HistorySit back and relax

Make sure you’ve got a drink!

Prepared for you by Eugene V. Bobukh

Probably, it all began some 13,600,000,000 years ago…

This permits complexification, life, and space explorers

Ht

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Somewhat later. The Firsts…• Rocket: China, ~1300 AC• Documented (?) successful (??) human flight on a

rocket: Lagari Hasan Çelebi, Ottoman Turkey, 1633• “Space” sci-fi: Somnium by Johannes Kepler,

~1630, Germany• Detailed research on rockets for space travel:

1903, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Russia• Liquid fuel rocket: Robert Goddard, USA, 1926• Burst of sci-fi describing interplanetary, interstellar

and even intergalactic flight: 1860-1960

1942. V-2.Nazi’s Germany built the first ballistic missile.First rocket to reach space, 1944

1945-1957. Nuclear race.USSR and USA design and build rockets.

Goal: nuke the other side of the ocean.

Sergei Korolev, the lead Soviet rocket program engineer, introduced the game we all play since then: SPACE FLIGHT.

1957. Sputnik.The plan called for a heavy scientific laboratory, later known as Sputnik 3 (1958).

Time pressure, political pressure, production delays => the world-famous simple sphere.

The R-7 rocket used is still in service after some modifications (known as Soyuz today).

1957. Laika.Launched onboard Sputnik 2 in November 1957, she was never meant to return.

As the temperature control system failed, she survived for several hours only.

1958. First nuclear tests in space.

Both USA and USSR.

Banned and stopped in 1962.

The image in the left is Hardtack-Orange 3.8 Mt at 43 km altitude (so it’s still somewhat atmospheric).

The first test over 100 km (Argus, 200 km) done in 1958, too.

Most of space exploration is a side product, a debris after feeding the *military* interests first

… Manned spaceflight is an art

• Brings no money– except for tourism

• Robots are faster, cheaper, more effective, take less protection

• Moving Earth’s population to space -- at $10,000/kg???

• Mars outpost is a delirium

But we still fly!• You can’t sleep with

Mona Lisa• You can’t eat still life• You can’t play like

Santana

Does that mean we don’t need them?

… More on that later…

1959. The Far Side of the Moon.

Luna 3, USSR. The first interplanetary probe.

Radiation-resistant 35 mm film was obtained from a shot down American spy balloon

A French winemaker who bet that nobody would ever see the far side of the Moon sent 1000 bottles of champagne to the team for 1959/1960 New Year eve

…I think we should drink now, too…

1959. Corona.The first (??) spy satellite, USA.

USSR’s response: Zenit, 1961.

“Most of space exploration is a side product…”

1960. Nedelin disaster.R-16 rocket exploded on launch pad.

78 (some say 120) perished in a toxic blaze, including Nedelin himself.

The worst Soviet space accident.

Cause: negligence to all safety procedures in attempt to launch on time.

1960. “There is no life on Earth”

First attempt to launch a probe to Mars.

Checks at the launch pad revealed that the probe was over the weight limit. Something had to be cut. Korolev ordered an overnight test run of all scientific equipment in the steppe nearby.

One device designed to detect the signs of life reported negative and stayed on Earth.

It survived the launch failure later known as “Mars 1960A”.

(Per Boris Chertok’s memories).

04/12/1961Yuri Gagarin

He was only 27

First ever orbital flight

Chances of success: 80%

(Space Shuttle: 99%)

Dangerous re-entry due to service module failing to detach.

Over 8g during return.

1962. Telstar 1.The first real communication satellite.

Active relay of television pictures, telephone calls, and fax.

First live transatlantic television feed.

Consider this the beginning of commercial space use.

1962. John Glenn’s flightFirst American orbital spaceflight.

Mercury was a very small spaceship...

“Damaged” heat shield caused great concern upon re-entry.

Glenn second spaceflight: 1998 onboard the Space Shuttle (77 years old then).

