The Technologies That Revolutionized Space Exploration | Zenith Compilation | Spark

foreign arguably the most significant scientific instrument in history has been the Hubble Space Telescope it has changed our understanding of the universe yet it has posed serious new questions about the nature of matter itself Hubble has confirmed the widespread distribution of black holes and has viewed light from Galaxy's more distant than anything previously seen as well as its scientific discoveries are the stunning images [Music] [Music] in 1609 Galileo built an early telescope and soon turned it to the night sky the telescope was a powerful tool that led to a complete re-evaluation of the Earth's place in the universe [Music] in 1668 Newton invented the reflecting telescope to eliminate the problem of uneven refraction of the different wavelengths of light the reflecting telescope became the design of choice for astronomers and in 1781 William Herschel used an instrument he had built himself to discover the planet Uranus the Newtonian telescope was scaled up to immense proportions and in 1924 it was with the 2.5 meter hooker telescope at the Mount Wilson Observatory that Edwin Hubble realized the Milky Way was not the universe but just one of countless galaxies [Music] there was still a problem no matter how mathematically perfect a telescope is its images are distorted by the Earth's atmosphere and some wavelengths cannot reach the ground in 1946 astrophysicist Lyman Spitzer proposed a telescope in orbit above the Earth's atmosphere the idea clearly outstripped the technology of the time but by 1966 NASA began launching a series of orbiting astronomical observatories only two were successful but the telescopes in low earth orbit were the first to see the night skies in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum in the 1970s plans were drawn up for a large orbiting telescope part of its brief was for it to be visited regularly by maintenance Crews something that would become possible when the space shuttle went into service the design called for a 2.4 meter primary mirror ground within very fine tolerances because it was required to function well into the ultraviolet Spectrum [Music] originally known as the large Space Telescope it was slated for launch in 1979 but delays in construction led to several postponements and the Challenger disaster led to more delays in 1983 the name Hubble Space Telescope was adopted in honor of the man who confirmed that the Universe was expanding finally in April 1990 Hubble was ready for launch South depression water system has started 13 seconds 2 minus 10 go for main engine start we are go for main engine start D minus six five four three two one and lift off of the Space Shuttle Discovery with the Hubble Space Telescope our window on the universe Hubble has a unique relationship with the space shuttle which would revisit the telescope on five different occasions at this stage nobody understood just how vital these missions would be [Music] Ploy Hubble the Shuttle Discovery set a new altitude record of more than 600 kilometers release of the telescope was routine it took several weeks methodically checking Hubble's control and communication systems before astronomers working at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore could see Hubble's first images were disappointing images were blurred the telescope's mirror had been accurately ground but to the wrong shape an incorrectly assembled test instrument had been relied upon during manufacture and nobody had double checked soon a fix was proposed because the error was understood a corrective device could be fitted to the telescope a series of small mirrors would compensate for the primary mirror's defect it was called co-star another of those cumbersome NASA acronyms training astronauts for the job of accurately installing co-star began the high-speed photometer would be scrapped to make room for it in addition to correcting the Optics a number of other modifications were set in train a new wide field planetary camera would be installed the original was obsolete the telescope's solar panels would be replaced there would be a new electronics processor extra magnetometers and two gyroscopes would be replaced ten nine here we have a go for main engine start and we have liftoff liftoff of the Space Shuttle Endeavor on an ambitious mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope finally in December 1993 the mission to repair Hubble began three days to catch up with Hubble and it was clear from the beginning that one solar panel was damaged the work on the telescope was considerable and there were five spacewalks scheduled firstly the shuttle's robotic arm grabbed the Hubble so it would remain stable while the work was carried out the work would be shared between two teams of two astronauts over five days the allocated tasks were carried out with the Space Telescope operations control center monitoring the Hubble's performance as each new component came online most of the parts replaced were stowed in the cargo bay for return to Earth the one exception being the damaged solar panel which was set adrift in space all five spacewalks went according to plan with the only major problem being the difficulty involved in closing the telescope's doors on the ninth day of the mission Hubble was released it would take control as on the ground another month to fully check the telescope's new systems Hubble had been repaired in December 1993 yet it would take close to two months for technicians on the ground to run through a complex series of optical alignments before they could be certain that the telescope was performing correctly when astronomers finally saw results they were stunned at the Quality it was delivering [Music] [Applause] a repair Mission had been successful with the services of a powerful new tool finally at their disposal astronomers at the Space Telescope Science Institute began addressing a pressing List of Demands for time on Hubble in March 1993 a comet had been discovered orbiting Jupiter its path suggested that it had only recently been captured by Jupiter's gravitational and that it would soon crash into the planet no one had ever seen a collision between bodies within the solar system and opinions differed about how visible the impact would be soon Hubble captured this image of a chain of fragments Comet Shoemaker Levy 9 had been Shattered by Jupiter's gravitation the fragments ranged in size from several hundred meters to several kilometers across over six days in July 1994 Hubble observed the pieces crash into Jupiter's unlit face as the planet revolved the impact region showed a series of black swirls some of the Dark Shadows were as large as the Earth and they persisted in Jupiter's atmosphere for months spectral analysis from Hubble revealed diatomic sulfur and carbon disulfide these had never been seen at Jupiter yet the amounts detected were too great to have come in with the comet they had been stirred up from the planet's interior scientists learned so much from observing these impacts yet the observations almost didn't happen just days before the first impact was due Hubble began acting unpredictably and then went into safe mode it would not execute any of its instructions technicians suspected a memory problem and took measures to switch across the new memory installed on the recent service mission things started to improve until the spacecraft reported it had entered zero gyro some point it appeared that two gyroscopes had failed and the situation had dramatically deteriorated the problem was traced to a counter that had run out of numbers with which to count the issue was understood and quickly resolved the incident underlined just how complex the operations of the Hubble would be and that the ground Engineers still had to learn how to operate the new hardware [Music] though Hubble functions as a telescope it is also a spacecraft that must be controlled with exquisite accuracy unlike other spacecraft it has no thrusters chemical residue from rocket engines would quickly contaminate the Precision Optics to enable it to move Hubble has four reaction control Wheels as they spin the telescope will rotate in the opposite direction each one has a mass of 45 kilograms and they are controlled by the telescope's computer combinations of spin in any three wheels will allow the telescope to point accurately in any direction they are mounted in angled pairs around Hubble's center of gravity in 1997 on the space telescope's second servicing mission one of the reaction control Wheels was replaced it had developed an electrical fault so that Hubble can remain pointed accurately three fine guidance sensors positioned toward the back of the telescope will lock onto any of a series of bright guide Stars Hubble only needs two guidance sensors to point with accuracy they are so sensitive they can detect wobble in the motion of closer Stars the third vital aspect of the telescope's pointing system is its ability to detect the rate and direction of its movement Hubble Is equipped with six gyroscopes that register its orientation these are essential when pointing the telescope in a New Direction a gyro spin at 19 200 RPM and they do wear out this is why there are six units even though when designed Hubble only needed three to function properly with new algorithms Hubble can now point with only two Gyros though less accurately work has been done to enable it to work at reduced capacity with only one gyroscope [Music] Hubble can point with an accuracy better than two millionths of one degree this ability to stay fixed on one narrow region of the sky for a very long time LED astronomers to perform a unique observation for 10 days in 1995 they pointed Hubble at a small empty region of the sky near the constellation Ursa Major [Music] to some this was Folly of what is the valuable observation type results astounded everyone this empty part of the sky was packed with irregular shaped galaxies some were as old as 13 billion years Hubble had looked back in time at the formation of new galaxies in a range of shapes not seen closer to our own Milky Way thank you it became known as the Deep Field survey it was the first of a series of similar explorations of areas of the sky in which nothing had previously been seen animators have added depth to these images by using spectral information known as redshift which indicates a body's distance from Earth [Music] this was a completely new area of astronomy and it was one reason why Hubble had been built but the Space Telescope was already running into design constraints Engineers began to work on equipment that would upgrade the telescope's performance in the near infrared part of the spectrum this would be fitted during the next servicing Mission along with updated support equipment such as a solid-state recorder which would replace the original reel-to-reel recorder yet even at this early stage of Hubble's life astronomers were realizing its limitations the distant galaxies it had seen were approaching the extent of its view in the infrared end of the spectrum even with enhancements the telescope could not be kept cold enough to observe the large redshift wavelengths revealing very old very distant objects [Music] plans were drawn up for a new larger telescope known as the Next Generation Space Telescope that could explore the most distant parts of the universe but there was still plenty that Hubble could do better than any other telescope and there appeared no reason that it wouldn't continue being refitted with the latest technology as it became available [Music] early in 1997 the Space Shuttle Discovery visited Hubble for a second servicing Mission astronauts fitted new instruments to improve its reach into the infrared in 1999 Discovery again visited Hubble this Mission had been brought forward as four of the gyroscopes had failed and the telescope had gone into safe mode three two one and liftoff of space shuttle Columbia to broaden our review of the universe through the Hubble Space Telescope in 2002 Columbia lifted off with a new instrument the advanced camera for surveys it would replace the faint object camera the last of Hubble's original instruments when it departed Hubble was again in Peak condition less than a year later at the close of its next mission Columbia burned up during re-entry foam insulation had come loose during launch damaging thermal protection tiles after an exhaustive search for debris and a thorough inquiry it was decided that the shuttle system