Issue 2 - The British Interplanetary Society

ISSUE 2
NOVEMBER 2004
VOYAGE
£2.50
A Journey of Learning Through Space
THIS ISSUE:
Rockets and Spacecraft
FLYING MODEL
ROCKETS
THE SATURN V
Apollo’s ride to the Moon
BUILD YOUR
OWN TITAN
LANDER
THE X-PRIZE
THUNDERBIRDS -
from TV to film via Mercury
Great Puzzles and Competitions
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CONTENTS
ROCKETS AND SPACECRAFT
So, You Want to be a Rocket Scientist?
8
It’s not just NASA or other nations that can fly rockets. You can do it yourself in model form.
MAT IRVINE tells us how to get started in this world-wide hobby.
14
The Ansari X-Prize
Regular space toruism may only be a matter of a few years away, and it’s getting closer as the
competition to win $10 million hots up. STEVEN CUTTS fills us in.
Did You Know About - The Saturn V Rocket
34
30
On the Cover: Shuttle Rollout
PLUS
Mr Pilbeam’s Lab
Voyager Card Game
18
24
Who’s Who in Space
40
Re-Entry: Hubble Telescope 44
FEATURES and COMPETITIONS
Sci-Fi Focus - Thunderbirds
20
The 1960s Gerry Anderson puppet show has been turned into a great all-action movie. But it also has a link
with the early days of the American Space Program. BRIAN LONGSTAFF shows us the connection.
26
The Night Sky
Ever looked up at the stars and wondered which was which? If you want to learn more about the fascinating
sights in the night sky, DAVE BUTTERY provides a great beginner’s guide.
Future Space - Humans on Mars
28
With talk of sending missions back to the Moon and on to Mars in the near future, STEVEN CUTTS looks at
how we might get to the Red Planet, and how we can survive when we’re there.
Great Puzzles and Competitions
Test your knowledge of space with:
Puzzle page on page 12
Giant Wordsearch on page 31
Get your entry in the next issue of Voyage
Caption Competition on page 13
Photo Competition on page 35
WIN A Die-Cast Space Shuttle Model in our great competition on PAGE 16
1
The best laid plans...
Editor:
Mike Shayler
Production Assistant:
Mary McGivern
Voyage Marketing:
Suszann Parry
Voyage OFFICE
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E-mail: [email protected]
DISTRIBUTION
Voyage may be received worldwide by mail
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Interplanetary Society. Details from the above
address. Library subscription details are also
available on request.
Some of the items left out of this issue will appear in later ones, but we’ve learned
very quickly not to make any predictions for the content. Issue 3 will have an
astronomy theme, though, so if you’ve never tried astronomy before, have a look at
the beginners article on page 26.
We also have some great competition prizes to give away in this issue, so why not
have a go. And if you or your school would like to write something for the magazine,
just drop me a line or an email at the addresses below.
Mike Shayler
Editor
COMPETITION ENTRIES
Send your answers for all competitions to:
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Interplanetary Society. Opinions in signed
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not necessarily reflect the views of the Editor
or the Council of the British Interplanetary
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2
It just goes to show that predicting the future is a risky business.
We’ve had such a fantastic response to the first issue that many
of the articles planned and advertised for this one have had to be
left out in favour of the ones that actually made it. There’s been
such an encouraging input of new articles for Voyage that we
were simply spoilt for choice.
email: [email protected]
Entries Must Be In By 14
January 2005
See the competitions for how to
mark up your entries
Don’t forget to include your name,
age and address or school address
You MUST get permission from
your parent, guardian or teacher
before entering
Thirty years ago in 1974, my two crewmates and I set a new American
record of 84 days in space, which lasted for over 20 years. We also
travelled 35 million miles in our Skylab space station. We were proud
when we landed, but then we compared what we had done with what
lies in the future — travel to the stars. Light covers the 35 million
miles that we travelled in just three minutes. Yet it takes light over
four years to reach our nearest star. Clearly, when it comes to real
space travel, we barely nudged our toe out the front door.
Are there other life forms out there among the stars? Do they think or
look like us? Are they smarter than us? Finding the answer to these
questions is behind much of our drive to leave our home planet and
reach outward. It has been calculated that the number of planets in
the universe that could support some form of life is about the same as
the number of grains of sand on all the beaches of the world. So here
we sit, on our own one grain of sand, asking, ”Could there could be other intelligent life out there?” You bet, the
answer has to be YES!
You are now just learning about science and
space, and all of us whose careers are
mostly over really envy you. Your future is
exciting – return to the Moon, on to Mars,
then out to the rest of our Solar System.
Many of us believe that as we understand
more about physics and the science of
space travel, we will find a practical way to
travel to the stars. Sixty years ago human
flight to the Moon was thought to be
ridiculous, if not totally impossible. Human
drive, ingenuity, and advancements in
science turned the impossible into reality.
So it will be with travel to the stars.
When will we reach the stars or find life
outside of Earth? No one knows, but one
thing is sure – every step of the way will be
challenging and exciting. You can be as
large a part of it all as you desire. Learn
science, work hard, and enjoy!
Ed Gibson
Science Pilot
Skylab III
For a chance to win a datacard autographed by Ed Gibson, try the competition on page 35
3
FUN IN SPACE
Clowning Around
by Ed Hengeveld
Flying Blind
It is December 1965 and these six X-15 pilots pose in a jolly
mood at NASA’s Flight Research Center in California’s
Mojave Desert. Left to right (you will have to take our word
for it) are: Joe Engle, Bob Rushworth, Jack McKay, Pete
Knight, Milt Thompson and Bill Dana. On the tarmac behind
them is one of the three legendary aircraft, which earned
some of its pilots the title “astronaut” when it flew higher
than 50 miles.
It’s All Gone to His Head
Who said that being an astronaut means that you have to be
serious all day? Certainly not Jim McDivitt, who is shown here
taking a break from posing for an official portrait. The model
which appears to be giving him a headache is of a Titan-2
rocket that launched the two-man Gemini spacecraft in 1965
and 1966. McDivitt commanded the Gemini-4 flight in 1965 and
later Apollo-9 in 1969.
Birthday Boy
On 25 March 1970, during
the final stages of training
for Apollo-13, astronaut
Jim Lovell is presented
with a cake to celebrate
his 42nd birthday at the
Kennedy Space Center.
Behind the cake is a giant
card signed by thousands
of KSC workers. This
almost turned out to be
Lovell’s last birthday,
because three weeks later
the Apollo-13 mission
became headline news as
an explosion crippled the
spacecraft on the way to
the Moon. Lovell and his
fellow-crewmen Jack
Swigert and Fred Haise
barely survived the crisis.
4
FUN IN SPACE
Playing Superman.
Two astronauts perform acrobatics aboard
Skylab, the first US space station, in 1973.
Commander Gerry Carr appears to balance
pilot Bill Pogue on his finger, but of course in
the weightless environment of space Pogue
would remain hanging there even if Carr
removed his hand.
Now,
this won’t hurt a bit!
Mission specialist Tony
England appears to be
the victim of an
experiment during Space
Shuttle mission STS-51F
in August 1985. Fellowastronaut Story
Musgrave has an almost
sadistic smile on his face
as he is taking a blood
sample. Small
consolation for England
is that Musgrave is a
medical doctor and
should probably know
what he is doing.
5
You’ve Been Framed
FUN IN SPACE
Trick or treat?
Challenger commander
Hank Hartsfield is
unrecognisable during
Space Shuttle flight
STS-61A in November
1985. He sports this
“jack-o-lantern” mask to
mark Halloween, a
popular cause for
celebration.
Tough Guys
The crew for Space Shuttle mission STS-98 dress
up as a street gang in an aggressive but tongue-incheek approach to promoting safety among Shuttle
workers. Left to right are Marsha Ivins, Robert
Curbeam, Ken Cockrell, Mark Polansky and Tom
Jones (no, not the singer).
What A Save
Apparently a soccer fan, astronaut John Blaha appears to be having a ball aboard
the Shuttle Discovery during mission STS-33 in November 1989.
6
As you can see, astronauts are highly trained, highly educated,
serious, dedicated individuals - most of the time!
FUN IN SPACE
Groovy Baby
The Austin Powers movie
inspired the crew of Shuttle
mission STS-92 to pose for this
hilarious portrait. These gagportraits have become
something of a tradition and date
back to the Gemini programme in
the 1960s.
They’ll Never Find Me in Here
Apparently trying to avoid some unpleasant duty, astronaut Daniel W. Bursch squeezes
under compartments on the middeck of the Space Shuttle Endeavour, during the visit of
STS-111 to the International Space Station in June 2002. Bursch was flight engineer of
the fourth crew aboard the ISS.
7
So, You Want to be a
FEATURE
The atmosphere is tense. A hand
hovers over a red firing button. The
countdown has begun – three, two,
one – ignition. There is a
whooshing sound and a rocket
soars majestically into the sky.
Then, scanning the skies, you
suddenly spot it reappearing,
floating gracefully down to Earth on
a parachute. But this is not NASA,
ESA or even the Russians,
but a large field just down
the road, and the rocket is
only 30 cm tall. This is the
hobby of flying model
rockets, a world-wide hobby
where anyone can
participate.
The rockets are light in
weight, made from card tube,
balsa wood and vacuumformed plastic. The engines
are small, very safe and
highly reliable solid fuelled
motors, and the whole rocket
returns to Earth to be fitted
with a new motor and have its
parachute checked and
repacked, ready for the next
flight.
“People have tried
burning them, sawing
them in half, and even
running them over in
a car or firing bullets
at them.”
The entrance to White Sands Missile Range, where the
majority of early testing of American rocketry went on after
World War II. It can also be said to be the location for the
start of Model Rocketry Flying
The hobby of flying model
rockets in this country is actually not
as old as you may think. For many
years we were legally stopped from
participating in the world-wide hobby,
Parts layout of a typical flying rocket kit – this being Estes’ Saturn 1B – There is the card tube (top
left) parachute and cord (top right), vacuum-formed plastic for the fins (centre), and injection-moulded
plastic (centre bottom) for the Apollo capsule.
Mat Irvine
8
by Mat Irvine
not by the actual launching and flying,
but by the fact that putting the
miniature rocket motor into the rocket
was deemed ’manufacturing’, as
defined by the Explosives Act that
went back to the 19th Century! No
one got around to amending this Act
to allow for model rocketry until the
1980s when several rocketry
enthusiasts banded together and had
the appropriate tests done that
changed the classification of the
model rocket motors. In the end it
wasn’t until 1987 that the changes
came into being, but now model
rocketry comes under the same type
of regulations that cover fireworks.
Model rocket motors though are much
safer than fireworks. For a start, they
are usually far lighter than an
equivalent 5 November rocket and
they are far more under control. Plus
when they return to Earth, they have
the advantage of floating down gently
on a parachute, not returning under
the increasing influence of 1G of
gravity – with the possibility of doing
damage!
The idea of launching miniature
versions of rockets can be traced
back to much earlier times and many
of the world’s leading rocket scientists
started by flying, if not what we now
call ‘model rockets’, certainly small
versions of larger rockets. However
up until the 1950s, there were no real
regulations or control, and certainly
no safe commercially manufactured
rocket motors. Model ‘rocketeers’
were using standard explosives,
probably with little regard to safety,
and accidents were occurring.
The story of the ‘hobby model rocket
industry’ itself however, probably
started in 1954 in America, with a
rocket engineer, G. Harry Stine. Stine
was then working at the White Sands
Missile Range in New Mexico on fullsize rockets, and was sent some
sample model rocket engines by
Orville Carlisle of Nebraska. Stine
was already a regular author on such
Rocket Scientist?
topics in the magazine Mechanix
Illustrated, and he tested these
motors, made improvements and
eventually founded the first model
rocket company – Model Missiles Inc.
Although Stine is regarded as the
‘father of the modern model rocket’,
the name most associated with the
hobby is Vern Estes, the founder of
the world’s largest hobby rocket
company – Estes Industries in
Denver, Colorado. Because there had
been a number of accidents involving
‘amateur’ model rockets, unfortunately
including some fatalities, Estes set
about designing and manufacturing a
model rocket engine that would be
safe. He ended up with a small
compact design for a solid-fuel rocket
motor that used a pressed black
powder and potassium nitrate
compound contained in a very strong
card tube.
