Space Hotel

Earlier this year, Bigelow Aerospace and SpaceX Announce 4 Manned Space Launch Services. These launches would transport about 16 people to the International Space Station. Bigelow’s main business is to make a commercial space station, and its ambitions and capabilities are sufficient to support the establishment of a large base that will exceed the existing international space station in the long run.

In 2016, the BEAM expandable, inflatable section developed by Bigelow Aerospace, was successfully sent into space by SpaceX and eventually docked on the International Space Station. It is in a compressed state when not in use, and can be autonomously expanded into a complete compartment with a pressurized volume of 16 cubic meters.
Although BEAM is an inflatable section, it has a series of functions such as micro-meteor protection and radiation protection. It is enough to form a living section of a space station.

With the development of commercial aerospace, Bigelow is going a step further. The Nautilus Inflatable Space Habitat, which has been completed and is expected to be launched in 2020, is about to launch. The capacity inside it has reached an extremely exaggerated 330 cubic meters. Although the functions cannot reach the real space station level, the next step in this design idea is the human space base. In the future, the space station based on Nautilus and the larger Sundancer will reach an amazing volume of 2,800 cubic meters, easily accommodate more than 20 astronauts, and commercial space tourism is no longer a dream. There are even 8300 cubic meters versions in the longer run. Assuming that a 100 square meter house can use a volume of 300 cubic meters, this is already equivalent to a building!

As commercial rockets and commercial space stations mature, it is no longer an unrealistic dream for humans to enter space. Just as airplanes gradually enter human life, maybe entering space in the future will also become a fashionable tourist destination. Besides, who doesn’t want to spend a holiday in space?

The Beginning of Space Exploration

Sputnik 1

When Soviet Unit launch their first satellite, Sputnik 1, a new age begin. For the first time in history, human reached the space outside the earth. As the first artificial earth satellite, it was  launched it into an elliptical low earth orbit on 4 October 1957. Since then, humans have begun space exploration.

On April 12, 1961, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin  took off on the “Vostok 1” spacecraft to space. After spending 108 minutes in space, he returned to Earth and became a national hero of the Soviet Union. His name is known all over the world. This success also represents another victory for the Soviet Union in the space race. However,
in order to hurry, the equipment on the “Vostok 1” spacecraft was simplified. The spacecraft did not have the gyroscope necessary for later manned spacecraft. Astronauts need to judge the relative position of the spacecraft and the earth based on the clock. The attitude control system is not propelled by miniature rockets, as is the case with today’s spacecraft. Instead, it uses canned compressed gas to provide recoil. Due to the above restrictions, the “Vostok 1” spacecraft can only be reentered once, and there is no room for error.

On July 16, 1969, the huge “Saturn 5” rocket carried the “Apollo 11” spacecraft from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, and embarked on the space journey of the first human landing on the moon. American astronauts Neil Alden Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins drove the Apollo 11 spacecraft over a 380,000-kilometer journey, carrying the dream of all humankind on the surface of the moon . This is indeed a small step for one person, but a great step for the entire human race. They have witnessed the realization of the dream from earth to the moon. This step has spanned 5,000 years.

Back To The Moon

It’s been 47 years since the last human walked on the moon. Many people have the same question: When are we going back to the moon? For decades, NASA was trying to send astronauts to the moon to build a permanent research base. At the same time, private companies like Space X and Blue Origin also started their own lunar exploration program.

As the pioneer of lunar exploration, NASA set up a program named ” Artemis.” This program is designed to send American astronauts, including a female, back to the moon by 2024. And by the end of 2028, a lunar outpost, known as the Lunar Surface Asset, will be built. Since then, the human can use the moon as a transfer station and supply center of Mars landing. The resource on the moon can be used as rocket fuel. However, the research progress of the Orion, the spacecraft of the Artemis program, has been delayed. NASA found it ‘s hard for them to launch the first crew flight in mid-2020. It seems that the program is not likely to be completed on time.

For Space X, they also have their own moon project. In 2017, Space X announced they were planning to send tourists around the moon. This program is founded by billionaire Yusaku Maezawa and will take six to eight accomplished artists with Yusaku himself. The trip will be launched in 2023 and is expected to take 6 days to complete.

Human desire and curiosity about the universe is a kind of nature. Our present life has also appeared in the dreams of predecessors, and your dreams may become a reality in the near future. In the next decade, we’re going back to the moon, and use it as a outpost to explore more distant planets.

Starlink

The idea of creating a network cover the globe has existed for a long time. However, due to the limitation of the technology, the Internet is covered 4.38 billion people, which is half of the population on earth. Here is the question, how we let the other half can also use the Internet?

In 2015, Elon Musk started a project known as “Starlink” which is to build a satellite network designed to provide Internet service to provide broadband internet connectivity to underserved areas of the planet, as well as provide competitively-priced service to urban areas. This program requires to deploy 12,000 satellites in three orbital shells by the mid-2020s. When Elon announced this project, the public thought he was crazy because this plan requires more satellites than the total number of satellites launched by human.

Despite the difficulties, engineers in Space X carried out this project. In early 2018, two test satellites are called Titin A and Titin B, were successfully deployed to orbit in order to test the possibility of long-distance network communication. This test achieved success. Two satellites sent back clear, stable signal. This achievement inspired the company. In May 2019, the second test launch proceeds on time. Sixty test satellites were launched to build a primary network. By five weeks post-launch, most of the satellites were functional while three had become non-operational and were derelict. This success makes SpaceX has the chance to improve their design, enhanced signal stability, and prepare for the third test launch later this month.

With the development of technology, we now able to achieve higher goals. The Starlink satellite network will be the future trend, and the threshold for accessing the Internet will be lower and lower, although, in the foreseeable future, it will take a large antenna to pick it up.

Space Anecdote You Don’t Know

The Apollo program in the United States has carried out six successful moon landings. The last moon landing was Apollo 17, which was launched on December 7, 1972. Commander Eugene Cernan is the last person to leave a footprint on the moon. Before leaving the moon, he did something that made father all over the world crazy. He wrote the abbreviation of his daughter’s name Tracy on the surface of the moon. Since there is no air on the surface of the moon and there is no weathering, even if the name is only shallow and left on the surface of the moon, his daughter’s name will remain on the surface of the moon forever. So every time his daughter looks up at the moon, she knows that there is information that belongs to her only.

Apollo 15 left the list of all the great astronauts who sacrificed for the moon landing and manned space flight on the surface of the moon on the Hadley Hill. This is the unique epitaph of human beings. The hero in this epitaph Regardless of nationality, regardless of ideology, regardless of the source; it is not easy in the Cold War environment. Next to the epitaph is a statue called Fallen Astronaut, an 8.5-cm-high aluminum sculpture that represents an astronaut wearing a spacesuit to commemorate the journey of space exploration. The astronaut who died in the midst. It is the only artificial artwork on the moon.

In all the space reports, you will not see barefoot astronauts. Because the human feet have long adapted to the walking environment, the skin at the bottom of the foot is hard and has a lot of horny and dead skin. In the space microgravity environment, there is no pressure on the human feet, and the dead skin will automatically fall off and float in the air. So all astronauts must be sure to wear socks all the time. Astronaut Don Petitt has worked continuously in space for more than 300 days. When he came down, he told everyone that his feet were like fresh babies.

Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started