Space Travel

Space Travel

     So you kinda cant talk about the history or existence of space travel without mentioning the notorious Space Race between Russia and the United States. This race was in turn a direct result of the countries desire to show their power and superiority to see who could dominate in the Cold War. And the existence of the Space race, much like the cold war, can be traced all the way towards the end of the Second World War. Beginning with the capturing of German missile technology from both nations, who simultaneously began to develop the technology. But it wasn't until the Russians space programs success in launching of first ever satellite Sputnik that really kicked things of. With both Nations finding Space travel as a form of further competition. The NASA space program was created and was in charge of the Mercury and Gemini projects. Soon after the Apollo lunar mission's came into development. With Successful lunar landing from the Apollo 11 mission came an end to the great Space Race and lunar mission continued to occur there after with most of them having great success. But though the Space Race may have ended, the space frontier has been largely left unexplored. Its not until recent years that new missions to increase human exploration began to unravel, with the hopes of the MARS ONE mission leading to the colonization of Mars. This space mission will be one to take humans to live out the rest of their lives for the first time in a planet other than Earth.

Halley's Comet

Halley's Comet

 My third quarter project is over Halley's Comet. Halley is a comet whose orbital period generally would last between 75-76 years around the sun. It is actually the only short period comet in our solar system that humans can actually see more than once with their own naked eye in an a single lifetime! Halley's comet is made of both different ices, (such as frozen water, carbon dioxide, ammonia and methane) mixed in with some dust. As it orbits around its path it leaves a beautiful trail composed of of both those gas and dust behind. One of the coolest and most amazing things about this comet is its orbital pattern around the sun. At its closest distance to the sun, Halley's comet travels in between the orbits of mercury and Venus and at its farthest distance it travels out to reach past Pluto's orbit within its 75 years of orbit in Solar System. This in turn would then have to mean that in order to achieve does large distances in such a short amount of time it has to travel at an average speed of 70.56 km/s (254,016 km/hr). Another Interesting thing about Halley would be that it orbital rotation around the sun is highly elliptical. This comet is so historical to mankind that its even been recordings of Halley’s comet since around 240 B.C!