Celebrating 50 years in space - II October 4, 2007, was the 50th anniversary of the Sputnik launch. Last issue, we read about space explorations. We started from the launch of the basketball-size Sputnik satellite and went on to Apollo 11's moon-landing in 1969 when humans for the first time set foot outside Earth. Now we continue the space saga with an account of space stations. Skylab The Skylab was America's first experimental space station, sent into orbit to conduct multidisciplinary research and to prove that humans could live in space for an extended period of time. Skylab was launched by a Saturn V rocket on May 14, 1973, and got off to a rocky start. Damage shortly after takeoff led to 10 days of frantic work by ground personnel to get Skylab back in working, habitable condition. Skylab was manned three times during 1973 and early 1974 for periods of one to three months, with each crew doing maintenance and repair work that had never been done before. The research, observations and on-the-fly work done during the Skylab program made subsequent missions possible and paved the way for the International Space Station that would come along years later. Skylab was sponsored by NASA to the tune of about $2 billion. It returned to Earth in 1979--several years earlier than expected--and made head-lines as it scattered debris across the Indian Ocean and western Australia. Look out below! Voyager satellites Voyager 2 launched on August 20, 1977, and Voyager 1 followed on September 5, for what was originally a five-year mission to study Jupiter and Saturn. Their duties were extended to include the first visits to Uranus and Neptune. Voyager 1 is 9.7 billion miles from Earth, farther than any man-made object has ever traveled. Now, still working after 30 years, Voyager 1 is the first man-made object to reach interstellar space and Voyager 2 is not far behind. They are in a boundary region called the heliopause where the Sun's dominance of the environment ends and interstellar space begins. They have visited and sent back images of Jupiter and its moons Io and Europa, taking the best view of Jupiter's Great Red Spot, a hurricane-like storm as big as three Earths; Saturn and its moon Titan; Uranus and its moon Miranda; Neptune and its moon Triton. The Voyagers each weighed about 1,797 pounds at takeoff, and without the various appendages, could fit inside a four-meter square box. Both craft included two cameras, one with a wide-angle lens. They are still sending scientific information about their surroundings through the Deep Space Network (DSN). In the event that the Voyagers would make the first encounter with an extraterrestrial being, NASA decided to send a "Golden Record" intended to communicate a story of our world. The Voyager Golden Record is a phonograph record included in the two Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977. It contains sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth. It is intended for any intelligent extraterrestrial life form, or far future humans, that may find it. The Voyager spacecraft will take about 40,000 years to come near another star, 'near' meaning in this case within around 1.7 light-years' distance; hence, if other beings do not come in the direction of the spacecraft to meet them, it will take at least that long for the Golden Record to be found. Space shuttle The first space shuttle was launched in April 1981 with the mission of demonstrating that the shuttle could make a safe launch into orbit and return safely with its crew. It did so, and NASA ramped up its shuttle program, launching more shuttles each year until the Challenger disaster in 1986. The explosion of the Challenger shortly after takeoff put a hold on the shuttle program; another shuttle would not launch for more than two years. The shuttle program has been the primary means of bringing large payloads to and from space for the last 26 years. Today, the shuttle fleet is made up of the shuttles Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour. More than 100 missions have taken place since the beginning of the program, conducting countless tests on how spaceflight affects crew members, vehicles and equipment, deploying satellites and delivering crews and equipment to the ISS. Shown here is a picture of Endeavour as it does a pitch maneuver so ISS crew members can check out the condition of some of its parts. Mir The Soviet Union and United States may have started off their space programs in the spirit of competition, but the two nations began cooperating on space exploration as early as 1962 when President John F. Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Kruschev entered into talks to work together. The Mir Space Station was largely a Soviet endeavor but the American shuttle program played a significant role in its evolution. Mir was constructed by docking together various modules over a 10-year period. The first piece launched in 1986. This is the Mir Space Station, as viewed from the space shuttle Discovery as it did a fly-by in early February 1995. A month later, three cosmonauts arrived at Mir and lived on the station for three months. Mir was occupied by between three and six crew members almost continuously from then until 1999. On Mir, NASA and Russian scientists studied the solar system and how humans, animals and plants function in space. Mir's tenure in space ended March 23, 2001, when it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere and fell into the South Pacific. International Space Station The International Space Station is a working laboratory that orbits the Earth at 380 km above the planet's surface. Its first piece was launched on November 20, 1998. Resident crews have lived on the station since November 2000, and astronauts typically stay on board for about six