FEATURE
sledgehammers, running them over
by car and even firing bullets directly
at them! By far and away the vast
majority of these tests have failed to
cause the motors to ignite. Since the
beginnings of the commercial model
rocket industries back in the 1950s,
there have been many millions of
these engines manufactured and there
is no recorded instance of a serious
accident anywhere that they were
correctly used.
A scale model of the Gemini-Titan II launcher
caught before it has ‘cleared the tower’ (Or in
this case the end of the rod). Note the length of
the exhaust – it is not that great.
Mat Irvine
The motors can only be fired using
specially manufactured electric
igniters made by the model rocket
companies themselves. In fact, one
reason why the hobby is so safe is
that it is virtually impossible to get the
motors to ignite any other way. Over
the years many tests have been done
to try and ignite these motors
‘accidentally’, including burning them,
sawing them in half, hitting them with
Model rockets can be bought ready
made, and virtually ready to fly,
though the original idea was that you
built your own, which is much more
fun! Although Estes still remains
probably the largest supplier, there
are other companies around the world
– including Quest, Aerotech, PML,
Apogee, Rocketvision – that have
joined in and supply kits of parts that
can vary from the very simple to the
extremely complex – and then
onwards and upwards to where
virtually all the rocket is custom built.
The designs can also vary
considerably. At the simpler end there
are generic, (generalised, nonspecific), rockets that basically ‘look’
Some of the many ‘generic’, non-specific rockets
that have been available from this company. The
picture does include the infamous ‘Egg Lofter’
(centre right) designed for launching a hen’s
egg.
Mat Irvine
Many of the model rockets are created to be
scale replicas of the real thing. These are some
of Estes full scale rockets, (l-r) Saturn 1B,
Scout, Mercury Redstone, Titan IIIE- Centaur.
Mat Irvine
Some of the full scale models are so detailed
it is difficult to tell them from the real thing.
This is Estes Mercury Atlas, and from this
angle, it’s difficult to tell that it is a model!
Mat Irvine
9
FEATURE
like a rocket, but are not meant to
represent any real rocket in particular.
Then there are what are termed ‘semiscale’, where the model generally
looks like a real missile or launch
rocket, but some compromises have
had to be made to get the thing to fly.
Lastly there are the true scale models,
which are true miniatures of the full
size rocket down to the smallest
detail.
However complex the finished rocket
may be, the starting point for virtually
all these models is the same - a
central body formed from a thin but
strong card tube. To this is added the
external details – fins, stabilisers and
the nose cone. Inside there are the
actual working parts – the engine and
its holder at one end, and the
parachute and recovery system at the
other.
At this point it is worth explaining
exactly how the whole system works,
for it involves slightly more than ‘just’
firing the rocket off the launch pad. All
in all there are three parts to a
standard (and here we are talking
about single stage) model rocket
launch and recovery. There is the lift
off, then the cruise stage, then
parachute deploying, and all of this is
determined by the rocket motor
classification (see ‘The Technical
Bit’).
10
The general layout of the launching section of a model rocket site. Note that it is a good distance from
the nearest houses. The rocketeers set up their launch systems within the taped off area, using
launch stands that are normally based on camera tripods. At launch, the rocketeer (in blue on the left)
stands a safe distance away from the rocket.
Mat Irvine
Once the rocket has launched, then it
is a matter of choosing someone to
race off across the field to find where
the rocket is landing. It is however
always advisable to try and look
where you are going – it is very
tempting to keep gazing upwards
following the parachutes, not realising
you are just about to fall in a ditch,
run into a tree or hurtle headlong into
a cow!
“After launch, just
choose someone to
race across the field
to find where the
rocket lands - but
make sure they look
where they’re going!”
The rockets are fired from special
launch pads. All the major
manufacturers make them, although
from experience some are more
substantial than others. What is
required at the very least is a vertical
rod, which the rocket slides over –
usually by means of two small tubes
glued to the side of the main body.
The rod sets the initial trajectory for
the rocket, and most can be angled to
set the general direction of travel or to
allow for a slight wind (it is
unadvisable to fly rockets in anything
more than a light breeze – mainly as
you probably won’t see them again!).
The rod is supported by some method
so that it – somewhat obviously –
doesn’t fall over. The commercial
launch pads usually stand on a simple
three-legged base – and the larger the
model rocket, the larger the stand.
However experienced model
rocketeers usually end up devising
and building their own launch pad,
some attached to portable workbenches for working space and
stability, or maybe adapting camera
tripods, with pan and tilt heads to
allow for the adjustment.
At the base of the launch rod is a flat
metal plate. This is to deflect the
rocket exhaust on lift-off and protects
the stand. All the combustion actually
takes place within the motor casing so
the resulting exhaust is purely the
expanding gases. Standard black
powder motors have an exhaust gas
temperature of around 230oC at a
speed of around 850 m/s. This
extends to around 23-33 cm from the
motor nozzle, and although once the
rocket is in the air it is contained
within a small space, it is certainly hot
enough to burn or melt plastic support
stands on the initial firing, as will be
seen by the progressive blackening of
FEATURE
The Technical Bit
(left) Estes rocket igniters – electrically fired and about the only way you are likely to get the rocket
motors to fire! (right) A selection of solid fuelled rocket motors, with some of the numbering. Top is an
A8-3, next a B6-4, then a C6-7 and at the bottom a smaller ‘A’ engine – an A10. The top two are single
stage engines, the bottom two are upper stage engines.
Mat Irvine
this plate! Incidentally although the
exhaust is hot, the exterior of the
motor casing remains cool throughout
the burn, so there is really no danger
of setting the model itself alight. Note
also these motors are single use only
– the casing cannot be re-loaded, so
there is no possibility of mistakes
occurring during such a process.
The motors are fired using tiny
electrical igniters placed up inside the
motor. Firing the rocket fires the
igniters, which in turn ignites the
solid-fuel mix. The voltage for most
small igniters is usually said to be
adequate at 3 volts. However more
reliable firing takes place using a
higher voltage, and 12 volts is
generally recommended. The firing
line is attached to the igniter wires via
very small crocodile clips that pull
away as the rocket leaves its launch
pad.
Although the hobby of flying model
rockets is very safe, obviously one
has to take care with many aspects –
especially when loading the motors,
fitting the igniters, attaching the leads
and the firing itself. The firing box
must be disconnected from the
batteries when attaching leads to the
igniter, (some commercial boxes have
a built-in ‘key’ to help with this.) In
addition, common sense dictates that
you obviously don’t stand directly over
a rocket when pressing the firing
button and that the firing lead is long
enough to stand a respectable
distance away. Commercial firing
boxes usually have a set length of
cable, which gives you the sort of
recommended distance. However for
newcomers – and even experienced
flyers – the best course is to join a
club. There are local clubs, but the
two main national flying model rocket
organisations in the UK are the BSMA
– British Space Modelling Association
and UKRA – United Kingdom Rocket
Association. The former is mostly for
the ‘smaller’ end of the hobby, while
the latter specialises in more powerful
rockets. The organisations will also
help with finding suitable launch sites,
for – as already emphasised although the hobby is safe in that the
rockets are very light and far safer
than Guy Fawkes rockets – you do
not want to fly them when there are
power lines around, near roads or
water, with animals in the field, or
really in any built-up area. Official
clearance is also required past a
certain altitude or in certain areas,
and again the official clubs know
these details.
Web Sites:
Both the national organisations mentioned
above work through the British Model Flying
Association
www.bmfa.org
The UK Rocket Association also has its
own ‘Site
www.ukra.org.uk
Rocket motors are classified by a series
of letters and numbers, an internationally
recognised standard that should be
found on any model rocket motor
manufactured anywhere in the world.
The motors are first classified by their
total impulse (their total power) indicated
by a letter of the alphabet. Each increase
in the letter equals a doubling of power.
So a ‘B’ engine is twice as powerful as
an ‘A’ and a ‘C’ twice as powerful as a
‘B’. The power is measured in Newton
seconds – Ns – and is set for each size
of motor. For example, an A motor has a
total impulse of 2.5 Ns; a B has 5 Ns; a
C has 10 Ns and a D has 20 Ns – so you
can see the power doubles as the letters
progress.
The letter is followed – usually – by two
numbers, separated by a hyphen, eg C64. This is because the motor fires not
only at lift-off, but also has a built in
cruise stage and a final ejection charge
that fires in the opposite direction. From
the classification you can therefore work
out the total power, the duration of the
thrust and the duration of the cruising
stage, in sequence.
In our example the ‘C’ is the ‘size’ of the
rocket motor, which for C motors is a
mean thrust of 10 Newton seconds.
From the next digit – the ‘6’ in our
example – you can work out the firing
time in seconds. To get how long the
motor actually fires (in seconds) you
divide this first number into the total
impulse, in this case 10 (for the 10Ns of
‘C’ motors), divided by 6, which equals
1.6 seconds. This may not seem a very
long time, but the thrust is concentrated
into a very short firing time – which is the
main reason why model rockets leave the
launch pad as fast as they do.
The last number after the hyphen is the
cruise time, or delay time when the
rocket is cruising along with no power.
The charge in the motor is still burning
though, producing a smoke trail to allow
you to track the rocket – which by now
could be at a couple of thousand metres
and not exactly visible to the eye! Then,
after the seconds indicated by the last
number, the final ‘ejection charge’ fires.
This is a very brief burst in the forward
direction to create a sudden expansion of
gases. This literally pushes off the nose
cone, and releases the parachutes.
11
PUZZLE PAGE
WORD SEARCH
Cross out or circle the hidden words in the grid as you find them from the list. When you find the words marked with
an asterisk (*) use a different coloured pen or highlighter. When you have completed the puzzle, these words will
reveal an image. Answers on page 42/43.
Q
W
U
R
P
T
Y
S
P
O
I
U
Y
R
R
O
R
B
I
T
D
A
F
P
G
H
J
K
A
L
A
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Atlas*
Black Hole*
Day*
Galaxy
Lunar
Mars
Orbit
Pluto
Satellite*
Sky*
Space*
Speed
Star
Sun*
UFO*
Voyage
ANAGRAMS
Solve the anagrams using the clues to each word. Then see if you can fit the words into the grid to find the key word
in the yellow boxes
MONO (Our planet’s natural satellite)
__ __ __ __
HEART (The planet we live on)
__ __ __ __ __
RAMS (The next planet after ours)
__ __ __ __
FILE (There’s lots of this on our world)
__ __ __ __
ITEM (Seconds, minutes and hours)
__ __ __ __
The hidden key word is:
__ __ __ __ __
(clue: extra-terrestrial)
12
CAPTION COMPETITION
Tell us what you think these astronauts are thinking or saying. You can have more than one of them
speaking but please keep your answers short — and nothing rude please!
In this photo are: (left to right) Pavel Vinogradov (Russia), Gennedy Manakov (Russia), John Blaha
(NASA) and Claudie Andre-Deshays (France)
The best answers will be printed in the next issue and the one we consider the funniest will win.
THE PRIZE
We have 4 copies of the Voyager card game for the winner (see page 24). Runners up will receive a copy of
the next issue of Voyage. Please mark your entry Caption Competition 2 and send to the address on page 2
LAST ISSUE
Winner:
David Steel, Nottingham
“You should have gone to Specsavers”
Runners Up:
Jonathan Davis, Crawley
“Look at these great pictures of us in Voyage”
Claire Randall, Milton Keynes
“Yes, but it doesn’t keep your breath fresh does it?”
13
FUTURE SPACE
The Next X-Prize
by Steve Cutts
October 2004 – Rutan’s team wins
the X Prize
These days, it’s unusual for an
aerospace record to hit the
headlines, but in October 2004, Burt
Rutan’s team did exactly that, taking
the $10 million dollar X-Prize for the
first commercial space craft to fly to
the edge of space.
For the other competitors in this race,
Rutan’s victory must have been a bitter
pill to swallow but almost immediately,
the Ansari X-Prize was re-issued, with a
staggering $50 million dollar prize on
offer for the first team to build a private
space craft capable of reaching low
Earth orbit.
The original Ansari X Prize was a
reward of $10 million for the first team
to fly a piloted spacecraft beyond the
Earth’s atmosphere. When it was
announced, many in the industry
dismissed the whole idea as gimmick.
In fact, the prize initiated a whole string
of innovative, low cost designs for a
manned space craft capable of
achieving a height of over 100 kms.
a space spectacular in October 2004.
Burt Rutan, of the famous company
Scaled Composites, had already
achieved international fame by
producing the first aircraft capable of
flying around the world without
refuelling. With that title under his belt,
his company has gone on to produce a
new and remarkable machine called
Spaceship One.