1962. Two spaceships nearby.Vostok-3, Nikolaev.

Vostok-4, Popovich.

6.5 km apart in orbit -- big success.

Salt-dried vobla was part of the space menu. But only Popovich was able to locate it in his spacecraft

1962. Mariner 2. First flyby of Venus.The dawn of planetary space exploration.

1963. Valentina Tereshkova.First woman and first civilian in space, onboard Vostok 6.

Next woman in space: Svetlana Savitskaya, 1982.

1963. First (?) satellite-to-satellite weapon tested.

Istrebitel Sputnik (Russian: истребитель -спутник).

Approach-and-explode, releasing shrapnel at 1 km range.

More advanced systems tested by USSR and USA in 1970s and later.

1964. Syncom 3.The first geostationary communication satellite.

…технічна перерва…(technical break)

1965. Mars revealed!First ever close-ups of Mars by a robotic probe, Mariner-4.

No “channels”, but Moon-like cratered terrain and very thin atmosphere reveled.

A great blow to hopes of finding intelligent life on Mars (yes, we were serious until ~60s!)

The total of data returned: 634 Kb, that including 22 pictures

Crayons were used to produce first color “prints” of Mars

1965. First spacewalk.Alexei Leonov from Voskhod 2 spaceship, commanded by the 2nd crew member Pavel Belyaev.

Inflatable airlock.

The 12 minute spacewalk nearly avoided a disaster after Leonov’s spacesuit ballooned in vacuum.

Can you make a U-turn in a 8’x3.7’ airlock, while dressed up in a spacesuit?

1965. First space smuggling.John Young secretly smuggled a corned beef sandwich onboard Gemini 3, where the crew tried to eat it.

The crumbles in zero-g have caused serious concern.

Young flew a total of 6 space missions between 1965 and 1983 on 4 types of spacecraft, including two maiden flights (Gemini and Space Shuttle). He’s been near the Moon twice and on the Moon – once.

That’s if you ask me what a real career should look like

1965. Rendezvous of two manned spacecrafts.

Gemini 6 (Shirra, Stafford) and Gemini 7 (Bormann, Lovell).

13.5 days in a room no larger than car’s front seats.

1966. First space docking.Gemini 8, Neil A. Armstrong (pilot, commander), David R. Scott (pilot).

Only Armstrong’s prompt action saved people and mission when attitude control malfunctioned after docking.

1966. Luna-9 lands on the Moon.First ever landing on another planetary body and pictures from it.

Transmission intercepted at Jodrell Bank Observatory and published by Daily Express before the official Soviet news release.

20 days earlier, Korolev died.

1967. Komarov.Soyuz-1.

Parachute system failure and crash upon return, killing Vladimir Komarov.

The flight was prepared in unimaginable hurry, plagued with technical issues and had to be cut short.

1967. “A fire in the cockpit!”Apollo 1.

A cabin fire during a launch pad test on January 27 killed all three crew members: Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Edward H. White, and Roger B. Chaffee.

In pure oxygen, the extreme blaze was over in just 17 seconds.

1968. Apollo 8.7 years after the first space flight, they left Earth and went to orbit the Moon.

Crew: Frank F. Borman, James A. Lovell, William A. Anders.

“We are now approaching lunar sunrise and, for all the people back on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message that we would like to send to you.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep…”

1968. OAO-2 space telescope.

The first successful telescope in orbit (UV range) which marked the end of 3000 years of “cataract” caused by Earth’ atmosphere and the birth of invisible astronomy.

Over 80 “eyes” launched since then covering range from Gamma to XRAY to IR to Radio.

1969. Humans on the Moon!Apollo 11.

Neil Alden Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" E. Aldrin, Michael Collins.

And some 100,000 people who worked hard for 10+ years to make this happen.

To Those Who Made It

1969. Apollo 11 LM back from the Moon.

Within the frames of this picture, present are all humans but one

Our world is small and lost in void indeed…

1970. Lunokhod 1.First robotic planetary rover.

Radio controlled from Earth over the live TV.

