Looking up at the starry sky, reviewing the century of human space exploration history

7. The first time to photograph the back of the moon

_ On October 4, 1959, the Soviet Union launched the lunar 3 probe , and its main mission was to uncover the back of the moon. Of mystery. Therefore, the Soviet Union made careful arrangements for the launch time and flight orbit of Luna-3. Instead of flying directly to the moon, it slowly orbited the back of the moon after a long flight, at a distance of 6,200 kilometers from the moon. go through. When it goes around the back of the moon, the sun is just behind Lunar 3, illuminating the side of the moon far away from the Earth, allowing Lunar 3 to take pictures of the back of the moon that humans have never seen.

Lunar 3 is very different from the previous two probes, heavier than them, and the design is very clever. Cylindrical shape, carrying two cameras with different focal lengths for the first time,The solar cell is used, and a gas nozzle is used to control the attitude.

Within 40 minutes of passing through the back of the moon, two probes No. 3 optical cameras took 29 photos. Among them, 17 photographic negatives were automatically printed during the flight, and then converted into TV signals by TV scanning, and then transmitted back to the ground through wireless communication devices. Although the final photo had a low resolution and only covered 70% of the back of the moon, it recorded the first human observation of the back of the moon, showing a scene that humans had never seen before.

8. The animal was sent into space for the first time and returned successfully

Sponik 5 (Russian: Спутник 5) was a prototype test spacecraft of Vostok in the Eastern program of the Soviet manned space program in the 1960s, executed This was the third test flight of the Vostok spacecraft. This flight was also the first space flight that successfully sent animals into orbit and returned safely. This spacecraft was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on August 19, 1960. The spacecraft carried 2 Soviet space dogs Belka and Strelka, 1 gray rabbit and 40 mice. , 2 rats and several flies, plants and fungi. The spacecraft returned to the ground the next day. All biological members survive. Strelka later gave birth to six puppies, one of which was given to the first lady of the United States Jacqueline Kennedy as a gift by the Soviet government. Both Belka and Strelka's remains were preserved after death, Belka was displayed in Moscow, and Strelka was touring exhibitions around the world.

9. First man in space

At 9:07 am Moscow time on April 12, 1961, Gagarin was launched from Baikonur on the Vostok 1 spacecraft The field took off and circled the earth in an orbit with an apogee of 301 kilometers.

The flight lasted 1 hour and 48 minutes and returned safely at 10:55 in the morning, landing in the village of Smelovka in Saratov region.It completed the world's first manned space flight and realized the desire of mankind to enter space. The Vostok-1 spacecraft he piloted became the world's first spacecraft to carry people into outer space, and it flew for 108 minutes.

10. Suborbital

May 5, 1961, the "Mercury" manned spacecraft successfully carried out a suborbital flight. The flying height of the spacecraft is 186 kilometers, the flying time only lasts about 15 minutes, and the flying distance is about 400 kilometers.

The "Mercury" spacecraft is the first manned spacecraft series in the United States. It was developed from 1958 and ended after 1963. A total of 25 flight tests were carried out, including 6 manned flights. Animals such as chimpanzees and macaque do experiments to verify the possibility of survival. The total flight duration lasted about 54 hours. Of these 6 times, only 4 of them actually entered orbit, and the other two were suborbital flights that circled the earth less than once.

The "Mercury" spacecraft has a total length of about 2.9m, a maximum diameter of 1.86m at the bottom, and a weight of about 1.3 to 1.8t. It consists of a truncated truncated cockpit and a cylindrical parachute. Only one astronaut can be seated in the cockpit. The designed longest flight time is 2 days. The longest flight time is 34 hours and 20 minutes, and it orbits the ground 22 weeks.

In fact, the main purpose of the "Mercury" program is to achieve a breakthrough in manned space flight, to send a spacecraft carrying only one astronaut into earth orbit, and return to the ground safely after a few laps. During this period, it is necessary to investigate the impact of the weightless environment on the human body, the ability of people to work in a weightless environment, and the endurance of encountering overweight during launch and return. The most important thing is to solve the problems of the spacecraft's reentry aerodynamics, thermodynamics, and human error on the high acceleration and zero gravity that have never been encountered before.

In order to accomplish this goal, when the "Mercury" spacecraft is flying, its attitude control system is basically self-control, and there are two other manual control methods as a backup. The astronauts use the hand control device to control the flight attitude of the spacecraft only when necessary, and only play an auxiliary role in the control of the spacecraft.

The implementation of the "Mercury" program has completed all the basic research work for manned flight,It laid a solid technical foundation for the subsequent Apollo moon landing plan.