was aging it would be retired upon completion of the International Space Station all other missions were ruled out [Music] for the Hubble Space Telescope this was a death sentence in the corridors of power Hubble had friends the sheer beauty of images from the telescope gave it a public profile and key Senators began campaigning for one last servicing mission after a new administrator took charge at Nasa a final shuttle flight to Hubble was reinstated work began on what would amount to a rebuild of Hubble's operational systems as well as another update of scientific instruments new fine guidance sensors would be fitted all gyroscopes would be replaced and a new set of batteries would replace the originals that Hubble was still using within the Imaging spectrograph a power supply had failed and training began to open up the unit and replace an Electronics board the advanced camera for surveys had also malfunctioned and its repair work was seen as even more detailed because the shuttle now had to operate with a backup and because Atlantis could not reach the International Space Station from Hubble's orbit the shuttle Endeavor was prepared for a rescue mission on the 11th of May 2009 Atlantis sat on NASA's pad 39a ready for Hubble's final servicing mission this was to be the most complex servicing Mission it had to deliver the longest possible life for the orbiting telescope the 14-day operation went according to plan when problems arose they were solved and Hubble was eventually released as the best telescope it had ever been [Music] on the ground astronomers from the Space Telescope Science Institute waited for the first pictures from Hubble's new or sensitive instruments this means the telescope can operate more efficiently needing less observing time than earlier incarnations team was quick to release examples of the new generation images in the Eagle Nebula The Pillars of Creation thousands of light years from Earth immense clouds of hydrogen and dust are giving birth to new stars the five galaxies of Stefan's quintet in the Pegasus constellation four of these are colliding [Music] [Applause] sixteen thousand light years from Earth Omega Centauri in the constellation Centaurus is a globular cluster Stars here are so densely packed that on average there is just one tenth of a light year between them [Music] while Hubble has been adding to its list of discoveries everyone understands that without further servicing the telescope will eventually die that slow death has already started and it's the gyroscopes that are failing Engineers have been careful operating just three Gyros keeping the other three as spares by mid-2018 three of the units had ceased functioning as the last of the three gyroscopes held in reserve was brought online it misbehaved and all science operations of the telescope were suspended by recycling power to the unit a measure akin to switching it off and back on normal function resumed as further Gyros fail the telescope will use its star trackers to help it Point accurately Hubble is expected to function well into the 2020s by which time a new Space Telescope should be in orbit the Next Generation Space Telescope is now called the James Webb Space Telescope named after NASA's Apollo era administrator the telescope has been completed and is undergoing exhaustive checks before it is launched it has a giant mirror of 18 hexagonal segments that is folded before deployment compared with Hubble it is huge yet the complete spacecraft weighs considerably less than Hubble NASA built the web telescope in collaboration with the European and Canadian space agencies and it will launch on an Ariane 5 from the European Spaceport in Kuru French Guyana it will orbit at the second sun earth lagrangian point a place 1.5 million kilometers from the night side of the Earth where the telescope can maintain a stable position a large very thin sun shield will protect the James Webb allowing the optical components of the telescope to cool to around 50 degrees Kelvin its operational temperature must be very low to allow it to see deep into the infrared end of the spectrum the mid infrared instrument needs to be colder still a cooler using helium as its refrigerant will enable the sensor to function at just seven degrees Kelvin the web Space Telescope is designed to build on the work of Hubble by seeing further back to the earliest emergence of galaxies stars and exoplanets from the moment a rocket lifts off it is tracked and monitored all vital performance characteristics are relayed back to the ground via telemetry huge distances a probe must be able to communicate on Earth to pick up these signals we use parabolic dishes they range in size from small domestic units for television reception to the Giants of the deep space Network without these almost any space flight would be pointless [Music] thank you [Music] the very first artificial satellite Sputnik was designed with four whip antennas and two radio transmitters Soviet Engineers saw its main function as announcing to the world that it was there it transmitted A continuing series of beeps ham radio operators around the world could detect the signal very few realized that the beeps varied in duration according to the temperature and pressure within the sphere the signals could also be analyzed for Clues to the ionosphere's electron density foreign [Music] cosmonauts and astronauts were orbiting the planet when John Glenn made the Mercury program's first orbital flight 18 different tracking and Communications posts were set up along his spacecraft's ground track as well as local staff NASA provided each ground station with its own capsule Communicator a flight engineer and a flight surgeon special tracking ships were deployed to maintain Communications and monitor Telemetry while the spacecraft was crossing the ocean but even so the network had blind spots where the spacecraft Was Out Of Reach [Music] for the Soviets communication was even more difficult during their early space flights there were no tracking ships and their terrestrial stations were all in the Soviet Union when the Soviet Union launched lunik 1 in 1959 it was intended to hit the Moon it missed and became the first craft to achieve solar orbit because it required special tracking infrastructure and was not monitored outside Russia many in the United States refused to believe that spacecraft had even been launched at the time the world's largest radio telescope was the Mark 1 installation at jodrell Bank in the UK soon the Russians began sending detailed information about finding their probes to jodrell bank as a means of independently verifying their missions in the early days of the Space Race the Soviet Union had big plans for deep space missions in 1959 construction work began on the pluton facility in the Crimea the other Soviets did not enjoy the financial resources of the United States they were not lacking in Enterprise the pluton receiver consisted of eight dish antennas welded onto pieces from the hulls of two War Surplus submarines they were mounted on a steerable frame made from the truss work of a Railway Bridge to point the dishes with accuracy the designer evgeny gubenko employed the mechanism from the gun turret of a scrapped battleship the system worked well and remained in service till 1978. it had become clear to the space powers that communication support for low Earth orbiting satellites was very different to that needed for probes traveling into deep space deep space missions require much larger more sensitive dishes with powerful transmission capabilities yet these probes position in the sky changes more due to the Earth's rotation than it does because of the craft speed so while the dish has the point with great accuracy it does not have to move very rapidly satellites in low earth orbit pass close so a smaller dish is adequate but it must move rapidly to maintain a precise focus on its Target craft in the United States corporations were taking an interest in a huge new type of satellite researchers were interested in using an orbiting balloon to relay radio signals across continents true one zero project Echo launched its first inflatable satellite in 1960. a telephone call from President Eisenhower was relayed from Washington to California by bouncing signals off the balloon which acted as nothing more than a reflector in 1962 U.S phone company at T Built Telstar it was the first electronic relay satellite [Music] launched by NASA in July 1962 Telstar was the first commercially funded satellite Europeans tuning in to see President Kennedy got baseball and then the presidential press conference I understand that part of today's press conference is being relayed by the Telestar Communications satellite then French singer Eve Montour sang a song to the U.S [Music] as far as it went it was a success but telstar's low orbit meant it was only available for 20 minutes every two and a half hours until star's life was cut short as a result of the Cold War both the Soviet Union and the United States have been detonating thermonuclear weapons above the atmosphere to determine whether this was a viable anti-missile strategy [Music] from tests in the Pacific they discovered that an immense pulse of gamma radiation triggered positive ions and recoil electrons that took out electrical systems in Hawaii and New Zealand destroyed at least three satellites and damaged several others among them Telstar in October 1963 U.S President John Kennedy added his signature to a treaty with the Soviet Union Banning nuclear testing in space the first telecommunications satellite that resembled today's technology was intelsat 1 also known as early bird it orbited above the equator at the same rate as the Earth's spin which allowed it to hold a static position it could relay one TV channel or 240 telephone calls [Applause] it was the beginning of the space businesses most profitable industry estimates put satellite telecommunications revenues for 2019 a 2.4 trillion US Dollars geosynchronous orbits make ground stations much simpler without the need to track a Target across the sky today there are at least 240 active satellites in Equatorial orbit at geosynchronous altitudes not all our Communications platforms weather satellites also find this orbit useful having an uninterrupted view of a complete hemisphere [Music] the craft must be carefully spaced to avoid collisions and radio frequency interference the international telecommunications Union coordinates the orbital slots and frequency allocations and satellites nearing the end of their useful life must retain enough fuel to boost themselves into a graveyard orbit to prevent overcrowding there is clutter caused by spent upper stages and old satellites another highly specialized group of communication satellites is also stationed in geosynchronous orbit NASA currently operates 10 tracking and data relay satellites tdras originally designed to provide a continuous Communications link for shuttle missions tedris supports many near-earth satellites as well as the International Space Station the Hubble Space Telescope and some military applications similarly Esa has launched two of what will be a group of four data relay platforms to provide a continuous link with near-earth satellites instead of transmitting to ground stations only visible for brief parts of every orbit many satellites now send signals up to a data relay spacecraft that can see it for half of each orbit a network of relay satellites around the globe gives continuous coverage all major space agencies have been experimenting with data Transmissions via lasers but the edrs system is the first commercial application of optical Communications between spacecraft current laser Communications techniques between satellites deliver data at 1.8 gigabits per second 30 times greater than conventional radio links however weather-related problems inhibit reliable laser connections between spacecraft and Earth transmission back to the ground is via microwave radio in the KA band while this is fast it is still slower than the laser data rates but the signal can be split into several streams and sent simultaneously Europe's Copernicus system is a major beneficiary of the near real-time data available via the edrs system Copernicus is an earth observation program relying on a series of Sentinel satellites that send back continuous streams of data about the land the oceans and the atmosphere the Copernicus program is not a limited project it is designed to collect authoritative data about planetary changes