3 seconds signal delay.

Worked for 9 months, traversed over 10 km, returned 20,000 pictures.

Lost in 1971 and rediscovered in 2010 on images from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

«…Советскими учёными создан новый уникальный луноход, способный отбирать лучшие образцы грунта у американских экспедиций!...”

1970. Apollo 13.Oxygen tank explosion en route to the Moon 320,000 km from Earth.

Loss of most power, oxygen, control.

Thanks to quick and ingenious situation management, the crew (Lovell, Haise, Swigert) returned to Earth virtually unharmed after 6 days in space.

12/15/1595. Smolensk Fortress.

Architect: by Fedor Kon’.

Boris Godunov’s order was issued in 1595, initiating the 7 years of extremely difficult construction.

Somewhat later, half of the wall was destroyed by Napoleon and Hitler.

12/15/1970. Venus LandingVenera-7 worked on the surface for 23 minutes. High temperature (>450 C) was confirmed, shattering last dreams of “wet jungles” on Venus.

Three previous landing attempts unsuccessful as capsules were crushed by tremendous pressure of Venusian atmosphere (~95 times Earth’s level).

1971. First space station in orbit.Salyut 1, a space station capable of

hosting 3 people for several months.

Dobrovolski, Volkov, Patsaev docked the station in June 1971 on Soyuz 11 and worked there for 23 days.

While returning to Earth, they all died after Soyuz 11 decompression. They had no spacesuits…

1971. First Mars landing.Mars 3 has landed in 1971 but worked for 15 seconds only, returning no scientific data.

The picture returned contains no information.

The Lander had a small rover which was also lost.

This remains a mystery. Using recent high resolution space images of Mars, enthusiasts keep searching for clues…

1972. The last Men on the Moon.

Apollo 17.

Back then, almost nobody believed that we are not coming back to the Moon in the 20th century.

The takeoff video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOdzhQS_MMw

It tried

Why did not USSR go to the Moon?• Late start (~1963).• Short budgets• Glushko vs. Korolev

disagreement over fuel

• Kuznetsov’s engines: the greatest T/M ratio ever achieved, but the N1 rocket needed 30 of them!

• Korolev’s death in 1966

• Poor organization• Secrecy

1972. N1 rocket. “Мы стреляем городами...” (“we are shooting with

whole cities…”)Soviet lunar rocket similar in power to American Saturn V.

Four test launches between 1969 and 1972.

Each ending with a crash.

But… we could. We were very close. The capability was there!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m79UO4HOQmc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4-CyIBlKNs

Skylab, American space station, 1973.

Big and heavy (made from modified 3rd stage of Saturn V).

Almost lost on launch and had to be repaired by the first expedition.

Garriott’s tape recorder joke.

1973. How many people does it take to do a haircut in space?

Did you know, there is really is no up and down in space?

1973. Pioneer 10 at Jupiter.The first space probe to cross the asteroid belt, explore Jupiter and become the interstellar spacecraft.

The contact was lost in 2003.

Next stop: Aldebaran in 2 million years?

…the “distant” planets era began…

1974. Mercury reached.Mariner 10, launched in 1973 and visited Venus prior to flying by Mercury, the closest to the Sun planet.

1978. Salyut-6 EO-1. Grechko’s cognac.I did not promise it would be all in English

История об элеутерококке, рассказанная Г.M. Гречко.

Г. ГРЕЧКО: Коньяк я не проносил. Он выплыл из отделения со спортивным бельем. Там было написано "Элеутерококк К". Я сначала по простоте душевной стал спрашивать, что это за " Элеутерококк ". Мне так с улыбкой сказали – концентрированный. Но насчет пил. Это неправильно. Скорее лизал. Вот смотрите. С одной стороны на двоих было полтора литра. Можно упиться. А с другой стороны, 100, если кругло дней, два человека. На 200 человеко-дней. 7,5 грамм коньяка в сутки <…> ни на какую операторскую деятельность это не действовало.

