Competing Category: Spaceship global cooperation

Name of the Team: Aliens023

Team members’ names: Dejana, Kristina

Coach’s name: Tanja Radovanov

Spaceship Past & Present Spacecraft

Spacecrafts

Stories

A spacecraft (or spaceship) is a vehicle, vessel or machine designed to fly in outer space. Spacecraft are used for a variety of

purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, planetary exploration and transportation

of humans and cargo.

Past&PresentSpacecraft

While some may think that the first manned spaceship was built by the

United States, it was actually built by the Soviet Union.

It was called the Vostok 1, the first spaceship, blasted off into outer

space on April 12, 1961. The lucky soul to be piloting it was a

cosmonaut by the name of Yuri Gagarin. 

The craft was able to land safely back onto the planet and Yuri

Gagarin was unharmed.

One of the more interesting aspects of the journey was that scientists were unsure how the human body would

handle the weightlessness of outer space, so the controls

were locked and the pilot was unable to use them unless he were to enter a code that he was carrying with him in a sealed envelope.  This was only supposed to be used in the case of an emergency,

and was not used during the trip.

Wow, Vostok

1!

The second manned spacecraft was named Freedom 7, and it performed a sub-orbital spaceflight in 1961. carrying

American astronaut Alan Shepard to an altitude of just over 187 kilometres (116 mi).

Sputnik 1Sputnik 1 was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was a 585 mm (23 in) diameter shiny metal sphere, with four external radio antennae to broadcast radio pulses. The Soviet Union launched it into an elliptical low Earth orbit on 4 October 1957. It was visible all around the Earth and its radio pulses detectable. The surprise success precipitated the American Sputnik crisis, began the Space Age and triggered the Space Race, a part of the larger Cold War. The launch ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments. Sputnik was also scientifically valuable. The density of the upper atmosphere could be deduced from its drag on the orbit, and the propagation of its radio signals

gave information about the ionosphere. The chief constructor of Sputnik 1 at OKB-1 was M.S.Khomyakov.

Sputnik 2On November 3, 1957, the USSR stunned the world with a new space sensation -- the launch of Sputnik-2 carrying a dog onboard. The Space Age had barely started less than a month before, with the launch of the first Soviet satellite on October 4, 1957. Sputnik-1, a 40-pound sphere, looked very heavy compared to the U.S. spacecraft under development at the time. Now four weeks later, the Soviet press boasted about the 508.3-kilogram (1,120.8-pound) spacecraft carrying the first-ever live passenger -- a dog named Laika.

However it soon became clear that the animal would not return. The Cold War politics left no time for designers to develop a reliable life-support system, not to mention the heat shield to protect a spacecraft from a fiery reentry. Years after Sputnik-2 burned up in the atmosphere, conflicting scenarios of Laika's death were circulating in the West, along with few other misconceptions about this historic mission.

Artist's conception of the Phoenix spacecraft as it lands

on Mars

Spacecraft:PhoenixPhoenix was a robotic spacecraft on a

space exploration mission on Mars under the Mars Scout Program. The Phoenix lander descended on Mars on May 25,

2008. Mission scientists used instruments aboard the lander to search for

environments suitable for microbial life on Mars, and to research the history of

water there. Phoenix was a partnership of universities, NASA centers, and the

aerospace industry. The science instruments and operations were a University of Arizona responsibility. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, managed the

project and provided mission design and control. Lockheed Martin Space Systems,

Denver, Colorado, built and tested the spacecraft.

http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/

During 1970s and 1980s, the USSR developed a winged spacecraft known as Buran (Snowstorm) designed to serve as a "parallel" response to the perceived military threat from the US Space Shuttle. The Buran development was conducted within the Reusable Space System program, or MKS, which included the winged orbiter itself and the Energia heavy-lift vehicle.