Using a single test pilot, Rutan’s team
made a series of flights to an altitude of
62 miles or 100 kilometres. For a
private aviation endeavour, the event
attracted a massive audience. Road
links to the remote dessert air strip
were packed tight with spectators as
Space Ship One returned from its trip to
make perfect landing.
The achievement has captured the
imagination of the world and the
flamboyant British billionaire, Richard
Branson, has ordered a small fleet of
similar spacecraft with which he hopes
to send wealthy would-be astronauts
into space. It seems as if true
commercial space travel is about to
begin.
The issuing of prizes in aerospace
history is not without precedent. For
example, the Schneider Trophy was
centred around a race around the Isle
of Wight in the 1930s. On one
occasion, the legendary British
company Super Marine managed to win
with an aircraft which would become
the forefather of the Spitfire.
14
Firstly, we have to acknowledge that it
is truly remarkable that a private
company can send a manned vehicle
into space at all. Until very recently,
only organisations like NASA could
even think about doing this sort of
thing. To those of us who were weaned
on the adventures of Captain Kirk and
Luke Skywalker, the pace of space
exploration has been more than
disappointing. Maybe that’s all about to
change.
Many believe that space tourism can
play a significant role in the future
exploration of outer space. Thus far
only two tourists have flown in space,
and at very high cost. Dennis Tito was
an American rocket scientist in his
youth and a successful financial expert
in later life. Flushed with millions from
his Wall Street adventures, he decided
at the age of 60 to approach the
Russian space programme and offer
$20 million in return for a one-week
adventure on the International Space
Station.
The Russians agreed and eagerly
cashed the cheque. Over in the USA,
NASA was furious, presumably
because they hadn’t thought of the idea
themselves, but also because Tito had
not gone through their astronaut
training for safety purposes. When Tito
flew with the Russians, he was
restricted to their parts of the space
station.
The people who set up the initial Ansari
X prize were both challenging and
realistic about the rules. They required
a privately funded reusable machine to
fly to a height of 100 kilometres
carrying three people. To prove that the
vehicle is reusable they had to repeat
the same journey within two weeks. A
more substantial challenge would have
been beyond the capabilities of any
small private organisation.
Sure enough, one of the leading teams
in this competition managed to pull off
But if we take away the excitement and
media gloss, what is the X-Prize likely
to achieve?
The UK Starchaser Industry entry to the X-Prize.
Image from www.starchaser.co.uk
For their part, the Russian scientists
were grateful for all the hard currency
they could get and soon recruited
Mark Shuttleworth, the South African
Internet entrepreneur, as their second
space tourist at the tender age of 28.
He fared much better than Tito, as he
went through full NASA training and
went up there with a full programme
of experiments to run, so his visit was
useful as well as being newsworthy.
Just how hard would it be to
send a single staged rocket
into orbit and then return it to
earth, ready for refuelling and
repeat flight?
The best possible fuel
currently available for
spacecraft is liquid hydrogen
and liquid oxygen and current
Spaceship One, which successfully test-flew into space in
rocket engines can burn this
June and October this year.
Scaled Compsites Inc
fuel with an efficiency of over
Since then dozens of adventurous
95%. This means that even the best
billionaires have made inquiries about a
engineers can only squeeze a few
long weekend in zero gravity. It’s been
percent more performance out of such
suggested that if the cost of space
an engine. In order to achieve orbital
tourism could fall there might be
speed, such a rocket needs to be 90%
hundreds of wealthy people willing to
fuel at take-off. In other words, a 100splash out on just such an adventure
tonne rocket on the launch pad would
every year.
consist of 90 tonnes of fuel and 10 of
metal, electronics and astronauts. From
On a more sober note, we have to
this, we can begin to see that the ideal
remember the limitations of these
spacecraft would be a thinnest possible
machines. The first thing to accept is
structure, encircling its own fuel in like
that the original $10 million price is
an egg shell surrounds the white and
peanuts in comparison to the cost of
the yolk of an egg.
designing and building a suitable
rocket. All the groups involved in this
contest have other sources of finance
and other ambitions. Spaceship One
will only be capable of launching a crew
to an altitude of 100 miles. This will
give them a view revealing the
curvature of the planet and several
minutes of zero gravity, but nothing
compared to what the professional
astronauts get to experience. The
current batch of X-Prize contenders fall
well short of an orbital capability.
Artist’s impression of the Da Vinci Project Wild
Fire.
Courtesy of www.davinciproject.com
And orbital capability is the requirement
for the next $50 million dollar X-Prize.
Even the organisers have admitted that
they don’t expect the prize to be won
before 2010. Here’s why.
In order to stay in space we have to
achieve a horizontal speed of 28,000
kph, that’s 8 km per second. Another
way to express this is a speed of 25
times the speed of sound, or Mach 25.
Spaceship One was merely capable of
Mach 3. These simple statistics serve
to remind us that the would-be amateur
astronauts of our times are still a long
way from catching up with NASA.
Sadly, any spacecraft designer is
restrained not just by government
regulations, but by the much harsher
rules of chemistry and physics.
FUTURE SPACE
have been able to carry any payload or
return to Earth. The reality is that
practically the only room for
improvement in such rockets is to
reduce the weight of every component
and this laborious process is now
underway. For example, the heavy
computers that guided the space
shuttle of the 1980s into orbit can now
be replaced by something the size of a
laptop. Similarly, much of the electrical
cabling can be replaced by lightweight
fibre optics. Advances in materials
technology mean that the likely weight
of a heat shield has also been reduced.
Behind the scenes, NASA has been
quietly making refinements to the
Space Shuttle and has succeeded in
reducing the takeoff weight by several
tonnes over the last 10 years.
The organisers of the X Prize have
raised the public profile of a new breed
of aviation heroes. Doubtless someone
will succeed in winning the $50 million
prize for orbital flight but we shouldn’t
be surprised if others fail and amidst
the excitement of it all, we shouldn’t
forget that it’s an adventure that may
cost the lives of some of the innovators
involved. Once they’ve succeeded
there’ll be other hurdles to cross and for
the average man in the street, it’s likely
to be many years before true space
tourism becomes possible.
Steve Cutts is a doctor and
Unfortunately, a commercially viable
freelance writer with a life long
spacecraft would have to be reusable
interest in space exploration.
and therefore would have to cram a
heat shield, retrorockets and
Artist’s impression of the Vanguard Spacecraft Eagle.
perhaps also parachutes into
Courtesy of www.vanguardspace.com
the 10% of take-off weight that
can be solid matter.
Before you get too concerned
about this, remember that
rocket scientists have been on
the edge of producing this
machine for some 30 years.
For example, the second stage
of the Saturn V moon rocket
could also almost have been a
single-stage rocket, although
in that capacity it would not
15
Voyage
PRIZE COMPETITION
This is an artist’s impression
of what we might do when we
go back to the Moon in the
future. To win the
competition, all you have to
do is answer the following
questions:
1. What year was the last
Apollo flight to the Moon?
a) 1972
b) 1982
c) 1992
2. The picture shows a small
lander coming in to land.
What was the name of the
Apollo 11 lander?
a) Spider
b) Columbia
c) Eagle
3) Where on the Moon did
Apollo 11 land?
a) Sea of Tranquillity
b) Sea of Crises
c) Ocean of Storms
Please mark your entry
Shuttle Competition and
send or email it to the
address on page 2
ISSUE 1
CD COMPETITION
The correct answers were:
1. A. International Space Station
2. C. Michael Foale
3. B. 9
Congratulations to:
Jonathan Davis of Crawley,
who wins the
Space Station CD ROM
16
WIN A
DIE-CAST SPACE SHUTTLE MODEL
17
MR PILBEAM’S LABORATORY No. 1
The ESA probe ‘Huygens’ will soon
be on its way to attempt a landing on
Titan, the cloud-enshrouded moon of
Saturn.
Because the surface of Titan is
obscured by its dense atmosphere, the
designers of the probe have had to
make guesses as to just what kind of
surface Huygens will encounter.
Will it be a solid surface such as rock
or ice? Perhaps it will land in slushy
hydrocarbon snow, or perhaps it won’t
‘land’ at all: it may be that there are
lakes and seas of methane, ethane and
other chemicals, which can be liquid at
the temperatures and pressures
encountered on Titan.
To give you an insight into the
problems space engineers have to face
when designing probes and how they
overcome them, try this (potentially
messy) experiment.
Modelling Titan’s surface
Equipment needed: three old plastic
washing up bowls; Plaster of Paris; cat
litter, sand or wax granules; wallpaper
paste; anything else you might want to
add to your ‘planet surfaces’.
Procedure: Mix up enough Plaster of
Paris to make a thick layer (about 6-7
cm) in one bowl and leave to set hard.
Use the remaining dry Plaster of Paris
powder to make a layer just as thick in
the second bowl. Make up a good thick
gooey load of the wallpaper paste in the
third bowl, to the same depth as the
other two.
The surfaces now need to be made to
look as similar as possible. To do this,
scatter sand or cat litter over the top of
each surface until they look the same
(this won’t be completely possible with
the wallpaper paste, as the moisture
will eventually soak into the surface
Landing
material - other items such as wax
granules used for making candles will
do just as well).
You don’t have to follow these
instructions exactly – as long as you
have at least three different types of
‘planet’, you can use any materials you
have available.
Designing the probe
Equipment needed: a raw egg;
general craft construction materials
(card, balsa wood, paper fasteners,
paper clips, rubber bands, suitable
glues and tools etc); reference pictures
of various landers.
To simulate the probe’s delicate (and
expensive) electronics, a raw egg is
useful and you can run a few tests
beforehand to show how eggs survive
drops on concrete, grass, water etc.
You now need to turn your egg into a
There will be another great
experiment from Mr Pilbeam’s
Laboratory in the next issue. We’d
like to hear how your experiments
went, so if you want to send in a
class report, or pictures of your
spacecraft designs, we’ll put the
best ones in the magazine.
Egg ‘Payload’
You can use Balsa wood or thick card for the
solar panels. Make your hinges from tape and
tension them with rubber bands glued in place.
Mr Pilbeam’s Laboratory presents
a variety of interactive activities
ranging from the Victorian era to
the Space Age, including
presentations on the phenomena
of reflection, the exploration of
Mars, rockets and robots.
Although primarily aimed at able
children in Key Stages 2, 3 and 4,
the activities are suitable for a
wide range of audiences,
including special interest groups
for adults or children.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE MR
PILBEAM’S LABORATORY TO
VISIT YOUR SCHOOL, CONTACT
TREVOR SPROSTON AT
Bottom View
18
Top View
[email protected]
on Titan
space probe. It will need some form of
structure which will survive landing on
different surfaces, and be able to
deploy a sampling device to examine
the surface it lands on. To make it a bit
more challenging, your probe design
should leave the egg exposed, and use
as little material as possible (as is the
case when building real spacecraft).
Cosmic “Splat the Rat”
Space probes often end up wider than
the rocket which carries them. This is
because delicate items like solar panels
need to be big to catch enough
sunlight, and rockets are normally of a
fixed diameter. So any satellite or probe
has to fold up to fit into a limited space,
and then unfold when it reaches its
destination.
MR PILBEAM’S LABORATORY No. 1
added a sampler arm, this should also
deploy.
Get hold of about 15 cm of plastic
drainpipe, large cardboard tube or
something which will let an egg pass
through without touching the sides. This
represents the container which has
protected the probe during its journey to
your planet, and limits the size of the
probe which can go through it. It also
creates a control element into the test,
in that the tube provides standard
conditions for each test.
Finally, fasten the tube to a convenient
place, such as a fence or a stepladder,
so that the top is about two metres
above the ground. Fold up your probe,
drop it through the tube, and see if it
unfolds before it hits the surface, and
that it lands upright. Test it without an
egg first, using plasticene to simulate
the weight of the egg. If it works as
expected, add the egg.
Now decide on the unfolded width of
the probe, but it must be at least 33%
wider than the tube. You have to design
it so that it folds up to fit through the
tube, and then unfolds when it comes
out of the end, ready for landing on the
surfaces. How you design your probe is
up to you, but the aim is that the egg
should remain upright on all of the
surfaces, sink in as little as possible,
and also remain intact. If you have
Now place one of the bowls on the
ground, underneath the tube. Drop your
probe and see what happens.