11. Communication satellite

On July 10, 1962, the first communication satellite capable of intercontinental television broadcasting successfully entered orbit.

This satellite, called TV Star, faithfully performed the mission of transmitting transatlantic TV signals between the United States and Europe in 7 months, and realized the connection between the famous science fiction writer and mathematician Dr. Clark The idea of ​​a communications satellite.

A giant antenna with a diameter of 30 meters is used to receive signals from the first transcontinental communications satellite of mankind. With the help of such antennas and communication satellites in space, humans on both sides of the Atlantic can communicate with television and telephone signals. The emergence of

communication satellites has made it possible for mankind to watch races across the ocean, which has benefited fans all over the world.

The football of the 2018 World Cup was given the same name to commemorate this satellite: TV Star. And its painting pays tribute to that satellite.

12. The first successful planetary probe

_ On August 27, 1962, the US "Mariner 2" (Mariner 2) probe launched into space and flew by Venus in December of that year, thus becoming The first human probe to successfully fly by another planet.

This mission has not only greatly deepened our understanding of Venus, but also allowed NASA to accumulate experience in accurately manipulating probes in the distant and deep space. On the way to Venus, the probe had some malfunctions, but NASA experts successfully overcome these difficulties and finally made the mission a success.

Among the various results it has achieved, one is the successful measurement of solar wind , and it also confirmed the conclusion given by ground observations that the surface temperature of Venus is extremely high, which is a The " hell planet" completely different from the earth.

The Mariner 2 probe is the first man-made object that has realized a short-range probe of planets other than the Earth.

13. Launch the first Mars rover

On November 5, 1964, the United States launched the first Mars rover, Mariner 3, but it failed due to a rocket failure. Enter the earth orbit, the mission failed.

On November 28, the United States launched the Mariner 4 probe again, which successfully flew past Mars with the closest distance of only 1,000 kilometers.

Mariner 4 detector is equipped with imaging system, cosmic dust detector, cosmic ray telescope, ionization chamber, helium magnetometer, radiation capture detector, solar plasma detector and other equipment.

Its detection and data transmission lasted until December 31, 1965, and it was one of the most outstanding early planetary probes.

It took 21 photos from a distance of 10,000 kilometers from Mars, and it sent back the first photo of the surface of Mars. The photo shows a crater landscape similar to the moon-but it was found in a later mission to be an ancient landform of Mars, which is not typical on Mars.

The Mariner 6 and Mariner 7 probes launched by the United States are the first time that mankind has sent two spacecraft to explore Mars at the same time. The Mariner 6 and Mariner 7 probes orbited the equator and Antarctic regions of Mars. They took 200 photos of Mars and analyzed the atmosphere and surface of Mars.

The main instruments carried by the two detectors are imaging systems (two TV cameras), infrared spectrometer, ultraviolet spectrometer, infrared radiometer, celestial mechanics experiment, S-band occultation experiment instrument and cone radiometer.

Sailor 6 15 minutes before the closest approach to Mars (south of the equator), two TV cameras started to automatically take photos of Mars every 42 seconds, and 24 close-up photos were taken within 17 minutes, and these photos were stored on a tape recorder. After flying for 20 hours, it will be transmitted back to Earth at a rate of one frame every 5 minutes.

Mariner 7 took 93 distant and 33 close-up images of Mars,Shows a complex topography of the crater very similar to Mariner 6.

14. Out of space

On March 18, 1965, the Soviet cosmonaut Leonov carried out the first human space out of the capsule. During that great spacewalk, Leonov experienced several thrilling trials of life and death. On March 18, 1965, when Leonov boarded the "Ascension 2" spacecraft, after completing the first spacewalk in human history outside the cabin. As the spacesuit began to expand in a vacuum, it directly caused him to get stuck outside the cabin door while returning to the spacecraft. Leonov ventured to exhaust the oxygen before slowly returning to the cabin. In a later recall interview, he even told us that if there was no way to return to the spacecraft at that time, he would swallow the prepared pills and commit suicide.

15. The first female astronaut in the history of mankind

In 1961, Yuri Gagarin of the Soviet Union flew into space and became the world's first astronaut. At this time, Tereshkova was just a female textile factory worker. She and her girlfriends from the aviation club jointly wrote a letter to the relevant department, emphasizing equality between men and women, and calling for sending a woman to space. Unbelievably, soon after, the girls were invited to Moscow to participate in the selection of astronauts that gathered girls from all over the country. After three months of screening, Tereshkova was selected. From being selected to the first space flight mission, two more years passed. During this time, Tereshkova accepted all kinds of The harsh training required by astronauts finally won the greatest moment of female astronauts. In 1963, Tereshkova successfully entered space on the "Vostok 6" spacecraft, circling the earth 48 times.

