32 pioneering achievements of NASA's space exploration

As part of the two-year Mars exploration program, NASA launched the Mars rover Perseverance in July 2020. Perserverance's task is to collect organic samples and look for signs of life. Fixed on the Mars car is a helicopter called "ingenuity", whose task is to test the flight ability on the red planet. It is the first plane to test the controlled flight on another planet.

In the universe, it is nearly1400 million years old. Human existence only accounted for a small part of that time. If the history of the earth is 24 hours, then humans appeared before 1 1: 59 pm. However, we are fascinated by space most of the time. For a long time, we have put forward various theories and tried our best to reach the farthest corner of the universe. /kloc-In the 6th century, Mesopotamia imagined space as a cosmic ocean. Under the rule of the Roman Empire, Ptolemy put forward the geocentric theory. In 20 15, new evidence supporting the existence of water on Mars appeared, and now, space tourism has also emerged as a hot topic. People in different periods in history have thought about things outside the sky, hoping to understand and see them themselves.

In the modern world, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is at the forefront of space exploration, which makes it possible to understand the great unknown. Founded in 1958 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., NASA has rapidly changed the course of robot and manned space flight. Since its establishment, the institution has sent people to the moon, created a new window to observe the universe and discovered planets outside the solar system. It turns out that people who do all these incredible jobs are a little more down-to-earth than the general public may think. They may be geniuses, but they are just curious humans.

The upcoming images depict some of NASA's most important achievements and capture these tasks in a visually profound and scientifically meaningful way. Read on to learn about some of the most incredible moments and missions in NASA's history.

As early as 1958, the launch of Explorer 1 marked a key turning point: it was the first time that the United States successfully launched a satellite into space. At the end of 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 and Explorer 1, which showed that the United States was very competitive in the space race. Explorers 1 transmitted signals to the earth for less than four months, and were finally destroyed when 1970 re-entered the earth's atmosphere.

Before NASA can send anyone to the moon or even to space, it needs to build and test spacecraft that can accomplish this task. Thus, Saturn V was born. The rocket that finally sent neil armstrong and buzz aldrin to the moon was tested in stages in 1960s, and made the first completely unmanned test flight in 1960s, which became the first launch of Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This is a novel way to test the whole rocket at one launch-instead of testing everything step by step. Dr Kurt H. Debs, then director of the Space Center, commented that it was "progressing very smoothly".

By the time 1968, 10,1/Apollo 7 were launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida, human beings had already spent some time in space, the first being yuri gagarin of the Soviet Union. However, Apollo 7 circled the earth 163 times in nearly1day, which is the longest trip so far, and broke the extra obstacles, becoming the first manned spacecraft broadcast live by national television. The successful goal of this mission is to test the spacecraft's equipment and ensure that the three crew members and future astronauts can survive such a long journey.

Some people may find it difficult to spend Christmas with their in-laws, but1the apollo 8 crew who spent Christmas in space in 1968 may be different. The apollo 8 mission aims to test the orbit between the Earth and the Moon (called cislunar) and the spacecraft and crew in an unprecedented orbit around the Moon. The mission is progressing smoothly, which proves that the new technology of the spacecraft (such as the combined front door) is in good condition and can be further used and developed.

Although apollo 8 successfully flew around the moon, it didn't land. Additional tests are needed to ensure that astronauts can land on the moon and return home safely. In the Apollo 9 mission of 1969, the crew tried a crucial technology to achieve this goal: the lunar module. The mission was successful, and the crew could reconnect the lander in space, which proved that the trip to the moon was not far away.

Often referred to as the "rehearsal" for the first moon landing, the Apollo 10 mission in 1969 basically experienced the moon landing, including separating the lunar lander from the command module and descending through the first part without real contact. The lunar lander and the command module were charmingly named Snoopy and Charlie Brown respectively. Although everyone returned safely, the crew experienced a moment of panic when human error caused the lunar module to get out of control (and the crew shouted some selection spells).

