Category Archives: History

1980: Mt. Saint Helens from Space

Posted on October 10, 2014 | 1 comment

Imagine being this close while the mountain is doing that. Image from http://svtmarcq.e-monsite.com/.

I was only 10 years old when Mt. Saint Helens erupted in 1980.  I remember the newspapers with pictures of the volcano spewing ash and smoke.  I remember seeing pictures of cars in Spokane covered in the ash from that angry mountain.  I remember the little cylinders of ash enterprising business-people sold to people who wanted a little piece of that natural history.  And this was while I was living with my family in the High Desert in Southern California.

But I don’t recall ever seeing any pictures of the active volcano from space.  Wired.com posted this article, which shows not just pictures, but two videos (kind of) of Mt. Saint Helens as it’s blowing its top.  The first one shows the impressive ash cloud, but the ash cloud is somewhat obscured by regular clouds (clouds in the Pacific Northwest?  Go figure.)–the bane of all regular imagery.  The second video, however, the one using infrared, shows just how far the ash cloud spread and how quickly.

The satellite that took these images was the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) GOES-1 weather satellite.  It was a fairly old satellite already, launched in 1975 when computers were probably still the size of continents.  It continued to collect environmental data until it was deactivated in 1985.  While the images of Mt. Saint Helens’ eruption are pretty nifty, the analysts and scientists who worked on analyzing the data probably took some time to put the images together (if anyone knows different, please let me know), so they weren’t available in real-time or near-real-time.

Literally a blast from the past, coming from space.  Wired’s article is definitely interesting, if only to watch the videos.

 

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Posted in History, Lessons, NOAA, Region Focus, Space Operations, USA

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DIY Space: Ardusat

Posted on October 4, 2014 | 1 comment

Image from Ardusat.

Before I begin the fairly short DIY part, this is just a reminder for those who don’t know, or just plain forgot.  Today is the anniversary of Sputnik I, the first man-made satellite, which was launched into orbit on the top of an R-7 rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome. The R-7 had already been successfully tested as a missile earlier, on August 21, 1957.  That test demonstrated the R-7 to be the world’s first intercontinental ballistic missile as it flew the 3,700 miles to hit a target near the Kamchatka Peninsula.

Artist’s conception of Sputnik I in orbit. Image from Wikimedia, posted by Gregory R. Todd.

 

However, the nosecone system designed to protect the nuclear payload  had failed during that test.  In September, another R-7 basically did the same thing again, but this time the nosecone worked as designed.  In spite of the historical and strategic significance of the missile tests, the West didn’t really bat an eyelid.  It only reacted once Sputnik was launched into orbit.  If you wish to read a really great story about the origins, development, and launch of Sputnik, I recommend Matthew Brzezinski’s “Red Moon Rising.”  It does a great job of humanizing the Soviet Chief Engineer, Sergei Korolev.  Sputnik I was always Korolev’s goal, but the missile program helped him get there.  The story shows the Soviet Union’s rocket development efforts in contrast to the antics going on in the United States at the time.

Also, Sputnik’s anniversary kicks off the start of “World Space Week” for 2014.  For those interested, please go to the website, which is full of good information.

Back to DIY, though.  If you’re a teacher who believes the classroom needs more hands on with space projects, this might be the key, depending on your resources.  Ardusat wants to bring satellite building into the classroom.  They offer a few kits, and according to this Readwrite.com post, the cost of the kits is as low as $2,500.  The kits use a Spire (formerly Nanosatisfi) Cubesat bus and, of course, an Arduino (What!  You don’t know what an Arduino is??!!  Go here to find out).  It also includes a few sensors and wires.  There’s more to their kits, but you can go to this part of their website to find out, if you’re curious.

If you and your students have an idea for an Ardusat experiment, then just go this part of Ardusat’s site and sign up for their Association of Space Explorers Astrosat Challenge.  You can sign up until October 30, 2014.  The prize?  One week’s worth of data from an on-orbit satellite.

 

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Posted in DIY Space, History, Lessons, Region Focus, Russia, Soviet Space History, Space Operations

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A Landmark Anniversary for Space?

Posted on October 3, 2014 | Leave a comment

The first image of Earth from space. Image was atop an A-4 rocket. Image hosted on Wikimedia.  Go here to read more about this rocket and image.

Oct. 3, 1942–72 years ago–an A-4 test rocket was launched from Peenemuende Army Research Center.  The fourth A-4 to be tested, it was the first to successfully fly.  It was also the first rocket to reach the edges of outer space (it flew about 85-90 kilometers above the Earth).

If you’ve never heard of the A-4, there’s another name for it you’re probably more familiar with:  V2.  So yes, the Germans, NAZI Germans in particular, were responsible for achieving a very historic moment–something everyone should have been proud of.  It’s unfortunate that NAZIs were the ones to do this with their V2 for the very obvious reasons that were later exposed through history.

However, such a feat is what led the US government to eventually hire ex-NAZI German scientists after the war, in a secret program called Operation Paperclip.  The US intelligence agencies were convinced the Germans were at least 25 years ahead of the US scientists and engineers.  So they recommended vetting the NAZI scientists, and if they passed certain criteria, they recommended thne hiring the best brains of Germany.

