Humanity’s Place Among the Stars

20961561IHST8801

Understanding the Past and Current Efforts in Human Space Exploration.

Alexander Johnson

Contents

• Rationale and Summary• Human Space Exploration:

a Historical context• Achievements and Outcomes• Costs and Requirements• Current Space Policy• Aims, Goals and New Directions

Rationale:

In the beginning of the 21st Century the human race is on the verge of a

new era in space exploration.

The paths we can take, where we go from here, are limited only by our

goals, ambitions and personal endeavour.

Rationale

• Importance.

• Intended audience.

• Summary.

Human Space Exploration:A Historical Narrative

WWII - 1959• World War II

• German rocket program• V2 rocket

• Post World War II/Cold War Space Race• Missile-based arms race post WWII.• Intent to launch satellites (July/August 1955)• Launch of Sputnik 1 – 1957.• Launch of Juno 1 - 1958

Human Space Exploration:A Historical Narrative

1959 - 1962• Intention shifted to putting the first human in

space.• April 12 1961 – Yuri Gagarin on Vostok 1.• May 5 1961 – Alan Shepard on Freedom 7.• May 25 1961 – Special joint session of Congress

by Kennedy.• February 20 1962 – John Glenn on Friendship 7. • September 1962 - “We choose to go to the

moon…” Kennedy.

Human Space Exploration:A Historical Narrative

1962 - 1965

• Development of the greater race by the US.• Project Gemini in 1962.

• Flight schedule• Multiple person spacecraft• Ability to change orbits• Capability to perform EVA.

• Many USSR firsts over this time.• In 1964 started concentrating on race to the moon.• Plans for larger spacecraft to be ready post-1965.• Height of Soviet space program.

Human Space Exploration:A Historical Narrative

1960’sApollo Project:July 20, 1969

Apollo 11 completes lunar landingNeil Armstong and ‘Buzz’ Aldrin walk on the

surface of the moonSpace Race is effectively won.

Achievements and Outcomes

• Many technologies arise from any lengthy endeavour with scientific aims. The Space Race was no different.

• Many fields have benefited from the human exploration of space

Costs and Requirements

• Financial Costs

• Human Costs

• Environmental Costs

Current Space Policy

• Lower Earth Orbit

• New nations – second Space Race???

• Use of robots

• Human Exploration!!!

Aims, Goals and New Directions

• Continued missions to the ISS.

• Development of space faring capacities of other nations.

• Private enterprise.

• Plans(?) for lunar landings and colonies, asteroid visits, Mars orbits and landing.

“Dinosaurs are extinct today because they did not build space craft. Were no funds available? Did their politicians lack foresight? More likely it was because their brains were tiny. And the absence of an opposable thumb didn’t help either.”

“Make no mistake: the path to discovery inherent in space exploration has become not a choice but a necessity, and the consequences of that choice affect the survival of absolutely everyone, including those who remain thoroughly unenlightened by the multitude of discoveries made by their own species throughout its time on Earth.”