Space Research Paper

Missions in space became notable on April 12, 1961. This was the day when the first human went to space. Yuri Gagarin was sent by the USSR in Vostok 1 on a Vostok 3KA rocket into space. Since that first space mission, space missions became more prevalent over time. Alan Shepard was the first astronaut sent by the US on May 5, 1961 aboard the Freedom 7. Later, Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman sent to space on June 16, 1963 aboard Vostok 6. This was when humans were sent for space missions, but humans were not the only ones sent to space for these missions. Human’s first space mission participant was a satellite called Sputnik I. On October 4, 1957, Sputnik I was launched into space by the Soviet Union and it was known as the world’s

first artificial satellite. Sputnik I was around the size of a beach ball with dimensions of 58 cm or 22.8 inches in diameter, weight of 83.6 kg or 183.9 pounds. The satellite was able to orbit the Earth in about 98 minutes and this event marked the beginning of the space age and the U.S-U.S.S.R. space race. After Sputnik I, there have been orbiters, landers, probes, and rovers that have revealed information to us about space and through each mission, despite the results, something new was learned about space. From that first space mission, there have been many more notable missions that gave us answers to scientific missions, new information, and new discoveries regarding the area outside our Earth.
The first notable space mission to discuss is the Luna Program mission.

Conducted by the Soviet Union, who also launched the Sputnik I, they started the Luna Program in 1959. These series of missions were designed to attain information on the Moon and the environment surrounding it. January 2, 1959 was the date of the first launch, Luna 1. The first launch passed over the Moon at around 5000 to 6000 km on January 4 of the same year. Luna 1 was supposed to make an impact on the Moon, but it is still known as the first spacecraft to fall around the Sun’s orbit. The second Luna mission was the first successful spacecraft that impacted the Moon’s surface. Luna 2 was launched on September 12, 1959 and it made its impact on the surface of the Moon on September 13, 1959 at 22:02:04 UT. This spacecraft became the first man-made object that was able to reach another world. The third Luna spacecraft was able to orbit around the Moon and return photographs of its far side, which we cannot see from Earth. Other successful Luna missions include entering lunar orbit and landing on the moon multiple times with Luna 9 being the first successful landing on the moon. It is also notable that the Soviet Union launched 24 Luna space crafts, but 15 out of the 24 were successful. Through every mission, the Soviet Union learned to build space crafts that were capable of performing safe landings on the moon’s surface and retrieving panoramic photos of the landing sites. The 17th and 21st Luna space

crafts also were able to carry along roving vehicles that roamed around on the Moon’s terrain. The Luna program resulted in the collection of samples of lunar soil that returned to Earth by 1970. Thanks to the Luna program, many firsts in space exploration was accomplished. The goal of finding information on the Moon was achieved by landing successfully on the Moon and retrieving its soil while gaining photographs of its environment. Even though vehicles were able to be carried along the space crafts, the question still remained if humans were able to be sent for space exploration. Risk of losing human life is the biggest risk to consider when sending humans to space. Since this mission series proved that vehicles could travel through space, the next step would be to accomplish sending humans to space. This would be soon accomplished by the Apollo missions by the U.S where humans successfully landed on the moon. Without the success of the Luna missions where space travel was possible with history of successful vehicle travels and landing, man would not be able to set foot on the moon or explore space.
About 18 years later, Voyager 1 and 2 began their mission to visit distant planets where nothing from Earth has flown before. The mission began when Voyager 2 launched on August 20, 1977 and Voyager 1 launched on September 5, 1977. The primary objective of the mission was to explore Jupiter and Saturn. Both of them explored Jupiter in 1979 and returned information on Jupiter’s moons as well as photographs. Through the exploration of Jupiter, we learned more about Jupiter’s Great Red Spot and one of its moons.