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Astronomy28
The Future of Space Travel
In the future, will space travel become as common as the annual family vacation to Disney World?
We've already had several space tourists. The first space tourist in history was Dennis Tito, a multimillionaire who had a dream of going to space and was financially able to make that dream come true. Tito doesn't like being called a space tourist. He prefers to be called an "independent researcher" since he did perform several experiments while on his trip, er, mission.
Dennis Tito made an arrangement with the space tourism company Space Adventures, Ltd., and joined Soyuz TM-32 on April 28, 2001. It was reported that Tito paid $20 million to go on the "mission," but some of his friends say that it was a mere $12 million.
Mark Shuttleworth was the second space tourist to pay for a trip to space. Shuttleworth, another multimillionaire (surprise, surprise) is reported to have paid $20 million for his 2002 space adventure as well. Shuttleworth's space flight was also arranged by Space Adventures, Ltd. He went to space aboard the Russian Soyuz TM-34 mission.
The third space tourist was Gregory Olsen in 2005. Olsen trained as a scientist, and his company produces specialty high-sensitivity cameras. Olsen used his time on the ISS to conduct a number of experiments mostly to test his company's products.
In September 2006, Anousheh Ansari, an Iranian American, went to space aboard Soyuz TMA-9 and became the fourth space tourist. Ms. Ansari prefers to be called a spaceflight participant.
Then on April 7, 2007, Charles Simonyi, an American billionaire of Hungarian descent, became the fifth space tourist when he flew about the Soyuz TMA-10.
Is there a future for the space flight industry? My guess is yes! There have already been five. Prices will decrease as space flight becomes more common, and someday a space vacation will be a viable option.
See Also:
Ham the Chimp - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Asteroids, Comets and Meteors
The Planet Saturn
The planet Saturn resembles the planet Jupiter in many ways. Saturn is also a planet that has very little if any solid matter. It is believed that there is a hard rocky core, but that belief is unproven (albeit very probable) theory. Saturn, like Jupiter, is made up of gases and liquids. There is an internal heat source. We know this because Saturn radiates more energy than it receives.
Saturn rotates fast. It makes one complete revolution once every 10 or 11 hours. Saturn rotates around the sun once every 29.5 years. Because it rotates so fast, Saturn is flattened at the poles, making it an almost oblate planet.
The space probes, Pioneer 11, Mariner 11 and 12, and Voyager I and II, provide the best and most accurate information to astronomers about the planet Saturn, even though the Hubble space telescope takes very good images of Saturn. The space probes get "up close and personal," so to speak, and have provided information about Saturn that nothing else could have provided.
Wind velocity on Saturn is extreme. Wind speeds of more than 1,118 mph have been recorded. Unlike the winds on Jupiter, however, wind speeds on Saturn do not seem to be closely related to the positions of the belts and bands.
The rings around Saturn are one of the most interesting features. Really high-resolution pictures taken on the Voyager missions tell us that the rings are actually made up of hundreds of thousands of very small rings. The evidence suggests that the rings are composed of particles that are mostly ice crystals. A lot has been learned about the rings of Saturn over the last 20 or so years, but there is so much about them that is still a mystery. |
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More articles:
Famous Meteorites (Cosmic Collisions) - Cosmeo
Mars - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Total Lunar Eclipse
The Medusa Touch - Part 2
Buying a Telescope
Careers in Astronomy
Nicolaus Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus first became fascinated with astronomy in 1492 when he enrolled in Kraków Academy (now Jagiellonian University). His professor, Albert Brudzewski, is credited with introducing young Nicolaus to astronomy.
After four years at Kraków Academy, Nicolaus Copernicus's uncle (who paid for his education in hopes that Nicolaus would become a bishop) sent him to Bologna to study civil law. It was there that Nicolaus met Domenico Maria Novara da Ferrara, who was a famous astronomer of the time.
Copernicus gave some friends his Commentariolus (Little Commentary) in 1514. Commentariolus was a short handwritten work that described
his ideas about the heliocentric (sun-centered universe) hypothesis. It was the basis for his later work.
Copernicus feared ridicule from other scientists. He wasn't afraid of what the Church would think of his theories. This fear of ridicule caused him to delay publication of his findings for several years. As a matter of fact, his book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres) wasn't published until the year of his death in 1543.
It is said that Copernicus was in a coma that had been caused by a stroke when a friend put a copy of his book into his hands. Copernicus awakened from his coma and died peacefully shortly there after.
There are six major parts to the Copernican theory:
1. Motions of the planets are uniform.
2. The sun is the center of the universe.
3. The order of planets around the sun is Mercury, Venus, Earth and Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the fixed stars.
4. Retrograde motion of the planets can be explained by the Earth's motion.
5. Daily rotation, annual revolution, and annual tilting of its axis are the three motions of the earth.
6. Comparatively speaking, the distance between the earth and the sun is small to that of the earth to the stars.
Related Topics: Ancient Astronomical Calendars,
The Planet Jupiter, Famous Meteorites
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