over the long term to do this The Sentinel satellites are in low north-south orbits allowing them to see the Earth's entire surface every 24 hours this polar orbit is common to every Earth observing satellite but not every satellite has access to the edrs communication system nor do they generate the vast amounts of high-resolution data that requires it most satellites following a polar track rely on the Polar receiving installations that they pass above every Orbit on the Norwegian archipelago of svalbard the svalsat installation has 31 raid ohms to track and download data from satellites in polar orbit to relay the information to the outside world twin Fiber Optic Cables each handling 10 gigabits per second connects falbard to the Norwegian mainland koenigsberg the company that operates the facility for the Norwegian government runs a smaller station in Antarctica there are close to 1 900 operational satellites in Earth orbit with a further three thousand still orbiting as space junk but there are as many as 20 000 fragments from spent boosters and debris from collisions that must be tracked operational satellites are routinely moved when an object approaches on a dangerous course if this picture appears crowded it is about to become a lot more complex the U.S Federal Communications Commission recently gave rocket company SpaceX approval to launch 12 000 new satellites for its starlink broadband internet service current satellite internet services rely upon a very few large Platforms in geosynchronous orbit typical users are in remote locations and while costs are coming down and speeds are improving latency or response time is sluggish the starlink model has thousands of small satellites in low earth orbit cross-linked via high-speed lasers the satellites will be able to adjust their orbital path autonomously to avoid collisions the company launched its first batch of test satellites in May 2019 the second group launched in November 2019 consisted of 60 operational satellites for one company to increase the number of functioning spacecraft by a factor of six cost is critical the satellites are being mass produced in a flat pack form with a single solar panel 60 will stack neatly within the fairing of a falcon 9 launch vehicle [Music] starlink satellite design is pushing the latest technology to its limits links to the ground are via a phased array enabling a steerable beam without the need for moving parts maneuverability comes from a hall effect Thruster using Krypton as its propellant when released from the booster the satellites do not require dispensing Hardware they are pushed away by Springs and apparently haphazard fashion at this stage they can even bump each other and are designed to withstand the impact [Music] [Applause] quickly the satellites or intake themselves and begin spreading along their orbital path at this point they can be seen in the pre-dawn or just after sunset research astronomers are not happy about the huge number of satellites soon to be in orbit by 2024 there should be 11 927 starlink satellites orbiting at seven different heights the only satellite constellation remotely similar is the Iridium next system with 66 satellites cross-linked via the KA band they're designed to provide Global cell phone coverage and in 2018 the Iridium company finished the replacement of all its first generation spacecraft the upgrade cost iridium three billion dollars for 200 times more satellites SpaceX has budgeted 10 billion dollars iridium had to pay Tyler salania to design and build 81 satellites there are spares both in orbit and on the ground foreign SpaceX to launch those satellites in batches of 10. with starlink the company will take advantage of its own drive to reduce expensive launch services SpaceX builds its own satellites and its own Rockets so it will only pay cost for hardware and delivery recovery of first stage boosters is now routine which takes a large chunk out of launch costs and the protective fairings always regarded as throwaway items are now fitted with steerable parachutes for retrieval and reuse saving a further five million dollars per flight what will give starlink its Edge is its improved latency in most cases the system should give even better latency figures than fiber optic connections on the ground let alone the half second delay built into systems that send signals 35 000 kilometers up to and back from geosynchronous platforms for stock markets reliant on high frequency trading microseconds make a significant difference SpaceX believes people around the world will want the service one web and Amazon's project Kuiper have announced plans to develop their own low Earth orbiting Broadband systems but with just the smallest fraction of the Starling constellation in orbit astronomers are starting to worry survey telescopes that use time exposures to map the skies looking for anomalies like approaching asteroids or exploding stars have recorded Dusk and Dawn images marred by starlink satellites researchers from the large synoptic survey telescope currently under construction in the Jillian Andes have run simulations suggesting that as the starlink constellation takes shape certain observation times will be unproductive yet the starlink Venture itself is still a risk satellite businesses like teledesic and skybridge both with big plans went under and SpaceX leader Elon Musk admits that success with starlink is far from a sure thing [Music] Communications with very distant exploratory spacecraft are governed by different parameters the New Horizons probe launched in 2006 is equipped with the most advanced digital technology ever to reach deep space while its primary target was the dwarf planet Pluto it passed Jupiter in 2007 for a gravitational boost to its speed at Jupiter a mere 2.3 billion kilometers from Earth it transmitted images at 38 kilobits per second that's slightly slower than an old acoustic telephone modem at these distances signal strength from New Horizons was weak and only the 35 and 70 meter dishes in NASA's deep space Network were used for receivers even so the data rate was slowed to deliver a coherent signal sending commands to the spacecraft is an exacting process all instruction code is Thoroughly reviewed by different teams before being tested on a simulator only then are they sent to the spacecraft because the environment around Pluto was so poorly understood controllers on the ground relied on preliminary images returned by the spacecraft to make a hazard search distant encounter observations commenced seven months before its close pass as New Horizons approached Pluto in 2015 it had at least 16 different science objectives along with spacecraft control and data management procedures all pre-programmed there could be no last minute Corrections the spacecraft was traveling at more than 49 000 kilometers per hour and signals from Earth took close to four and a half hours to reach the New Horizons probe during the critical close approach there was a 22-hour radio silence because the spacecraft could only make its scheduled observations with its High Gain antenna angled away from the Earth everything was committed to the eight gigabytes of storage in the primary data recorder to retrieve that data took 16 months at a distance of 4.7 billion kilometers the New Horizon data rates were down to two kilobits per second only the 70 meter dishes in NASA's deep space Network could detect the signal and they could not work exclusively with New Horizons Horizons kept going into the icy debris field known as the Kuiper belt even as it was still transmitting data from its Pluto encounter Engineers on the ground formulated a series of course adjustments that would take it past object mu-69 the first time a probe was targeted at a body unknown when the craft was launched in January 2019 New Horizons encountered the Kuiper belt object arakoth formerly known as ultimatouille at a distance of 6.6 billion kilometers data from the spacecraft took 6 hours and seven minutes to reach Earth and the data rate had dropped to 500 bits per second still trickling in finally the most distant probe is Voyager 1. it was launched in 1977 and is now outside the solar system at a distance of 22 billion kilometers the probe transmits data as it is registered and the deep space Network tries to gather at least 16 hours per day of the data stream that comes in at 160 bits per minute this is roughly equivalent to a telegrapher sending Morse code the International Space Station is a laboratory that orbits the earth once every 90 minutes it's the most expensive single project ever constructed jointly owned and operated by the United States Russia Europe Japan and Canada the ISS is a Triumph of international collaboration but it didn't start that way and during its planning phase it came close to being dumped [Music] [Music] tonight I am directing NASA to develop a permanently manned space station and to do it within a decade it was 1984 toward the end of the Cold War when President Ronald Reagan unveiled his plan before the Congress it was soon called space station freedom but details were sketchy and plans kept changing NASA saw a space station as their next logical step the space shuttle had been designed with on-orbit construction as one of its primary functions on a cold morning in January 1986 the space shuttle Challenger was being prepared for its 10th flight [Music] now there's no problem all Seven astronauts were killed and the shuttle program was suspended just one month later cosmonauts began occupation of Mir the new Soviet space station the Soviet Union had a long-standing interest in extended duration space flights with its solute space stations and with Mir the Russians were gaining valuable experience in microgravity research and on-orbit construction as the 80s progressed Mir expanded using modular fabrication techniques they began experimentation with automated docking systems new modules were delivered by the proton launcher with the progress cargo ship used for resupply [Music] NASA's shuttle Fleet remained grounded while an exhaustive inquiry was conducted and space station Freedom was stuck on the drawing board in 1989 discontent in Poland spread across the Eastern Bloc leading to the fall of the wall that had divided Germany two years later the Soviet Union itself was dissolved followed by social and economic turmoil Moscow was now the capital of the Russian Federation a one-party democracy [Music] the mere crew e0-10 arrived at the space station as Soviet citizens and would return to the ground as Russians the country's new space agency Ross cosmos had had its budget slashed by 80 percent and there was no money to launch two newly completed modules in 1988 NASA had resumed shuttle flights but with the fall of the Soviet Union interest among U.S politicians in space station Freedom was at an all-time low Roger Royal Discovery NASA now began working with Ross Cosmos in the shuttle mayor program the Russians would benefit from an injection of badly needed funds and the Americans would gain expertise in long duration space flight astronauts learned Russian and began riding to orbit in the soyuz cosmonauts learned English during the program ten cosmonauts flew on the space shuttle and eight Americans served as crew members aboard Mir with the shuttle docking with the Russian space station nine times Ross cosmos had begun work on a replacement mere 2 project completing the functional cargo block and the Dos 8 habitation module but lack of funding forced the agency to shelve the plan NASA convinced the cash-strapped Russian Federation to come in on their project Europe Japan and Canada were also involved in what was now called the International Space Station the functional cargo block was renamed zarya and became the first piece of the International Space Station delivered to orbit in November 1998. zarya was launched from Kazakhstan with an orbital inclination of around 50 degrees this set the orbit for the International Space Station the space shuttle would deliver the bulk of the modules from here on NASA knew that this orbit would give the shuttle problems launched from Florida the shuttle usually orbited at 30 degrees to reach the steeper inclination with any meaningful payload the shuttle needed more power or it had to lose weight a redesign of the cargo bay delivered some weight savings but the construction missions could only be achieved with a new external tank made from a new lightweight alloy we have a go for main engine start we have main engine start four three two