This special issue looks at iconic spacecraft and the current missions exploring the Solar System and the deeper cosmos. Plus find out about the plans for manned missions to the Moon and Mars, and our search for habitable planets - and aliens.
When Neil Armstrong stepped onto the surface of the Moon in 1969, uttering the famous words: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”, it was an iconic moment for humanity. The feat was an incredible scientific and engineering achievement. But the dawn of the Space Age actually kick-started over a decade earlier with the launch of Sputnik 1 – the first manmade satellite into Earth orbit. For the last 60 years, ground-breaking missions have explored our Solar System and peered deep into the cosmos. This special issue reveals what we’ve learnt and where we’ll be headed next. Find out about the spacecraft touring the Solar System: Curiosity roaming Mars (p30); Juno revealing Jupiter’s secrets (p36); Cassini solving Saturn’s puzzles (p38); New Horizons exploring the Kuiper Belt…
1957 Sputnik 1 (below) was the first manmade satellite to orbit Earth, and is seen as the catalyst to the Space Race between the US and the Soviet Union. 1959 Luna 1 (above) became the first spacecra! to orbit another Solar System body – the Sun – a!er initially missing its intended target, the Moon. 1962 Mariner 2 (right) became the first probe to fly past another planet, Venus. 1964 Mariner 4flew by Mars and sent back the first close-up images of the Red Planet (right). 1965 Gemini 3 was the first manned mission of the Gemini programme in which scientists studied the effects of longer spaceflights on astronauts and their equipment, and practised docking spacecra! in orbit and landing. 1966 Luna 9 made the first so! landing (non-crash landing)…
10 Cause of gamma-ray bursts A gamma-ray burst (GRB) is one of the most energetic events in the Universe. These flashes of gamma-ray radiation are an enigma because they’re so rare – a typical galaxy produces only a few every million years. Yet they release as much energy in a few seconds as our Sun does in 10 billion years. On 3 June 2013, a GRB lasting one-tenth of a second occurred, and was spotted by NASA’s Swift satellite. When Hubble looked 10 days later, it found an infrared glow where the burst had been. But by 3 July it had faded. This disappearing glow was the dying embers of another kind of cosmic explosion – a kilonova – believed to be the result of extremely dense stars called ‘neutron stars’…
Hubble underwent its last servicing mission in 2009 and is expected to remain operational until it degrades around 2020. Hubble will then be sent into a final orbit back down into Earth’s atmosphere to end its years of service in a blaze of glory. The highly anticipated James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is due for launch in 2018, but it will not be a direct replacement for Hubble. Despite having a mirror almost three times as large, JWST will observe at a similar resolution but in a different wavelength of light – the infrared. It will be able to observe cold and dusty objects in amazing detail that previously appeared ‘invisible’, allowing astronomers to see further out into space, and back in time, than ever before.…
ROCKET SCIENCE WHAT IS ROCKET SCIENCE? It’s all about using rocket propulsion to move anything from a firework to a manned spaceship. At the heart of rocketry is Isaac Newton’s Third Law of Motion, something that’s been established for over 300 years. It says that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. If you stand in front of a wall and push it hard, you will move backwards. Similarly if you stand on a skateboard and throw a heavy object away from you as hard as you can (don’t try this at home), you’ll roll in the opposite direction. As you push an object forwards, the object pushes back on you with the same amount of force. In a rocket, the ‘object’ being pushed is the end product of…
1 BOOSTERS Four booster rockets strapped to the outside of the rocket give extra thrust during take-off before falling away. The boosters use kerosene and liquid oxygen. 2FIRST STAGE his is also known as the core stage. The first stage RD-108A motors join the boosters in accelerating the rocket away from the surface of the Earth. 3SECOND STAGE In less than five minutes, the first stage has dropped away and the second stage RD-0110 rocket motors kick in to push the Soyuz TMA-M capsule into orbit.…