months. More than 100 people have already visited the station. Residents conduct scientific experiments in the station's lab every day, working with hundreds of ground-based scientists from around the world. Research is multidisciplinary, spanning the life sciences and physical sciences and have included topics as varied as crystal growth, telemedicine, Earth observation and plant growth. Scientists often share data retrieved at the ISS to maximize the benefits of the work being done. Research is often used in education programs on Earth and some projects have even been done in conjunction with students. For those curious, the station's data transmission rate is 150Mb per second downlink with simultaneous uplink. Currently, 2.8 million lines of code on the ground support 1.5 million lines of flight software code, which will double by the time assembly is finished, according to NASA. The ISS currently has 15,000 cubic feet of habitable volume--more room than a conventional three-bedroom house, according to NASA. But the space station is still a work in progress. Dozens of flights to the station have brought new hardware, instruments and supplies, each time adding to the station's size, complexity and scientific capabilities. When complete, NASA expects it will be 75 ms long and 111 ms wide, will have a mass of 419,600 kg and have an acre of solar panels used to power it. Assembly is expected to be complete in 2010. Mars rovers NASA has sent three rovers to Mars. As part of its Pathfinder mission, NASA sent a small rover called Sojourner to the Red Planet. Sojourner launched December 4, 1996, and arrived on July 4, 1997. The goal of the mission was to find a way to place scientific instruments on the Martian surface that could then be controlled from Earth. Pathfinder was a success, and Sojourner ran 12 times its design lifetime of seven days, sending back valuable data on Mars' atmosphere and geology. Eighty-four days may not seem like a long time, but it gave scientists critical information that would help them plot their next mission. Two larger rovers, called Spirit and Opportunity, were launched on June 10 and July 7, 2003, and arrived in January 2004. Despite many setbacks and technical problems, the two rovers have long outlasted their expected lifespans and continue to take pictures of the Martian surface and conduct experiments on its soil and geological makeup. Seen here are the twin Spirit and Opportunity rovers with the flight spare of the Pathfinder mission. Phoenix lander The Phoenix was launched on August 4, 2007, and is expected to arrive at the Red Planet on May 25, 2008. This is an artist's depiction of the Phoenix lander, the next major step in NASA's Mars exploration program. The black wings are the lander's solar panels, used to power it. Phoenix will look for signs of microbial life in the soil and (presumed) ice on Mars' polar region. Based on information sent back from the Mars Odyssey Orbiter in 2002, NASA believes there is water ice below Mars' surface at the northern pole. The Phoenix lander will focus its efforts in that area. Its robotic arm will reach down and scoop up samples for testing, mounted cameras will take pictures of the terrain, and other instruments will study the weather. NASA's long-term mission regarding Mars is fourfold: Determine whether life ever arose on Mars; characterize the climate of Mars; characterize the geology of Mars; prepare for human exploration. Private Enterprise SpaceShipOne was the first privately built craft to reach outer space, winning the $10 million Ansari X Prize by breaking the Earth's atmosphere twice during a set time. Virgin Galactic hopes to become the first company to provide commercial suborbital space flights for private citizens. The company hopes to launch its first public flight by 2009, but it is taking bookings now at $200,000 per seat. SpaceShipTwo will be launched from its mother ship, WhiteKnightTwo. Both are designed and built by the company, Scaled Composites. After the mothership releases SpaceShipTwo at 15 km, the craft will rocket to an altitude of 110 km in about 90 seconds. There, its wings will "feather," or fold, in preparation for re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere. The entire flight will take about two and a half hours. Bigelow space hotel There's a new object orbiting Earth that could be the first step in the construction of an inhabitable complex in space. Genesis I, built by Bigelow Aerospace of Las Vegas, was successfully launched into orbit by a converted Russian ICBM in July 2006. This inflatable 14-foot demonstration craft is the first launch toward the company's overall mission--to build an affordable human space complex that is accessible to the commercial sector by 2015. Astrium space plane Aerospace and satellite company Astrium earlier this year gave VIPs a peek at its plans for a jet that it plans to use to send adventurous travelers into space. A life-size model of the aircraft went on display in Paris in June, leading up to the Paris International Air Show. The aircraft will seat four passengers and climb to a gut-wrenching 100 km above Earth (planes usually climb to about 10 km or so) to give space tourists a few minutes at zero gravity, not to mention an out-of-this-world view of their home planet. Astrium says it hopes to run flights beginning in 2012. In addition to one-off space trips for adventurers, the company says its jet could play a significant role in the future of space flight. Astrium says its jet could be a precursor to a system of point-to-point vehicles, enabling people to quickly travel long distances into space. From CNET Networks and photos from NASA. Pictures: 1. Skylab 2. Voyager 3. Golden Records (2) 4. Endeavour 5. Mir 6. ISS 7. ISS captain reflection 8. Spirit/Opportunity 9. Phoenix