one we have booster ignition and liftoff of the Space Shuttle Endeavor with the first American element of two weeks after the launch of zarya the Space Shuttle Endeavor lifted the unity node to orbit you need space center toward a 240 Mile High rendezvous with the zarya control module in preparation the crew connected the unity node to the shuttle's airlock and using the shuttle's robotic arm they United the two modules the crew entered the space station for the first time and stowed equipment but no one would take up residence just yet construction work had just started [Music] it was 18 months before the arrival of the next module Z Vegeta the Russian habitation module docked automatically with the zarya module in October 2000 the Space Shuttle Discovery arrived with more pieces during four spacewalks the crew installed a structural truss and Communications equipment [Music] finally in November 2000 the first crew Expedition 1 launched from bikaner [Music] Cosmonaut Yuri gagenko was commander of the soyuz spacecraft astronaut Bill Shepard was the commander of the team once they were on the International Space Station and Sergey krikalev the most experienced member of the crew was flight engineer [Music] much of the crew's daily activity was devoted to the unpacking and installation of equipment there are always problems that need to be solved and maintenance to be carried out [Music] in microgravity muscles lose tone one of the first pieces of equipment to be set up was an exercise bike every crew member is required to do two and a half hours of cardio exertion every day [Music] unlike later missions Expedition 1 carried out very little scientific research at this stage the station's primary laboratory module was still on the ground [Music] but that would soon change crew of the Space Shuttle Atlantis delivered the laboratory module called destiny it was a radical increase in capability for the space station [Music] the laboratory is equipped with 13 International standard payload racks that can house a variety of different experiment modules but at this stage they were empty the destiny module and a new much larger solar array the International Space Station was taking shape a precisely organized launch schedule was unfolding and it was expected that the space station would be complete by 2006. in November of 2002 the Space Shuttle Endeavor took off carrying the Expedition 6 crew plus a new piece of the Space Station's superstructure and two tons of supplies turning to the ground no one realized that it will be the last time a cosmonaut would fly on the shuttle and that construction work on the ISS would be suspended for more than two years Columbia Houston Comcheck when the space shuttle Columbia broke up during re-entry to the Earth's atmosphere all remaining shuttles were grounded Columbia Houston UHF Comcheck 81 seconds after launch foam insulation separating from the external tank had damaged the left wing and from that point Colombia was doomed the investigation board had no confidence that the entire space shuttle Fleet could be safely operated for more than a few years calling the shuttle an aging spacecraft with shuttle flights suspended construction work on the International Space Station stopped replacement Crews were cut to two members the Russian progress freighter was the only method of delivering supplies to the ISS and All crew rotations used the soyuz spacecraft what started out as America's space station Freedom was now completely Reliant upon Russian technology it would be more than three years before construction work on the space station recommenced in 2004 U.S President George Bush made a speech to an assembled group of NASA administrators our first goal is to complete the International Space Station by 2010. in 2010 the space shuttle after nearly 30 years of Duty will be retired from service the space shuttle would be restricted to work on the International Space Station where the crew could await rescue if their craft sustained damage scientific work was cut to a minimum with the small Cruise preoccupied with station maintenance fabrication work on the modules continued on the ground the Space Shuttle Discovery made the return to flight mission in 2005. before docking with the International Space Station it performed the Rendezvous pitch maneuver allowing the ISS crew to inspect the craft for damage it delivered supplies and equipment and returned safely to the ground Atlantis arrived 14 months later and after a break of almost four years construction work began again in what became known to NASA astronauts as the wall of Eva that extra vehicular activity it took 14 more shuttle assembly flights to bring the ISS to its current configuration if just one of the installation space walks was to fail it could threaten the entire project the schedule was relentless because the shuttle's days were numbered [Music] training for these assembly missions was intense NASA's neutral buoyancy laboratory was rigged with a mock-up of the ISS so astronauts could experience something akin to weightlessness while they practiced foreign Atlantis flew to the ISS on what was the final Flight of the shuttle Fleet the International Space Station was essentially complete although it continues to be reconfigured and New pieces can still be added its 16 pressurized modules have a volume equivalent to a five-room house including Laboratories storage spaces and habitation areas [Music] power comes from eight solar array Wings which track the Sun when the ISS enters the Earth's Shadow the solar Wings enter night glider mode where they are angled Edge onto the orbital Direction though the ISS orbits 400 kilometers above the Earth's surface there is enough thin atmosphere at that height to present drag night glider mode reduces this drag and minimizes orbital decay supplies of water oxygen food and Equipment are regularly delivered by unmanned cargo craft the Russian progress which is similar in appearance to the soyuz it docks by itself using the automated curves system it can also be docked manually if the need should arise like the soyuz capsule the progress freighter will remain docked long term as well as delivering supplies it can boost the station's orbit or it can transfer fuel for the station's thrusters ultimately filled with garbage it undocks to burn up in the atmosphere a Japanese space agency jaxa currently operates the largest cargo craft that still visits the ISS to top with the space station it approaches in stages until it's close enough to be grabbed by the robotic arm and connected to one of the births on the harmony node it has a pressurized Zone that can be unloaded by hand and there's an unpressurized area accessed by the robotic arm for cargo to be stored on pallets outside with the demise of the Space Shuttle NASA has turned to the private sector to fulfill its resupply commitments the cygnus freighter first visited the ISS in 2014. the SpaceX Dragon cargo craft first delivered supplies to the ISS in 2012. it is different from the other cargo craft in that it can return significant loads back to the ground experimental materials from the ISS can be in an earth-based laboratory within two days of leaving low earth orbit SpaceX is developing a dragon capable of carrying astronauts to low earth orbit the business of the International Space Station is research the study of fluid dynamics and Material Science in a microgravity environment simply cannot be done on the ground and the orbiting platform is the perfect place for Earth observation meteorological studies and astronomy the study of plant development in microgravity is of great interest one of the major areas of study is into the effects of prolonged weightlessness on the human body without the resistance provided by gravity muscles and Bone deteriorate partially offset by regular exercise the ISS is equipped with a treadmill a cycle ergometer and a resistive exercise device all are shock mounted so as not to pass vibration across the station the loss of bone mass shows up as raised calcium levels in the blood blood samples are taken regularly and stored at low temperature for later analysis the extra calcium can lead to kidney stones NASA and jaxa are cooperating in the study of an agent that can prevent these effects most astronauts on long-term missions complain about deterioration in their Vision which can persist for years after a flight distinct changes to the eye have been detected and ultrasound examinations of the eyes are done regularly foreign [Music] auts and cosmonauts are totally Reliant upon the technology of the ISS and it needs regular maintenance in August 2018 a small but steady drop in air pressure was noticed it was traced to the soyuz ms-9 capsule a two millimeter hole appeared to have been deliberately drilled a nasty rumors about sabotage began to spread made a recording from the soyuz to show the repairs and to quash stories about poor Morale on the space station as you see everything is calm we're living in harmony as always and all the experiments are going to plan later it was decided that a spacewalk to cut away some of the external insulation from the soyuz above the hole might deliver more clues about how the hole could have been made because the soyuz capsule is not designed for external maintenance and lacks handrails it was a challenging job for the cosmonauts you remember it was difficult slicing through the eight layers of the thermal blanket used to stabilize internal temperatures on the spacecraft from the inside it appeared that the hole had been repaired with glue which gave out after the soyuz had docked with the ISS it was thought that analysis of the glue which had more light on the mystery because the hole was in the habitation module it was no threat to the Craft's safe return the blanket which was left in a mess is also not required during re-entry Russian cosmonaut Sergey prokopiev European astronaut Alexander guest and American astronaut Serena anyon Chancellor had flown up on this spacecraft and would be returning home on it when maintenance or repair work has to be done outside the ISS on NASA Esa or jaxa modules the crew members with the required expertise have training in the use of the American spacesuit known as the Emu some crew members have training on the Emu and the Russian or land space suit those with experience in both say that the American suit is more flexible and comfortable yet it is very complex and takes a very long time to put on by contrast the Russian suit is simple to put on and is designed to be easily serviced by cosmonauts even the smallest equipment malfunction can be life-threatening when Esa astronaut Luca parmitano was installing cables outside the ISS Water started leaking into his helmet I feel a lot of water on the back of my head but I don't think it fits from my back are you sweating you working hard um they're sweating that feels like a lot of water Mission Control called him back inside but by the time he had reached the airlock he couldn't see and he couldn't hear his colleagues quickly got him inside and removed his helmet along with more than a liter of water later the empty suit was powered up and the fault was obvious the water was leaking from the suit's cooling system a report blamed Mission Control who assumed that the water was coming from the in-suit drinking water bag a crew will typically stay in orbit for around six months the arrival of a new crew means that for three other crew members their stay is coming to an end they board the same soyuz craft in which they traveled to orbit for the return to the surface undocking of the capsule is precisely timed it separates initially by the spring mechanism in the docking interface only at a safe distance from the ISS will the soyuz make the first of its separation Burns to avoid contaminating the space station at a point in the orbit opposite to their intended landing area the retroburn happens slowing the craft for its descent into the atmosphere [Music] this burn is precisely timed and lasts 4 minutes and 45 seconds but this at this stage The Descent capsule is still attached to the habitation and instrument modules in Kazakhstan a fleet of ground vehicles are heading for the landing Zone Medical Teams and Recovery Personnel from Ross Cosmos NASA and Esa are also in the air explosive bolts fire to separate the three parts of the soyuz during the heat of re-entry the crew are out of radio contact with the ground via the drogue Chute deploys further slowing the capsule and then the main chute on the