<…> Он пился, лизался, еще раз подчеркиваю, 7,5 грамм это столовая ложка. Значит, пока эта фляжка из нержавейки, ее можно было вот так вот сжимать, она выдавала этот коньяк. Но потом там же и жидкость и воздух одинаково ничего не весят. Поэтому они смешиваются. И там образуется пена. А пену уже никак не выдавишь. И как мы ни старались вытащить <…> Не удалось. Мы бросили эту фляжку. А следующий экипаж сказал: а мы допили. Мы говорили: да невозможно. Мы все пробовали. Как помните, мартышка и очки. Мы пробовали все. Ну, а они говорят, что, а мы делали очень просто. Один поднимался под потолок станции, а другой бил его по голове. Горлышко от фляжки во рту. И по инерции коньяк идет в рот, потому что нет веса в космосе, а инерция есть. И они нас справедливо нас так немножко обидели. Сказали, что вот видите, кроме высшего образования, надо иметь хотя бы среднее соображение. Per http://www.echo.msk.ru/programs/korzun/58092/

OK, the translation of previous slide(multiple accounts exist; details vary)

• Yuri Romanenko and Georgi Grechko discovered a flask of cognac onboard Salyut-6. 50 ounces! But… for 96 days and 2 people. So they responsibly split it into 0.25 oz/day portions for taste enjoyment rather than anything else.– No way you can get drunk with that

• Problem: cognac does not pour out in zero g!• Solution? Squeeze the flask. Yes, it’s made of steel, but cosmonauts are strong • Issue: half and half of cognac and air make foam which resists further squeezing

• So they left half-empty flask onboard and returned to Earth. The next expedition

arrived to the station, worked there, returned home and said “thank you!” for cognac. A dialog followed:– “Did you finish it?”– “Yes!”– “But how?...”– “Well, on top of higher education you’ve got to have some common imagination. One

grasps the flask with his teeth… and another gently slaps the back of his head ”• Physics rules!

Keyword “cognac” detected

What are you waiting for?

1975. First pictures from VenusVenera 9 and 10, USSR.

Nobody believed it would be possible; many doubted if there is enough light there.

The probes survived for 1 hour and sent back some ~0.1 Mpx BW images.

Don P. Mitchell’s beautiful reprocessing

Using the original data from Venera probes, sophisticated image processing and Photoshop, Don P. Mitchell was able to re-map and greatly improve original Venera panoramas in 2003.

On the left is the re-processed picture from Venera-13 (1982).

Why did not Russia do that? Whose heritage is this? Are Russians good only at “фотожабы”?

1975. Soyuz 18a.The spacecraft failed to reach orbit and went into 21g emergency abortion, landing on an edge of a cliff.

The crew (Lazarev and Makarov) survived, but had to spend a day in snow.

1975. “UFO” near Salyut-4.• Klimuk and Sevastyanov were

probably (?) the first cosmonauts who took the discarded garbage cans for UFO “following” their space station, causing some panic on Earth

• Later, similar stories repeated more than once, causing bizarre rumors, especially after journalists “interpretations”.

«...вот так и возникают нездоровые сенсации...»

1976. First pictures from MarsBoth Viking 1 and Viking 2 included Landers which worked on Mars since 1976 to 1982 and 1980, respectively.

They conducted search for life experiments but the results were inconclusive.

1976. Soyuz-23.Launched to Salyut 5 but was not able to dock.

On return to Earth, landed into a frozen Tengiz lake.

The crew (Zudov, Rozhdestvensky) spent 9 hours in capsule in -20C water and nearly froze to death and suffocated before being saved by helicopter piloted by Nikolay Kondratyev.

1977. Salyut 6.The first space station with two docking ports, allowing re-supply vehicles.

From 1977 to 1982, was visited by 16 crews.