Celebrate, then, the achievement of the first spaceflight conducted by man.  The rather rotten roots of that labor yielded fruit that helped to accelerate the US space and missile programs.  But remember, there were people in the war who were involved–both criminals and victims–who should be thought of as well.  About 27,000 victims died as they assembled and constantly perfected the V2 as a weapon for the Reich.  If you’d like to read more about this particular aspect of NAZI space history, please read my 7 part series, starting with this particular post, here.  Warning–it can get a little depressing.

 

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Posted in Europe, History, Lessons, NAZI Space History, Region Focus, Space Operations

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A Few More Years of Satellite Highlights

Posted on September 4, 2014 | Leave a comment

Hey–it’s a lot of satellites, so of course it’s going to be long.  Image created and hosted by Broadbandwherever.net.

A little birdie let me know last week that Broadbandwherever.net has created a new poster (pictured above) illustrating satellite highlights of the last thirty or so years.  Okay, okay–sure this is their way of getting their name out there, but with this poster it’s an interesting and educational way.  The poster sort of adds on to their other poster, one highlighted on this blog earlier this year in March.  That poster was titled “An Early History of Satellites.”    It illustrated the first 28 years of satellite highlights, beginning with Sputnik-1’s launch in October 1957 to the Czechoslovakian (don’t know that country?  Go here for a little history.) Magion 1 satellite in 1978.

This latest creation, titled “A Recent History of Satellites: 1980s – 2000s,” continues the satellite highlights three years later–August 1981.  Bulgaria managed to put their Bulgaria 1300 satellite in orbit around Earth.  It was the first satellite the Bulgarians launched into space.  Bulgaria 1300 had many different kinds of sensor payloads on board the satellite, and if you’re interested in them, please go to the wiki, here, to read about them.  The satellite is still orbiting the Earth 33 years later.  You can go to this site to check out where it is right now.

When asked how Bulgaria 1300 and the other satellites where selected for this particular poster, the response was that Broadbandwherever.net wanted to highlight country “firsts,” technology demonstrators, etc.  Basically anything that was interesting to highlight.  But they didn’t want to highlight too many, because the poster would become more crowded, and bigger.  So they did a bit of research, and then condensed it down to the bite-sized poster they have on their site.

This might explain why your favorite satellite isn’t on there (you DO have a favorite satellite, don’t you?).  Honestly, there are so many different satellites out there, especially small satellites launched during the past few years, it would be challenging to get them all on one poster.  But the poster works as it should, at least for me.  Who knew there were so many different countries out there with so many different satellites?  How many more will benefit from small satellite and cube satellite technology and launch their own inexpensive satellite?  This stuff will get more interesting, probably sooner than later.

Sounds like material for another poster later on.

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Posted in History, Interesting articles, Lessons, Space Operations

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The History of Soviet Space Dogskis

Posted on September 3, 2014 | Leave a comment

Image from the Guardian. Notice Strelka and Belka in the rocket’s windows?

There were a couple of Soviet space history posts published on The Guardian’s pages on 1 Sept.  Both talk about the dogs for the Soviet space program.  However, this one talks about the Soviet Union’s odd hero-worship of the dogs that were sent into space through their space program.  The post also mentions some of the reasons why dogs were considered a good fit for space testing in the USSR.  The program starts, of course, with Laika, who was launched in space in November 1957.  It was the second successful space launch of a satellite conducted by the Soviet Union.  The United States hadn’t even successfully launched their first satellite into space.

Not only had the Soviets launched a second satellite into space nearly a month after their Sputnik launch, but they launched a satellite with a living being on board.  That history-making being was Laika (Russian for “the barker”), the dog.  According to the post, the Russians admitted in 2002 that Laika did not survive more than a few hours after launch and suffocated.

But other dogs were also used by the USSR to forge ahead into space again in August 1960.  Two of them.  Belka (Little Squirrel) and Strelka (Little Arrow), orbited the Earth 18 times in a Vostok-1 spacecraft, then came back to Earth safely.  They were treated as heroes and toured the USSR.  They apparently lived long lives, and Strelka even had several litters of puppies.  In an odd side note, while Nikita Khrushchev was eating dinner with President and Mrs. Kennedy in June 1961, Khrushcheve bragged about Strelka’s litter of “space” puppies.  Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy joked about the possibility of Khrushchev sending a puppy to her.  Two months later, she received a space puppy from the USSR.

It seems that dogs tend to fare better than the geckos used in Russia’s more recent space experiments.  But it wasn’t all doggy heaven–the dogs unknowingly risked their lives during these experiments.  The Guardian’s post mentions two other dogs by name:  Chaika (Seagull) and Lisichka (Little Fox) were some of the unfortunates who died in the line of duty.  The post doesn’t really mention the other six dogs that also had died before Belka and Strelka, but it’s not the point of the post.

The fascinating hero-worship of the Soviet Space Dogs continues to be focused on in another fine Guardian post, too, this time showing the stamps, toys, postcards, and candies.  Pictures of their space dogs were posted proudly on all these items.  I seem to remember seeing some of these stamps in my earlier days.  I thought they were nifty then, and they are definitely fun to peruse now.  Please go to the Guardian’s page to enjoy the pictures of the Soviet dogs as they help sell some sugary snack to some Soviet citizen.

These dogs helped with Soviet space programs until 1966.  They were pioneers, if not in space, then for manned space programs, taking risks that human astronauts would not.  Plus, they’re kind of cute.  No wonder the Soviets adored them.

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Posted in History, Lessons, Soviet Space History

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