Buran

ESA’s first Automated Transfer Vehicle, Jules Verne, docked with the International Space Station in 2008. The mission to supply the

Space Station is used in this educational video to highlight the

complex physical laws behind spaceflight and human exploration. 

Life in Space - how astronauts live

Living in space is not the same as living on Earth. In space, astronauts' bodies change. On Earth, our lower body and legs carry our weight. This helps keep our bones and muscles strong. In space, astronauts float. They do not use their legs much. Their lower backs begin to lose strength. Their leg muscles do too. The bones begin to get weak and thin. They must exercise in space every day.

Spacecraft: KliperDuring a press-conference at the ITAR TASS news agency in Moscow on February 17, 2004, Yuri Koptev revealed that RKK Energia, the developer of the Soyuz spacecraft, was working on a brand-new vehicle called Kliper (Clipper) since 2000. In the following days, a flurry of reports in the Russian press provided first details on the project. At the time of Koptev's announcement, the project apparently had already evolved through several reincarnations, however from the outset it was a partially reusable "lifting-body" vehicle launched by a medium class rocket. Early on in the program, RKK Energia advertised the Kliper, as a multifunctional vehicle, potentially capable of supporting missions into deep space. Developers proposed modifications of the spacecraft, which could play role in lunar exploration and even serve as a return vehicle in the expeditions to Mars.

Spacecraft: Lunar (LK)During the 1960s, the Lunar Spacecraft, in Russian "Lunnyi Korabl" or LK, was conceived as a part of the L3 lunar expeditionary complex to be carried aloft by the N1 rocket. From the outset, Soviet designers understood that despite being the largest launch vehicle developed by the USSR, it could only carry two-person crew on a lunar mission and only one to the surface of the Moon. Similar to the American Apollo missions, LK was designed to separate from a lunar orbital spacecraft (LOK), in orbit around the Moon.

Spacecraft: LOKThe LOK, which stands for Lunar Orbital Craft in Russian, could be called the Soyuz on steroids. While from the outside it looked like a stretched version of the original (7K-OK) version of the Soyuz, inside the LOK featured a number of upgrades and unique systems, which enabled it to support manned lunar expedition.The LOK was developed as a part of the L3 lunar expeditionary complex carried aloft by the N1 rocket. The spacecraft was intended to carry a two-man crew to the lunar orbit, where one of the cosmonauts would transfer to the lunar lander, LK. The LK would then separate from the LOK and conduct descent and landing on the lunar surface.

Spacecraft: TKSDuring the 1960s and 1970s, a design bureau led by Vladimir Chelomei developed an enduring series of manned transport ships, designated TKS and intended to resupply the Almaz space station. In the 1980s, the design of the craft became a base for the add-on modules of the Salyut and Mir space station and in the 1998, the same craft served as a founding stone of the International Space Station.

The TKS was designed to be launched by the Proton rocket, to carry a three-man crew, up to eight small film return capsules and other supplies for the Almaz station. The TKS was equipped with the I11F77 propulsion system and eight externally attached cylindrical propellant tanks. The TKS spacecraft had a length

of 13 meters and a pressurized volume of 49.88 cubical meters.

Spacecraft: SoyuzThe longest serving manned spacecraft in the world, the Soyuz was originally conceived in Sergei Korolev's OKB-1 design bureau for the Soviet effort to explore the Moon at the beginning of the 1960s. However, long after the Moon race was over, the Soyuz continued ferrying Russian crews to the Salyut and Almaz orbital stations, as well as it performed several solo flights and the historic docking with the US Apollo spacecraft in 1975. The Soyuz TM and TMA models could remain in space up to 200 days, when docked to the station and it could orbit the Earth in the autonomous flight for 4.2 days. In case of emergency on the station, the Soyuz can be sent up unmanned or piloted by a single cosmonaut to serve as a lifeboat; or be used as an unmanned cargo ship to return 250 kilograms from orbit.The nominal autonomous flight would normally be split into two phases: a 2.2-day period spent from launch to docking with the station, and a several-hour long period from undocking to landing with a built-in reserve of two days.