First crews from countries other than USSR: Czechoslovakia, Poland, GDR, Hungary, Vietnam, Cuba, Mongolia, Romania.

The first black person in space (1980, Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez from Cuba).

1977. Launch of Voyagers.Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes have visited Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune between 1979 and 1989.

No other space probe compares to Voyagers in terms of how much planetary science has changed by what we’ve learned from the mission.

Both stations, over 100 a.u. away from the Sun, as still flying away and exploring the interstellar space as of 2011.

Only few of Voyager’s discoveries:* Volcanism on Io* Ice-covered Europa and ocean beneath* Rings around Jupiter, Neptune* Confirmed rings around Uranus* Properties of Titan’s atmosphere* Waves and “spikes” in Saturn’s rings* “Bizarre” satellites: Enceladus, Miranda* Geysers and frozen N2 lakes on Triton* Complex structures in atmospheres of all giant planets.* Most of that we know about Uranus and Neptune today

Space Sounds – Saturn’s Magnetosphere

1979. Fist visit to Saturn.This iconic picture of Saturn and Titan was snapped byPioneer 11 after traveling across space for 6 years.

Contact lost in 1995.

Voyagers were to follow a year later.

1979-1980. Soyuz 32 & Salyut 6.

• http://www.denfighter.by.ru/space/history.htm• “Улетая на станцию, Ляхов и Рюмин тайно

прихватили в карманах скафандра на орбиту контрабанду - огурец и апельсин. И в первом репортаже показали "Земле" этот огурец, якобы выросший в станционной оранжерее. Ботаники посходили с ума: до этого растение даже завязи не давало, а здесь целый огурец. Просили его не съедать, начали думать, как его срочно доставить на Землю. И лишь через неделю космонавты признались в шутке, показав и апельсин. ”

This is another practical joke in space, by Vladimir Lyakhov and Valery Ryumin who secretly brought an orange and a cucumber (possibly inflatable or fake) to Salyut 6 space station. Then, they demonstrated the cucumber to the scientists on Earth, claiming it to be the “crop” from the hydroponic garden onboard. Poor scientists went insane as no previous experiments were able to produce any sprouts at all; their agitation only increased as the crew “threatened” to eat the vegetable instead of delivering it to Earth. Only after a week the prank was revealed by the crew, by also demonstrating the orange.

?

1981-2011. Space Shuttle era.An attempt to build a dream.

First: Columbia, 04/12/1981. Crew: John Young, Robert Crippen.

Numerous in-flight anomalies.

1983. Soyuz T-10-1.The rocket caught fire a minute before launch. Two seconds before almighty explosion, the emergency escape rocket fired, pulling the spacecraft away and saving lives of Vladimir Titov and Gennady Strekalov.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyFF4cpMVag

1984. First untethered spacewalkBruce McCandless II from Challenger mission STS-41-B

1985. Vega Balloons.First balloons:• Earth: 1783.• Venus: 1985• Mars: ?

1985. ASM-135 ASAT tested.Anti-satellite weapon, capable of destroying satellites in orbit up to 563 km above.

1985 is the first confirmed successful test.

1986. Challenger disaster.Cold weather damaged the sealing rings of solid rocket boosters. Flame protruded, and burned through hydrogen tank wall, causing stack disintegration on the 74th second of flight (14.6 km altitude).

There was no explosion. The shuttle was torn apart by violent air flow. The crew survived vehicle break-up and died 2 minutes 45 second later from a mighty crash into the ocean. At least one person was conscious for at least a few seconds. But Space Shuttle did not carry ejection seats…

Investigation found a pattern of broken “safety culture” with NASA’s management rushing to achieve stated launch goals. “My God, Thiokol, when do you want me to launch, next April?”

1986. Mir Space Station.The third generation space station with 6 docking ports, allowing theoretically unlimited modular expansion.

In service between 1986 and 2000. Counted 28 long expeditions, 104 people from 12 nations, and 80 spacewalks, a fire, a collision with Progress cargo ship and pressure loss.

