History
Sit back and relax
Make sure you’ve got a drink!
Prepared for you by Eugene V. Bobukh
Probably, it all began some
13,600,000,000 years ago…
This permits complexification, life,
and space explorers
Somewhat later. The Firsts…
• Rocket: China, ~1300 AC
• Documented (?) successful (??) human flight on a rocket:
Lagari Hasan Çelebi, Ottoman Turkey, 1633
• “Space” sci-fi: Somnium by Johannes Kepler, ~1630,
Germany
• Detailed research on rockets for space travel: 1903,
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Russia
• Liquid fuel rocket: Robert Goddard, USA, 1926
• Burst of sci-fi describing interplanetary, interstellar and
even intergalactic flight: 1860-1960
1942. V-2.
Nazi’s Germany built the first ballistic
missile.
First rocket to reach space, 1944
1945-1957. Nuclear race.
USSR and USA design and build rockets.
Goal: nuke the other side of the ocean.
Sergei Korolev, the lead Soviet rocket
program engineer, introduced the game we
all play since then: SPACE FLIGHT.
1957. Sputnik.
The plan called for a
heavy scientific
laboratory, later known
as Sputnik 3 (1958).
Time pressure, political
pressure, production
delays => the worldfamous simple sphere.
The R-7 rocket used is
still in service after
some modifications
(known as Soyuz
today).
1957. Laika.
Launched onboard
Sputnik 2 in November
1957, she was never
meant to return.
As the temperature
control system failed,
she survived for several
hours only.
1958. First nuclear tests in space.
Both USA and USSR.
Banned and stopped in 1962.
The image in the left is
Hardtack-Orange 3.8 Mt at
43 km altitude (so it’s still
somewhat atmospheric).
The first test over 100 km
(Argus, 200 km) done in
1958, too.
Most of space exploration is a
side product, a debris after
feeding the *military* interests
first 
… Manned spaceflight is an art
• Brings no money
– except for tourism
• Robots are faster, cheaper, more
effective, take less protection
• Moving Earth’s population to space - at $10,000/kg???
• Mars outpost is a delirium
But we still fly!
• You can’t sleep with Mona Lisa
• You can’t eat still life
• You can’t play like Santana
Does that mean we don’t need them?
… More on that later…
1959. The Far Side of the Moon.
Luna 3, USSR. The first
interplanetary probe.
Radiation-resistant 35 mm
film was obtained from a
shot down American spy
balloon 
A French winemaker who
bet that nobody would
ever see the far side of the
Moon sent 1000 bottles of
champagne to the team
for 1959/1960 New Year
eve 
…I think we should drink now, too…
1959. Corona.
The first (??) spy
satellite, USA.
USSR’s response: Zenit,
1961.
“Most of space
exploration is a side
product…”
1960. Nedelin disaster.
R-16 rocket exploded on
launch pad.
78 (some say 120)
perished in a toxic blaze,
including Nedelin himself.
The worst Soviet space
accident.
Cause: negligence to all
safety procedures in
attempt to launch on time.
1960. “There is no life on Earth” 
First attempt to launch a probe to Mars.
Checks at the launch pad revealed that
the probe was over the weight limit.
Something had to be cut. Korolev
ordered an overnight test run of all
scientific equipment in the steppe
nearby.
One device designed to detect the signs
of life reported negative  and stayed
on Earth.
It survived the launch failure later known
as “Mars 1960A”.
(Per Boris Chertok’s memories).
04/12/1961
Yuri Gagarin
He was only 27
First ever orbital flight
Chances of success: 80%
(Space Shuttle: 99%)
Dangerous re-entry due to
service module failing to
detach.
Over 8g during return.
1962. Telstar 1.
The first real communication
satellite.
Active relay of television pictures,
telephone calls, and fax.
First live transatlantic television
feed.
Consider this the beginning of
commercial space use.
1962. John Glenn’s flight
First American orbital
spaceflight.
Mercury was a very small
spaceship...
“Damaged” heat shield
caused great concern
upon re-entry.
Glenn second spaceflight:
1998 onboard the Space
Shuttle (77 years old
then).
1962. Two spaceships nearby.
Vostok-3, Nikolaev.