ground the crew are lifted from the capsule they're experiencing gravity for the first time in months and it will take them months to return to normal [Music] they are carried through the snow and will soon return to their homes [Music] for a human to work in space he or she must have a spacesuit it protects the astronaut from the vacuum beyond the atmosphere supplying oxygen as well as insulation from the extremes of heat and cold the spacesuit has to have means of communication with the outside world and it must enable freedom of movement the modern space suit is the result of a long and Complex Evolution [Music] thank you [Music] long before humans had traveled to space aviators wanted to fly at Heights that could not support life in 1932 Auguste picar flew above 16 000 meters in a helium-filled balloon to stay alive Pika ascended in an aluminum pressure vessel fed with compressed air [Music] Spanish Aviator Emilio herreras came up with a different solution his stratospheric suit never flew it was an idea ahead of its time in the United States Aviator Wiley Post had supercharged his plane the Winnie may it could fly at 15 000 meters where the jet streams blow post knew he could save fuel and fly faster at that height so with the help of Tire maker BF Goodrich he devised the first serviceable pressure suit at this time even military aircraft were flying at much lower altitudes where the use of a simple oxygen mask was enough to ensure a pilot efficiency however as jet power was introduced operation ceilings lifted at high altitudes low ambient air pressure meant the oxygen mask would lift off the face when oxygen was fed to the pilot but pressures high enough to sustain life when bombers like the B-36 began long duration Missions at high altitudes they adopted pressurized crew compartments yet the pressure suit with a fully enclosed helmet was necessary as sudden cabin depressurization could be lethal in the 1950s partial pressure suits became common they had inflatable capstans that stopped blood draining to the legs under heavy g-forces avoiding blackouts air Crews hated them but figures showed they functioned more effectively when wearing them in 1955 a unique American spy plane made its first flight the following year the U2 began reconnaissance missions over the Soviet Union flying at 21 000 meters it was beyond the range of Soviet radar and neither jet fighters nor missiles could reach it pilots flying the U2 wore a new partial pressure suit the MC3 rather than save a pilot's life in case of sudden depressurization this suit was designed to be under pressure throughout the mission without it the Pilot's blood would boil as missile technology developed it appeared that human beings would be dispensed with as a weak link not able to cope with conditions imposed by the technology the U.S Air Force had different ideas they felt that a pilot could make better decisions than a guidance system and they began a research program using Hypersonic aircraft to learn about the problems associated with ultra high speed ultra high altitude operations the culmination of this program was represented by the X-15 a rocket-powered aircraft that could fly to the edge of the atmosphere [Music] because of its limited fuel load the X-15 was launched from beneath the B-52 bomber at an altitude of 15 000 meters the cabin of the X-15 was pressurized with nitrogen to reduce the risk of fire for the pilot a new full pressure flight suit known as the xmc-2 was developed two was pressurized with nitrogen a neck Dam excluded the nitrogen from the helmet which was fed with oxygen for life support this suit was the predecessor of NASA's most important space suits the x-15s set the speed record for a powered aircraft at well above 7 000 kilometers per hour and the altitude record at just over 107 000 meters the first real space suit was worn by Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in 1961 aboard vostok won he became the first man to orbit the earth his suit the sk-1 was to protect against capsule depressurization and to sustain him during ejection from his craft the vostok cosmonauts had to parachute to the ground because their capsules landed too heavily [Music] U.S space agency NASA had been working towards launching an American into space seven test pilots had been selected as the Mercury program's first group of astronauts the first attempt would be a short hop as the only booster available at the time the Redstone lacked the power to reach orbit foreign important part of the preparation involved the development of a spacesuit [Music] as a starting point NASA looked at the xmc2 used for X-15 flights and the Navy's Aviation pressure suit the mark IV both were full pressure suits [Music] NASA decided that the mark IV suit worn here by Alan Shepard was lighter and could be more easily modified for space flight the boot leather and the suit's gray outer covering would be replaced by aluminized nylon for greater thermal control and the helmet's rubber diaphragm surrounding the face was eliminated with oxygen now entering via a hose at the waist to help cool the suit [Music] for all six manned Mercury missions the mark IV suit performed well but the demands placed upon it were modest like most pressure suits at the time it served as a backup in the event of cabin pressure failure because this never happened on the Mercury flights this suit was only ever pressurized at launch [Music] in the early 1960s the Soviet Union space program was achieving an impressive list of firsts for the United States this was a source of national embarrassment in 1961 the new President John Kennedy had boldly proclaimed that America should land a man on the moon before the end of the decade and NASA was flooded with funds this was the beginning of the space race I don't think we ought to waste any money but I think we ought to do the job and this will be done in the decade of the sixth the Mercury program was terminated early in favor of a more complex series of missions with the aim of solving problems associated with sending a man to the Moon the Gemini program made use of a new two-man capsule boosted to orbit atop a modified nuclear missile Gemini required a new suit with new capabilities NASA now understood future missions would have to last much longer suits would have to be more comfortable and astronauts would have to leave their spacecraft in the vacuum of space Gemini controllers were planning the first spacewalk in the less open Soviet Union they were also preparing for a spacewalk Cosmonaut Alexei leonov was practicing with an inflatable canvas airlock in temporary weightlessness in an aircraft in a parabolic flight path she was wearing a new spacesuit the berkut designed to function outside his voscon spacecraft the airlock was needed because the new Vos God still did not have solid-state Electronics its thermionic valves needed air cooling so the capsule could not be evacuated [Music] in March 1965 Alexei leonov left the airlock on vosgod 2 to float freely in space it was another first for the Soviet Union [Music] soon his berkut space suit began ballooning to such an extent that leonov could not reach his camera's shutter release positioned on his leg it was not until after the fall of the Soviet Union that the full story became known the berkut space suit had expanded so much that leonov could not get back inside only by venting his spacesuit could the Cosmonaut regain entry to the vosgod capsule [Music] back at Nasa they heard that leonov's spacewalk had been a resounding success but they felt the Gemini program was catching up in June 1965 astronauts Jim mcdivitt and Ed White were preparing for the world's second spacewalk [Music] Gemini 4's launch went smoothly and on the third orbit Ed White left the capsule [Music] although they didn't know it the greater sophistication of the Gemini craft made this spacewalk much simpler than Alexi leonov's just two months earlier [Music] it was easy to depressurize the entire capsule so no airlock was needed and Ed White's spacesuit was fed through an umbilical connected to the spacecraft leonov carried his own oxygen in a backpack that made re-entry to the vosgod capsule that much harder [Music] within the structure of the Gemini suit was a mesh that prevented the ballooning problem experienced during the Russian spacewalk the first American Space Walk went so well that NASA assumed working in space presented few obstacles White's Joyride in space gave no indication of the difficulties that lay ahead [Music] the Gemini program had a number of goals and in December 1965 Gemini 6A and Gemini 7 achieved two of them Rendezvous and long duration flight the crew of Gemini 7 remained in orbit for 14 days Mission planners knew that staying in a spacesuit for two weeks would be a challenge so a new version of the g3c spacesuit called the g5c was worn by the Gemini 7 astronauts it replaced the pressure helmet with a zippered Hood and Frank Borman and Jim Lovell became the first people to remove their spacesuits in flight new technologies were being pioneered in the Gemini spacecraft and problems with the new systems often meant Gemini flights were only partially successful the capsule had to be capable of far more complex Maneuvers than its predecessor and longer duration missions required fuel cell technology for electric power in March 1966 Gemini 8 had successfully Rendezvous and then docked with a Target vehicle but a Thruster problem sent the linked craft into a spin the mission was immediately terminated the scheduled spacewalk did not take place and the craft landed in the Pacific half a world away from the planned landing area three months later Gemini 9 could not dock because its Target Vehicles fairing had not been jettisoned the scheduled spacewalk went disastrously wrong when Gene cernan inflated his suit he did not want to bend exhaustion and a fogging space helmet saw cernan called back inside he was overheating training for a spacewalk was limited to brief periods of weightlessness in an aircraft or being suspended in a special jig that moved via an air suspension system across a smooth floor neither provided anything like the real thing Engineers had realized that the current generation of spacesuit worked well sitting in a spacecraft but when doing strenuous work its air cooling system was inadequate new designs were already in train the next two Gemini flights both failed to demonstrate that an astronaut in a space suit could do meaningful work in space [Music] before the final Gemini flight a new training simulation was tried a mock-up of the Gemini craft docked to a Nagina Target vehicle was built in the McDonough School indoor pool an approximation of the true weightless environment it allowed astronaut Bas Aldrin to train for extended periods [Music] handholds were fitted to the outside of the spacecraft and the extra vehicular work assignments on Gemini 12 were a complete success it gave NASA planners the confidence to move to the Apollo program and the final stages in America's progress to its moon landing foreign by 1966 it was apparent that Apollo was well behind schedule the first manned Flight of the program had been delayed by almost a year because of Developmental problems with the Apollo spacecraft NASA was rushing to meet the 1969 moon landing deadline set by President Kennedy and privately summoned the astronaut Corps felt that the hurry was not good for the development of a new capsule foreign [Music] NASA had flagged changes to later models of the spacecraft but the early block 1 version would still carry a crew in the first manned mission to test systems in Earth orbit a new spacesuit was being developed for use on the later Moon missions but it would not be ready for Apollo 1 whose astronauts Gus Grissom Ed White and Roger Chaffee would wear a slightly different version of the Gemini gc4 suit [Music] All-American spacecraft had been pressurized with pure oxygen this had weight saving benefits and by exclusion of nitrogen found in natural air the danger of bubbles forming in the bloodstream during rapid decompression was eliminated though the pure oxygen environment presented of fire danger nobody had thought to check the real risks in January 1967 less than a month before the scheduled launch date the Apollo 1 Crew were in their capsule under simulated launch conditions with the craft being tested under its own power a spark triggered a fire and in seconds the crew were dead the inquiry into the fire found the astronauts had died of asphyxiation from carbon monoxide