploration

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A Brief History of Space Exploration

• Focus on manned space flight
• Little emphasis on non-US contributions
• VERY limited highlights of unmanned missions

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Robert Goddard

• Father of American
  Rocketry
• First liquid propelled rocket - 1926

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Dr. Werner von Braun

• Leader of Nazi rocketry research
• Inventor of the V-2 Rocket
• War criminal? Victim of Nazi scorched Earth?
• American hero?

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I have learned to use the word "impossiblewith
the greatest caution.

• Slated for execution to prevent capture by the
  Allies
• A prize for which the Russians and Americans
  competed
• Surrendered to Americans
• Became the father of the U.S. space program

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Sputnik October 4, 1957October Sky
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The Space Race

• Sputnik puts America into near panic
• 4/12/61 USSR puts Yuri Gagarin into space
• America Responds with Project Mercury

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Project Mercury The Right Stuff

• Mercury Redstone Rocket
• Single astronaut
• First U.S. manned ballistic flight Alan
  Shephard 5/5/61

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Astronaut and SenatorJohn Glenn

• Mercury Freedom 7
• First American to orbit Earth 2/20/62
• Oldest person to travel in space (Space Shuttle)

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Liberty 7 on the seafloor

• A near tragedy

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Project Gemini

• Titan Rocket
• Two astronauts
• First Space Walk (EVA)
• Rendezvous with Agena modules and with other
  Gemini capsules

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Gemini capsule
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Ed White Gemini 4 EVA
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Mercury and Gemini preludes to Apollo Project
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Apollo 8 Liftoff from KSC12/21/68
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Earthrise from lunar orbit Apollo 8
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Apollo 11 Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, Edwin
Buzz AldrinJuly 16, 1969
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Apollo 11 LM Eagle
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Houston, the Eagle has landed.
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Neil Armstrong First Man on the Moon
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Buzz Aldrin second man on the moon
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Lunar Rock fromApollo 11 Mission
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Buzz Aldrin
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Apollo 11 American Heroes
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Earthrise from lunar orbit
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Apollo 17 Lunar Rover 12/72
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Apollo 17 Geologist Harrison Schmidt
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Apollo 17 Harrison Schmidt and Lunar Rover
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Apollo 17 Astronaut Harrison Schmitt in the field
with Oneonta Alumni and Students - 2003
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Skylab a bridge between Apollo and the Shuttle
- 1973
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Space Shuttle 1980s to present (?)
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Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster

• January 28, 1986
• Shuttle blows up 73 seconds after liftoff
• Six professional astronauts a spectrum of
  America
• Christa McAuliffe first teacher in space

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HST precious cargo for the Shuttle
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Hubble Space Telescope
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Hubble probes the mysteries of the cosmos
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Soyuz the Russian endeavor
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Mir a record of Russian accomplishment
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Gene and Carolyn Shoemaker

• Gene Shoemaker a would-be astronaut
• Geologist and land-based explorer of space
• Pioneer in study of impact structures

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Shoemaker-Levy 9 and Jupiter
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Scar from Shoemaker-Levy 9
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Some Current Efforts

• International Space Station
• Search for extra-terrestrial planets
• Monitoring Earths atmosphere
• Sofia Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared
  Astronomy
• Mars Global Surveyor
• Mars Rovers

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Unmanned Exploration

• Mars Pathfinder and Sojourner Rover

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Mars Pathfinder
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Panorama from surface of Mars
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Messenger

• Messenger will arrive at Mercury in 2011
• Begin 1 year orbit to image and map surface