Everything should unfold before it hits
the surface. If the egg survives and
remains upright, recover it and move on
to the next tray. If not…well, at least
you will get another chance; Huygens
won’t.
Rubber Band Actuator
Approx
Suggestion for the basis of your design.
You can make it look as hi-tech or as
simple as you want. Experiment with
different designs to see what works best.
a
b
2 Metres
c
19
SCI-FI FOCUS
The first Americans flew in space
over forty years ago, but thanks to a
recent film and a TV series from the
1960s, you probably know the first
names of most of the astronauts
from NASA’s Project Mercury. When
Gerry Anderson wanted names for
the sons of former astronaut Jeff
Tracy in ‘Thunderbirds’, he chose to
honour those early astronauts by
using their names.
Five…
John Tracy was named after John H. Glenn,
Jr. John Glenn flew the first Mercury
mission to actually orbit the planet on 20
February 1962. Named ‘Friendship 7’, the
spacecraft orbited the Earth three times
during the flight, which lasted only 4 hours
55 minutes and 23 seconds.
His second time in space came over 36
years later, when he joined the crew of the
Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-95 – a
nine-day mission covering 134 Earth orbits
(3.6 million miles). Glenn was 77 years old
at the time, which makes him not only the
first American to orbit the Earth, but also the
oldest astronaut of all!
20
Thunderbirds by Brian Longstaff
Four…
Like Gordon Tracy, L. Gordon Cooper, Jr
loved adventure, with hobbies such as
skiing and boating. While Gordon Tracy was
involved in a hydrofoil speedboat crash
which put him in hospital for four months,
Gordon Cooper’s Mercury flight on 15-16
May 1963 was far from trouble-free. After
the 19th orbit of Earth, a faulty indicator light
came on. During the 20th orbit, he lost all
readings on how high above the planet he
was. On the 21st orbit, his control system
lost power, and it was decided to end the
mission. After 34 hours 19 minutes and 49
seconds, his Mercury capsule, ‘Faith 7’,
splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, south
east of Midway Island.
Cooper’s second flight was on the Gemini 5
mission two years later, when he and
Charles Conrad set a new space endurance
record with a time of 190 hours and 56
minutes.
Three…
Alan Tracy was trained as an astronaut and
it is said that his abilities in space were
outstanding. Alan B. Shepard, Jr also has
quite a record when it comes to space: On 5
May 1961, he piloted ‘Freedom 7’, his
Mercury spacecraft, to become the first
American in space. With a sub-orbital flight*
of 302 miles and a height of 116 miles, the
flight lasted only 15 minutes and 28
seconds but it put him in the history books.
He was also spacecraft commander on
Apollo 14, making him (like Jeff Tracy) one
Mercury is Go!
SCI-FI FOCUS
minutes from lift-off to splashdown.
of the first men to land on the Moon. His
honours include The Congressional Medal of
Honor (Space); two NASA Distinguished
Service Medals; NASA Exceptional Service
Medal, and many more.
Two…
Virgil Tracy is a graduate of the Denver
School of Advanced Technology, and his
lack of fear and iron nerve make him one of
the bravest pilots in the International Rescue
team. Virgil I. ‘Gus’ Grissom not only
excelled as a pilot, gaining him the
Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal
with cluster, but also studied Aeronautical
Engineering at the Air Force Institute of
Technology before becoming an astronaut.
Grissom was pilot of the ‘Liberty Bell 7’
spacecraft, the second and final sub-orbital
flight* before John Glenn’s first orbital
mission. It lasted 15 minutes and 37
seconds, and took him to a height of 118
miles before landing 302 miles downrange
from the launch pad at Cape Kennedy.
Unfortunately, his capsule sank after
splashdown.
the musical) was “unsinkable”! Virgil
Grissom was due to be in the crew of the
first Apollo mission, but there was a fire in
the capsule during a test and he and his two
companions, Ed White and Roger Chaffee
were all killed.
One…
Scott Tracy was named for M. Scott
Carpenter, the second American astronaut
to orbit the Earth in the Mercury 7
spacecraft ‘Aurora 7’ on 24 May 1962. Like
John Glenn before him, Scott orbited the
Earth three times, taking 4 hours and 54
During a leave of absence from NASA,
Carpenter took part in the US Navy’s Manin-the-Sea project, living and working in a
seafloor habitat for 30 days, making him an
aquanaut as well as an astronaut. Returning
to NASA, he helped design the Apollo Lunar
Landing Module, as well as helping train
astronauts for EVA** by working
underwater.
Who…?
One of the flown Mercury astronauts didn’t
make it into ‘Thunderbirds’ – Walter M.
Schirra, pilot of the Mercury spacecraft
‘Sigma 7’. His flight lasted for nine hours, 15
minutes and nine orbits on 3 October 1962.
He then went on to be command pilot on
Gemini 6, which made space history when it
rendezvoused with Gemini 7. Finally, he
was command pilot on the first successful
Apollo Mission, Apollo 7, making him the
only astronaut to fly in all three projects.
Why his name was not chosen to be one of
the Tracy family is not known. We can only
guess that perhaps “Walter Tracy” doesn’t
have the same ring to it as the other names.
We can, however, thank ‘Thunderbirds’
creator Gerry Anderson for an interesting
way to remember the Project Mercury
astronauts.
Grissom also served as command pilot on
the first Gemini flight, Gemini 3, which he
nicknamed ‘Molly Brown’, who (according to
*A sub-orbital spaceflight (or sub-orbital
flight) is a space flight that does not involve
putting a vehicle into orbit.
**EVA – Extra-vehicular Activity is work
done by an astronaut away from the Earth
and outside of his or her spacecraft, such
as a spacewalk.
From Left to Right:
John Glenn and John Tracy
Gordon Cooper and Gordon Tracy
Alan Shepard and Alan Tracy
Virgil Grissom and Virgil Tracy
Scott Carpenter and Scott Tracy
Walter Schirra
Astronaut images courtesy of: NASA
Thunderbirds images courtesy of: ITC Productions
Thunderbirds is a trademark of Carlton
International Media Ltd
21
ON THE COVER
This picture shows the US Space Shuttle
on its way to the launch pad. The
separate parts of the Shuttle launch
vehicle, known as the ‘Stack’, are
brought together in a huge building
called the Vehicle Assembly Building, or
VAB. This photo was taken from the roof
of that building. The Stack consists of
the Orbiter vehicle (the bit that looks like
an aircraft) plus two Solid Rocket
Boosters (the two tubes on either side)
and the External Tank (the big orange
fuel tank).
The Stack is taken from the VAB to the
launch pad on top of this crawler
transport. The pad is 5 km away from the
building and the crawler transport is very
slow. It was originally built to carry the
giant Saturn V rocket (see page 30)
which weighed almost 3 million kg.
The Shuttle stack is lightweight in
comparison, but still weighs on average
almost 2 million kg. The crawler has to
carefully take the whole load down to the
launch pad, so it can’t accelerate very
quickly or come to a sudden stop. The
best speed it can manage is about 0.8
kph, so it takes almost six hours to get
to the launch pad.
With that much weight at such a slow
speed, you certainly wouldn’t want the
caterpillar tracks to run over your foot!
22
SHUTTLE ROLLOUT
There have been six American Space
Shuttles altogether, including one that was
used only for testing and was never able to
fly in space. The six vehicles are: Atlantis,
Challenger, Columbia, Discovery,
Endeavour and Enterprise. How much do
you know about the Space Shuttle program
and its vehicles? Answers on page 42/43.
a) Which shuttle was the first one to fly in
space?
b) Which shuttle flew most of the American
missions to the Russian Space station
Mir?
c) Which shuttle has never flown in space
and was only used for testing?
d) Which two shuttles are named after
sailing ships commanded by Captain
Cook the explorer?
e) Which shuttle was the first one lost in a
launch accident in 1986?
f) The very first space shuttle flight was on
12 April 1981. That was the 20th
anniversary of a very important flight.
What was it?
g) The very first American woman to go
into space flew aboard the Space
Shuttle on a mission called STS-7. What
was her name?
h) Most of the Shuttle Stack can be used
again on later missions. Which is the
only part that always has to be
replaced?
23
RESOURCES
Voyager Card Game
Everyone knows that students at
school like to play games in the
classroom, but can playing a game
actually help you learn some
science? To answer this question,
a card game called ‘Voyager’ was
developed to inform students about
the many scientific satellites there
are and the large involvement of
the UK in space science and
astronomy.
The game consists of 32 cards, each
detailing a scientific satellite, giving a
colour picture, the satellite’s full name,
the countries involved with its
construction and operation, a brief
description of what the satellite does
and the six characteristics required to
play the game.
The game is simple to play and uses
six satellite statistics: Launch, Lifetime,
Mass, Power, Range and Orbit. The
first player chooses one of these
categories from their top card and
compares the value to that on their
opponent’s card. The player who has
the highest value wins the round, taking
their opponent’s card and putting it to
the back of their own deck. The aim of
the game is to win all 32 cards.
The satellites chosen for the game are
from the past, present and future,
covering a wide range of different
scientific goals including Earth
observation, Optical, X-ray and
Gamma-ray astronomy.
Cards include the Hubble Space
Telescope, The International Space
Station, XMM-Newton and ENVISAT.
Each card in the game also includes a
satellite specific web address allowing
interested students to find out further
information.
In order to see if students would enjoy
playing the game, if teachers would find
the game suitable for use in science
lessons and if students would actually
learn anything from playing the game,
‘Voyager’ needed to be tested in
schools. Thanks to funding from the
Particle Physics and Astronomy
24
was played to see what information the
students had learned. All the comments
and suggestions given during the tests
were used to develop a final version of
‘Voyager’, complete with a set of
companion notes containing ideas for
projects and further classroom activities
using the card game as the starting
point. The notes also give information
about the relevance of ‘Voyager’ to the
National Curriculum and include a
complete list of the web addresses on
each of the satellite cards for easy
reference.
An example of a card from the game. Actual size
is 6.5 x 9.5 cm
Research Council (PPARC) in 2001,
several copies of the initial game were
produced and tested in three different
schools.
Over 140 students aged between 9 and
13 took part in the ‘Voyager’ testing.
Feedback was obtained by talking to
the students and teachers and also by
their completion of a short
questionnaire. Some questions were
asked both before and after the game
Comments received by students
included: “I didn’t know that there are
so many satellites around”; “I really
enjoyed playing this game. I think it is
fun as well as educational”; “I think that
it is a good game and anyone can enjoy
it”; “I thought it was really good fun and
you learn lots. I would like to play
again”; “I didn’t think science was fun
until today!”
The ‘Voyager’ card game was very well
received by both students and teachers
at the three schools, with students
being interviewed about the game by a
local radio station and by the local
press. Interest generated by the media
coverage resulted in the remaining few
copies of the trial game being quickly
RESOURCES
handed out to interested schools.
The success of the school trials and the
popularity of ‘Voyager’ showed the
game had the potential to be a very
useful and fun educational tool. The
quality of the cards was then improved
and 8 new cards added to the game. A
second funding award from PPARC at
the end of 2003 meant that over 3000
Centre in Leicester for schools visiting
the space museum.
Over 1500 copies of ‘Voyager’ have
been distributed at the time of writing
this article and many comments about
the game and suggestions for
classroom activities involving the game
have been obtained from both students
and teachers.
Other activities have included
students creating their own satellite
models and even doing small
research projects about their favourite
satellite in the game, using the web
addresses included on the cards to
obtain more information. A number of
teachers even designed their own
cards on different topics using the
same principle as ‘Voyager’ to
address other areas of the science
curriculum.
The development of ‘Voyager’ has
shown that playing games in the
classroom and learning some science
at the same time is indeed possible.
‘Voyager’ has proved to be a useful
educational tool and a number of
ideas for future ‘Voyager’ card games
are currently being investigated.
Students at Thomas Estley Community College,
Hinckley trying out the Voyager game.
For further information about
‘Voyager’ and to obtain copies of
the game, please contact David
Smith at:
copies of ‘Voyager’ and the companion
notes could be produced. These copies
are available free of charge to any
school teacher or science educator who
would like to try the game out.
A webpage containing information
about ‘Voyager’ was created to inform
people about the game and so far
during 2004, copies of ‘Voyager’ have
made their way to a vast number of
schools throughout the UK, with some
copies even going to schools in Europe
and the US. The game has also been
made available at the National Space
One response included a number of
letters from students who had written
their views and feelings about the game
as part of a writing exercise: “I am
writing to you because I enjoyed
Voyager. I think it was the best card
game in the world. I enjoyed it because
when you finish the game you can find
out more about your favourite card on
the internet”, “ Thank you for making
the game Voyager. I enjoyed playing
the game because it is scientific, fun
and the cards are colourful and have
lots of information”.
