Sputnik: The Cause Of The Space Race

Continuous Success

On october 4,1957, the Soviet Union dispatched their first artificial satellite known as Sputnik 1 into orbit. This was the first event that started and caused the Space Race. The Sputnik 1 was only approximately 23.0 inches in diameter and was not capable of holding any passengers. The satellite was put into orbit for almost an entire 92 days. It has completed a successful 1440 orbits around Earth traveling at a rate of 18,000 miles per hour which took the satellite about 96 munities to successfully go through each orbit.. Also, with the satellite being only about twenty three inches in diameter the launch mass was only measured at 83.60. It also had the capability to transmit frequencies signals at a rate of 20 and 40

MHz. These frequencies signals were heard by people all around the world since they allowed the frequencies to be monitored on public radio. Although these frequency signals were crucial to the mission, they only lasted for about 21 days. The transmitter on the satellites ran out of batteries on October 26, 1957; 22 days after the official launch. The power supply on the satellites involved three advanced silver-zinc batteries. As spoken about before, two of these batteries powered the transmitter with transmitted frequency signals. The other one of the three batteries was used to power the temperature regulation system.
The trip of the Sputnik 1 was estimated to last only 2 weeks but instead lasted an entire 22 days which was a great success. After the satellites came back down, the world was in shock. Although many nations feared this type of technology can lead to destructive nuclear weapons, many nations were amazed and proud of mankind’s achievements. The Sputnik 1 was such a great achievement that many nations around the world decided that the Soviets were the one’s with power and technological superiority.
Although the Sputnik 1 satellite proved numerous things such as military power and technology superiority, they didn’t stop with their success.

Soon after the Sputnik 1 mission came to and end, the Soviets decided to send yet another fascinating satellite into Earth’s orbit. This satellite was simply known as Sputnik 2. On November 3, 1957 the USSR officially launched the Sputnik 2 into orbit. This satellite had gone through many techonological devlepopletmsn and advanmetns compared to the original Sputnik 1. The Sputnik 2 had the capability and capacity to hold a passenger! Although it wasn’t a human passenger they were able to send a living dog named Laika into orbit as well. This satellite was measured with a 13 feet capsule with around 6.6 feet as the base diameter. It traveled in orbit for 162 days in which the satellite was was able to complete approximations 2000 orbits. Since the Sputnik 2 was much larger in size than the original Sputnik 1, the launch mass was close to 1,121 pounds. On board the satellite are many technological advancements such as a transmitter, photometer used to measuring solar radiation, and finally cosmic rays. As the satellite was in orbit, inside temperatures and increased to almost 100 degrees fareheinshit. Due to this the living passenger, Laika, only lived for a couple of hours instead of the estimated 10 days. Although there were transmitters on the satellite that let out frequency signals back down to earth, it wasn’t long after that the batteries were drained out. Although for the most part this mission was a success, the ending wasn't how it was planned to happen. The Sputnik 2 came back into Earth’s atmosphere on April 14, 1958. The mission was calculated to be only 162 days in orbit due to battery

drainage.
“In the wake of Sputnik I and II there was a wholesale reexamination of U.S. organization for space related activities.”America was next. After the two satellite launchings by the USSR, America needed to do something before they ball way behind in the race. President John F. Kennedy had announced, “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.” As a result, on January 31, 1958, the United States had officially launched their first satellite into outer space known as the Explorer 1. This satellite was weighted at around 30 pounds in mass as compared to the Sputnik 1 which was almost 184 pounds. The satellites has many technological advancements such as detectors for cosmic rays, an entire 5 temperature sensors, an acoustic detector (cosmic dust), and also a wire grid detector which also detects cosmic dust. The batteries on the high-powered transmitter only lasted for 31 days and only 105 days for the lower powered transmitter. The transmission of the Explorer was as come to a complete stop on May 23, 1958 as the batteries died out. Crazy enough, the satellite continued to stay in orbit for more than 12 years! On March 31, 1970 the saletel finally came back to earth after completing approximations 58,00 orbits!