She is so far,The only female astronaut in human history who independently manipulated a spacecraft .

16. Landing on the moon!

_ On January 31, 1966, the former Soviet Union launched the "Lunar-9" probe, and successfully landed on the lunar surface for the first time on February 3. After Lunar 9 landed, the four petal-shaped antennas on the top were turned on and sent signals to the earth, and then began to take black-and-white photos near the landing area and sent back photos to the earth. Lunar 9 worked on the moon for a total of four days, until the end of work on February 7, 1966 due to exhaustion of the battery. The Soviet Union's analysis of the data returned by Lunar 9 concluded that the surface of the moon is solid, and humans can land on the moon. Before that, many people even thought that humans would sink when they landed on the moon, which obviously proved to be absurd.



17. Flying around the moon

On August 10, 1966, half a year after the Soviet Lunar 9 probe successfully achieved the first lunar soft landing of an artificial object, the US moon Orbiter 1 was successfully captured by the moon and achieved its first flight around the moon.

On August 23, 1966, the US lunar orbiter Lunar Orbiter 1 was orbiting the moon 380,000 kilometers away from the earth, during which an image of the earth was taken. This is the first full-body photo of the Earth taken by a human aircraft in outer space. It is not only black and white, but also very rough.

Lunar Orbiter 1 took a large number of photos of the moon, providing data support for manned manned moon landings.

"Lunar Orbiter 1" is an unmanned automatic probe, part of the lunar probe , and is the first American spacecraft to orbit the moon. Its main purpose is to photograph the flat area of ​​the lunar surface to select and confirm safe landing sites for the surveyor's plan and the Apollo mission. In addition, it is also equipped with equipment to collect lunar geology, radiation intensity, and micrometeoroid impact data.

"Lunar Orbiter 1" probe carries a Kodak camera system,The film can be scanned immediately after the photo is taken, and the image can be converted into a continuous video signal, which is then received by the earth receiver made by Kodak. It took more than ten days to take a total of 42 high-resolution and 187 medium-resolution photos, covering more than 5 million square kilometers of the lunar surface.

From 1966 to 1967, the United States launched five "Lunar Orbiter" orbiting probes. In addition to the "Lunar Orbiter 1" successfully hitting the moon after receiving the order, there are With the lower orbit, the lunar orbiter crashed freely on the lunar surface without control.

18. Manned to the moon!

On July 20, 1969, at 20:18:04 UTC, the manned spacecraft Apollo 11 succeeded in soft landing on the lunar surface.

Then, two astronauts stepped onto the surface of the moon.

"This is a small step for me, but a big step for mankind!"-Armstrong.

This process is broadcast across the United States through television. Many Americans of the baby boom generation consider this to be one of the most historically important events in their lives. Many engineers also consider this to be an inspiring moment in the history of science and engineering.

The third member of the Apollo 11, Michael Collins (Michael Collins), remained alone in the command module in lunar orbit. He is often forgotten by people, but it is also vital to the success of mankind's mission to the moon. Armstrong and Aldrin returned to the command module from the lunar surface about 15 hours later. After flying in space for 8 days, the three returned safely to Earth.

Apollo 11 was launched on July 16 by the Saturn V rocket from the Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida.This is the fifth manned mission of NASA's Apollo program. The spacecraft is composed of three parts: command cabin, service cabin and lunar module . The command module is where the astronauts live and work; the service module includes propulsion systems, water, electricity and oxygen; the lunar module is a special equipment for manned missions to the moon.

The command module carrying three astronauts returned to Earth on July 24 and landed in the Pacific Ocean.

"We chose to land on the moon, not because this task is simple, but precisely because it is difficult!"- Kennedy .

Apollo 11 brought back 21.55 kilograms of lunar soil samples from the moon. Human scientists can touch the real lunar soil.

19. Moon drive

On July 31, 1971, the Apollo 15 mission to the moon was the first time for humans to drive on a natural celestial body outside the earth.

Two astronauts, David Scott, James and Alvin, became the first astronauts to drive on the moon in human history. They drove Cruiser 1 on the moon for about 27.9 kilometers. Itinerary, and left an amazing picture of traveling on the moon. At the same time, this lunar rover is also the first vehicle equipped with a lunar navigation system. There is no need to worry about astronauts getting lost. The vehicle can display the distance and angle of the astronauts from the lunar module, so that they can rest assured on the moon. gallop.

20. Orbiting Mars

_Sailor 9 was launched on May 30, 1971, and successfully entered orbit around Mars on January 3, 1972, becoming the first artificial satellite to orbit Mars.