Vostok-4, Popovich.
6.5 km apart in orbit -- big success.
Salt-dried vobla was part of the space
menu. But only Popovich was able to
locate it in his spacecraft 
1962. Mariner 2. First flyby of Venus.
The dawn of
planetary space
exploration.
1963. Valentina Tereshkova.
First woman and first civilian in space,
onboard Vostok 6.
Next woman in space: Svetlana
Savitskaya, 1982.
1963. First (?) satellite-to-satellite weapon tested.
Istrebitel Sputnik (Russian:
истребитель -спутник).
Approach-and-explode,
releasing shrapnel at 1 km
range.
More advanced systems
tested by USSR and USA in
1970s and later.
1964. Syncom 3.
The first geostationary
communication satellite.
…технічна перерва…
(technical break)
1965. Mars revealed!
First ever close-ups of Mars by a robotic
probe, Mariner-4.
No “channels”, but Moon-like cratered
terrain and very thin atmosphere reveled.
A great blow to hopes of finding intelligent
life on Mars (yes, we were serious until
~60s!)
The total of data returned: 634 Kb, that
including 22 pictures 
Crayons were used to produce first color
“prints” of Mars 
1965. First spacewalk.
Alexei Leonov from Voskhod 2
spaceship, commanded by the
2nd crew member Pavel Belyaev.
Inflatable airlock.
The 12 minute spacewalk nearly
avoided a disaster after
Leonov’s spacesuit ballooned in
vacuum.
Can you make a U-turn in a
8’x3.7’ airlock, while dressed
up in a spacesuit?
1965. First space smuggling.
John Young secretly smuggled a
corned beef sandwich onboard
Gemini 3, where the crew tried
to eat it.
The crumbles in zero-g have
caused serious concern.
Young flew a total of 6 space
missions between 1965 and
1983 on 4 types of spacecraft,
including two maiden flights
(Gemini and Space Shuttle). He’s
been near the Moon twice and
on the Moon – once.
That’s if you ask me what a real
career should look like 
1965. Rendezvous of two manned
spacecrafts.
Gemini 6 (Shirra, Stafford)
and Gemini 7 (Bormann,
Lovell).
13.5 days in a room no
larger than car’s front seats.
1966. First space docking.
Gemini 8, Neil A. Armstrong (pilot,
commander), David R. Scott (pilot).
Only Armstrong’s prompt action
saved people and mission when
attitude control malfunctioned
after docking.
1966. Luna-9 lands on the Moon.
First ever landing on another
planetary body and pictures from
it.
Transmission intercepted at Jodrell
Bank Observatory and published
by Daily Express before the official
Soviet news release.
20 days earlier, Korolev died.
1967. Komarov.
Soyuz-1.
Parachute system failure and
crash upon return, killing Vladimir
Komarov.
The flight was prepared in
unimaginable hurry, plagued with
technical issues and had to be cut
short.
1967. “A fire in the cockpit!”
Apollo 1.
A cabin fire during a launch
pad test on January 27
killed all three crew
members: Virgil "Gus"
Grissom, Edward H. White,
and Roger B. Chaffee.
In pure oxygen, the extreme
blaze was over in just 17
seconds.
1968. Apollo 8.
7 years after the first space flight,
they left Earth and went to orbit
the Moon.
Crew: Frank F. Borman, James A.
Lovell, William A. Anders.
“We are now approaching lunar
sunrise and, for all the people back
on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a
message that we would like to send
to you.
In the beginning God created the
heaven and the earth. And the earth
was without form, and void; and
darkness was upon the face of the
deep…”
1968. OAO-2 space telescope.
The first successful telescope in orbit (UV range) which marked the end of 3000 years of
“cataract” caused by Earth’ atmosphere and the birth of invisible astronomy.
Over 80 “eyes” launched since then covering range from Gamma to XRAY to IR to Radio.
1969. Humans on the Moon!
Apollo 11.
Neil Alden Armstrong,
Edwin "Buzz" E. Aldrin,
Michael Collins.
And some 100,000
people who worked
hard for 10+ years to
make this happen.