Ladies and gentlemen, the moment we have been waiting for:1On July 6th, 969, Saturn V rocket carrying neil armstrong, Michael collins and buzz aldrin was launched from Kennedy Space Center. Four days later, Armstrong became the first man to land on the moon. A new documentary about this incident reveals some forgotten moments in the mission, such as neil armstrong taking time to pay tribute to the technicians and engineers who built 363 during the crew's return to Earth. Eight years after former President John F. Kennedy announced the lofty goal of sending a man to the moon, it finally came true.

Just a few months after Apollo 1 1 sent the first two men to the moon, Apollo 12 followed. 1969165438+1October19th, Charles Conrad Jr and Alan L. Bean became the third and fourth souls to set foot on the moon surface, where they spent 32 souls. The mission objectives of the third crew member, Richard F., include collecting data and samples from the lunar surface, establishing the Apollo lunar surface experiment package (where more information will be collected), and inspecting the unmanned spacecraft Surveyor 3 that landed there two years ago.

Houston, we have a question: Although this well-known phrase is not completely accurate (crew member John Swigart actually said "Well, Houston, we have a problem here"), it still summarizes what happened during the Apollo 13 mission. This mission was originally the third moon landing, but after 56 hours of flight, the oxygen tank exploded and the target had to be suspended. The three people on board-Swigart, Fred Hayes and Jim Love-were then forced to take refuge in the lunar module and quickly assembled an adapter that allowed air to breathe, thus proving that it was possible to return to Earth safely even on the moon.

Part of the goal of Apollo 13 is to land on a specific area of the moon for the first time. This area is called Flamolo, which is a crater named after the Italian geographer of15th century. Since Apollo 13 never landed, Apollo 14, which was launched at the beginning of 197 1 and carried three crew members, namely alan shepard, Stuart Russa and edgar mitchell, took over Flamolo's landing target. After taking off, the spacecraft failed five times in the attempt to connect the command ship with the docking ring of the landing craft, but it finally succeeded and completed the task.

The Apollo 197 15 mission in July was the fourth mission to send humans to the moon. This mission marks the revolutionary debut of the lunar rover (also known as the "lunar rover"), a four-wheeled open-air vehicle designed to make use of the gravity of the moon so that astronauts can observe a wider range and visit the surface of the moon at one time. One purpose of this trip is to take more photos than before, so the staff of this mission travel with all kinds of cameras to capture the scenes of every part of the trip.

The Apollo 16 mission lasted a little more than 1 1 day, starting from April 1972 16, and carrying three crew members, john young, Thomas "Ken" Martelly and Charles Duke. Yang and Duke are two people who set foot on the surface of the moon. They spent more than 20 hours there and collected more than 200 pounds of moon samples with amazing feats. Duke also left something behind and made history: a family photo with the words: "This is the family of Charles Duke, an astronaut from the earth, who landed on the moon on April 20th, 1972."

Apollo 17 was launched on February 7, 1972, marking the last time that man landed on the moon. However, the legacy of this mission is still very active. NASA recently announced that it will open a series of moon rocks that have never been fully studied. These rocks come from Apollo missions 15, 16 and 17. (The last task alone brought back 250 pounds of rock. These samples have been kept for some time. When more advanced technology can dig deep into the clues they may have, the time for digging has finally arrived.

1972 On March 2nd, the pioneer of space probe 10 was launched from Cape Canaveral, and its journey was full of firsts. At that time, NASA was preparing to use the rare arrangement in the solar system for "planetary cruise"-which meant that a group of spacecraft could visit multiple planets in one trip. In order to prepare for this journey, Pioneer 10 was sent to perform data collection tasks, and became the first spacecraft to reach Jupiter and the first spacecraft to leave the inner solar system.