both the spacesuits and the cabin made extensive use of combustible materials for the program to continue everything would have to be redesigned Birch into the problems associated with a spacesuit that could be used on the moon had been going on since 1962. the new suit had to be rugged designers were still not sure what the lunar surface would present all previous suits had been fed with oxygen and power from an external source the moon suit had to be self-contained and the backpack supplying life support presented problems backpacks dimensions and weight were determined by extensive testing and designers of the life support battery and communication systems worked within strict parameters [Music] after the Apollo 1 tragedy flammable components had been removed and an outer layer of beta cloth of woven silica fiber coated with Teflon was added many different ways of simulating the moon's 1 6 gravity were trialled finally the a7l suit emerged with the outer layer a tight fitting suit with elbow wrist and knee joints of a bellows-like structure that maintained equal volume when bent allowed freedom of movement absent in previous suits beneath the pressure suit a light open weave layer was networked with fine tubes circulating cooling water this carried away excess body heat that earlier air-cooled suits are not coped with the pressure suit and the outer protective layer were joined together with the inner cooling garment remaining separate [Music] on Earth the whole suit weighed 35 kilograms with the backpack a further 60 kilograms the a7l that went to the Moon with the first three successful Apollo lunar missions and it performed flawlessly it continued to evolve as subsequent missions became more demanding the moon suit was robust and Apollo Astronauts had complete confidence in it no lunar Mission ever had a problem with the spacesuit [Music] s with the arrival of the Space Shuttle NASA was expecting to do serious work in orbit and it needed a new spacesuit the extra vehicular Mobility unit or emu is a direct descendant of the Apollo a7l its main difference is the rigid upper torso because they are used in a weightless environment the new suits could be heavier than the Apollo suit which operated in lunar gravity the Emu is not custom tailored for each user components are made in a range of sizes and are interchangeable parts are intended to have a useful life of around 15 years [Music] foreign with the shuttle NASA envisioned servicing satellites in low earth orbit but first it had to learn how to do simple tasks new technologies were combined with the spacesuit in 1984 astronaut Bruce McCandless using the manned maneuvering unit flew independently beside the space shuttle Challenger after four hours he returned safely the mmu was used for satellite recovery on two subsequent occasions with mixed results after the Challenger disaster NASA reviewed all aspects of safety and the mmu was retired as too risky technique emerged with foot restraints on the shuttle's robotic arm astronauts could be moved accurately to a site and have a stable work platform in 1990 the Hubble Space Telescope was launched unlike other satellites Hubble was designed to be visited by the space shuttle for regular maintenance and upgrades over a 16-year span there were five servicing missions to the telescope the first being to fix an error in its manufacture each servicing mission called for long and complex spacewalks EAS were all thoroughly rehearsed in NASA's neutral buoyancy Laboratory the astronauts are weighted so that they neither rise nor sink and all the large components that they handle are similarly neutral astronauts still have the perception of up and down in neutral buoyancy unlike in weightlessness in 1998 work commenced on the International Space Station a collaboration between the U.S Russia Europe Japan and Canada this was the type of project for which the space shuttle had been designed and the expertise that NASA's astronaut Corps had gained was to be put to use for on-orbit construction as the space station grew the Emu spacesuit was refined increased battery capacity was added so that small heaters in the gloves could keep astronauts fingers warm during passages through the Earth's shadow a new safety system was added to the Emu suits called safer the simplified maneuvering system is designed for emergencies in the rare event that a spacewalker becomes untethered from the space station it was first tested in 1994 but it has never been used for an actual emergency with the completion of the ISS in 2011 the space shuttle was retired this meant sole access to the orbiting laboratory was via the Russian soyuz spacecraft cosmonauts and astronauts where the Russian so-called flight suit during trips to and from orbit for maintenance and repair sorties outside the ISS crew will wear either the Emu or the Russian or land space suit many of the Europeans on board have training in the use of both the online space suit is very practical designed to be serviced on the space station it has a rigid torso with the helmet and visor joined to the suit and access is Vara rear hatch cosmonauts wear a water-cooled undergarment similar to the American suit [Music] unlike the American suit the Orland can be put on in just five minutes the MKS the latest version of the Orlan a cosmonaut can safely remain outside for seven hours [Music] and finally NASA is working on a new generation suit to meet its future needs called the pxs for Prototype exploration suit it also features a rear entry hatch the pxs has a more advanced life support system and is lighter a different version called the Z2 is being developed for use on the surface of Mars it allows a greater range of movement and its life support system will take less time to recharge although neither suit has yet been used in conjunction with its life support backpack one of the Sentinel Earth observing satellites they occupy low earth orbits that take them over the poles in similar orbits the Swarm satellites monitor changes in the Earth's magnetic field in a much higher orbit the goes weather satellite hovers above the United States it orbits at the same rate that the Earth revolves [Music] the New Horizons probe does not orbit anything it was launched on a flyby Mission past Pluto and it continues into the Kuiper belt satellites are expensive designed to operate at extreme temperatures in the vacuum of space they cannot be maintained they must perform faultlessly for years yet every satellite depends on the brute force and precision of a launcher to deliver it to an exact orbit launchers are expensive too they have varying capabilities and varying reliability but new developments in rocket technology are changing what can be achieved and how much it will cost foreign [Music] state-owned corporations launching their own satellites are over rocket Builders sell their services to commercial or government clients in October 2014 an Antares rocket built by orbital Sciences was set to Ferry supplies to the International Space Station [Music] the launchers are generally reliable but space is difficult there is still a seven percent failure rate this fundamental step of leaving the Earth's surface relies on a small group of international companies that build heavy lift Rockets the most iconic booster in operation today is the Russian soyuz it's not the biggest or most powerful launcher but its history stretches back to the earliest days of space exploration variants of the soyuz launcher have been in continuous production since 1957 and they have made more than 1 800 trips to orbit since the demise of the Space Shuttle The soyuz Remains the only human rated launcher in operation and both Esa and NASA rely on it to Ferry people to and from the International Space Station a direct descendant of the vostok launcher that sent the first man into space on the 12th of April 1961 Yuli Gagarin Rose to orbit on vostok 1 designed by sege Corolla the design featuring a central core surrounded by four strap-on boosters was originally conceived as the first nuclear missile but as Soviet Warheads became lighter the launcher was adapted for manned trips to low earth orbit today full variants of the soyuz launcher are in operation and they launch from four different sites many of the simple design features in the soyuz have contributed to its reliability and low cost it was estimated that Russia could launch 20 Expendable soyuz carriers for the cost of one space shuttle launch though the basic layout of the soyuz is still recognizable after 60 years it has evolved the design has seen several generations of engine upgrade with the guidance system continually being refined final assembly at the launch site sees the four distinctive boosters flanking the central core attached first in Russian they're known as carrots each booster and the core have one rocket motor discharging through four main fixed Chambers for guidance the boosters have two additional small swiveling nozzles on their outer edges while the core has four guidance nozzles with the boosters and Central core United the assembly is now lifted onto its specially adapted Railway truck at this stage it weighs just over 20 tons when it's fueled it will be more than 250 tons the full boosters are known as the first stage even though they ignite at the same time as the central core that's known as the second stage [Music] then if the assembly is taking place in Russia or Kazakhstan the third stage and the payload are fitted this is the gamma-ray astronomy satellite mikhailo lomonosov being prepared for the first launch from Russia's new cosmodrome at vastochni in Siberia the launcher and satellite are all assembled horizontally a technique that is straightforward and practical icono the original Soviet launch site is still leased by Russia from Kazakhstan rollout usually happens at dawn bikaner is the only launch site where the soyuz can carry a human payload all of the Soviet Union's history-making flights started from the baikonur cosmodrome the area's sparse population was one of the main reasons the Kazakhstan location was chosen the rocket is delicately moved towards the firing ring where it will be held in place by the four tulip petal arms it takes about one hour to bring the launch vehicle to the vertical as the lifting arm withdraws the four support arms are joined by Fuel and electrical umbilicals and two halves of the service gantry ground staff will have access to every part of the launcher and the cosmonauts will enter their spacecraft via this gantry technicians will spend the next two days checking the rocket and preparing it for launch when fully loaded with fuel its weight will increase by a factor of 15 to 305 metric tons soyuz carrier Rockets also launch from the European Spaceport at Kuru in Guyana and from here the rocket is erected without its payload because of the equatorial location the Earth's spin makes it easier to reach orbit the soyuz launched from Kuru can lift considerably heavier payloads to orbit than it could from a Russian launch site however kuru's tropical location has 10 times the annual rainfall of baikonur and a mobile Gantry that protects the rocket is necessary like the other European launchers the satellite is attached to the soyuz while it is vertical five hours prior to launch the fuel is gradually introduced the liquid oxygen boils at -182 degrees C and it is constantly replenished at 36 seconds the first umbilical Mast retracts leaving the rocket on internal power soon after the fuel connection swivels away and the Turbo pumps begin feeding Fuel and oxygen to the engines the engines are closely monitored as they are gradually brought up to full thrust this nerve with that this tag got what the uh particular liftoff a guidance computer in the third stage maintains the launcher's attitude via the Vernier nozzles around the first and second stage Chambers near the two-minute Mark the Boost has shut down and are jettisoned at 85 kilometers the payload fairing splits and Falls away five minutes after liftoff and at a height of 169 kilometers the third stage takes over to accelerate the satellite and its upper stage to escape velocity less than 10 minutes after launch the upper stage guides the satellite to its designated orbit while the rest of the launcher falls back to Earth the American Delta IV heavy is designed to orbit massive payloads or to hurl prob probes out of Earth orbit at incredible speeds [Music] when it first flew in 2004 it had the greatest lifting capability available the first and second stages as