To Those Who Made It
1969. Apollo 11 LM back from the Moon.
Within the frames of this
picture, present are all
humans but one
Our world is small and lost
in void indeed…
1970. Lunokhod 1.
First robotic planetary rover.
Radio controlled from Earth over the live TV.
3 seconds signal delay.
Worked for 9 months, traversed over 10 km,
returned 20,000 pictures.
Lost in 1971 and rediscovered in 2010 on images
from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
«…Советскими учёными создан новый уникальный луноход,
способный отбирать лучшие образцы грунта у американских экспедиций!...”
1970. Apollo 13.
Oxygen tank explosion en
route to the Moon 320,000
km from Earth.
Loss of most power, oxygen,
control.
Thanks to quick and ingenious
situation management, the
crew (Lovell, Haise, Swigert)
returned to Earth virtually
unharmed after 6 days in
space.
12/15/1595. Smolensk Fortress.
Architect: by Fedor
Kon’.
Boris Godunov’s
order was issued in
1595, initiating the
7 years of
extremely difficult
construction.
Somewhat later,
half of the wall
was destroyed by
Napoleon and
Hitler.
12/15/1970. Venus Landing
Venera-7 worked on the surface for 23
minutes. High temperature (>450 C) was
confirmed, shattering last dreams of “wet
jungles” on Venus.
Three previous landing attempts
unsuccessful as capsules were crushed by
tremendous pressure of Venusian
atmosphere (~95 times Earth’s level).
1971. First space station in orbit.
Salyut 1, a space station capable of hosting 3
people for several months.
Dobrovolski, Volkov, Patsaev docked the station
in June 1971 on Soyuz 11 and worked there
for 23 days.
While returning to Earth, they all died after
Soyuz 11 decompression. They had no
spacesuits…
1971. First Mars landing.
Mars 3 has landed in
1971 but worked for 15
seconds only, returning no
scientific data.
The picture returned
contains no information.
The Lander had a small
rover which was also lost.
This remains a mystery.
Using recent high
resolution space images of
Mars, enthusiasts keep
searching for clues…
1972. The last Men on the Moon.
Apollo 17.
Back then, almost nobody
believed that we are not
coming back to the Moon in
the 20th century.
The takeoff video:
http://www.youtube.com/w
atch?v=cOdzhQS_MMw
Why did not USSR go to the Moon?
It tried
• Late start (~1963).
• Short budgets
• Glushko vs. Korolev
disagreement over fuel
• Kuznetsov’s engines:
the greatest T/M ratio
ever achieved, but the
N1 rocket needed 30
of them!
• Korolev’s death in
1966
• Poor organization
• Secrecy
1972. N1 rocket. “Мы стреляем городами...”
(“we are shooting with whole cities…”)
Soviet lunar rocket similar in power to American
Saturn V.
Four test launches between 1969 and 1972.
Each ending with a crash.
But… we could. We were very close. The
capability was there!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m79UO4HO
Qmc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4-CyIBlKNs
Did you know, there is really is no up
and down in space?
1973. Pioneer 10 at Jupiter.
The first space probe to cross the
asteroid belt, explore Jupiter and
become the interstellar spacecraft.
The contact was lost in 2003.
Next stop: Aldebaran in 2 million
years?
…the “distant” planets era began…
1974. Mercury reached.
Mariner 10, launched in
1973 and visited Venus
prior to flying by Mercury,
the closest to the Sun
planet.
1978. Salyut-6 EO-1. Grechko’s cognac.
I did not promise it would be all in English 
История об элеутерококке, рассказанная Г.M. Гречко.
Г. ГРЕЧКО: Коньяк я не проносил. Он выплыл из отделения со спортивным бельем. Там было написано
"Элеутерококк К". Я сначала по простоте душевной стал спрашивать, что это за " Элеутерококк ". Мне так
с улыбкой сказали – концентрированный. Но насчет пил. Это неправильно. Скорее лизал. Вот смотрите. С
одной стороны на двоих было полтора литра. Можно упиться. А с другой стороны, 100, если кругло дней,
два человека. На 200 человеко-дней. 7,5 грамм коньяка в сутки <…> ни на какую операторскую
деятельность это не действовало.
