History of Spaceflight

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History of Spaceflight

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History of Spaceflight . First documented attempt at spaceflight in 1500 in China. Wan Hu (China) Fireworks (rockets) strapped to chair . Most math and physics used in spaceflight was developed 1650-1910!. Influence of Science Fiction. H. G. Wells Jules Verne. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Transcript of History of Spaceflight

History of Spaceflight

First documented attempt at spaceflight in 1500 in China

• Wan Hu (China)• Fireworks (rockets) strapped to chair

• Most math and physics used in spaceflight was developed 1650-1910!

Influence of Science Fiction

H. G. Wells

Jules Verne

First Space Engineers

• Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (Russian, 1857-1935) – First to analyze rocket motion using Newton's Laws of

Motion

• Hermann Oberth (German, 1894-1989)– Published a paper in 1923 on the use of rockets

for flying people into space

• Robert Goddard (1882-1945)– Received first patent for a rocket in 1914 – first stable liquid-propellant rocket in 1926

• German and Soviet Rocket Clubs formed in 1920's and 1930's– Werner von Braun (German) – Walter Dornberger (German) – Sergei Korolev (Russian)

• WWII, Germany

• After the war, some German rocket scientists went to the USSR and some to the US (including von Braun)

The Space Race• Primary interest in US and USSR was to

develop rockets to deliver nuclear weapons to distant targets

• Oct 4, 1957 -- USSR placed Sputnik I (184 lb satellite) into Earth orbit;

• US feared that this meant USSR was technically superior and could launch nuclear weapons via rockets

• Nov 3, 1957 -- USSR orbited Sputnik II (1120 lb spacecraft with passenger dog Laika, who lived for a week)

• Werner von Braun took over US efforts• Explorer I (18 lb. satellite) into orbit on Jan 31,

1958

• March 1958 -- Pres. Eisenhower formed NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Admininstration)

National Defense Education Act

• Signed into law on September 2, 1958

• April 12, 1961 -- Yuri Gagarin became first human to orbit Earth

• May 5, 1961 -- Alan Shepard flew for 15 min. on sub-orbital flight

• Feb. 1962 -- John Glenn first US astronaut to orbit Earth

Space Race became a race to the moon

• Pres. Kennedy challenged US to send astronauts to moon and back before 1970

Rocket plane development (X-1, X-15) -

• alternative path that US did not pursue • some believe it would have been better

X -15

• 1959 -1968• World record for the fastest speed ever

reached by a manned rocket powered aircraft.– 4,519 mph

Mercury Program

• Single astronauts

Gemini Program

• pairs of astronauts• first space walks

Gemini Rendevous

Apollo Program

• triples of astronauts to the moon

Saturn V

Moon Rover

Space Shuttle(National Space Transportation System --NSTS)

• Development of shuttle system begun in 1970's• First orbiter -- Enterprise (named by popular demand

of Star Trek fans)

List of orbiters: • Enterprise • Discovery • Atlantis • Endeavour (replaced Challenger) • Challenger (destroyed during launch, Jan. 28, 1986 -- all

crew were lost) • Columbia (destroyed on re-entry, Feb. 1, 2003 -- all crew were lost)

Interstellar travel

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdjL8WXjlGI

Difficulties of interstellar travel

• Vast distances very great speed and/or a very long travel time• Vacuum • Radiation • Weightlessness• Micrometeoroids

• The fastest outward-bound spacecraft yet sent, Voyager 1, would take 72,000 years to get to Proxima Centauri

Solar sail• Reduce time to ~ 2000 years

Nuclear pulse propulsion• Reduce time to ~ 100 years

Fusion Powered Spacecraft

Human Outer Planet Exploration (NASA/MSFC, 2003),ICAN-II (The Pennsylvania State University)

Relativistic Time Dilation

• As velocities approach the speed of light, relativistic time dilation would make the voyage much shorter for the traveler

Wormholes• Schwarzschild wormholes or Einstein-Rosen

bridges are bridges between areas of space

Newton’s Laws of Motion and Rockets

Newton’s First Law of Motion

• Objects at rest tend to stay at rest unless acted on by an unbalanced force. Objects in motion tend to stay in motion in a straight line unless acted on by an unbalanced force.

Newton’s Second Law of Motion

• As force is increased, acceleration increases. As mass is increased, acceleration decreases. Therefore, force equals mass times acceleration. (force = mass x acceleration)

Newton’s Third Law of Motion

• For every action or force there is an equal, opposite and simultaneous reaction or force