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The universe is everything that exists. Humans have gazed upon the sky for centuries with awe. How do humans on Earth fit into the universe? Some of the first astronomers appeared amongst the Greeks. Thales of Miletus was a philosopher who lived around 624 B.C. He conceived the idea that the world was round. About two centuries later the disciples of Pythagoras agreed the Earth was spherical and moved through space. However, the disciples of Pythagoras mixed their brilliant ideas with myths.
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Nicolaus Copernicus was a Polish astronomer and lawyer that lived from 1473 to 1543. Copernicus stated that the sun is the center of our solar system and that all the planets and the Earth are revolving around it. He mistakenly thought that the planets revolved around the sun in perfect circles. Johannes Kepler showed that the planets’ orbits were elliptical.
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A man named Hans Lippershey invented a telescope
in 1608. One year later Galileo, an Italian astronomer, who lived from fifteen
sixty-four to sixteen forty-two, designed a telescope that was far more advanced
by experimenting with curved pieces of glass or lenses. Galileo turned his
telescope to the sky at the end of 1609 and began to make incredible discoveries.
For example, he found mountains on the moon and said that the Milky Way was
made up of tiny stars. Galileo continued to make amazing observations with
his telescope.
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Astronomers continued to use telescopes and
improve telescopes to understand the universe. In 1668 Sir Isaac Newton, an
English physicist, designed a telescope with a curved mirror in place of one
of the lenses. This was called the reflector. Soon after Robert Hooke was
the first to use the word cell. He had used a microscope and soon many people
were looking at germs. How do these machines work? In a microscope, a convex
lens bends light waves from an object. The light is bent again at the second
lens so that people can see a clear image. In a telescope much of the same
things happen except; the light waves come from far away. The light is then
parallel when it reaches the telescope. To explain Johannes Kepler belief
in the planets’ elliptical orbits; Isaac Newton discovered the laws
of gravity.
On November 3, 1957, the Soviet spacecraft Sputnik
2 was launched into orbit. It carried the first earthling to enter space.
This earthling was neither man nor women; but a small mongrel dog named Laika.
She proved that it was possible for a living thing to enter space and survive.
The first spacecrafts were not very reliable; so the first astronauts were
animals. Many of them did not return to Earth alive.
In 1961 Yuri Gagarin, aboard Vostok 1, was launched
into space. The USSR and the United States were in something called the space
race; each wanted to prove itself better than the other. Next, came the U.
S. space program’s Mercury Astronauts. This program lasted from 1958
to 1963 and consisted of six successful solo flights. NASA wanted to take
active military test pilots and train them to be astronauts. They choose seven
astronauts, called the Mercury Seven, Alan Shepard, Virgil Grissom, John Glenn,
Scott Carpenter, Walter Schirra, Gordon Cooper, and Donald Slayton. Former
President John F. Kennedy made a speech telling the American people we must
venture off into space to the moon. Click
here to read his speech
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Next came the Gemini Astronauts. With the Gemini
Astronauts two astronauts were launched into space at a time and worked as
a team. The Gemini program lasted from 1965 to 1966. The Gemini program’s
goal was to launch astronauts into space and to prove that astronauts could
survive in space for two weeks. The second goal was to show that one space
vehicle could find another in space and dock with it. The Apollo Astronauts
were next in line after the Gemini Astronauts. The Apollo program was a three-man
team. The goal was to land men on the moon before 1970.
Next, in space were the Skylab astronauts. Skylab
was America’s first space station. The astronauts were launched up in
a leftover Apollo Spacecraft, docked with Skylab, entered through a connecting
air lock and returned home after their work was done. The Skylab astronauts
lived in space for a long period of time and were viewed on television. After
that, the Apollo-Soyuz Astronauts were launched into space. This was a time
when the United States and the USSR worked together as a team. The mission
was to develop and test a universal space docking system for the joint space
flights of the future.
After the Apollo-Soyuz was the first space shuttle.
The shuttle was designed to take people into space and back again. It was
also designed to take materials back and forth between Earth and the permanent
space station that the Unites States plans to build with many other nations.
Mankind has come a long way in exploring space
and will continue to broaden their knowledge of space exploration. It all
started with the early astronomers defining gravity and building telescopes.
For centuries, people have wanted to do what we can do today, travel into
space. Currently President Bush announced that NASA launched a Mars Rover
that successfully landed on mars. Mankind is already making new discoveries!