<…> Он пился, лизался, еще раз подчеркиваю, 7,5 грамм это столовая ложка. Значит, пока эта фляжка из
нержавейки, ее можно было вот так вот сжимать, она выдавала этот коньяк. Но потом там же и жидкость
и воздух одинаково ничего не весят. Поэтому они смешиваются. И там образуется пена. А пену уже никак
не выдавишь. И как мы ни старались вытащить <…> Не удалось. Мы бросили эту фляжку. А следующий
экипаж сказал: а мы допили. Мы говорили: да невозможно. Мы все пробовали. Как помните, мартышка
и очки. Мы пробовали все. Ну, а они говорят, что, а мы делали очень просто. Один поднимался под
потолок станции, а другой бил его по голове. Горлышко от фляжки во рту. И по инерции коньяк идет в
рот, потому что нет веса в космосе, а инерция есть. И они нас справедливо нас так немножко обидели.
Сказали, что вот видите, кроме высшего образования, надо иметь хотя бы среднее соображение.
Per http://www.echo.msk.ru/programs/korzun/58092/
OK, the translation of previous slide
(multiple accounts exist; details vary)
•
Yuri Romanenko and Georgi Grechko discovered a flask of cognac onboard Salyut6. 50 ounces! But… for 96 days and 2 people. So they responsibly split it into 0.25
oz/day portions for taste enjoyment rather than anything else.
– No way you can get drunk with that 
•
•
•
•
Problem: cognac does not pour out in zero g!
Solution? Squeeze the flask. Yes, it’s made of steel, but cosmonauts are strong 
Issue: half and half of cognac and air make foam which resists further squeezing 
So they left half-empty flask onboard and returned to Earth. The next expedition
arrived to the station, worked there, returned home and said “thank you!” for
cognac. A dialog followed:
–
–
–
–
•
“Did you finish it?”
“Yes!”
“But how?...”
“Well, on top of higher education you’ve got to have some common imagination. One grasps the
flask with his teeth… and another gently slaps the back of his head ”
Physics rules!
Keyword “cognac” detected
What are you waiting for?
1975. First pictures from Venus
Venera 9 and 10, USSR.
Nobody believed it would
be possible; many doubted
if there is enough light
there.
The probes survived for 1
hour and sent back some
~0.1 Mpx BW images.
Don P. Mitchell’s beautiful reprocessing
Using the original data from Venera
probes, sophisticated image
processing and Photoshop, Don P.
Mitchell was able to re-map and
greatly improve original Venera
panoramas in 2003.
On the left is the re-processed
picture from Venera-13 (1982).
Why did not Russia do that? Whose
heritage is this? Are Russians good
only at “фотожабы”?
1975. Soyuz 18a.
The spacecraft failed to reach
orbit and went into 21g
emergency abortion, landing on
an edge of a cliff.
The crew (Lazarev and Makarov)
survived, but had to spend a day
in snow.
1975. “UFO” near Salyut-4.
• Klimuk and Sevastyanov were probably (?) the
first cosmonauts who took the discarded
garbage cans for UFO “following” their space
station, causing some panic on Earth 
• Later, similar stories repeated more than once,
causing bizarre rumors, especially after
journalists “interpretations”.
«...вот так и возникают нездоровые
сенсации...»
1976. First pictures from Mars
Both Viking 1 and
Viking 2 included
Landers which worked
on Mars since 1976
to 1982 and 1980,
respectively.
They conducted
search for life
experiments but the
results were
inconclusive.
1976. Soyuz-23.
Launched to Salyut 5 but
was not able to dock.
On return to Earth, landed
into a frozen Tengiz lake.
The crew (Zudov,
Rozhdestvensky) spent 9
hours in capsule in -20C
water and nearly froze to
death and suffocated
before being saved by
helicopter piloted by
Nikolay Kondratyev.
1977. Salyut 6.
The first space station with two
docking ports, allowing resupply vehicles.
From 1977 to 1982, was visited
by 16 crews.
First crews from countries other
than USSR: Czechoslovakia,
Poland, GDR, Hungary,
Vietnam, Cuba, Mongolia,
Romania.
The first black person in space
(1980, Arnaldo Tamayo
Méndez from Cuba).