Dr David Ryan Smith
Dept Electronic and Computer
Engineering
Brunel University
Uxbridge
Middlesex
UB8 3PH
UK
Email: [email protected]
The ‘Voyager’ webpage for more
information about the game is:
http://www.star.le.ac.uk/
classroomspace/Voyager.htm
WE HAVE 4 COPIES OF VOYAGER
TO GIVE AWAY TO ONE SCHOOL
IN OUR CAPTION COMPETITION
ON PAGE 13
25
THE NIGHT SKY
1. Starting Out:
By Dave Buttery, FRAS
Of all the various sciences,
astronomy is the one that so
immediately fills the observer
with wonder. It becomes very
enticing!
“The best way to
start is just to go
outside on a clear
night, look up and
see what you can
see.”
In this series of articles, I’m going to
show you how to start in the
fascinating hobby of Astronomy.
There are many resources such as
books, CD ROMs, videos, magazines
and hundreds of web sites dedicated
to this topic, so where are we going to
start?
Eyes Only
Well first of all, despite what many
astronomers say, my advice is don’t
get either a telescope or binoculars
(we’ll look at equipment later on). The
best way to start any hobby or interest
is to lay a nice firm foundation and in
Astronomy, the foundation is to learn
the night sky. Don’t get confused with
co-ordinates, setting circles, azimuth,
declination and all the other fancy
words that you will find in many
books. The best starting point is
simply to look up on a clear night and
see what you can see. You’ll see
patterns of stars, constellations, the
Moon, and maybe what appears to be
a brighter than normal or strangely
coloured ‘star’ which is in fact a
planet. Under a really dark sky well
away from city lights, you can also
see a band of cloudy grey stretching
across the sky. This is our galaxy, the
Milky Way, as we can see it from our
small world.
Naked eye astronomy is, in my
opinion, the only way to start. Why?
It’s quite simple really. Once you can
identify the major constellations
visible throughout the year, you know
how to navigate the sky and then you
can begin to search for more exotic
objects, such as the great nebula of
Orion, or our closest galactic
neighbour the Great Andromeda
Galaxy. You can also observe star
clusters such as the Pleiades, or
Seven Sisters as it’s sometimes
known. All these objects and many
more are visible to the naked eye
26
Figure 1: Hubble Image of the Cone Nebula.
under the right circumstances.
Not only will this method of starting
set very strong foundations for later
on when you have optical equipment
such as binoculars and telescopes,
but it will also save you spending a lot
of money on expensive equipment
that you may never use if you decide
you don’t want to carry on after all.
Hubble You ‘Ain’t
One thing to say before we go any
further; images such Figure 1 cannot
be seen using amateur telescopes
within the budget of most ordinary
people, for two reasons. Firstly, with
naked eye observations, you will
never see the colours the way
photographs capture them. This is
because most pictures such as this
one of the Cone Nebula in the
constellation of Monoceros, have
been taken using very long exposures
in order to capture both the detail and
the colour. Secondly of course, this
picture was taken by the Hubble
Space Telescope using lenses and
mirrors costing millions of pounds,
and this sort of equipment is way
beyond anything an amateur can
purchase! You have to be realistic in
your expectations. Sadly these days,
with professional equipment such as
Hubble and the European Southern
Telescope, we are spoilt, and many
think this sort of quality image is
within the grasp of back garden
telescopes. Sorry, they’re not. Figure
2 shows the same area of the sky
taken with an 18" telescope costing
thousands.
But don’t despair, there are still
wondrous sights to see, albeit in
smaller versions, on any clear night.
In fact under very clear night skies,
this nebula is just visible as a fuzzy
patch of light using only binoculars.
But remember to begin with, we’re not
going to be using optical equipment at
all, just our eyes.
Figure 2.
On the left is an
image similar to
what the naked eye
would see, on the
right is a long
exposure photo
[Images courtesy of
the Astronomy club
of Nashville]
Beginning Astronomy
THE NIGHT SKY
be able to find them on your star
wheel. You’re now well on your way!
Star Chart
The first, and one of the most
important pieces of equipment in your
inventory should be a decent
planisphere (star finder) or star chart.
You can buy these from most large
bookshops and stationers, as well as
virtually all reputable astronomy/
telescope dealers. Alternatively, you
can download the information from
many web sites, such as http://
school.discovery.com/
schooladventures/skywatch/howto/
planisphere1.html or http://
skymaps.com/downloads.html and
then make your own. But you must
make sure you are getting one for the
useful piece of equipment is a torch.
Not a normal one though, you need
one that shines RED light (this can be
as simple as sticking red paper or
cellophane over an existing torch, or
as exotic as a variable intensity LED
design). The reason for this, what I
consider vital ‘bit of kit’, is simple: you
need to be able to see where you’re
going and read your star wheel, BUT
you don’t want to be using a normal
white light source. Why, I hear you
ask? Well, white light causes your
pupils to contract, and for good
stargazing you need them as dilated
as possible (so no popping back
inside to a hot coffee; make a flask of
it and take it with
you).
So, suitably
armed with our
red torch, star
finder and flask of
coffee, we set off
into the dark
(wearing warm
clothing and
gloves of course).
What do we do
now? Well the
Figure 3: The Celestial Sphere, showing planet Earth in the centre
first thing to do is
to work out the
date/time on your star wheel, and
correct latitude of your location
then look at it and compare it to the
(Northern Europe / 52 degrees is
sky. Remember to view the correct
fine). This is a simple mistake to
horizon on the star wheel as you gaze
make, but very frustrating if you are
upwards. You should easily make out
planning a night under the British sky
the bright stars and constellations and
armed with your newly bought
planisphere, only to find that yours is
for the New Zealand sky!
You will find that your star wheel will
have the Ecliptic and the Celestial
Equator marked on it (or should have
if it’s a good one). What do these
words mean? It’s very important to
know the difference. Astronomers
refer to the stars, planets and
galaxies as being in the Celestial
Sphere (another strange phrase). In
reality, it’s just the universe as seen
looking out in ALL directions from
Earth (fig 3). It’s very similar to the
way the ancients thought of the
universe, with Earth at the centre
(because it is when you’re looking out,
if you think about it). Therefore the
whole sky is like a big sphere with our
fragile little planet in the middle.
The Ecliptic is the path taken by the
Sun as it apparently travels around
the sphere and is very different to the
Celestial Equator, which is really a
projection of the Earth’s equator out
onto the sphere. Finally, your Zenith
is what is directly over your head, not
the North Pole (unless you’re
actually standing there), and therefore
changes depending on your viewing
location. You don’t need to worry
about the other numbers and phrases
such as RA (Right Ascension) or Dec
(Declination), we’ll look at those
another day.
Before we begin our session, one final
note. ALL star wheels and charts give
time as Universal Time (UT). This is
Now, try and identify the patterns/
constellations on the star wheel
against what you can see in your sky.
It may take a little while to see them,
for a number of reasons. Firstly, maps
of the sky and the actual sky look very
different; secondly, some of the
constellations are very faint (such as
Aries) or are very hard to spot
(Cancer); and finally, you may well be
looking at them upside down (you
wouldn’t be the first)! One other really
27
Figure 5.
Working out how far
apart the stars
appear:
THE NIGHT SKY
horizon lies the zodiac
constellation Leo. It
depicts a crouching lion –
the backward question
mark, or Sickle, is Leo’s
15o
head and chest, and the
triangle-shape his rear
and tail. Leo can also be
found by following the
Arc of the Plough
forward. See how easy
star hopping can be. Of
course here we are using very bright
stars and constellations, but the
principle holds true for dimmer stars
and fainter constellations as well.
based on Greenwich Mean Time
(GMT), so when the clocks go
forwards for summer, you have to
allow for this or your sky will be one
hour out!
Star Hopping
The next step is to learn to ‘Star Hop’
– no it’s not a dance for astronomers!
It’s a great way of moving from one
constellation to another without
having to look down. It takes a bit of
practice, but it’s well worth it (fig 4).
Use the sky map to find the Big
Dipper (or Plough) and then the North
Star, Polaris, by following the two
‘pointer stars’ that make up the front
of the Plough’s blade (or Big Dipper’s
ladle). Once you find Polaris, you will
have also found the Little Dipper (a
very faint constellation under city
lights). Using the two brightest stars
in the Little Dipper, follow them
across the sky to the W- or M-shaped
constellation of Casseopia.
Before we move on, one final area
needs to be covered. It’s not easy,
and to be honest, it confuses many
experienced amateurs! It’s known as
Degrees (°) of RA or Dec (I know I
said we would look at these another
day, but I think it’s important to have
a brief look here), in view of degrees
(°) of separation, or to put it another
way, how far apart the stars appear!
(see Figure 5)
Now, go back to the Plough and this
time follow the curved handle of the
Plough and “arc to Arcturus”, the
brightest star north of the celestial
equator and the fourth brightest star
in the entire sky. About halfway
between Arcturus and the western
Magnitude
To put it simply, magnitude is the
brightness of stars (as we see them).
The light from stars has travelled
many millions or billions of years
Casseopia
Polaris
Bootes
1o
The Plough
Arcturus
Leo
5o
10o
25o
before it reaches us (except for our
Sun, whose light takes about eight
minutes). As it travels across space,
even really bright stars appear
dimmer than our Sun. Astronomers
refer to how bright a star appears as
its Magnitude. This scale of
brightness was first written by the
ancient Greek astronomer Hipparchus
(190-120 BC), who classified the stars
into six brightness classes.
Hipparchus said that the brightest
stars he could see were 1st
magnitude (or biggest), slightly fainter
stars were 2nd magnitude, and so on
to magnitude 6 (the faintest visible).
Around AD 140, Claudius Ptolemy
copied this system in his own star list,
which became the basic text for
astronomers until the invention of
telescopes in the middle ages.
Therefore, everyone used a six
magnitude system.
Then along came Galileo. Using his
telescope, he could see much fainter
stars: “Indeed, with the glass you will
detect below stars of the sixth
magnitude such a crowd of others
that escape natural sight that it is
hardly believable,” he wrote in 1610.
The magnitude scale soon became
open-ended, and remains so today.
Most naked eye observers cannot see
stars below the 6th magnitude (some
say 8th is possible under clear dark
skies with very good eyesight).
Binoculars enable us to see to the 9th
and small telescopes to the 13th. By
comparison, the Hubble Space
Telescope has seen as low as the
31st magnitude!
Figure 4: Star Hopping around the Night Sky
28
“The next step is to
learn to ‘Star Hop’ no, it’s not a dance
for astronomers!”
As science and astronomy progressed
further, a TRUE definition of
magnitude (rather then Hipparchus’s
naked eye judgement) was needed
and by the middle of the 19th century,
astronomers realized there was a
pressing need to define the entire
magnitude scale more precisely. They
had already determined that a 1stmagnitude star shines with about 100
times the light of a 6th-magnitude
star, so the resulting magnitude scale
was logarithmic, in neat agreement
with the 1850s belief that all human
senses are logarithmic in their
response to stimuli. The decibel scale
for rating loudness was likewise made
logarithmic.
Backwards Scale
Now that star magnitudes were
ranked on a precise mathematical
scale, another problem became
unavoidable. Some ‘1st-magnitude’
stars were a lot brighter than others.
Astronomers had no choice but to
extend the scale out to brighter values
as well as faint ones. Stars like Rigel,
Capella, Arcturus, and Vega are
magnitude 0, an awkward statement
that sounds like they have no
brightness at all, but it was too late to
start again from scratch. The
magnitude scale extends even further
than this, into negative numbers:
Sirius shines at magnitude –1.5,
Venus reaches –4.4, the full Moon is
about –12.5, and the Sun blazes at
magnitude –26.7.
Before we finish, one final point on
magnitude. Up to now we have talked
about ‘apparent magnitude’ or to put it
another way, how we see the stars.
As we said earlier, the light from stars
is ‘diluted’ as it travels through space.
We don’t know how intrinsically bright
an object really is until we also take
its distance into account, so
astronomers built the Absolute
Magnitude scale. An object’s absolute
magnitude is simply how bright it
would appear if placed at a standard
distance of 10 parsecs (32.6 light-
THE NIGHT SKY
years). At this distance, our Sun
would be magnitude 4.85, and quite
unimpressive. On sky maps, absolute
magnitudes are always written with a
capital M and apparent magnitudes
with a lower-case m.
