CHAPTER 1 race for space E ver since humans first gazed up at the stars they have wanted to explore the vast darkness beyond Earth When space exploration began in 1957 it was dominated by two countries the United States and Russia Today many countries around the world have joined the race for space and private companies are planning space vacations and trips for space tourists in the near future GIANTS OF SPACE TRAVEL When the United States and Russia then known as the Soviet Union and the USSR launched their first space missions many failed but the race was on to be the first country to reach the Moon Both countries poured vast sums of money into their space programs launching one unmanned space mission after another These were craft sent into space to gather information without any crew onboard After that the race was on to be the first country to send a human into space 4
Ham was the first chimpanzee to be sent into space in January 1961 He returned to Earth safely ANIMALS IN SPACE One of the problems that both the United States and Russia had to figure out was how a human would cope in space where you do not feel the effect of Earth’s gravity Both countries chose to experiment using animals such as chimps monkeys rabbits and mice Electrodes were placed under the skin of the animals to monitor their heartbeat and breathing Many of them died in space or on reentry into Earth’s atmosphere SECRET EXPERIMENTS The experiments on animals were mostly kept a secret at the time because the governments thought that the suffering of the animals would outrage the public Recent reports have revealed that some of the training that was given to space animals such as dogs included being kept in smaller and smaller cages to get them used to small spaces DARK SCIENCE SECRETS Laika a stray dog taken from the streets of Russia became the first living creature to be sent into orbit in November 1957 She died in flight Russian officials claimed that she had died painlessly from natural causes in orbit However a recent report claims that she died of panic and overheating just a few hours after the rocket took off The report also states that she was put in a metal carrier inside the rocket cabin so that her body would not turn around in the weightless environment This is a statue of Laika at the space training center in Star City Russia 5
RISE OF AEROSPACE COMPANIES This CRS-8 is a craft developed by SpaceX to carry supplies to the International Space Station ISS At the start the Space Race was between the United States government-backed organization the National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA and the Russian government using specialist equipment and knowledge that was kept top secret Today digital technology has made some individuals rich enough to be able to set up their own aerospace companies These are businesses that have the huge sums of money needed to build rockets and spacecraft and to fund research In addition many engineering companies are now developing their own space technology which they can sell to government space agencies and aerospace companies FIERCE COMPETITION Aerospace companies such as SpaceX Blue Origin Virgin Galactic Boeing Lockheed Martin and others are employing top space scientists and investing in the latest space technology Companies leading in the field of space exploration can make a lot of money in areas such as mining for metals on asteroids and the Moon and organizing space vacations This could include a trip into orbit just above Earth’s atmosphere or a long journey to Mars The competition is fierce and technology breakthroughs in research and development are closely guarded secrets 6
tomorrow's secrets SELLING SECRETS The race for space is big business and so is the risk that ideas from one company may be stolen and sold to a rival organization In some cases an employee at one company may be paid to sell trade secrets to another company or spy for another company or computers may be hacked and information downloaded Much of the research and development into space exploration is also linked to the military and the safety of nations More and more governments have started to use satellites in space to control and manage national security to keep their country safe from enemy attack Asteroids or Near-Earth Objects NEOs have been called flying gold mines in outer space One asteroid measuring 3,000 feet 914 m across was said to contain valuable metals such as gold and silver worth about 5 4 trillion Asteroids can be mined for their metals or they can be used as bases from which to launch missions to explore deeper into space Either way asteroids can make companies and governments very rich Companies are now planning how best to stake a claim on these gold mines Lawyers and governments are creating laws to establish who owns what in outer space Asteroids contain metals such as tin and zinc Although we mine these on Earth one day we will run out of them which is why asteroids will be so valuable in the future 7