well as the two boosters are all powered by cryogenic hydrogen and oxygen it can lift more than 28 metric tons to low earth orbit the Delta IV heavy is made by the United launch Alliance a collaboration between Lockheed Martin and Boeing it was designed to meet U.S military requirements it has launched two NASA missions but its other eight launches have been classified reconnaissance satellites Services have not been sold to commercial clients [Music] recently a Delta IV heavy was prepared for perhaps its most significant launch it was mated with the Parker solar probe and its star upper stage the Parker probe will be the first satellite to fly into the sun's Corona and though its launch weight of just 685 kilos may seem puny for such a large launcher Parker must leave the Earth's orbit at near record speed after a brief period in a parking orbit the second stage reignited to break the bonds of Earth's gravity the final kick delivered by the solid-fueled upper stage gave the park a probe the second fastest departure from Earth and with the help of the Sun's gravity it will reach 668 000 kilometers per hour making it the fastest man-made object ever [Music] in 2001 SpaceX founder Elon Musk hatched a scheme to establish a greenhouse on Mars and began trying to buy a Russian launch system space industry laughed but they're not laughing now because he couldn't buy a rocket he built his own musk knew American launchers were too expensive and a little research convinced him he could undercut the established Aerospace Giants in design and manufacture SpaceX focused on Simplicity and reliability with a view to keeping costs down the Falcon 9 rocket and the dragon spacecraft packed in science and supplies for the International Space Station to mounted its home in 2012 SpaceX flew the first commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station SpaceX designed its own spacecraft the dragon to carry out these resupply missions to date SpaceX has completed 11 successful Supply trips to the ISS with seven more booked unlike all the other cargo ships that visit the space station the dragon is capable of returning to Earth [Music] the Falcon 9 the company's Workhorse was criticized because it has nine separate Rocket motors old rocket Engineers argued that there were too many moving Parts with a higher risk of failure [Music] the Merlin engine developed for the original Falcon 1 continues to be refined giving the Falcon 9 a steadily improving lift capacity past the speed of sound it's now subsonic soon it became clear what the multiple engines could achieve without its fuel load the spent first stage falling back through the atmosphere was very light and just one engine could enable a soft Landing if this worked it meant reusable stages would drastically cut the cost of launches [Music] landing on a remotely controlled barge required so many new techniques space experts were skeptical [Music] a landing leg had collapsed and was redesigned soon these return trips were routine though Landing capability reduced the maximum payload by 30 percent it also drastically reduced launch fees next came the Falcon heavy essentially three Falcon 9 strapped together in 16 years SpaceX had gone from laughing stock to builder of the world's most powerful launch vehicle foreign this first flight was to be a pure demonstration its dummy payload was Elon musk's red Tesla Roadster the car would go into orbit around the sun The Plan called for the two boosters to land back at Cape Canaveral the central core would return to a barge at sea potential customers were watching the demonstration closely and crowds who gather along the Florida coast to see a launch now wait to watch boosters returning the car rigged with cameras went into a solar orbit but in the missions one failure the central core missed its barge the U.S Air Force will be the Falcon Heavy's first paying customer the entry into the launch market of a company aggressively trying to reduce the cost of access to space is changing the space business today SpaceX Remains the only launch provider that openly publishes the cost of its services the Ariane 5 is the European space agency's heavy lift rocket it features a liquid oxygen liquid hydrogen first stage flanked by two solid fuel boosters 305 is not the most powerful launcher it holds the record for heaviest payload to geosynchronous transfer of orbit the equatorial launch site in Guyana makes orbits of low inclination easier to achieve and is an attractive feature for paying clients the Arion 5 ECA is the fifth and final version of the 5 series which will soon be replaced by the Ariane 6. a new version of the Volcan rocket engine is being developed for Ariane 6 which will be cheaper to build and to Launch new facilities are being constructed for the Ariane 6 at the Kuru Spaceport including a new vehicle Assembly Building which will see a change from vertical to horizontal integration but the Ariane 5 still has much to do 18 launches are scheduled before its replacement begins flight testing the stages are fabricated in Europe and cross the Atlantic by ship at the launch site the central stage is raised to the vertical slightly more than 30 meters long the core stage is essentially a fuel tank divided into two compartments with a rocket engine at its base each solid fuel booster arrives on its table in an upright position and pre-loaded with propellant the upper stage that will on this Mission deliver four Galileo navigation satellites to their target orbits is fitted [Music] the satellites clustered about a central dispenser are then attached to the upper stage before the fairing that protects them during the trip up through the atmosphere is lowered into place the Ariane on top of the launch platform begins its Journey at a snail's pace the Ariane 5 is operated by Ariana's face who have launched more than half the commercial satellites in operation today Russia's heavy lift proton launcher started its life in 1965. it was originally designed to carry a 100 Megaton thermonuclear weapon to Targets in the U.S it was never deployed as a missile instead evolving into a successful heavy launcher it delivered several modules to the International Space Station and one of its recent high-profile successes was the launch of the first exomars probe but the proton has not been without its problems developed during the Soviet era its manufacturer chronicev was reliant on the Ukraine for key components and when launched from baikonur the Kazakh government was not keen on the extremely toxic hypergolic fuel it used there are claims that acid rain falls after some launches and that parts of Russia and Kazakhstan are being poisoned by the unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine that powers the proton at baikonur in July 2013 a proton M was set to launch three Russian glonass navigation satellites foreign investigation found that the rate gyro package had been installed upside down it was not the only recent proton failure and questions about quality control were being asked though the proton still has launch commitments for several years it will be phased out foreign startup company space lab is poised for its first commercial launch their rocket called the electron can deliver light satellites to low earth orbit prices that completely undercut the rest of the market the launcher makes extensive use of carbon fiber in the construction of the tanks and space lab has developed an engine with a radically new fuel cycle named after physicist Ernest Rutherford the engine is largely constructed with 3D printing techniques the liquid oxygen rp1 fueled unit uses brushless electric motors to operate its turbo pumps instead of pre-burning fuel for the same purpose the battery is powering the process add weight but they save on fuel and give Engineers finer control when throttling the engine the launch site on New Zealand's North Island Mahia Peninsula is perfect for the busy schedule that rocket lab envisions [Music] thank you with the Advent of microsatellites smaller carriers like the electron are becoming an attractive launcher for a new area of the launch market the space industry is at a turning point [Music] NASA's space launch system is about to fly with it the new Orion spacecraft a collaboration between NASA and Esa will Target the Moon a landing is scheduled for 2024. as far as the United States is concerned low earth orbit is now the province of Corporations with Boeing and SpaceX competing to break Russia's Stranglehold on manned trips to the International Space Station new technology is cutting costs and increasing launch frequency with complex satellites being so small they can be deployed in new ways [Music] several companies are working towards space tourism Virgin Galactic says its promised trips beyond the atmosphere should start happening soon [Music] [Music] since the retirement of the shuttle in 2011 space science has shifted Focus to research carried out on the International Space Station and to robotic missions in deep space during this period all manned flights have been to and from the ISS with the only viable spacecraft being the Russian soyuz this has cost both NASA and Esa billions in launch fees Russia Europe and Japan major Partners in the ISS developed their own cargo craft to resupply the space station but NASA tended for private companies to take on these responsibilities rising star in the launch business SpaceX was contracted to develop a cargo craft that would launch on its Falcon 9 rocket one zero and launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as NASA turns to the private sector to resupply the International Space Station a second Aerospace business orbital Sciences Corporation now orbital ATK signed a contract for similar hardware and services NASA is developing its own launch system and the Orion spacecraft but it's designed for Missions far more ambitious than resupplying the ISS America's activity in low earth orbit is being reallocated to the commercial sector and NASA is helping with technology transfers agency administrators want two completely different systems giving the space agency what they call dissimilar redundancy when the space shuttle twice suffered catastrophic failures NASA was stuck on the ground for years while exhaustive investigations were made the redundancy approach will prevent this paralysis in 2014 NASA signed contracts with Boeing and SpaceX to develop and test human rated spacecraft to Ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station it was a continuation of the dissimilar redundancy approach the space agency has set performance criteria for the new craft and crew training but he's taking a hands-off approach regarding how the companies meet the requirements Boeing spacecraft is called the Starliner it has space for Seven astronauts and will be capable of being used 10 times NASA requires any human rated spacecraft to meet higher standards of safety and reliability than a cargo craft and new capsules must demonstrate via a series of test flights that they meet certification one crucial part of the new spacecraft is the launch Escape system it's the equivalent of a fighter Pilot's ejector seat both Boeing and SpaceX have opted for a new method of capsule mounted Rockets to push the craft clear in an emergency in contrast to the more traditional escape tower above the agency's new Orion spacecraft the trial of Boeing's Escape system worked well with the exception that only two of the three parachutes deployed but the problem is understood the Starliner could continue to the next uncrewed launch to orbit one of the novel features of Boeing's capsule is its ability to return to dry land like Russia's soyuz craft airbags stowed behind the heat shield inflate prior to Landing without the need to deploy ships for an ocean recovery there will be considerable savings though the capsule can fly on the Delta IV the Falcon 9 and the yet to be flown Vulcan initial testing of the spacecraft has been with the atlas 5 Launcher the atlas ground support infrastructure has been modified to accommodate the Starliner with the addition of a crew access arm the Starliner made its first unmanned test flight in December 2019. its destination was the ISS in four and a half minutes after liftoff the first stage separated next the Boost protect covers and the aeroskirt were jettisoned and the Centaur upper stage burned for a further seven minutes following the course parameters perfectly after separation the capsule was in a sub-orbital trajectory selected because it allowed