Pioneer 1 1 was launched on 1973 as a companion detector of pioneer 10. The journey of Pioneer 1 1 marks another important first time for NASA: this probe is the first one to encounter Saturn, and it can also send back amazing images of Jupiter's polar regions. The spacecraft experienced some technical setbacks and failures on its journey out, but overcame these setbacks and found an extra ring around Saturn. The last contact with this spaceship took place at the end of 1995.

/kloc-the central goal of NASA's pirate mission in the 1970 s was to collect images and data related to Mars, because people knew little about Mars. The Viking project was a great success, producing about 50,000 images of Mars, refuting the theory that the Martian sky is blue and similar to the Earth. Actually, it's pink during the day. The Viking lander can also land and analyze the Martian soil and atmosphere, which is a huge stepping stone to understand the planet scientifically.

Voyager 2, a space probe, was sent into space on 1977, and left the heliosphere around the sun at the end of 20 18. Influenced by its magnetic field, Voyager 2 officially entered interstellar space. In the decades before this milestone, Voyager 2 encountered and photographed Jupiter, Neptune, Uranus and Saturn; It is the only detector facing the last two planets. Voyager 1 entered interstellar space in 20 12, and now both probes are carrying out a task, that is, sending back information from outside the solar system, although they are still thousands of years away from reaching the stars according to the established route.

Skylab is the first space station of NASA. It is made of a component of Saturn V rocket under the limited budget of NASA. No one launched in May 1973. The goal is to test the feasibility of a space station where astronauts can live for a long time for scientific research for the first time; In fact, several crew members (including Charles Conrad, a member of Apollo 12) visited and occupied the space station while in space. The return of Skylab to Earth has become a miracle for the international media, because NASA cannot determine when and where the plane will fall into the atmosphere.

NASA's space shuttle program came into effect from 198 1 to 20 1 1, which marked a great scientific progress in creating the first reusable spacecraft. During its three-year operation, the project created a fleet of five spacecraft. Before the tragedy of the space shuttle Challenger ended, it carried the first American woman, Sally Ride, into space. The space shuttle Discovery successfully sent 184 men and women back into space, spent 365 days in space and retired in 201/year.

During most of the Cold War, the United States and the former Soviet Union used space to compete with each other, but the "Mir" space shuttle program noticed this dynamic change. The plan is a cooperation between the United States and Russia, including a visit by the American space shuttle and astronauts to the Russian Mir space station. When the American space shuttle Atlantis docked at the Mir space station in 1995, history was created in more than one way: American and Russian spacecraft together formed the largest artificial satellite, and this trip itself constituted the country's100th manned space mission.

1971July 23rd, Landsat 1 was launched. The goal of Landsat project is to obtain a wide range of satellite images of the earth's topography. Today, the Land Resources Satellite No.7 launched in 1999 and the Land Resources Satellite No.8 launched in 20 13 are both active and functional. Due to budget constraints and the US Department of Defense's fear that this kind of photography would have a negative impact on the confidentiality of the mission, the plan was strongly opposed at first. But it was finally funded and became a successful and valuable new project.

The Hubble Space Telescope was named Edwin Hubble Powell. He discovered and proved the existence of galaxies outside the Milky Way and was an extremely important American astronomer in the 20th century. The telescope was launched into orbit on 1990. Since then, it has broken the barrier with its unique ability to capture and transmit space images. The telescope is widely used in scientific research projects, such as frontier projects, but the public can also apply for observation time.

The Chandra X-ray Observatory was launched by NASA in 1999. This is a telescope specially designed to detect X-ray emission in space. These radiations occur in the hottest region of the universe, where stars explode, and Chandra's ability to capture images of this phenomenon is groundbreaking. The telescope photographed the galactic storm in 20 19 in a distant galaxy, which is located in a cosmic structure called "teacup", more than 654.38 billion light years away from the earth.

The Spitzer Space Telescope was launched in 2003 and retired in 2020. This is an infrared telescope that enables scientists to visually observe previously invisible areas of the universe. The telescope consists of two main parts: the spacecraft itself and the cryogenic telescope component. It produces amazing images such as brown dwarfs and molecular clouds. Spitzer is famous for his role in scientists' ability to identify exoplanets, and he has learned a lot about galaxies 65.438+0.3 billion light-years away from the Earth.