Surpassed it’s designed lifetime, becoming cramped and unreliable by the end but still ticking.

1986. Voyager 2 reached Uranus

So far nobody else has been there and there is no plan through at least 2025.

1989. Voyager 2 reached NeptuneThe most distant planet as of 2006 – 12 years flight.

The sun is 900 times dimmer there. The blue clouds are frozen methane.

The geysers on Triton are liquid nitrogen.

One of the most bizarre and unexplored world.

No plan to revisit it in any foreseeable future.

1990. Hubble Space Telescope.

10 times the resolution of the best Earth-based telescopes at the time.

Thanks to it, we DO have a map of Pluto today.

1990. Hubble’s “glasses”“During the polishing of the mirror, Perkin-Elmer had analyzed its surface with two other null correctors, both of which correctly indicated that the mirror was suffering from spherical aberration. The company ignored these test results…”

Cost to fix: probably (???) over $1 billion.

Optical correction “glass” was put on the telescope to fix its vision. Left: before. Right: after.

1991. Hiten.• Japan joins the club of

Lunar explorers.– Simple probe,

sophisticated trajectory.• Since then, Japan is

probably the leader in terms of “space innovation”/”$$ spent”.

1995. Valery Polyakov spends 437.7 days in space.

Onboard Mir station.

World record as of 2011.

“Upon landing, Polyakov opted not to be carried the few feet between the Soyuz capsule and a nearby lawn chair, instead walking the short distance. In doing so, he wished to prove that humans could be physically capable of working on the surface of Mars after a long-duration transit phase.”

Musical breakМузыкальная пауза

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcvlgCHpCaU

Thanks to Vlad Korolev for finding this

1995. Galileo at Jupiter.First Jupiter’s satellite.

First man-made probe to enter Jupiter at 200g and penetrate 150 km of the atmosphere.

Main dish failure 134 Kbit/s => 10 bit/s. Saved by brilliant programmers.

1995. Shuttle to Mir docking.

STS-71 Atlantis mission.

5 days together. 10 people. 225 tonnes.

1997. Mars Pathfinder.First working Mars rover.

1997. Fire on Mir.Faulty oxygen generator caught up a fire.

Six people, two emergency 3-seat spacecrafts… but the path to one was blocked by fire!

“My natural move was to open a window…”

Heavy smoke, masks.

<= can you imagine having to put off <= a fire in a cramped space like this?

(Mention Reinhold Ewald’s private conversation on this account in 09/2008)

1997. Delta 2 explosion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KApLcKQ3Pu0

Modular design following Mir.

The largest man-made object in space (400+ tons)

The largest international cooperation in space. Cost: over €100 billion.

Continuously habituated since 2000.

60+ expeditions, over 297 visitors, 15 pressurized modules from 5 countries.

1998-?. International Space Station.

2001. Space Tourism.Dennis Tito flew to orbit for $20 million (probably a serious underpayment) with Soyuz TM-32 and spent 8 days on ISS.

Seven tourists few since 2001.

But suborbital tourism, much touted, it likely a non-starter due to fatality rate over several % expected. Big SELL.

2001. NEAR.First satellite of an asteroid (Eros, 2000) and first asteroid landing.

2001. The end of Mir.

2002. The end of Buran.The f%$#^s did not provide funds even to support the storage hangar.

No surprise: finally, it collapsed, killing 8 workers onsite.

2003. Columbia disaster.On 02/01/2003, Columbia disintegrated over Texas while returning to Earth, at the altitude of 60 km and speed 19+ Mach.

Seven perished: Rick D. Husband, William C. McCool, David M. Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Michael P. Anderson, Laurel B. Clark, Ilan Ramon.

Worms from biological experiment and video camera survived.

Cause: thermal protection tile on the left wing damaged during the liftoff.