Mariner 9 successfully captured the full picture of Mars and sent back 7329 photos, confirming that there are no canals on Mars. There are many ring mountains on one hemisphere of Mars, which look like the moon, while the other hemisphere is relatively flat.

The Vale of Mariners (the most obvious feature of Mars), which is 3769 kilometers long and 7 kilometers deep in the western hemisphere of Mars,It was named in honor of Mariner 9.

21. Jupiter

became the first human probe to fly near Jupiter on December 3, 1973 Spacecraft to detect Jupiter from a distance.

After "Pioneer 10" crossed the orbit of Mars, it entered the asteroid belt in July of the same year. In February 1973, it passed through this dangerous zone safely and flew straight to Jupiter, and began to confront Jupiter, the solar system. Observation of the largest planet within. The 270-kilogram "messenger" flew for 21 months and traveled 1 billion kilometers. On December 5, 1973, he came to Jupiter in a dusty manner. According to the information it sent back, the bizarre Great Red Spot on Jupiter is a cloud cluster that stands 10 kilometers in the sky. The cloud may be a powerful, long-lived vortex rotating counterclockwise, or it may be a violently rising air current. "Pioneer 10" was accelerated by Jupiter's huge gravitational force, and finally overcame the solar gravitational field, becoming the first spacecraft to escape from the solar system.

22. Voyager One—Visit to Interstellar Space

September 5, 1977, the Voyager 1 probe flew into the sky on the "Titan III E Centaur Rocket", which carried the best hope of mankind. Soaring into the sky, flying into the vast deep space of the universe. Since then, Voyager 1 left his hometown and embarked on an adventure and legendary journey that never looked back. This is a trip destined to have no return, with only cold and loneliness to accompany along the way.

Voyager 1 is the first probe to provide detailed photos of Jupiter, Saturn and its moons. It is the first spacecraft to cross the solar circle and enter the interstellar medium. Once the battery it carries is exhausted, it will continue to move towards the center of the galaxy , and it will never come back.

A gold-sprayed bronze record carried on the Voyager 1 spacecraft,It is understood that this record has two hours of content, which can be used for 1 billion years in loop playback, and the sound quality will not be attenuated.

This is the most durable record in the world. It is a gift specially made by mankind to alien civilizations. When the spacecraft is sailing in space, the two-hour content of this record covers all ages, regions, and Music of various nations, coupled with the various sounds of nature on the earth, there are even 35 kinds of natural sounds, and all kinds of natural sounds such as hurricanes and rains, insects and birds are recorded and even include the United Kingdom. The ten best-selling albums, this record has only one purpose. In outer space, I hope to find different civilizations through music, so that the earth will have an extra partner in the vast universe.

In order to ensure its durability, this record uses ceramic cartridge and diamond stylus, the most gift to alien civilization, this record carrying earth music, more It uses a very durable gold-sprayed copper record, and in order to protect this gift from being played forever in space, this record device is also housed in a safe aluminum box and accompanies the spaceship in the vast expanse. Look for unknown alien life in space.

23.p Observation device, which was launched into space on April 24, 1990. Since then, it has taken stunning photos of the most distant galaxy in the universe, the spectacular supernova and neighboring planets. The Hubble Space Telescope has reshaped our basic understanding of the universe and helped clarify our place in the universe.

24. Sojourner-the first rover of mankind

Sojourner is the pioneer of scientific exploration of Mars,It is the first robotic vehicle to truly engage in scientific expeditions on Mars. It successfully landed on Mars on July 4, 1997. It is not only an autonomous robotic vehicle, but it can also be remotely controlled from the ground. The "Sojourner" is a robotic rover that landed on Mars with the Mars Pathfinder in 1997, also known as the Mars "Pioneer".

The Sojourner is equipped with six wheels and is very small, weighing only 10.5 kilograms. The data are all measured on the earth. In nearly three months (83 days), it traversed the sandy terrain, took about 550 photos, and sent the data and pictures back, providing ground researchers with a large amount of data on the weather on Mars. .

25. International Space Station

At a height of about 400 kilometers from the surface, there is a giant equivalent to the size of two football fields-the International Space Station. This is currently the largest space platform operating in orbit and is jointly constructed, operated and used by 16 countries. Since its inception, it has worked diligently for more than 20 years. It has made countless achievements and made a great reputation. It has modern scientific research equipment, a space laboratory that can carry out large-scale, multi-disciplinary basic and applied scientific research. Scientific experimental research under the environment provides a large number of experimental loads and resources to support the long-term stay of humans in the earth orbit.

…

What will the future look like? Return to the moon? Interstellar colonization?