1977. Launch of Voyagers.
Voyager 1 and Voyager 2
probes have visited Jupiter,
Saturn, Uranus and Neptune
between 1979 and 1989.
No other space probe
compares to Voyagers in terms
of how much planetary science
has changed by what we’ve
learned from the mission.
Both stations, over 100 a.u.
away from the Sun, as still
flying away and exploring the
interstellar space as of 2011.
Only few of Voyager’s discoveries:
* Volcanism on Io
* Ice-covered Europa and ocean
beneath
* Rings around Jupiter, Neptune
* Confirmed rings around Uranus
* Properties of Titan’s
atmosphere
* Waves and “spikes” in Saturn’s
rings
* “Bizarre” satellites: Enceladus,
Miranda
* Geysers and frozen N2 lakes
on Triton
* Complex structures in
atmospheres of all giant planets.
* Most of that we know about
Uranus and Neptune today
Space Sounds – Saturn’s
Magnetosphere
1979. Fist visit to Saturn.
This iconic picture of
Saturn and Titan was
snapped by
Pioneer 11 after
traveling across space
for 6 years.
Contact lost in 1995.
Voyagers were to
follow a year later.
1979-1980. Soyuz 32 & Salyut 6.
This is another practical joke in space, by Vladimir
• http://www.denfighter.by.ru/space/history.htm
Lyakhov and Valery Ryumin who secretly brought an
• “Улетая на станцию, Ляхов и Рюмин тайно
orange
and aвcucumber
inflatable
or fake) to
прихватили
карманах(possibly
скафандра
на орбиту
Salyut
6 space- station.
they demonstrated
контрабанду
огурец Then,
и апельсин.
И в первом the
cucumber
to показали
the scientists
on Earth,
to be the
репортаже
"Земле"
этотclaiming
огурец,itякобы
выросший
станционной
оранжерее.
Ботаники
“crop”
from вthe
hydroponic garden
onboard.
Poor
посходили
с ума:
доas
этого
растениеexperiments
даже завязи
scientists
went
insane
no previous
were
не давало,
а здесь
Просили
его не
able
to produce
anyцелый
sproutsогурец.
at all; their
agitation
only
съедать, начали думать, как его срочно доставить
increased
as
the
crew
“threatened”
to
eat
the
на Землю. И лишь через неделю космонавты
vegetable
instead
of delivering
to Earth. Only
after
признались
в шутке,
показав иitапельсин.
”
a week the prank was revealed by the crew, by also
demonstrating the orange.
1981-2011. Space Shuttle era.
An attempt to build a
dream.
First: Columbia,
04/12/1981. Crew: John
Young, Robert Crippen.
Numerous in-flight
anomalies.
1983. Soyuz T-10-1.
The rocket caught fire a minute
before launch. Two seconds
before almighty explosion, the
emergency escape rocket fired,
pulling the spacecraft away
and saving lives of Vladimir
Titov and Gennady Strekalov.
http://www.youtube.com/watch
?v=UyFF4cpMVag
1984. First untethered spacewalk
Bruce McCandless II from
Challenger mission STS-41-B
1985. Vega Balloons.
First balloons:
• Earth: 1783.
• Venus: 1985
• Mars: ?
1985. ASM-135 ASAT tested.
Anti-satellite weapon, capable of
destroying satellites in orbit up to 563 km
above.
1985 is the first confirmed successful test.
1986. Challenger disaster.
Cold weather damaged the sealing rings of
solid rocket boosters. Flame protruded, and
burned through hydrogen tank wall, causing
stack disintegration on the 74th second of
flight (14.6 km altitude).
There was no explosion. The shuttle was torn
apart by violent air flow. The crew survived
vehicle break-up and died 2 minutes 45
second later from a mighty crash into the
ocean. At least one person was conscious
for at least a few seconds. But Space
Shuttle did not carry ejection seats…
Investigation found a pattern of broken
“safety culture” with NASA’s management
rushing to achieve stated launch goals.
“My God, Thiokol, when do you want me to
launch, next April?”
1986. Mir Space Station.
The third generation space
station with 6 docking ports,
allowing theoretically unlimited
modular expansion.