Finally, what can we see this
Autumn?
Autumn is a great time for star
gazing. The nights are not too cold,
and it gets dark nice and early. There
are few planets around this year; Mars
is on the wrong side of the Sun,
Jupiter is in the daytime sky (not
visible), Venus can be seen before
sunrise in the EAST shining as
brightly as it did in the West last
winter. Only Saturn is a night object
but before Christmas, it rises just in
Gemini at around 10 pm.
Constellation wise, the autumn sky is
truly superb, from Hercules in the
West (setting early evening) to Taurus
in the East. The main southern sky is
dominated by the Andromeda legend,
with all the characters Perseus,
Cassiopeia, Cetus, Cephus,
Andromeda and Pegasus visible.
Under a clear dark sky, the
Andromeda galaxy M31 is visible
easily to the naked eye. The northern
sky sees the plough sitting in its
‘traditional’ position, blade forward.
Dave Buttery is a Fellow of the
Royal Astronomical Society and a
member of many Astronomical
and Educational groups.
He is the senior partner in AURIGA
Astronomy, an astronomical
education service for schools,
which helps teachers with the
astronomical components of the
National Curriculum via his mobile
planetarium ‘The Auriga Star
Dome’.
For further details on what Dave
can offer your school, call
01909 531507 or visit AURIGA
Astronomy’s website
www.auriga-astronomy.com
29
DID YOU KNOW ABOUT..?
THE APOLLO SATURN V MOON ROCKET
One Year Long
The Saturn V was 111 m (365
feet) tall from the base of the
five huge F1 engines to the tip
of the launch escape tower.
Weighing 2,750 tonnes it burned
54.5 million litres of fuel in 11
minutes and contained
2,000,000 working parts. The
only part of the whole ‘stack’
that returned to Earth was the
3.5 m tall Command Module
that splashed down in the ocean
at the end of the mission
Deep Freeze
The insulation of the cold
storage fuel tanks of the Saturn
V was so good that if you put
ice cubes inside, they would
take eight years to melt.
Put the Light On
The rocket generated enough
thrust at launch to power the
whole of New York for 1.5 hours
Fill Her Up
To launch a Saturn V required
26,500,000 litres of liquid nitrogen,
16,000,000 litres of liquid oxygen,
9,000,000 litres of liquid hydrogen, and
395,000 litres of liquid helium. The total
fuel weight was 500 times the weight of
the Apollo spacecraft at the top, with
some of it stored at -221oC to keep it
30
Storage Space
Each of the fuel tanks in the first
stage was big enough to hold three
double decker buses at one go and
together they could store enough
liquid oxygen to fill 54 railway tanker
trucks
Heavyweight
There were 2,500,000 solder
joints inside the moon rocket
and if just 1 mm too much
wire had been used on each of
those joints, it would have
added 40 tonnes to the weight
of the rocket
Ground Force
The power and thunder of a
Saturn V launch was so
immense that watchers nearby
said it felt like Florida was
sinking a few inches
Overtime
It took four months and 5000
workers to construct the
rocket stack, check it, move
it to the launch pad and
launch it
GIANT WORDSEARCH - AMERICAN ASTRONAUTS
Hidden in this grid are the names of all the American astronauts up to the end of the Apollo missions, along with some
of their vehicles and places. Cross out or circle the words in the list as you find them, looking forwards, backwards, up,
down or diagonally for the answers. When you’ve found all the words, you will have some letters left over. When read
from left to right and top to bottom, these extra letters spell out the names of eight space ‘firsts’. They’re not all American
and they’re not all people, but they are the first of their kind in space. Answers on Page 42/43.
N
E
D
R
O
W
N
A
T
I
T
L
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H
C
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I
M
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A
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W
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A
WORD LIST
Aldrin
Anders
Apollo
Armstrong
Atlas
Bean
Borman
Canaveral
Carpenter
Cernan
Collins
Columbia
Conrad
Cooper
Cunningham
Duke
Eagle
Eisele
Evans
Gemini
Glenn
Gordon
Grissom
Haise
Irwin
Lovell
Mattingly
McDivitt
Mercury
Mitchell
Moon
Roosa
Saturn
Schirra
Schmitt
Schweickart
Scott
Shepard
Slayton
Space
Stafford
Swigert
Titan
Tranquility
White
Worden
Young
31
SPACE HISTORY
Astronauts in Iceland
by Arthur Smith
One of the last places on Earth
where you would expect to meet a
spaceman is Iceland. Yet one day,
many years ago, I stood beside a
steaming hot spring far from the
capital, Reykjavik, as a group of US
astronauts splashed happily in the
bubbling water.
They were taking a little rest and
recreation after a hard day on the lava
fields. Apollo astronauts were trained in
lecture rooms, laboratories, in
simulators, factories and in tropical
jungles (the latter just in case they
came back on the wrong trajectory from
the Moon). But they also carried out
part of their training for the incredible
journey to the Moon in an improbable
place – Iceland.
Now you may think that this cold, bleak
island in the North Atlantic is probably
not the place you would expect to visit
to prepare you for a trip to the Moon –
but there is a very good reason why it is
an ideal training ground. Iceland has
been formed over the past few million
years as molten rock has been forced
up to the surface between two of the
‘tectonic plates’ that make up the
Earth’s crust. The North American plate
and the European plate are moving
very slowly away from each other and
as they do so, molten rock wells up
from the sub-surface ‘mantle’. This has
forced up the Mid-Atlantic ridge, of
which Iceland forms a part.
It is an island of huge glaciers and redhot lava, violent eruptions and new land
which is still coming out of the sea. The
hot springs in which we bathed at the
end of the day on that long-ago trip are
a by-product of the volcanic activity.
The underground water is heated by the
hot rocks under the surface and it
bubbles up like the water boiling in a
kettle.
Because the surface of the Moon was
thought to be partly built up by
volcanoes, a party of twenty or so
Apollo astronauts were sent there in
1966 to make sure that when they went
to the Moon they would recognise
32
volcanic rocks when they saw them. As
it happens, they also visited the
Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific, where
they studied the different types of
volcanoes which have built up the
island chain over millions of years.
In fact, one of the biggest debates
about the origin of the Moon before
astronauts went there was whether the
lunar surface was formed by the impact
of thousands of meteorites or by
volcanic eruptions. As we shall see, the
question was largely answered in the
late 1960s and 1970s by some of the
astronauts whom I accompanied to
Iceland. As a science writer, I was lucky
enough to be sent there to tour the
island with them and observe their
training. No-one knew three years
before the Apollo 11 landing in July
1969 who would be the first man to set
foot on the Moon, but as luck would
have it a modest, quiet-spoken civilian
test pilot called Neil Armstrong was one
of the party and as the world knows, it
was he who made that first small step
for a man in the Sea of Tranquillity.
Iceland’s days are long in June, as it is
not far south of the Arctic Circle. The
midnight sun is not quite a reality there
(it only happens north of the Arctic
Circle), but it sets not long before 12
and rises again not long after, so we
had long days as our four-wheel drive
vehicles toured the empty, grey ash
fields and lava flows of Iceland. It was
strange to tour the streets of the
Icelandic capital and see children
playing on the corners in almost
completely broad daylight after
midnight. It seems that even having
been born and grown up there, the
children of Iceland find it hard to sleep
when there is really no darkness! (In
the winter, of course, the opposite is
true, for there is then little daylight as
the Sun stays stubbornly below the
horizon for most of the day and night.)
The astronauts were well prepared for
their trip. An Icelandic professor of
world renown with a special knowledge
of the way Iceland has been formed
taught the astronauts how to find and
identify volcanic rocks and my
photographer and I trailed along behind
them. On the first night we camped with
the astronauts on a stretch of lava
beside a gushing stream of melt water
from a glacier. They kindly offered us
one of their modern, metal-framed
tents, which we shared with a French
journalist. Little did we know that the
tent was not really designed for
Iceland’s weather. It might have been
fine in the deserts of Arizona – but a
torrential storm hit Iceland’s far wetter
terrain during the night.
We watched with trepidation as drips
began to accumulate on the roof of the
tent and when we woke in the morning
there were several inches of rainwater
in the bottom of the tent. Our sleeping
bags were soaked and it was obvious
that we couldn’t spend several more
nights in the tent.
The next night we did better. We had
engaged the services of an Icelandic
schoolteacher who was skilled and
experienced as a traveller on the rough
terrain of the island and he had brought
with him a little, unsophisticated ‘Boy
Scout’ tent – the sort of thing that has
the shape of an old-fashioned haystack.
Our guide offered us the hospitality of
his tent and so the four of us, sleeping
like sardines in a tin, remained
completely dry. I never did ask the
astronauts how they had fared in their
tents, similar to the one they had lent
us, but I suspect that they spent a fairly
uncomfortable time in them.
The astronauts toured the various areas
of volcanic rocks and even made a brief
excursion to the huge Vatnajokull
glacier – although they didn’t expect to
find anything like that on the Moon! In
the middle 1960s, a series of
unmanned photographic probes called
Ranger had been sent by NASA to
crash on the surface of the Moon. In the
minutes before they crashed, they sent
back brilliant and unprecedentedly clear
photographs of the lunar craters, rilles
and ‘seas’. Obviously the astronauts
were familiar with these pictures and
one of the features which they picked
out concerned rocks that had rolled
down slopes on the Moon.
Not much has happened on the lunar
surface for several billion years but
there are ‘moonquakes’ occasionally,
similar to our own earthquakes but
much smaller in power. This was
proved later when the instruments
placed on the Moon by Project Apollo
astronauts included seismometers. A
number of natural
moonquakes have been recorded, as
well as an artificial one caused by
crashing the third stage of a Saturn V
rocket on the surface.
One of the results of the natural
tremors is that boulders lying on slopes
are sometimes dislodged and roll
downhill, leaving a trail behind in the
dust. Some of these trails may have
been made thousands or even millions
of years ago, for the surface of the
Moon is almost unchanging.
Throughout their trip, whenever they
had a spare moment, the astronauts
would try to emulate these trails on the
Icelandic ash by rolling boulders
downhill. (I don’t think that any of them
tried this manoeuvre when they went to
the Moon – that would have been very
unscientific – but on Apollo 17, for
instance, the crew did find some of
these boulder trails as they toured the
highlands in their lunar rover.)
The astronauts worked long and hard to
study and understand the rocks on the
lava flows and ash fields and it was
very late in the evening when they had
finished their supper. Then several of
them showed that they were determined
to enjoy their visit to Iceland and went
off to nearby streams with rod and line
to fish for trout and salmon. As for me,
I didn’t show the same devotion to duty
and by midnight I was snuggled down
in the little white tent and slept soundly
despite the near daylight conditions
outside.
What was the conclusion of the great
search for volcanic rocks on the Moon?
SPACE HISTORY
Well, they did find them, including
several of those on the Iceland trip who
later flew Apollo spacecraft a quarter of
a million miles on the most hazardous
journey ever undertaken.
As well as Neil Armstrong, our picture
shows several of the men who landed
on the Moon in the late 1960s and early
1970s. Prominent among them, second
from the right, is Jack Schmitt, the only
geologist to be included in Project
Apollo. He flew on the very last
mission, Apollo 17, and he had a
particular aim.
In the photographs from orbit, there
were dark areas on the part of the
Moon where Apollo 17 was landing.
Schmitt thought they might show signs
of recent volcanic eruptions but when
he got there, he found that like virtually
all the rest of the lunar surface, the dark
areas were well over three billion years
old.
That’s the trouble; nothing has
happened on the Moon for so long.
There have been plenty of lava flows on
the surface and if you look up on a
moonlit night you will see dark areas
known as the ‘seas’ (maria in Latin),
which are full of lava. But they, too,
flowed almost four billion years ago and
true volcanic activity on the surface of
the Moon has been found only rarely.
Even so, that trip to Iceland helped to
prepare those twenty-one spacemen for
the task of sorting out the jumble of
rocks they found when they went
across the gulf of space.
There’s a weird coincidence in the
picture. Fred Haise, the little chap in the
middle wearing a black hat and peering
from behind two other astronauts, was
one of the crew of the ill-fated Apollo
13, which almost came to grief when
the Service Module exploded on the
way to the Moon. And, would you
believe it, he is standing 13th from the
left in the row of astronauts. I’m not
superstitious and I’m sure it was just a
coincidence; Jack Swigert, another of
the Apollo 13 crew, is standing fourth
from the right.