a safe path back to the ground in case of a malfunction during the Boost phase [Music] to achieve the correct orbit the craft was required to fire its four attitude and orbital maneuvering thrusters 31 minutes after liftoff however the starliner's sequence clock was incorrect and the orbit insertion burn did not happen Ground Control was able to salvage parts of the mission but the craft was not able to reach the International Space Station this setback will delay the starliner's first mission carrying astronauts spacex's crew Dragon capsule is a refinement of the cargo craft that first flew in 2010. from the beginning the Dragon capsule has had a heat shield enabling to return safely to the ground no other ISS cargo Crafters had this ability in addition the dragon also has a window this should have been a clue to spacex's long-term plans for the craft in 2014 after the contract for a human rated craft was signed SpaceX began work on the Dragon 2. like its Boeing equivalent the Dragon 2 sits above a service module that can carry unpressurized cargo and includes a heat exchange unit and a coating of solar cells that does away with the moving Parts involved in extendable solar wings the Dragon 2 can accommodate Seven astronauts though NASA has said it will generally only send four people at a time control interface is Vara touch screen [Music] Cape canaveral's launch complex 39a has been equipped with a crew access arm and in March 2019 in a flight known as demo 1 the unmanned craft made its first space flight the dragon carried a dummy astronaut wired with sensors to Monitor g-forces and a small delivery of equipment for the ISS the launch and the phasing Maneuvers to align its orbit with the ISS were all correctly executed the automated docking procedure went smoothly and the dragon stayed connected to the space station for five days decoupling from the ISS went as expected and observers on the ground were delighted with the capsule's behavior throughout the mission every aspect of the Dragon 2's performance was monitored [Music] the crafts returned to Earth was faultless and the recovered capsule would be reused for the one remaining uncrewed flight test SpaceX planned to use new capsules for manned flights and then recycle a craft for cargo use confident planners at SpaceX and NASA were looking toward the first crude flight the final certification test was an in-flight simulation of a boost of failure that would monitor the dragon's launch Escape system but before that the Craft's super Draco engines used in Mission aborts needed retesting and routine and had been carried out many times a leaked video revealed an explosion that had destroyed the capsule the problem was not engine failure but a faulty valve the flight test of the Dragon 2's Escape system eventually happened early in 2020 but just as with the Boeing capsule which was also well behind schedule the explosion and the inquiry that followed were another unwelcome delay [Music] repair ignition [Music] around the point of Maximum Dynamic pressure the core stages engines were cut and the Escape system triggered automatically shortly after aerodynamic stresses on the tumbling booster caused it to explode maybe Falcon 9 breaking up the certification test was a success and the dragon 2's next flight will carry astronauts foreign but there is another spacecraft in development that's worth mentioning the Sierra Nevada corporation's Dream Chaser it's a lifting body craft designed to ride to orbit on an atlas V but return to the ground via a commercial Landing Strip so far the Dream Chasers only flights have been Glide tests [Music] as a cargo ship the Dream Chaser can return a 1750 kilogram load to the surface as a crude vehicle it is designed to take from two to Seven astronauts [Music] the European space agency has shown interest in the craft with the possibility of launching European astronauts atop a French Ariane the craft will use the by propellants methane and hydrogen tetroxide for on-orbit Maneuvers doing away with a highly toxic hydrazine [Music] when the space shuttle landed it had to be at a restricted Runway where suited ground staff purged the craft of residual hydrazine originally in the running for a NASA contract for ferrying astronauts to the ISS it missed out because Sierra Nevada could not comply with NASA's 2017 deadline for crude missions the favorite contractors Boeing and SpaceX both failed to meet that same deadline but the Dream Chaser has a contract for cargo missions to the ISS and an Expendable cargo module known as shooting star is being developed the company still plans a human rated version of The Dream Chaser but it's unclear when the craft will fly [Applause] bird home heart oh Cape canaveral's launch complex 17 was the starting point for many historic Delta II missions since the demise of the Space Shuttle NASA infrastructure from the earliest days of space flight has been eliminated since the heady days of the Space Race NASA's budget has been steadily trending downward and various launch sites have been given over to the private sector while NASA has been overseeing the commercial craft that will continue to serve as the research work carried out on the ISS its sharpest Focus has been on the new Orion spacecraft and the giant space launch system that will boost it to orbit after its establishment in 1958 the agency's challenge had been to master space technology and then to reach the moon but since then the exploration side of NASA's Charter has been achieved by robotic missions now a new plan called Artemis will return to the Moon it relies upon the Orion spacecraft and the SLS the space launch system will be the most powerful rocket yet built and although the design features the latest Technologies most of its components are derived from the space shuttle the block 1 version which will send an unmanned Orion spacecraft to orbit the Moon features a central core that owes much to the shuttle's external tank at the base of the central core are four rs-25 engines the shuttle had three of these engines and NASA still has 16 left over from the shuttle program although the engines remain the same their Control Systems have been redesigned each one has been exhaustively tested and when the original batch had been utilized an upgraded version the rs-25d will be available flanking the central core of the space launch system are two solid fuel boosters again a refinement of shuttle technology but with each booster having five instead of four segments the new design has been rigorously tested the boosters will only burn for the first two minutes of flight each consuming six tons of propellant every second and providing more than 75 percent of the Rocket's thrust unlike the shuttle's boosters these will not be reusable the upper stage for the block 1 configuration of the space launch system is called the interim cryogenic propulsion stage the icps it's a stop Gap modification of the Delta cryogenic second stage used with the Delta 3 and 4 launchers in 2014 a Delta IV fitted with this upper stage lifted an Orion spacecraft to its first orbital test the Orion with a dummy service module was boosted to height approaching 5800 kilometers allowing it a high speed return to Earth similar to a lunar mission the much larger exploration upper stage was to replace the icps for the first crude Mission atop a block 1B launcher but design changes have led to delays and the eus now won't fly to the fourth Orion mission foreign spacecraft itself will comfortably accommodate four astronauts for 21 days with the crew breathing air at atmospheric pressure the craft is intended for Missions beyond Earth orbit it's designed to integrate with larger modular structures such as habitation modules specialist landing craft or the planned lunar Gateway instrumentation and the control interface are primarily via a touch screen the digital control enables weight saving through the absence of wires and switches the Orion service module is the European space agency's contribution to the craft it's derived from the automated transfer vehicle which delivered cargo to the ISS oxygen and nitrogen cylinders in the service module Supply Air there's a water storage tank and Wastewater is not dumped but recycled a four-wing solar array generates 11 kilowatts for battery charging and powering the electrical subsystems for propulsion and maneuvering the service module is equipped with a version of the same system used by the space shuttle but like so many aspects of this spacecraft the system can be easily replaced when alternate models under consideration become available the third important piece of the Orion craft is the launch abort system mounted above the capsule three different types of solid fuel rocket are designed to fire at the first hint of a malfunction in the launcher one ignition the system was tested in July 2019 above a Minotaur booster a highly modified Peacekeeper missile Engineers were delighted with its performance launch infrastructure is being upgraded for the SLS and there's increased activity in preparation for the first test of the big new rocket foreign [Music] stage left the michoud assembly facility but it hasn't gone to Cape Canaveral not yet it was taken by Bard to the stennis test facility in Mississippi where the stage will be powered up for a series of tests known as the Green Run test campaign the date or even the year for the first launch has been put back a number of times although it could be as early as 2020 NASA's exploration initiative received a jolt in 2019 when U.S vice president Pence the chairman of the National Space Council called for NASA's exploration initiative to be accelerated it is the stated policy of this Administration and the United States of America to return American astronauts to the Moon within the next five years the now's come the time for us to make the next giant leap and return American astronauts to the Moon establish a permanent base there and develop the Technologies to take American astronauts to Mars and Beyond the existing plan had called for a moon landing no earlier than 2028. the month after the vice president's speech NASA announced the Artemis program Artemis being the sister of Apollo [Music] late in 2019 companies were called to Tender for a lunar lander and for a lunar space station known as the lunar Gateway the timeline calls for Artemis 1 an uncrewed Orion craft to enter a series of looping orbits of the Moon in 2020 astronauts are in training for Artemis 2 due to launch in 2022 the current proposal will see a crew of four sent to a retrograde orbit of the moon in a flight that could last as long as 21 days foreign the powerful exploration upper stage will not be ready for this flight and its proposed trajectory has been modified to accommodate the limited capacity of the interim cryogenic upper stage during this time the Artemis plan calls for commercial launch services to make a series of uncrewed flights to position elements of a lunar Gateway and lunar lander in orbit around the Moon a contract has been signed with maxar Technologies for a power and propulsion element some see this phase of the Artemis program as a weak link because the U.S Congress has been reluctant to authorize additional funds [Music] there are no concrete blueprints for a lunar lander yet and some have suggested that the 2024 deadline is being pushed too enthusiastically Artemis 3 will see a male and a female astronaut land near the lunar South Pole where ice exists within permanently shaded craters long-term goals for NASA's space exploration initiative include the development of technologies that will enable a landing on the surface of Mars finally a different form of spacecraft will soon be taking passengers [Music] [Applause] Virgin Galactic will start taking pay and customers to space in 2020. everything about the company's spaceship's Enterprise and unity is reusable and virgin is building two additional spacecraft [Music] passengers will experience weightlessness for about six minutes [Music] virgin is also entering the satellite business with a launcher service using a 747 called Cosmic girl acting as an air launch Mothership

Channel: Spark

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Keywords: Spark, Science, Technology, Engineering, Learning, How To, education, documentary, factual, mind blown, construction, building, full documentary, space documentary, bbc documentary, Science documentary

Id: VW5LQDR7A_s

Length: 149min 3sec (8943 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 13 2022