If you don't like spending a lot of time with your colleagues, then the job of the International Space Station may not be for you. 1998 the space station launched into orbit has always been inhabited, and the crew usually stays on board for half a year at a time. Many countries provided crew and scientific knowledge for the project. At present, three members of the 58th expedition-Oleg Kononenko, Anne McClane and David Saint Jacques-have been on board since February 20 18. The continued existence of human beings in space is groundbreaking, enabling the scientific community to conduct extensive experiments and gain knowledge about how human beings live in space.

Since 20 12, the rover Curiosity of the Mars Science Laboratory has been stationed on this red planet, trying to provide an answer to a specific question: Could Mars ever support life, especially microorganisms called microorganisms? The mission of the Mars Science Laboratory is a subset of NASA's Mars exploration program, which aims to study the livability of Mars and determine whether this planet can become the home of human beings one day. Through its success on Mars, Curiosity lives up to its name. It was awarded by Clara Ma, 0/2 years old at/kloc-who won the essay contest in the Mars Science Laboratory in 2009.

Many spaceships and brave astronauts have traveled in the Milky Way, but the Parker Solar Probe has embarked on an unprecedented mission. The spaceship was launched in 20 18 and is heading for a territory 4 million miles from the sun. Although it sounds far away, this detector will encounter unimaginable intense heat and radiation, in order to learn more about the outer corona of the sun (plasma halo around the sun). Another detail that distinguishes Parker Solar Detector from all other NASA missions is that it is the first detector named after a living person: Eugene Newman Parker, a professor at the University of Chicago, who put forward a revolutionary concept about how the sun releases energy.

Because of the dense clouds around, Jupiter maintains an environment that can reveal the operation of the solar system when it first formed. This is the main reason why Juno is so important. Launched at 20 1 1, it is the first detector to map Jupiter's structure far below the clouds. It can sample charged particles at the poles of a planet that has never been analyzed in this way. Juno is the name of the Roman goddess. She can see her husband Jupiter through the clouds, which is very suitable.

Osiris Rex has a big mission. This spaceship and NASA behind it are looking for answers, such as where people come from and why the universe exists. OSIRIS-REx was launched in 20 16, and is currently mapping the asteroid Benu Bird, which was selected as the target of this mission because of its size, composition and distance. It is close to the earth and may hit the earth in the 22nd century. The great feat of OSIRIS-REx is that it is expected to be the first mission to send asteroid samples back to Earth, theoretically in 2023.

In addition to the great discoveries it provided, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft also marked the United action in the name of science. The spacecraft carrying Huygens probe to Saturn is a joint project of NASA, European Space Agency and Italian Space Agency. The mission of Cassini-Huygens lasted for 20 years, during which it made many important discoveries, including revealing the gravity of Saturn's rings. Huygens also landed on Saturn's moon Titan for the first time. Perhaps the most impressive thing is that Cassini-Huygens' mission ended with a grand ending: in the past few months, Cassini-Huygens sneaked into the gap between Saturn and its rings 22 times, creating a lot of data about this previously unexplored area.

Elon musk's space exploration technology companies are marching into areas that private companies have never set foot in: space. This mission represents the astronauts' first space trip since 20 1 1, and is part of NASA's commercial crew plan. On May 30, 2020, the manned dragon spacecraft took off from the 39A launch site in Florida with Falcon 9 rocket and astronauts Robert Benken and Douglas Hurley.

As part of a two-year plan, NASA's Mars Exploration Program launched the Mars rover Perseverance in July 2020. The rover is collecting organic samples for signs of life. Fixed on the Mars rover is a helicopter called "Originality", whose mission is to test the flying ability on this red planet. This will be the first plane to test controlled flight on another planet.