33
WHERE TO GO
This map of the UK is going to build into a guide to all the places that you can go to experience space and science
displays, shows or interactive days out. It only has a few entries at the moment, so we’d like your help to fill it up. If
you or your school have been to a science centre near you, tell us about it and we’ll add it to the map.
If you are a space or science centre, we want to let people know you are there, so send us some details about your
centre to let schools and students know what you do. We will be featuring different centres in future issues.
Aberdeen: Satrosphere
01224 640340 www.satrosphere.net
Glasgow: Glasgow Science Centre
0141 420 5000 www.gsc.org.uk
Edinburgh: Royal Observatory
Macclesfield: Jodrell Bank
0131 668 8405 www.roe.ac.uk/vc
01477 571 339 www.jb.man.ac.uk/scicen
Newcastle: Discovery Museum
0121 232 6789 www.twmuseums.org.uk/discovery
Armagh: Armagh Planetarium
028 3752 3689
Halifax: Eureka! the Museum for Children
wwwarmaghplanet.com
01422 330 069 www.eureka.org.uk
Leicester: National Space Centre
0870 607 7223 www.spacecentre.co.uk
Birmingham:
Thinktank at Millennium Point
0121 202 2222 www.thinktank.ac
Norwich: Inspire
01603 612612
Oxford: Curioxity
www.science-project.org/inspire
01865 247004 www.oxtrust.org.uk/curioxity
Cardiff: Techniquest
02920 475 475 www.techniquest.org
Hailsham: Observatory Science Centre
01323 832731 www.the-observatory.org
Bristol: At-Bristol
0845 345 1235
Weymouth: Discovery
www.at-bristol.org.uk
01305 789 007
www.discoverdiscovery.co.uk
34
London: London Planetarium
0870 400 3010 www.london-planetarium.com
PHOTO COMPETITION - WHAT IS IT
This picture was taken by the astronauts aboard the Skylab space station that hosted crews in 1973 and
1974, including Ed Gibson. All you have to do is tell us what you think it’s a picture of.
The winning answer will be printed in the next issue of Voyage.
THE PRIZE
Signed copies of Ed Gibson AND Jack Lousma’s Data Cards (see page 3).
Runners up will receive a copy of the next issue of Voyage.
Please mark your entry Photo Competition 2 and send to the address on page 2
LAST ISSUE:
Nobody correctly guessed that Dr Adam Baker
was holding a piece of solid rocket fuel in last
issue’s photo, so we will carry over the prize
to this issue.
The winner of the competition will receive two
autographed Data Cards; one of Ed Gibson
and one of Jack Lousma, both former Skylab
astronauts
35
FUTURE SPACE
Humans on Mars
by Steven Cutts
The recent spate of robotic probes to
reach Mars has captured the
imagination of a new generation.
Hollywood has already opened our
minds to the idea of space
exploration, but amid the hype, it’s
worth pausing for a moment and
asking some serious questions.
planets are in a suitable position to
permit the flight home, the crew would
have to spend at least three to six
months on the surface of the planet.
In essence, we’re talking about an
eighteen month space mission. Is this
possible?
Could human beings really follow in
the footsteps of probes such as Spirit
and Opportunity and if we did, might
they merely suffer the fate of Beagle
2? Even if we arrived safely at our
destination, what would be the
chances of establishing a manned
settlement there?
Besides the Earth, there are two other
planets in the solar system that might
be suitable for colonisation. The first
is Venus.
Hell Planet
Venus is a promising little planet,
almost exactly the same size as the
Earth, with a dense atmosphere and
plenty of clouds. If you could stand on
the surface of Venus, the force of
gravity would be more or less the
same as on Earth and its proximity to
the sun would certainly keep the place
sunny. Unfortunately you’d also boil
to death in seconds. Venus is a
hellishly hot planet where a block of
solid lead would melt and turn to
liquid if you put it on the floor.
In the long term, Venus probably
offers the best hope of a second,
Earth like home for mankind.
Unfortunately, we would first have to
tame its ferocious atmosphere.
Incredible though it may sound, there
are scientists working on this problem
right now and some of their plans
sound almost feasible. The process of
turning a hostile, alien planet into an
Earth-like world has even been given
a name, terra forming, but it would
probably take century or more to
work.
So what about Mars?
The force of gravity on Mars is about
one third of the Earth’s. For a first
36
destination, this is actually an
advantage since it wouldn’t be too
difficult to fly back from. What would
a mission to Mars be like and what
sort of world could we build when we
got there?
Would a manned mission to Mars
be dangerous?
The spacecraft would have to be
launched in separate components and
assembled in orbit around the Earth.
The crew would be flown to the
completed ship by ferry vessel and
transferred over to their quarters
ready for the flight. You would expect
them to smile for the television
cameras but none of them will be
under any illusions as to the risks
involved. Catastrophic failure would
be unsurprising in a mission of this
kind.
The ferry would retreat to a safe
distance and the Mars vessel would
fire its motors to break out of Earth
orbit and set off on a trajectory that
will take it to Mars. Once the rocket
motors have fired, it will be
impossible to turn back. Using
present day rockets, it will take about
six months to get to Mars, and the
return journey will take a similar
period. To justify such a long flight
and in order to wait until the two
More than a year in space
Basically, yes, but it’s not easy. The
Russians have kept people in orbit for
over a year and although the
cosmonauts developed some medical
problems, they did recover.
Unfortunately, a mission to Mars is
very different from a long duration
mission in low Earth orbit. The
astronauts heading to Mars would
have no hope of a rapid return to
Earth. If any thing went wrong they
would be beyond hope of rescue.
During the flight, they would be
exposed to the dangerous radiation of
interplanetary space. It’s even been
suggested that the first astronauts
would be people approaching
retirement, who already had grown up
children and who, essentially,
wouldn’t mind becoming infertile or
developing long term illnesses.
Lifeboats and Rescue
Most plans to visit Mars involve a
crew of at least six. If the resources
were available, it would make sense
to send two ships separated by a few
miles. If one ship malfunctioned, the
other could rescue the stranded
astronauts and function as a life boat.
But conditions on the space craft
would be cramped. The crew would
have to fly to Mars surrounded by vast
stock piles of equipment, spare parts
and food parcels. These parcels
would serve the additional purpose of
protecting them from the radiation
found in outer space and in time, they
might ‘eat their way’ into a more
generous living space by throwing
their empty bottles and cans
overboard.
Carbon dioxide can be filtered from
the atmosphere quite quickly, but the
air would soon begin to taste stale.
It’s also difficult to shower in space
and the odour of a chemical toilet
would be impossible to eliminate. The
interiors of current manned space
craft are filled with white noise from
which there is literally no escape and
to add to that, some planners
envisage taking chickens to provide
fresh eggs and meat. Drinking water
would have to be recycled.
If men and women were sent together,
sexual tensions might develop
between the astronauts. If married
couples were sent and the
relationships broke down, the warring
parties would be trapped with their
crew mates in an inescapable
confined space, compelled to
complete the mission in the allotted
time. Medically, we would also have
to come up with better ways to
prevent muscle weakness and
calcium loss in the bones.
What about Mars itself?
Well, we’ve known for some time that
there’s an atmosphere on Mars and
before the first probes visited the
planet, there was a hope in some
quarters that it might allow people to
live there. Even if the surface
pressure was as tenuous as the top of
Mount Everest, the astronauts could
breathe oxygen from gas cylinders
like scuba divers, perhaps wearing
thermal insulation for warmth.
Unfortunately, the first robotic space
missions confirmed that the
atmosphere is far too tenuous for this
and any astronauts will have to wear
cumbersome space suits with sealed
gloves and helmets.
On the other hand,
having a tenuous
atmosphere isn’t all
bad. The crew could
use the Martian
atmosphere as a
brake to slow down
their space craft. To
do this using rocket
fuel would be
immensely
expensive, but this
technique, called
aerobraking, has
already been used
on several robotic missions. As the
astronauts enter the atmosphere, all
radio communications with their
colleagues back on Earth will be lost.
If the heat shield failed, all the
astronauts would die. Mission Control
would simply never hear from them
again. If they survived re-entry and
succeeded in deploying parachutes or
retrorockets, they
would be unable to
use the air bag
technique used in
the recent robotic
landings, but a
human pilot would
be able to observe
the landing zone
carefully and
manoeuvre away
from any unwanted
cliffs, slopes and
boulders. In any
case, the landing
zone would almost
certainly have been
scouted out by
robotic buggies
beforehand. Radio
beacons from the
buggies could direct the spacecraft
towards an area already known to be
flat and safe.
Once on the planet, the crew could
emerge in full pressure suits and
proceed to explore the new world.
Every few hours they would have to
return to the mother craft change their
FUTURE SPACE
oxygen cylinders.
Is there anything the crews could
do to improve their chances?
It’s likely that each crew to visit Mars
would try to set up a small base. The
journey outward would have been
cramped, but collapsible habitats
could be stored on board the space
craft, inflated some distance from the
landing site and partially covered with
dust as protection against radiation.
Kevlar walls would protect against
meteorite penetration and a Perspex
roof could allow in sunlight. The
habitat could provide a much more
spacious and psychologically pleasant
environment for the crew and later
crews could add further sections to
enlarge the base further. Mars has a
similar day/night cycle to Earth and a
reasonable approximation of normal
human lifestyle could emerge. Plants
could be grown in small greenhouses
to provide oxygen and fresh food and
by unfolding solar panels, electrical
power could be generated by day.
During the night, batteries would have
to maintain life support systems until
dawn.
It’s likely that earlier, automated
rockets would have landed supplies of
food, fuel and oxygen ready for the
astronauts to use. However, plans are
already afoot to extract fuel from the
Martian atmosphere. By sucking the
very tenuous gas into compressors,
some of the components of the
37
FUTURE SPACE
atmosphere could be used to make
rocket fuel. If the first astronauts
could refuel as they reach the planet,
this would vastly ease the engineering
challenge of sending a return mission
Mars. At the time of writing, NASA
scientists are planning to send
miniature ‘fuel making’ devices to
Mars on robotic probes to
demonstrate the feasibility of this
technique.
The surface of Mars is very cold,
about as cold as Antarctica by day,
and much colder at night.
Realistically, the first manned landing
would be on the equator but there
would be a strong incentive to travel
from there to the polar ice caps.
Water and Ice
Mars is known to have considerable
ice at both poles. Most of this ice is
frozen carbon dioxide, but there is
emerging evidence that it may also
contain water ice. If this is true, the
exploration of Mars would become
considerably easier, with the crew
melting the ice and converting it to
oxygen and
hydrogen
rocket fuel.
We know that
Mars once had
flowing water on
its surface
because the
outlines of rivers
have been
clearly
demonstrated
from orbit. We
also know also
that it’s
impossible for
water to exist in
a near vacuum.
If you tried to
make a cup of
tea on Mars
today, the water
would evaporate
within seconds of you pouring it out of
the kettle. And yet, if Mars once had
running water, it must also have had an
atmosphere capable of allowing that
water to exist. It’s likely that both the
water and the atmosphere still exist but
that they have become trapped in the
permafrost under the surface of the
rocks.
A Large
Colony?
If later
expeditions
could reliably
obtain water
much larger
settlements
would be viable,
with the
astronauts
growing their
own food in
greenhouses,
tended to by
miniature
robots. There is
also the
possibility of
terra forming
Mars! It would
involve
persuading the
water ice at the
North and South
poles to melt
38
and evaporate back into the
atmosphere, dramatically increasing
the surface pressure. Long before the
pressure was high enough to explore
without space suits, very hardy,
genetically engineered plants would
have been bred that might flourish in an
environment still too hostile for man.
These plants would convert carbon
dioxide atmosphere into oxygen as they
once did on our own planet.
But it would be naive to suggest that
this would be easy. One year after the
Pilgrim Fathers arrived in their own
New World, they settled down to a
service of Thanksgiving. On that day,
those who were still alive knew that
more than half of the people on the
Mayflower had already died. Building a
New World has never been easy and
going to Mars is one of those things
that either gets you or it doesn’t. Many
people look at those pictures of an alien
wasteland and struggle to understand
the attraction, but as long as there are
people alive who are willing to go, the
dream will live on. Fantastic as it may
yet seem, a new generation of Pilgrim
Fathers may yet found another world
for mankind.
