The Space Of Space Travel

Man’s curiosity for the environment that surrounds him fuels the ambition to explore past the realms of his being. The space race marked the first time homo sapiens were able to escape and extend their biosphere. This age is filled with technological advancement. The space race gave the ability for a new age of technological advancements to occur. Almost every technological device that is produced or owned by people in the 21st century world contains technology that was invented or derived from the space race. Technology is the product of modernization and industrialization. Society is forced to make adjustments in social, economic and political institutions as humans continue to progress. The results and the success of the space race was and still is a great triumph for mankind. However, the motive for the United States and the Soviet Union for reaching space is not explicit. Although the space race and the resulted technological innovations in science had elements that benefited human progress in a substantial manner, the general motive for the space race lies within the political aspect of society and the repercussions that came with the cold war.

"We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too." This quote was made by John F. Kennedy on September 12, 1962, and it encompasses the dedication the US had to winning the Space Race, a space technology race between the United States and Soviet Russia. The Space Race would soon become a huge competition led by many big factors and decisions. Overall, The Space Race started with the USSR's launch of Sputnik, an event which fueled nationalism in both countries, and ended with the United States landing a man on the moon.

However, at 55hrs, 54mins and 53secs when the crew was 200,000 miles from Earth and closing in on the moon, mission controller Sy Liebergot saw a low-pressure warning signal on a hydrogen tank in Odyssey. The signal could have shown a problem, or could have indicated the hydrogen just needed to be resettled by heating and fanning the gas inside the tank. Swigert flipped the switch for the routine procedure. However when flipping the switch one of the oxygen tanks in the service module exploded. The explosion caused one of the spacecraft panels to rip off and damaged the fuel tanks killing the crew’s oxygen supply and the spacecraft then began to lose power. The crew notified Mission Control, with Swigert’s famous phrase, "Houston, we 've had a problem…”. Luckily the Apollo spacecraft was made up of two independent spacecrafts joined by a tunnel the main spacecraft named Odyssey and the lunar model named Aquarius.

A few days later Lovell and his crew take off on the Apollo 13 mission. At first all is well until the second oxygen tank explodes, causing many problems for the crew; the most potent problem being that the crew was losing oxygen fast. Luckily, due to much ingenuity by the crew and mission control, the crew is able to arrive safely to earth without the deaths of any astronauts.

Apollo 13 mission to the moon was suddenly derailed, when one of the three oxygen tanks exploded, and another failing simply as collateral damage from the explosion, therefore leaving one oxygen tank for the three astronauts aboard Apollo 13. The astronauts included mission commander Jim Lovell, lunar module pilot Fred Haise and command module pilot Jack Swigert (the back-up pilot for Ken Mattingly) found themselves rotating the moon in a small confined space that was designed for only two

Space exploration will benefit all aspects of humanity as well as preserving humanity itself. The Definition of space exploration simply put is “ The investigation of physical conditions in space and on stars, planets, and other celestial bodies through the use of artificial satellites, space probes and spacecraft with human crews.”

On October 4th, 1957 the simple action of launching a beachball-sized hunk of metal into our orbit, reshaped the lives of people in the United States and across the world for the next years to come. This small ball of metal was Sputnik, a Soviet satellite with a radio transmitter inside letting out a small “beeping” sound. This object, as unsophisticated as it was, had the power to set the entire country into panic. To US officials this action not only made it clear that the Soviet superpower of Russia was more technologically advanced, but for all we knew they could be putting nuclear warfare into space. To the US this thought was unbearable, and because of this it would go on to set off a race of the century, the Space Race. A race to put technology into space, a race that would change American life at home and in foreign policy. From changes within the school system, to the Red Scare, life would be changed drastically in the years to come, not only in the U.S, but in Russia as well.

On October 4, 1957 the Soviet Union launched the first satellite into space called, “Sputnik”. It was the start of one of the biggest races in the world called “The Space Race”. But it isn’t the start of the race that is questionable but the very end. On July 19, 1969 the United States supposedly landed 3 men on the moon. More than a billion people around the globe watched this event occur on their television sets as Neil Armstrong said “That’s one small step for man, and one giant leap for mankind.” But was it really a giant leap for mankind? Or was it one of the ways the U.S tried to fool us into believing they really did land on the moon? The Space Race wasn’t only about being the first to land on the moon but would also be a major sign of dominance over the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Many believe the U.S was not capable of accomplishing this so they had no choice but to fool the world into believe they landed on the moon and won the Space Race.

On April 13, 1970, three astronauts took off from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center to go to the moon. They were sent to the moon to conduct a research mission and gather information that would help develop our understanding of the moon. But what they didn't know was that this adventure would not be as easy as they thought. Lovell, Haise, and Swigert were stuck in the middle of space due to an explosion on the ship. Now it was up to them to make up a great plan to get back home.

Who said that space travel was only for the US and Russia? To that, I say HA. There were probably over 24 countries in the Great Space Race, but we made it to the moon first. The one space agency that was most interesting to me was JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency). "The challenge -- including transporting the components to space -- may appear gigantic, but Japan has been pursuing the project since 1998, with some 130 researchers studying it under JAXA's oversight".

Sylvia Engdahl, in her book series Americans at War, relayed that during the landing of Apollo 11 on the lunar surface, the television broadcast of the event was “beamed to an estimated 600 million people in thirty-three countries on six continents” (182). Considering that this vast group of people, largely comprised of Americans, was tuned into this monumental event proves that the space race was captivating for its audience and the subject of utmost public attention. For Americans, the space race was a basis from which new technological developments would soon proliferate, and it served as an arena for cold war competition between the United States and the Soviet Union. Consequently, when it came to innovative advancements in the US’ progress

In the end, there are a myriad of problems that face space exploration. Some of them are small

First, the launch to the moon started out great,but they didn’t make it. According to the text, it said “they blasted off at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center.” Next, the mission was mainly to go to the moon and get space rocks for samples,but they never made it. Finally, the text says “that whenever they hit the moon’s atmosphere they heard a explosion.” Lovell said, “that he thought that an asteroid hit them”,but it was actually the

Everything was going smoothly until about two days into the flight. “Houston, we have a problem said Jim Lovell” At first their intention was to land on the moon, but that was all about to change. When the Apollo 13 ship’s oxygen tank ruptured the crew had to find a way to survive.

When the United States of America was founded, no one knew how the “American experiment” would develop. Over the centuries, the United States would face many trying challenges, continually dipping into the patriotic ideals the country was founded on. Motivation to remain aligned with its ideological foundation of life, liberty, and happiness became the American way, turning into an attempt at stability in a shifting world. Majority of the time, the nation lacked unity, such as the Antebellum period preceding the sectional Civil War. One result of such dividing conflicts facing America was its increasing ability to adapt. America needed to learn how to fight in World War I, and how to stand up against unprecedented powers in World War II. It needed to remain unified as the world around it crumbled, usually taking the form of its rooted patriotism, rather than genuine interpersonal community. As the military department was called on for aid during the wars, warfare technology was greatly advanced. With such expansion, came conflict. The Soviet Union and The United States were newly recognized as the world’s super powers with the fall of Nazi Germany, the pair being equally defensive and opinionated bodies standing for opposing ideals. They fought to prove them self the superior nation, unable to satisfy the indignant competition, which was feeding into all fields of governing. Most famously, the two bodies tumbled along the Space Race, a movement to one-up each other in the