A Blog Post that’s out of this World…

The NASA record for time spent in space has been beaten by female astronaut Peggy Whitson! During her most recent mission, Whitson was in orbit for more than 9 months. Across her lifetime, she has been in space for a total of 665 days, which is longer than any American ever, and more than any woman on the planet.

When did we begin our journey into space?

Since the dawn of human kind, we’ve been looking up at the night sky and imagining being with the stars in space. Rockets have become the global symbol for space exploration, and you might be surprised to learn that they were used by the Chinese for ceremonies and military purposes as far back as the 13^th century. But obviously, they were nowhere near as powerful as the rockets of today.

Modern space exploration was not possible until the 20^th century, when technology had come far enough to build rockets capable of the astronomical acceleration needed to reach space. The first practical progress made towards space flight were conducted by three significant scientists: Konstantin Tsiolkovski, Robert Goddard, and Hermann Oberth. They began to try and build rocket engines that could reach space, so that mankind could complete the ultimate journey.

When did we first begin to explore space?

The first satellite was sent into orbit by the Soviet Union in 1957, which was followed by the first person to orbit the earth, Yuri Gagarin. The flight, which lasted for 108 minutes, saw Gagarin reach an altitude of 327 kilometres, which is about 202 miles.

In a 1961 announcement, John F Kennedy vowed to “[land] a man on the moon and [return] him safely to Earth within a decade”. He kept his promise, and in 1969 Neil Armstrong, an American Astronaut, became the first person to step foot on the moon.

So what about space flight now?

Since Armstrong walked on the surface of the moon, we have become true masters of space flight. There are now around 1,459 satellites circling the Earth, and they affect our lives every day, allowing for longer range TV, longer range telephone calls, and more efficient data collection.

At any one time there are up to 10 people living aboard the international space station, carrying out experiments and maintaining the space station itself. A total of 536 people from 38 countries have been into space, and this is increasing all the time.

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The future of space exploration?

Being able to colonise another planet seems like something from a science fiction movie, but in the not so far off future it could be possible! In 2012, Mars Rover, an automated motor vehicle was landed on Mars, to begin inspecting the planet. Since then, there have been 4 Rovers successfully landed on Mars, with the purpose of finding evidence of ancient life, in the hope that this will pave the way for humans to live on Mars.

But could this ever really be possible? Well, Mars One claims that we can. This mission aims to establish and sustain a human settlement on Mars. Before humans attempt the flight, there will be several unmanned missions. So watch this space, and one day you could be living on Mars!

If you aspire to make space flight happen, you’ll need a background in Maths and Science, and at Global Edulink we provide excellent courses in both of these topics. Click here to find out more.