In service between 1986 and
2000. Counted 28 long
expeditions, 104 people from
12 nations, and 80 spacewalks,
a fire, a collision with Progress
cargo ship and pressure loss.
Surpassed it’s designed
lifetime, becoming cramped
and unreliable by the end but
still ticking.
1986. Voyager 2 reached Uranus
So far nobody else
has been there and
there is no plan
through at least 2025.
1989. Voyager 2 reached Neptune
The most distant planet as
of 2006 – 12 years flight.
The sun is 900 times dimmer
there. The blue clouds are
frozen methane.
The geysers on Triton are
liquid nitrogen.
One of the most bizarre
and unexplored world.
No plan to revisit it in any
foreseeable future.
1990. Hubble Space Telescope.
10 times the resolution of the best
Earth-based telescopes at the time.
Thanks to it, we DO have a map of
Pluto today.
1990. Hubble’s “glasses”
“During the polishing
of the mirror, PerkinElmer had analyzed its
surface with two other
null correctors, both of
which correctly
indicated that the
mirror was suffering
from spherical
aberration. The
company ignored
these test results…”
Cost to fix: probably
(???) over $1 billion.
Optical correction “glass” was put on the telescope to fix its vision. Left: before. Right: after.
1991. Hiten.
• Japan joins the club of Lunar
explorers.
– Simple probe, sophisticated
trajectory.
• Since then, Japan is probably
the leader in terms of “space
innovation”/”$$ spent”.
1995. Valery Polyakov spends 437.7
days in space.
Onboard Mir station.
World record as of 2011.
“Upon landing, Polyakov opted not
to be carried the few feet between
the Soyuz capsule and a nearby
lawn chair, instead walking the
short distance. In doing so, he
wished to prove that humans could
be physically capable of working
on the surface of Mars after a
long-duration transit phase.”
Musical break
Музыкальная пауза
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc
vlgCHpCaU
Thanks to Vlad Korolev for finding this
1995. Galileo at Jupiter.
First Jupiter’s satellite.
First man-made probe to enter Jupiter at 200g and
penetrate 150 km of the atmosphere.
Main dish failure 134 Kbit/s => 10 bit/s. Saved by
brilliant programmers.
1995. Shuttle to Mir docking.
STS-71 Atlantis mission.
5 days together. 10 people.
225 tonnes.
1997. Mars Pathfinder.
First working Mars
rover.
1997. Fire on Mir.
Faulty oxygen generator caught up a
fire.
Six people, two emergency 3-seat
spacecrafts… but the path to one was
blocked by fire!
“My natural move was to open a
window…”
Heavy smoke, masks.
<= can you imagine having to put off
<= a fire in a cramped space like this?
(Mention Reinhold Ewald’s private
conversation on this account in
09/2008)
1997. Delta 2 explosion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K
ApLcKQ3Pu0
1998-?. International Space Station.
Modular design following Mir.
The largest man-made object in
space (400+ tons)
The largest international
cooperation in space. Cost: over
€100 billion.
Continuously habituated since
2000.
60+ expeditions, over 297
visitors, 15 pressurized modules
from 5 countries.
2001. Space Tourism.
Dennis Tito flew to orbit for $20
million (probably a serious
underpayment) with Soyuz TM-32
and spent 8 days on ISS.
Seven tourists few since 2001.
But suborbital tourism, much touted, it
likely a non-starter due to fatality
rate over several % expected. Big
SELL.
2001. NEAR.
First satellite of an asteroid
(Eros, 2000) and first
asteroid landing.
2001. The end of Mir.
2002. The end of Buran.
The f%$#^s did
not provide funds
even to support the
storage hangar.
No surprise: finally,
it collapsed, killing
8 workers onsite.
2003. Columbia disaster.
On 02/01/2003, Columbia
disintegrated over Texas while
returning to Earth, at the altitude of
60 km and speed 19+ Mach.
Seven perished: Rick D. Husband,
William C. McCool, David M.
Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Michael P.
Anderson, Laurel B. Clark, Ilan
Ramon.
Worms from biological experiment
and video camera survived.
Cause: thermal protection tile on
the left wing damaged during the
liftoff.
2003. Chinese manned spaceflight.
Yáng Lìwěi, onboard
the Shenzhou 5.
