Fastest Spacecraft Case Study

Scaled Distance Venus-Sun: 1.08 x 108 Km * (1 meter/2.87 x 108 Km) = 0.38 m

It is easy to flip to the index of an astronomy textbook to discover that, say, the Sun lies 150 million kilometers away from Earth. It is far more difficult (if not impossible), however, to picture this distance in our mind. In this exercise, we will learn to access the often unpalatable distances encountered in astronomy by simply scaling the huge distances to more recognizable, familiar numbers. So long as every distance within the system of interest is scaled by the same

Wow, can you believe it has almost been 50 years since the Space Race. It is just unbelievable, and we still travel to space today. One of the traffic accomplishments we did, was that we were the first to land a man on the moon. It sparked an uprising, and gave our nation great pride. But, in the end, it's thanks to the chivalrous astronauts, the perilous mission, and their legacy, that we succeeded.

During the space race, both the US and the Soviet Union achieved a lot. Some say the US won the race because it landed the first human on the Moon but no one can take anything away from the USSR. Soviet accomplished a lot and had more “firsts” then the US until the US caught up. Both the US and the USSR won the space race.

New Horizons is expected to get closer to Pluto and grab detailed images that should be able to detect differences in the planet’s surface of a few miles apart. Right now, it’s still some 70 million miles away. The spacecraft was launched on January 19, 2006 with an Earth and solar escape trajectory going 36,000 miles an hour. It’s the fastest object to ever leave our atmosphere. Along the way to Pluto, New Horizons also got a gravity assist from Jupiter. In effect, a spacecraft will slingshot around a planet to increase its speed.

Neil Degrasse Tyson once stated, ¨The day we stop exploring is the day we commit ourselves to live in a stagnant world, devoid of curiosity, empty of dreams.”Also, in the article, “Could Humans Actually Live on Mars?,” Laurie Vazquez, the author, writes, “For thousands of years, humans have looked up at the night sky and pondered their place in the cosmos. One little red dot in particular has long held our interest.” Mars, also known as the ¨red planet¨, is the fourth planet from the sun and is composed of rock with a thin, full of CO2, atmosphere. Additionally, to reach Martian land you have to leave Earth every two years because it is faster and safer when Mars is at its closest it can be to us. It takes 300 days on a spacecraft from Earth

One day at about 8:30 P.M., "Juno" got to Jupiter, traveling about 2.9 billion kilometers. Jupiter, as we all know, is the largest planet in the solar system, and consists of winds moving so fast that it moves at 400 miles per hour! Traveling there means suicide, because the winds can cause critical damage to anything that enters them. This is only because of its large amounts of radiation surrounding this planet. So, it makes the travel there really bumpy and bad.

Voyager 1, launched over 35 years ago, reached the barrier between our solar system and the vast unexplored interstellar space beyond in August 2012. Imagine the stories that probe could tell! As the Titan-Centaur rocket boosters rattle to life beneath it the intrepid robot takes off for a record-breaking 40-year trip alone in space, going places no man-made thing has gone before. There will be tales of Jupiter and Saturn’s fascinating moons and atmospheres, the amazing discoveries concerning solar and galactic wind at the edge of the heliosphere, solar intensity and power production. Voyager 1 will explain basics of gravity assists, launching from Earth in the

outermost reigns of where the solar wind and sun’s magnetic field dominate space. In September 2007, it crossed the termination shock at 84 AU. (solarsystem.nasa.gov) What was the planet originally named after Neptune was named after a roman god of the sea. Urbain le Verrier discovered it. (coolcosmos.com) How far away is Neptune from the sun? The average distance Neptune is from the sun is 2,795,084,800 miles. The closest Neptune gets to sun is 2,771,087,000 miles. The farthest it gets from the sun is 2,819,080,000 miles. (coolcosmos.com) How long is Neptune orbit-the amount of time it takes for it to go around the sun? Neptune takes 164.79 years to orbit the sun. On July 11,2011 Neptune completed one full orbit. (universeteday.com) How long

When the Soviets launched Sputnik l, the World’s first artificial satellite into space October 4th, 1957, the United States was blindsided, and had to act fast.

Since ancient times, men have gazed upon the cosmic ocean above our heads wondering what could be out there. In the last 2 centuries human kind has made a huge leap in technology and science, from horse drawn carriages to spaceships capable to send us into space. What used to be considered science fiction now is considered science fact. In 1969, Apollo 11 was the first manned mission to land on the moon, opening the path towards the stars. One problem that we encounter is distance. The closest star to Earth, beside the Sun, is Alpha Centauri B, being situated at 4.24 light years away. This means if we were traveling at the speed of light, we would need 4 years to get to the star, but the fastest man-made object is the Voyager 1, a space probe launched by NASA in 1977, reaching the speed of 17 kilometers per second (compared to 300,000 kilometers per second, the speed of light). This means it will take over 74,000 years to reach Alpha Centauri B. In order to reach stars in a more effective way, we need to reach higher speeds.

We have an immense solar system. The planets within the solar system aren't too close either. But in our solar system we have eight official planets according to NASA. So, to measure the distance of the planets we use astronomical unit or AU. Each astronomical unit is 15000000. That's about the average distance from earth to the sun,according to NASA.In nearly all models of the solar system the planets are close but in reality they are quite far away from each other. The distance from planets also depends on the time of orbit. The furthest planet in our solar system is Neptune, Neptune is 30 AU away from the sun. We can use telescopes to observe planets and stars,such as our sun and Neptune to learn more about our galaxies.

Venus is the closest planet to earth and the second one from the sun. Earth and Venus are similar in size, mass, volume, and density. It traps heat making it the hottest planet in our solar system. The surface temperature on Venus is about 867° F. (464° C) It should take about 97 days to reach it.

Nathan Phillips, professor of earth and environment, was asked if it would be possible to grow plants on Mars and he said “as long as viable plant material has access to light, water, and nutrients, which I imagine were filtered from waste, and the temperature that’s good for a human is generally good for plants, they should grow” (Rimer); therefore, growing plants on Mars is possible. During the movie, the scientists mentioned that to get to Mars takes approximately nine months; it is difficult to determine if this fact is right or wrong. The time that it takes depends on many factors, like the distance between the two planets and the speed of the spaceship. The distance varies because the planets orbit the sun at different speeds, and each one has a different orbit. Some of the spaceships sent to Mars have taken between 128 days (Mariner 7 in 1969) and 333 days (Viking 2 Orbiter/Lander 1975); the last mission was in 2011 (Mars Science Laboratory) and it took 254 days (Redd). This time ranges between four to eleven months, so even though the time cannot be determined accurately, the movie tried to use concrete information.

All my life, I have had a passion for math and science. Nothing is more satisfying than working through a complex problem, step-by-step, to come to a solution. Over the years, this passion for math and science, along with interest in space and technology has led to me striving for a degree in aerospace engineering. My career goal is to design spacecraft that will take man across our solar system and beyond. I want to work with brilliant minds to take humanity to places only described in science-fiction novels.