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Dates: Tuesday, April 16th or Thursday, April 17th, 9:30am
Location: Online - see your e-mail for the Zoom Link!
Website: https://www.nps.gov/tica/index.htm
To boldly go
To boldly go
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration was created in 1958 and is a civilian agency responsible for coordinating America’s activities in space. Since its inception, NASA has sponsored space expeditions, both human and mechanical, that have yielded vital information about the solar system and universe. But it's not just focused on learning about space! NASA has also launched numerous earth-orbiting satellites that have been instrumental in everything from weather forecasting to navigation to global communications.
(If you are anything like me, you are probably wondering how Wallops, a NASA facility, was established in 1945, BEFORE NASA itself was created. I haven't found a specific answer to this, but my best guess is that Wallops was originally established under the Department of Defense immediately after WWII. When the war ended, the US entered into the Cold War with the Soviet Union, and during the late 1940s, the Department of Defense pursued research and rocketry and upper atmospheric sciences as a means of assuring American leadership in technology. Wallops was likely a result of this research.)
NASA was created in response to the Soviet Union’s 1957 launch of its first satellite, Sputnik I. The 183-pound, basketball-sized satellite orbited the earth in 98 minutes. The Sputnik launch caught Americans by surprise and sparked fears that the Soviets might also be capable of sending missiles with nuclear weapons from Europe to America. The United States prided itself on being at the forefront of technology, and, embarrassed, immediately began developing a response, signaling the start of the U.S.-Soviet space race.
On November 3, 1957, the Soviets launched Sputnik II, which carried a dog named Laika. In December, America attempted to launch a satellite of its own, called Vanguard, but it exploded shortly after takeoff. On January 31, 1958, things went better with Explorer I, the first U.S. satellite to successfully orbit the earth. In July of that year, Congress passed legislation officially establishing NASA from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and other government agencies, and confirming the country’s commitment to winning the space race. In May 1961, President John F. Kennedy declared that America should put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. On July 20, 1969, NASA’s Apollo 11 mission achieved that goal and made history when astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first person to set foot on the moon, famously declaring “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
Check out this five-minute video from NASA about the origins of NASA:
And check out this four-minute video to learn more about the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union:
NASA has continued to make great advances in space exploration since the first moonwalk, including playing a major part in the construction of the International Space Station. The agency has also suffered tragic setbacks, however, such as the disasters that killed the crews of the Challenger space shuttle in 1986 and the Columbia space shuttle in 2003.
What does nasa do?
What does nasa do?
Here are some of the key areas NASA does work on:
Space
In addition to major human spaceflight programs, there have been significant scientific probes that have explored the Moon, the planets, and other areas of our solar system. In particular, the 1970s heralded the advent of a new generation of scientific spacecraft. Two similar spacecraft, Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11, launched in 1972 and 1973, and traveled to Jupiter and Saturn to study the composition of interplanetary space. Voyagers 1 and 2, launched in 1977 and conducted a "Grand Tour" of our solar system.
In 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope was launched into orbit around the Earth. Unfortunately, NASA scientists soon discovered that a microscopic spherical aberration in the polishing of the Hubble's mirror significantly limited the instrument's observing power. During a previously scheduled servicing mission in December, 1993, a team of astronauts performed a dramatic series of spacewalks to install a corrective optics package and other hardware. The hardware functioned like a contact lens and the elegant solution worked perfectly to restore Hubble's capabilities. The servicing mission again demonstrated the unique ability of humans to work in space, enabled Hubble to make a number of important astronomical discoveries, and greatly restored public confidence in NASA.
Several months before this first HST servicing mission, however, NASA suffered another major disappointment when the Mars Observer spacecraft disappeared on August 21, 1993, just three days before it was to go into orbit around the red planet. In response, NASA began developing a series of "better, faster, cheaper" spacecraft to go to Mars.
Mars Global Surveyor was the first of these spacecraft; it was launched on November 7, 1996, and has been in a Martian orbit mapping Mars since 1998. Using some innovative technologies, the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft landed on Mars on July 4, 1997 and explored the surface of the planet with its miniature rover, Sojourner. The Mars Pathfinder mission was a scientific and popular success, with the world following along via the Internet. This success was followed by the landing of the Spirit and Opportunity rovers in January 2004, to much scientific and popular acclaim.
Though this is rather long (25 minutes) , this is a great video from National Geographic that gives an in-depth look into the rovers Spirit and Opportunity:
Over the years, NASA has continued to look for life beyond our planet. In 1975, NASA launched the two Viking spacecraft to look for basic signs of life on Mars; the spacecraft arrived on Mars in 1976 but did not find any indications of past or present biological activity there. In 1996 a probe from the Galileo spacecraft that was examining Jupiter and its moon, Europa, revealed that Europa may contain ice or even liquid water, thought to be a key component in any life-sustaining environment. NASA also has used radio astronomy to scan the heavens for potential signals from extraterrestrial intelligent life. It continues to investigate whether any Martian meteorites contain microbiological organisms and in the late 1990s, organized an "Origins" program to search for life using powerful new telescopes and biological techniques. More recently scientists have found more and more evidence that water used to be present on Mars.
In 2021, NASA launched the James Webb Space Telescope (or usually just Webb) to extend the discoveries of the Hubble telescope.
Watch this 11 minute video about how the Webb telescope works, how it can see into the past, and what it can tell us about the future
The "First A in NASA:" Aeronautics Research
NASA also conducts many types of cutting-edge aeronautics research on aerodynamics, wind shear, and other important topics using wind tunnels, flight testing, and computer simulations. In the 1960s, NASA's highly successful X-15 program involved a rocket-powered airplane that flew above the atmosphere and then glided back to Earth unpowered. The X-15 pilots helped researchers gain much useful information about supersonic aeronautics and the program also provided data for development of the Space Shuttle.
NASA has also done significant research on flight maneuverability on high speed aircraft that is often applicable to lower speed airplanes. NASA scientist Richard Whitcomb invented the "supercritical wing" that was specially shaped to delay and lessen the impact of shock waves on transonic military aircraft and had a significant impact on civil aircraft design.
From 1963 to 1975, NASA conducted a research program on "lifting bodies," aircraft without wings. This valuable research paved the way for the Shuttle to glide to a safe unpowered landing, as well as for the later X-33 project, and for a prototype for a future crew return vehicle from the International Space Station.
American-made X-24A, M2-F3 and HL-10 lifting bodies
In 2004, the X-43A airplane used innovative scramjet technology to fly at ten times the speed of sound, setting a world's record for air-breathing aircraft.
Satellites Help Us Learn About Earth
In the 1970s, NASA's Landsat program literally changed the way we look at our planet Earth. The first three Landsat satellites, launched in 1972, 1975, and 1978, transmitted back to Earth complex data streams that could be converted into colored pictures. Landsat data has been used in a variety of practical commercial applications such as crop management and fault line detection, and to track many kinds of weather such as droughts, forest fires, and ice floes. NASA has been involved in a variety of other Earth science efforts such as the Earth Observation System of spacecraft and data processing that have yielded important scientific results in such areas as tropical deforestation, global warming, and climate change.
Check out this 6-minute video to get an idea of how NASA's research and technology helps us learn about our own planet and predict how it will change in the future:
Since its inception in 1958, NASA has accomplished many great scientific and technological feats. NASA technology has been adapted for many non-aerospace uses by the private sector. NASA remains a leading force in scientific research and in stimulating public interest in aerospace exploration, as well as science and technology in general. Perhaps more importantly, our exploration of space has taught us to view the Earth, ourselves, and the universe in a new way.
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