Space… One word, but how many bewitching pictures rise before your eyes! Myriads of galaxies scattered throughout the Universe, the distant and at the same time infinitely close and dear Milky Way, the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, peacefully located in the vast sky… The list is endless. In this article, we will get acquainted with the history of space exploration and some interesting facts.
Space exploration in antiquity: how did you look at the stars before?
In ancient times, people could not observe planets and comets through powerful Hubble-type telescopes. The only instruments for seeing the beauty of the sky and doing space exploration were their own eyes. Of course, nothing but the Sun, the Moon and the stars could be seen by human "telescopes" (except for the comet in 1812). Therefore, people could only guess about how these yellow and white balls actually look in the sky. But even then the population of the globe was distinguished by attentiveness, so quicklynoticed that these two circles are moving across the sky, now hiding behind the horizon, then showing up again. They also found that not all stars behave in the same way: some of them remain stationary, while others change their position along a complex trajectory. From here began the great exploration of outer space and what lies in it.
The ancient Greeks achieved particular success in this field. It was they who first discovered that our planet has the shape of a ball. Their opinions about the location of the Earth relative to the Sun were divided: some scientists believed that the globe revolves around the heavenly body, the rest believed that it was the other way around (they were supporters of the geocentric system of the world). The ancient Greeks never came to a consensus. All their works and space research were captured on paper and framed in a whole scientific work called "Almagest". Its author and compiler is the great ancient scientist Ptolemy.
The Renaissance and the destruction of previous ideas about space
Nicholas Copernicus - who hasn't heard this name? It was he who in the 15th century destroyed the erroneous theory of the geocentric system of the world and put forward his own, heliocentric one, which claimed that the Earth revolves around the Sun, and not vice versa. The medieval inquisition and the church, unfortunately, did not doze off. They immediately declared such speeches heretical, and the followers of the Copernican theory were severely persecuted. One of her supporters, Giordano Bruno, was burned at the stake. His name has remained for centuries, and until now wewe remember the great scientist with respect and gratitude.
Growing interest in space
After these events, the attention of scientists to astronomy only intensified. Space exploration has become more and more exciting. As soon as the 17th century began, a new large-scale discovery took place: the researcher Kepler established that the orbits in which the planets revolve around the Sun are not at all round, as previously thought, but elliptical. Thanks to this event, major changes occurred in science. In particular, Isaac Newton discovered mechanics and was able to describe the patterns in which bodies move.
Discovery of new planets
Today we know that there are eight planets in the solar system. Until 2006, their number was nine, but after that the last and most distant planet from heat and light - Pluto - was excluded from the number of bodies circling our heavenly body. This was due to its small size - the area of Russia alone is already larger than the entire Pluto. It has been given the status of a dwarf planet.
Until the 17th century, people believed that there were five planets in the solar system. There were no telescopes then, so they judged only by those celestial bodies that they could see with their own eyes. Further than Saturn with its ice rings, scientists could not see anything. Probably, we would still be mistaken to this day if it were not for Galileo Galilei. It was he who invented telescopes and helped scientists to explore other planets and see the rest of the celestial bodies of the solar system. Thanks to the telescope, it became knownabout the existence of mountains and craters on the Moon, satellites of Jupiter, Saturn, Mars. Also, all the same Galileo Galilei discovered spots on the Sun. Science not only developed, it flew forward by leaps and bounds. And by the beginning of the twentieth century, scientists already knew enough to build the first spacecraft and set off to conquer the expanses of the stars.
How space science developed in Soviet times
Soviet scientists conducted significant space research and achieved great success in the study of astronomy and the development of shipbuilding. True, more than 50 years have passed since the beginning of the 20th century before the first space satellite set off to conquer the expanses of the Universe. It happened in 1957. The device was launched in the USSR from the Baikonur cosmodrome. The first satellites did not pursue high results - their goal was to reach the moon. The first space exploration device landed on the lunar surface in 1959. And also in the 20th century, the Space Research Institute was opened, in which serious scientific work was developed and discoveries were made.
Soon, satellite launches became commonplace, and yet only one mission to land on another planet was successful. We are talking about the Apollo project, during which several times, according to the official version, Americans landed on the moon.
International Space Race
1961 became a memorable year in the history of astronautics. But even earlier, in 1960, two dogs went into space, whose names everyone knowsworld: Belka and Strelka. They returned from space safe and sound, having become famous and becoming real heroes.
And on April 12 next year, Yuri Gagarin, the first person who dared to leave the Earth on the Vostok-1 ship, set off to surf the expanses of the Universe.
The United States of America did not want to give up the championship in the space race to the USSR, so they wanted to send their man into space before Gagarin. The United States also lost in the launch of satellites: Russia managed to launch the device four months ahead of America. Such space explorers as Valentina Tereshkova and Alexei Leonov have already visited the vacuum of space. The latter was the first in the world to make a spacewalk, and the most significant achievement of the United States in the exploration of the Universe was only the launch of an astronaut into orbital flight.
But, despite the significant successes of the USSR in the "space race", America was also not a blunder. And on July 16, 1969, the Apollo 11 spacecraft, on board of which there were five space explorers, launched to the surface of the moon. Five days later, the first man set foot on the surface of the Earth's satellite. His name was Neil Armstrong.
Win or lose?
Who did win the moon race? There is no exact answer to this question. Both the USSR and the USA showed their best side: they modernized and improved technical achievements in space shipbuilding,made many new discoveries, took priceless samples from the surface of the moon, which were sent to the Space Research Institute. Thanks to them, it was established that the Earth's satellite consists of sand and stone, and that there is no air on the Moon. The footprints of Neil Armstrong, left over forty years ago on the lunar surface, are still there today. There is simply nothing to erase them: our satellite is deprived of air, there is neither wind nor water. And if you go to the moon, you can leave your mark on history - both literally and figuratively.
Conclusion
The history of mankind is rich and vast, it includes many great discoveries, wars, grandiose victories and devastating defeats. The exploration of extraterrestrial space and modern space research rightfully occupy far from the last place on the pages of history. But none of this would have happened without such brave and selfless people as German Titov, Nikolai Copernicus, Yuri Gagarin, Sergei Korolev, Galileo Galilei, Giordano Bruno and many, many others. All these great people were distinguished by an outstanding mind, developed abilities in the study of physics and mathematics, a strong character and an iron will. We have a lot to learn from them, we can adopt invaluable experience and positive qualities and character traits from these scientists. If humanity tries to be like them, read a lot, exercise, study successfully at school and university, then we can say with confidence that we still have a lot of great discoveries ahead, and deep space will soon be explored. And, as it is sung in onefamous song, our footprints will remain on the dusty paths of distant planets.