2003. Chinese manned spaceflight.Yáng Lìwěi, onboard the Shenzhou 5.

China began their manned spaceflight program in 1971, planning for the first flight in 1973 but cancelling due to political turmoil.

2004. Scramjet airborne.Air-breathing rocket engine operated at Mach 6.83 for 11 seconds, executing a controlled flight.

“Наш путь извилист, но перспективы светлые”.

Imagine what you can get if you DON’T have to carry all that heavy oxidizer with you?

2005. Titan Landing.Cassini-Huygens – probably the most ambitious space probe mission.

Inception: 1982Launch: 1997Planets visited en route to Saturn: Venus, Earth, Jupiter.Saturn orbit: 2004 (still there as of 2011)Titan landing: 2005

The amazing discoveries are worth another 2 hour lecture!

2005. Comet “bombing”.366 kg copper impactor from the Deep Impact probe hit 9P/Tempel comet at 10.2 km/s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKls-sN56Jkhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dryvDlB1hWA

Marina Bai, a Russian astrologer tried to sue NASA for $300 million (WTF??!). She claimed that the Deep Impact NASA probe will interfere with her astrology work because the comet would no longer be the same. The case was eventually rejected.

“...и немедленно выпил...”

2006. Institute of Nuclear Physics, Russia.

2006. New Horizons.Launch: 2006.

Destination: Pluto.

ETA: 2015.

Also carries Clyde Tombaugh’s ashes.

This is the best map of Pluto we have today. Can we do any better?

… Yes, Pluto is a planet

… More on that later…

Sure, you are free to call it an asteroid, a dwarf planet or even a candelabrum.

But when you study it, you do so as if it is a real “respectable” planet, like Mars or Uranus or Mercury. You focus on atmosphere, geology, tectonics, history. You see there trends common with other planets. You don’t approach it like the Sun or meteorites.

To me, this closes the question.

Of course, you are still free to call it a dwarf planet, an asteroid or even a candelabrum.

2005+. Asian Players.• Hayabusa, Japan 2003 – 2010.

– Asteroid imaging, landing, and sample return through a heroic effort.

• Chandrayaan-1, India, 2008-2009.– Lunar satellite and impact probe.

• Chang'e 1 and 2, China, 2007, 2010.– Lunar satellites and mappers.– If even after that someone still claims Americans have not been

not on the Moon, I’m calling the mental institution.• Kaguya, Japan, 2007.

– Lunar satellite and mapper, including Apollo landing sites• Nozomi (1998-2003) and Akatsuki (2010), Japan

– Mars and Venus probes, both failed though.• 2010: Japanese solar sail IKAROS reached Venus!

2006. Space BlogsAnoushen Ansari, http://spaceblog.xprize.org/, Iranian-American who flew to ISS as a self-funded space tourist.

Followed by a detailed and офигенно entertaining blog of Maksim Surayev in 2009-2010, http://www.federalspace.ru/main.php?id=48&blogger=&page=12 [Sorry, Russian only ]

2010. Discovery Launch.

Well, it’s not really historic, except that I’ve been there and saw it.

Space Shuttle is retiring in 2011.

2010. Falcon 9 of SpaceX.American space transport company. Aims at providing transportation for NASA after Shuttle retirement.

Founded: 2002.Falcon 1 in orbit: 2008.Falcon 9 in orbit: 2010.Dragon, the private spaceship, in orbit: 2010.

See Commercial Orbital Transportation Services.

2009. Will space debris block the access to low Earth orbit?

600,000+ objects over 1 cm19,000+ tracked

Debris => collisions => debris. Worst “runaway” case:∂n/dt ~ n2 n(t) ~ (t – t*)-1

Numerous impacts seen on Shuttle, Salyut, Mir, ISS

First catastrophic collision of satellites: 2009, Iridium 33 vs. Cosmos 2251, @ 11.7 km/s

2011. Mercury’s 1st satelliteMESSENGER, launched in 2004.

Donehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2oXFWKpJiA

Backup, drinks, discussions