Spacecraft: Almaz-TThe first unmanned Almaz-T had been prepared for

launch in 1981, however, the program again fell victim to its own complexity, as well as to politics inside the

Soviet military industry. Opponents of the program argued that the careful analysis revealed high cost and excessive complexity in theAlmaz spacecraft, which essentially prevented simultaneuous deployment of two satellites in orbit.The first Almaz-T blasted off from the "right" launch pad in Area 200 in Baikonur on October 29, 1986, however it did not reach orbit due to the failure of the first and second stages of the Proton launcher to separate. The safety system then destroyed the vehicle.

Spacecraft: AUOSThe AUOS-SM-KF spacecraft, also known as Coronas-F, blasted off on July 31, 2001 from Site 32 at Russia's Northern Cosmodrome in Plesetsk. The Coronas-F is expected to spend at least a year studying dynamic processes of the solar activity, including active regions…

The Coronas-I reentered the atmosphere on March 4, 2001. Following the deorbiting of the Mir space station on March 23. 2001., Russia had no science payloads, functioning in orbit.The Coronas-F was expected to be followed by the AUOS-SM-F (Foton) spacecraft, which will also carry a cluster of scientific instruments to study the Sun.The first attempt to launch the Coronas-F was

planned for July 25, however, it was scrubbed when the specialists detected that a gyroscopic device in the control system of the Tsyklon-3 launcher performed slightly out of specification.

Spacecraft: ATVEurope’s brand-new transport ship

designed to re-supply the International Space Station, has began its maiden

voyage. The launch of the Ariane-5 rocket carrying the first Automated Transfer Vehicle, ATV, took place as scheduled

during early hours of March 9, 2008, from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Soon after the launch, ESA had

confirmed that solar panels and the antenna for communication with the ISS on the ATV spacecraft had successfully

deployed.

A global positioning system onboard had also activated. Some four hours after the separation of the ATV from the upper stage of the launch vehicle, flight controllers did

notice a slightly off-nominalbehavior on one of four sets of propellant lines, known as "chains," which supply fuel and oxidizer to the ATV's engines.

Spacecraft: Orion

Orion will launch on top of a huge rocket. NASA is building this rocket. It is called a heavy-lift launch vehicle. It will take Orion farther into space than people have been before.

Orion will use energy from the sun, which is called solar energy. Orion has solar panels that look like round wings. They will get power from the sun when Orion is in space.

-Orion ("o-rie-un") is a new NASA spacecraft. NASA is building it as a part of a new program to explore space.

The Orion spacecraft will carry astronauts into deep space. Then it will bring them safely back to Earth. Orion will be able to travel to the moon, Mars or an asteroid. Orion also could carry crews or supplies to the space station.

Space stationThe first landing of Apollo astronauts on the lunar

surface in July 1969, marked a watershed for both US and Soviet space programs. In the US, with Soviets

"beaten" in the race to the Moon, the Apollo program suddenly became a "dead end colossus" in the eyes of

appropriation committees. After six successful lunar expeditions, the Apollo program was terminated in 1972. Within TsKBEM, the primary developer of the Soviet manned spacecraft, a group of top engineers "conspired" to initiate a project of the space station,

which could be accomplished quickly and economically. The new program would employ the hardware, which had already been developed by a rival design organization led by Vladimir Chelomei. Since mid-1960s, Chelomei's collective worked on a

military orbital complex designated Almaz ("Diamond"). However, technical problems and

political intrigue stalled the project. In record short time, TsKBM group led by Yuri Semenov developed the

space station designated DOS-7K. The station used the body from the Almaz project and modified

systems from the Soyuz spacecraft. The crews would visit the station

onboard a new version ofthe Soyuz spacecraft

designated 7K-T.

