Space And The Space Race
Sputnik Things that happened in space are sometimes quite strange. For those of you that are old enough to remember when Sputnik was launched, it shook the world. People thought that this was the end, that the Soviets now owned space and we, in this country, were going to be destroyed. We all know today that this was certainly not the case and the Russians have revealed some intriguing news about Sputnik. It turns out that the launching of Sputnik was not a planned event meant to instill fear in the west. What happened was that it was the dream of one Soviet scientist and he and his team managed to get their hands on a rocket and begged the Soviet government to let them slap together a satellite. The Soviets were dubious, but finally went along with the scientists and the space age was born. On top of that, people went out at night to watch the satellite blink as the sunlight hit it, but they were not seeing Sputnik as they thought, only the second stage of the booster that was circling the earth. Space blobs have been sighted in space for years. They are massive and bright and seem to be near very young galaxies. These blobs have puzzled scientists since their discovery. Not any more, according to James Geach of Durham University in the United Kingdom. He led a study on the objects and said, "Now we can settle some important arguments about what role they played in the original construction of galaxies and black holes." As telescopes look further out into space they are also looking further back into time when the universe was younger, because that is how long it takes light to reach us. We really don't even know if the objects that we are looking at are there anymore when we look really far out. Astronomers now think that the energy source that makes the blobs glow might be from black holes and star formation. It is now speculated that all galaxies were surrounded by these blobs when first formed, but that they then disappear. It is said that we don't always see them, because there is no power source there to light up the gas most of the time. Talking about things that I really don't understand that have to do with space, I have to talk about the case of an engineer that worked for Rockwell and Boeing that was arrested last year for selling space shuttle secrets. Why do I think that this is so bizarre? I just can't help it, because the space shuttle is such a piece of junk. You would think that if this is true, China has to be nuts. It would be much easier for China to launch a rocket with astronauts on board than try and use a duplicate of the space shuttle, a vehicle that costs far more to launch and is extremely dangerous. One of the only advantages it has is its cargo area, which can be used to launch large satellites, so I guess this is what China wants at any cost, if the story is true. When we talk about the US space shuttle, we have to realize that its original design was much safer, but it was smaller. It didn't need those external tanks which are so dangerous. So what happened? The military demanded that the shuttle plans be revised and that it be made bigger, so it could take large payloads. This meant that external tanks had to be added to support the extra launch weight, which in turn make the whole thing a lot more complicated and dangerous.
Marshal Mitrofan Nedelin Sometimes you have to wonder how people can be so stupid. I am not talking about all people, just certain ones that have done things that just were incredibly dumb. When this relates to the space race, we have to look no further than the Nedelin catastrophe. The year was 1960 and the rockets of the time were notoriously dangerous and had a high probability of blowing up at launch. A rocket was to be launched at Baikonur Cosmodrome. It was a new ICBM, but a prototype. The head of the Soviet Rocket forces was invited to watch. He insisted on having chairs put in an area near the launch and sat there waiting for the launch. His staff, not wanting to appear less brave than he, also sat at his side. The rocket was readied for launch and ignited. Immediately it exploded killing Marshal Mitrofan Nedelin and all those that sat with him. This event was covered up for many years by the Soviets. By the way it was said that this blast claimed 126 people. There was another cosmonaut that was slated to follow Gargarin into space. I say slated, because it never happened. This upset the Soviets to no end and caused them a lot of trouble, because photos had already been taken and he had to be air brushed out. Supposed his name was Nelyubov and he got into a fight with an army patrol. It was said that he was drunk, but I have no way of knowing if this is true or not. He still could have flown, but he refused to apologize and was demoted. After about five years it is said that he committed suicide. Is this a basis for a conspiracy theory? In 1971 the 3 man crew of a Soyuz 11 capsule that was in space all died, because of a faulty air valve. They are the only people to officially have died in space, although more are suspected of having done so. You may think that the people that were blown up in the shuttle disasters should count as space deaths, but since the explosions occurred in the atmosphere they are not counted as dying in space. There is another strange thing about the Columbia explosion, while all the astronauts died, hundreds of worms that were on board survived.
Object Flying Through Space Russia is launching a secret plan to protect the earth from an asteroid collision They believe that there is a chance that a giant asteroid might hit the earth in 26 years. "We will soon hold a closed meeting of our collegium, the science-technical council, to look at what can be done". Their head scientist said, "Better to spend a few hundred million dollars to create a system for preventing a collision than to wait until it happens and hundreds of thousands of people are killed," Wow someone with some common sense. Can you imagine if our President tried to purpose this, there would be just more deadlock. The fly in the ointment is that the Russians believe that in order for the plan to work, it would need the cooperation of the Europeans, Chinese and the UNITED STATES. I would hope that this is possible, but I doubt it, we would rather build a bridge to nowhere for 800 million dollars. We have already stated that we have recalculated the path of the asteroid and that there is, “a significantly reduced likelihood of a hazardous encounter with Earth in 2036." Notice we didn't say it wouldn't hit. |