China began their
manned spaceflight
program in 1971,
planning for the first
flight in 1973 but
cancelling due to
political turmoil.
2004. Scramjet airborne.
Air-breathing rocket
engine operated at
Mach 6.83 for 11
seconds, executing a
controlled flight.
“Наш путь извилист, но
перспективы светлые”.
Imagine what you can
get if you DON’T have to
carry all that heavy
oxidizer with you?
2005. Titan Landing.
Cassini-Huygens – probably the
most ambitious space probe
mission.
Inception: 1982
Launch: 1997
Planets visited en route to Saturn:
Venus, Earth, Jupiter.
Saturn orbit: 2004 (still there as of
2011)
Titan landing: 2005
The amazing discoveries are worth
another 2 hour lecture!
2005. Comet “bombing”.
366 kg copper impactor from the
Deep Impact probe hit 9P/Tempel
comet at 10.2 km/s.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
XKls-sN56Jk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
dryvDlB1hWA
Marina Bai, a Russian astrologer
tried to sue NASA for $300 million
(WTF??!). She claimed that the
Deep Impact NASA probe will
interfere with her astrology work
because the comet would no longer
be the same. The case was
eventually rejected.
“...и немедленно выпил...”
2006. Institute of Nuclear Physics, Russia.
2006. New Horizons.
Launch: 2006.
Destination:
Pluto.
ETA: 2015.
Also carries
Clyde
Tombaugh’s
ashes.
This is the best map of Pluto we have today. Can we do any better?
… Yes, Pluto is a planet
Sure, you are free to call it an asteroid, a dwarf planet or even a candelabrum.
But when you study it, you do so as if it is a real “respectable” planet, like Mars or
Uranus or Mercury. You focus on atmosphere, geology, tectonics, history. You see there
trends common with other planets. You don’t approach it like the Sun or meteorites.
To me, this closes the question.
Of course, you are still free to call it a dwarf planet, an asteroid or even a candelabrum.
… More on that later…
2005+. Asian Players.
• Hayabusa, Japan 2003 – 2010.
– Asteroid imaging, landing, and sample return through a heroic effort.
• Chandrayaan-1, India, 2008-2009.
– Lunar satellite and impact probe.
• Chang'e 1 and 2, China, 2007, 2010.
– Lunar satellites and mappers.
– If even after that someone still claims Americans have not been not on
the Moon, I’m calling the mental institution.
• Kaguya, Japan, 2007.
– Lunar satellite and mapper, including Apollo landing sites
• Nozomi (1998-2003) and Akatsuki (2010), Japan
– Mars and Venus probes, both failed though.
• 2010: Japanese solar sail IKAROS reached Venus!
2006. Space Blogs
Anoushen Ansari,
http://spaceblog.xprize.or
g/, Iranian-American who
flew to ISS as a self-funded
space tourist.
Followed by a detailed and
офигенно entertaining
blog of Maksim Surayev in
2009-2010,
http://www.federalspace.r
u/main.php?id=48&blogge
r=&page=12 [Sorry,
Russian only ]
2010. Discovery Launch.
Well, it’s not really historic,
except that I’ve been there
and saw it.
Space Shuttle is retiring in
2011.
2010. Falcon 9 of SpaceX.
American space transport
company. Aims at
providing transportation
for NASA after Shuttle
retirement.
Founded: 2002.
Falcon 1 in orbit: 2008.
Falcon 9 in orbit: 2010.
Dragon, the private
spaceship, in orbit: 2010.
See Commercial Orbital
Transportation Services.
2009. Will space debris block the
access to low Earth orbit?
600,000+ objects over 1 cm
19,000+ tracked
Debris => collisions => debris.
Worst “runaway” case:
∂n/dt ~ n2 
 n(t) ~ (t – t*)-1
Numerous impacts seen on Shuttle,
Salyut, Mir, ISS
First catastrophic collision of
satellites: 2009, Iridium 33 vs.
Cosmos 2251, @ 11.7 km/s
2011. Mercury’s 1st satellite
MESSENGER, launched in 2004.
Done
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2oXFWKpJiA
Backup, drinks, discussions