StoriesIn the Ocean of Storms, a widely

reprinted 1967. Soviet painting by Alexey Leonov and Andrei Sokolov, depicts a future traveler examining

the Luna 9 braking rocket and landing capsule which had performed the first unmanned moon landing in 1966. Leonov, who had previously

made the first spacewalk, was at this time generally viewed as the Soviet

cosmonaut most likely to become the first human on the Moon.Teddy bears lifted to 30,085 metres

above sea level on a helium balloon in a materials experiment by CU Spaceflight and SPARKS science club. Each of the bears wore a

different space suit designed by 11- to 13-year-olds from SPARKS.

Myth: NASA spacecraft can travel at or near the speed of light.

Reality:

Spacecraft travel much slower. For example, the Cassinispacecraft was successfully launched on October 15, 1997.

and is expected to reach Saturn in July 2004. The pollo missions took slightly more than three days to travel from the Earth to the Moon. At the speed of light, it would take about 1 second to reach the Moon and about an hour and fifteen minutes to reach Saturn.

The Story: Marta’s Spaceship"What's that?" I asked Marta as we walked into her garage. "That's my spaceship," she said, "that's what I'm going to fly away in..."I'm going to become the first intergalactic space tourist. I'll explore the galaxy, see the sights, and take photos, which I'll pin up above my bed. Along the way I'll hook up with green-skinned alien lovers from a planets with names like Ophellious and Nymphonia, and they'll fall in love with me, but I'll by then I'll be heading out of orbit onto my next conquest..."I'm going to take on space faring bad guys while escaping the gambling debts I accumulated on the scummiest of pleasure planets."And for fun, I'll parachute from orbit above planets covered with soft blue moss, bounce across low gravity moons and hang glide on the solar winds."Until one year I find the perfect person for me in the entire universe, and we'll build a house on a hill with dark green grass and orange skies, and we'll drink sweet violet wine that evaporates on your tongue. Then we'll have children who have gold skin and smell like strawberries. At night we'll sit on the grass under the unfamiliar star field and I'll realize I don't know which one of those stars is the Earth, and I won't care because I'm happy."She sighed, and I looked at the half finished spaceship propped up in the middle of the garage. From somewhere outside, carried on a late summer breeze, came the distant sound of children playing in the street."Can I come too?" I suddenly asked. The loudness of my voice surprised me.She looked at me carefully. I noticed she had a patch of engine grease on her cheek. It looked good on her."Sure," she said, handing me a wrench, "I could use a copilot."

Elmo Visits NASA

Space Place Live! with Linda Herrell

Kate: Hi everyone! Our guest today is Linda Herrell. She works on NASA's New Millennium Program.Linda: Hi, guys. Thanks for inviting me!Kate: I think the first thing we want to know, or at least what Kyo wants to know, is, why does NASA call it the New Millennium Program?Linda: Well, because the New Millennium Program is about the future. Our job in the New Millennium Program is to help to get these technologies ready for space. We create space missions to test the technologies and make sure they will work.Kate: This is science, not science fiction! Right Linda?Linda: Well, maybe some day we'll test things like that! For now, we might test new, lighter-weight and tougher materials, or a new kind of spacecraft engine, or a better kind of solar panel to convert sunlight to electricity for the spacecraft. Or, sometimes, the technology is computer software to make the spacecraft smarter.Kate: I could sure use some of that technology sometimes!

PART I

PART IIKate: And we're back! So, Linda, you said that you can test these new technologies in space. Why can't you just test them here on Earth?Linda: We can test a lot of new technologies on Earth. But some things behave very differently in space, and we have to know what they're going to do. After all, it's a very different environment out there.Kyo: Yup, like there's no air because astronauts have to wear space suits to breathe. And they float around weightless like they're under water.Linda: Well, that's just the beginning of how space is different. Temperatures are extreme. A spacecraft can be colder than a freezer on its shady side and hotter than an oven on its sunny side.Kate: Geez, I didn't know it could be so harsh!