All the artwork used in this article was created
for NASA by various artists for concept studies
into potential missions to Mars and the systems
and hardware that might be created for such
missions. NASA does not yet have any firm
plans for human missions to Mars
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39
Who’s Who in Space
Konstantin
by Neil Fairweather
A variant on this idea was a sort of
cluster rocket, which would start with
(say) four engines firing at full power.
Then, after half the fuel in each was
used up, fuel from two of the engines
would be transferred to the other two
and the empty engines would be
ejected. This could be repeated to
reduce the engines from two to one,
thus making the best possible use of
the engines as well as the fuel.
This has not actually been done yet, as
transferring the fuel would be
excessively complicated, but it does
bear some resemblance to the idea of
the booster rockets strapped onto the
side of a spacecraft such as the Space
Shuttle, which provide extra thrust
during launch and are ejected as soon
as their fuel is used up.
Konstantin Edouardovich Tsiolkovsky 1857-1935
At one time, the Soviet Union tried
to convince the world that its
population had invented all sorts of
important things. One of the more
justifiable examples they gave was
that of Konstantin Edouardovich
Tsiolkovsky, “the father of space
travel.”
Ideas and Theories
On his own, Tsiolkovsky, who was a
teacher in Kaluga in Russia, dreamed
up many scientific and technical ideas.
Some of his ideas had already been
thought up by other people, but many
of them were new, and a lot of these
related to space travel. A lot of these
seem very imaginative even now, let
alone when he first published them over
a hundred years ago, but as
Tsiolkovsky himself said, “The
impossible of today will become the
possible of tomorrow.”
40
Tsiolkovsky realised, supposedly from
looking at an untied balloon, the way in
which rockets would work, and also
realised that they wouldn’t need any air
to push against, making them ideal for
use in space.
Rocket Train
Following on from this came one of the
most well-known of Tsiolkovsky’s ideas,
the multistage rocket (or rocket train, as
he called it). Given what was possible
with the materials of the time, he
realised that a rocket would not
physically be able to carry all the fuel it
needed to get into orbit around the
Earth, let alone further, but the
multistage rocket gets around this
problem by dropping away each of its
sections as the fuel in them is used up,
meaning that there is less mass to pull
as the journey goes on and thus, less
fuel is needed to pull it.
The Moon in Stages
Tsiolkovsky had ideas about how space
travel would develop in general. One
suggestion of his, which was popular
among space travel theorists for quite
some time, was that before missions
were sent to the Moon and beyond, a
large space station near to the Earth
would be the first thing needed. (This
was sometimes poetically referred to as
a “city in the aether”, aether being a
term at the time for what we would now
think of as empty space.)
This wasn’t how the Moon was
eventually reached, as the Americans
needed to get there quickly in order to
beat the Russians, but it determined the
Russian attitude to the way forwards
through most of their space program’s
history and links in with current
American plans for the ISS before they
move onwards. Quite apart from the
uses of spacecraft for observing our
planet’s surface (although this would
tend nowadays to be done with
unmanned spacecraft due to modern
technology), launching spacecraft
onwards would be far easier from
space stations than from the surface of
the planet, simply because most of the
gravity would already have been
overcome - something starting off at a
space station would be two-thirds of the
way to escape velocity already! Also,
Tsiolkovsky
spacecraft would not need to be
designed to enter an atmosphere at
each end of their journey, as they would
only need to travel between space
stations; travellers would change to
different craft in order to go down to the
surface.
Zero Gravity
Tsiolkovsky saw some of the
implications of living in space. He
imagined structures which wouldn’t
collapse under their own weight, no
matter what their size. He realised that
‘up’ and ‘down’ would be meaningless
in space and that movement would
require throwing things or pushing off in
one direction to move in the opposite
direction by reaction. The idea of using
rockets followed naturally from there.
He also realised that the forces of
acceleration when going into space
needed to be prepared for, and
suggested the use of centrifuges to
simulate these effects, putting huge
forces onto trainee space travellers
(human or animal) by spinning them
round in a circle at high speed...
The Purpose of Space Travel
Perhaps Tsiolkovsky’s most insightful
idea was about “The Purpose of Space
Travel” (this being
the title of a book
he wrote). People
ask the point of
going into an
unnatural, artificial
and highly
dangerous
environment when
we have the Earth,
with its
atmosphere, at our
disposal.
Tsiolkovsky
turned this on its
head by pointing
out all the
disadvantages of
the atmosphere
and the resultant
weather, and by
pointing out how
much better it
would be if we
could control our
air, temperature
and so on, not to
mention being able to use all the
energy falling on us from the Sun,
rather than having it wasted on
creating the weather or just reflected
back into space. In fact, he made it
sound as though the Earth was a
spaceship without any of the
advantages!
In the 1890s,
Tsiolkovsky published
several books on the
theoretical problems of
using rocket engines in
space.
His ideas were very
advanced and took into
account many aspects
of space travel by rocket
that have since been
proven accurate by our
space programs.
These included
navigation, re-entry
heating, fuel
requirements and the
use of multistage
rockets
Above: In 1903, the same year the Wright
Brothers successfully flew the first powered
aircraft. Tsiolkovsky published a report that
suggested the use of liquid fuels as rocket
propellants. He theorised that this would give a
rocket greater range, as he believed that the
speed and range of a rocket were limited by the
velocity of its exhaust gases.
Basically, Tsiolkovsky predicted
many of the ways in which space
flight would come to pass, and
speculated on many which will
hopefully come about in the future.
He had an idealistic view of the
future, considering our progress
onwards and upwards to be
inevitable (something which made
the Soviet Union eager to publicise
his work, as this fitted in very well
with their political system of
beliefs), and inspired several
generations of enthusiasts and
pioneers through his writings and
talks. He also left us with one of the
most famous quotes about why we
should reach for space. It has been
translated and quoted so many
times that I am not sure exactly
how he phrased it, but here is one
version: “The Earth is the cradle of
the mind... but man can not live
forever in his cradle...”
41
SOLUTIONS
WORD SEARCH PLUS PAGE 12
Q
W
U
R
P
T
Y
S
P
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U
Y
R
R
O
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B
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D
A
F
P
G
H
J
K
A
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A
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D
F
G
L
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H
J
A
K
L
M
T
N
G
H
G
F
T
S
S
A
Z
B
C
X
C
S
V
A
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X
A
C
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B
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F
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N
B
V
S
S
D
F
D
Q W
O
E
R
MONEY WORRIES
NASA’s current budget is £15
billion. That may seem like a lot,
but there are businessmen and
celebrities who are worth more
than that.
The US government expects to
have spent $543 billion in 2004 on
its Department of Health, and the
US Senate has passed a funding
bill for defence for 2005 of $416
billion.
Compared to this, money spent on
space flight is really insignificant
ANAGRAMS PAGE 12
The anagrams in order are:
They should be fitted into the grid as:
MOON
EARTH
MARS
LIFE
TIME
MARS
LIFE
TIME
EARTH
MOON
To give you the hidden word: ALIEN
GOOD HOUSEKEEPING
SPACE CAVEMEN
If the cavemen had built a
space rocket and flown to the
nearest star outside our
solar system, they would still
only be halfway there today!
42
The Russians were never really known for their pristine clean
rooms at launch time, unlike the Americans.
When the first Westerners visited the Russian launch site in the
1970s, they were amazed to see Russian hardware covered in
dust and sand from the desert steppes. When asked about this,
the Russians replied: “We rollout the rocket, stand it up, launch
it and the dirt just falls off. No more problem!”
SOLUTIONS
GIANT WORD SEARCH PAGE 31
N
E
D
R
O
W
N
A
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A
ON THE COVER
PAGE 22
All the letters in the grid are used, so the solution above shows only the
letters you need to make up the eight extra names. These are:
HAM
LAIKA
GAGARIN
TERESHKOVA
LEONOV
RIDE
SHARMAN
SALYUT
-
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
the
first chimpanzee in space
first living being in space (a Russian dog)
first man in space
first woman in space
first person to do a spacewalk
first American woman in space
first British astronaut
first ever space station
a) COLUMBIA
b) ATLANTIS
c) ENTERPRISE
d) DISCOVERY and ENDEAVOUR
e) CHALLENGER
f)
First ever man in space, Yuri
Gagarin 12 April 1961
g) SALLY RIDE
h) The orange External Tank
HOME SWEET HOME
Getting used to life back on Earth again after a long time in space can be quite tricky.
One astronaut got out of bed in his home expecting to float but broke his arm as he fell on the floor!
Another astronaut kept dropping plates in the kitchen because he let go thinking they would float. He broke so many
that his wife served his food on paper plates until he got used to being on Earth again!
43
RE-ENTRY:
A look back at significant moments in space history
The Hubble Space Telescope
Our Eye on the Universe
Co-operative Venture
In 1946, astronomer Lyman Spitzer
first place? It’s a good question. In
by Ian Favell
fact, in the 1960s before Hubble was
at Yale University was the first to
built, many astronomers were
explain in detail the benefits of a
opposed to space telescopes,
space telescope, but it would be
sometimes due to the cost and
several decades before his idea
sometimes for other reasons.
came to fruition. Although originally
Nevertheless, even the critics were
an American project, in 1977,
willing to accept that a space
NASA agreed to share the
telescope had some advantages.
development of the space
Since Earth’s atmosphere absorbs
telescope with the European Space
almost all the radiation that reaches
Agency (ESA), which would
it from space, astronomical
contribute one of the science
phenomena could only be seen with
instruments - the Faint Object
ground-based telescopes at those
Camera (FOC) - and the solar
panels.
wavelengths to which the
Hardware
atmosphere is transparent, principally
The original intention was to build the
visible light and radio waves.
Getting off the Ground
telescope with a 3 m primary mirror,
Named in 1983 after astronomer
but it was eventually launched with a
A space telescope lets astronomers
Edwin Hubble (1889-1953), who was
smaller 2.4 m one. The telescope is
view the universe using light that does
the first to demonstrate that spiral
15.9 m long and 4.2 m in diameter,
not easily reach the Earth’s surface, if
nebulae were galaxies in their own
with two solar panels each measuring
at all: for example, in infra-red and
right, the telescope was finally
7.1 m x 2.6 m that power Hubble’s
ultra-violet light. Infra-red light can be
launched into Earth orbit on 24 April
computers and scientific instruments.
used to see stars and other objects
1990 aboard the Space Shuttle
The latest solar panels are the most
that would be hidden to visible light
Discovery. The telescope, which
rigid and generate 20% more power,
due to dust and gas. In fact, using
orbits the Earth about every 96
allowing all of the science instruments
infra-red, Hubble has peered through
minutes, reaches a maximum altitude
to be turned on at once.
the thick atmosphere of Saturn’s
of 610.44 km (apogee) and a
largest moon, Titan, to give us views
minimum altitude of 586.47 km
Why was it Needed?
of its surface, something the earlier
(perigee) in its elliptical orbit.
So, why put a telescope in space in the
Voyager spacecraft couldn’t do.
Short-Sighted Telescope
End of the Mission?
Hubble returned its first images in May 1990, but there
It was hoped that the Hubble Telescope would remain in
was something wrong. The images were slightly blurred
use until about 2010. Unfortunately, on 16 January
and the telescope couldn’t focus. It was eventually
2004, NASA announced that there would be no more
determined that the device used to build the primary
shuttle repair missions to the Hubble telescope for
mirror had been faulty and had made the mirror too flat,
safety reasons and cancelled the fourth servicing
only by about 1/500th of a millimetre (or 1/50th the
mission. Alternatives are being explored in the hope of
width of a human hair), but enough to prevent the
extending Hubble’s lifetime, because without the ability
telescope doing its job properly. The error was corrected
to repair and maintain it, the telescope’s performance is
during a shuttle repair mission in December 1993, which
expected to degrade in the next few years.
also replaced the solar panels.
44
ASTRO INFO SERVICE LIMITED
SCHOOL PRESENTATIONS 2004/2005
AT HOME IN SPACE
JOURNEY ROUND THE SOLAR SYSTEM
ONE SMALL STEP
Packed with information, our shows include
audience participation, slideshows, video,
demonstrations, some real space hardware and a
lot of fun. Suitable for all ages, from 3 to 93!
To find out more and see some of the great comments about
our shows, just log on to our website at:
www.astroinfoservice.co.uk
and look under Presentations
or call us on 0121-243-7642