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De the starry night de Vincent Van Gogh even movies like Interstellar de Christopher Nolan, humanity has always been curious about the immensity of space and the unknown outside our planet. The possibility of getting to know different planets has been arousing interest in people for many years and technological advances open up possibilities for fiction and theory to become reality in the future. 141s5z
During the 2000th century this theme emerged with greater intensity, mainly due to the technological advances that humanity was conquering, and took over the popular imagination with a high expectation regarding what the future would be after the XNUMXs. during the Cold War, when the United States and the Soviet Union staged a space race as a show of force.
However, how close are we to that future where it is possible to visit other celestial bodies in the Solar System? How far can we go?
What is space exploration? 5p3m5e
The definition of space exploration is the set of man's efforts aiming at the exploration of space and its celestial bodies. One of his first conceptions is from 1865, when Jules Verne published the book From the Earth to the Moon (From Earth to Moon, in Portuguese translation) describing a trip to the Moon from Earth. With the success, several other works explored the theme, arousing people's interest in relation to these visionary ideals.
With the emergence of the concept of space exploration, several motivations, in addition to pure curiosity, were emerging and, from the deepening of the theme, great advances in technologies occurred with a greater fascination for science.
“Exploring space will have an even greater effect; it will completely change the future of the human race and perhaps determine whether we have any future at all. It won't solve many of our immediate problems on Earth, but it will give us a new perspective on them and lead us to look both outwards and inwards. Hopefully, exploring space could bring us together to face a common challenge.”
Stephen Hawking
From there, the concept was spread and is currently the subject of discussions on science, culture and philosophy. Space exploration is one of the great goals of humanity, whether in search of riches in unexplored places or in search of knowledge about our origin or our future.
How far have humans gone in space? 3k5448
On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin performed one of the most important missions in the history of mankind. Executing an orbit around the Earth, he performed the first human spaceflight on the Vostok 1 mission. So far, humanity has achieved great things and a mission to Mars does not seem far from our current reality. However, how far has humanity come?
During Cold War, with the technological advance of the Soviets, the NASA (United States National Aeronautics and Space istration) was commissioned with the objective of putting man on the moon. Faced with such an ambitious proposal, the program was created Apollo, with a total of 17 missions with the objective of bringing humanity for the first time to our natural satellite and expanding horizons in space exploration.
Of these program missions Apollo, responsible for taking man to the moon for the first time was the Apollo 11 with the astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin in 1969. Other missions took place with the objective of landing on the natural satellite as the missions Apollo 12, Apollo 14, Apollo 15, Apollo 16 e Apollo 17. As the only failure, the mission Apollo 13 popularized by the phrase "Houston, we have a problem” resulting from the explosion of an oxygen tank in the service module that prevented the moon landing.
In the 2000s, the International Space Station - known as ISS — as part of a US project to use the space as a site for research and technological development. Thus, despite the end of the Cold War, studies were developed thanks to space exploration, increasing humanity's desire to go further.
There are currently plans for NASA and by the private initiative of a new manned trip with space exploration to more distant places of the planet Earth. However, to this day, the record for the furthest distance a human has ever traveled is still held by one of the program's missions. Apollo, this being the voyage of the Apollo 13 in April 1970 with an approximate distance of 400.171 km from the earth's surface.
What technologies are needed for long journeys? 1y1on
The obstacles to a long-distance trip to space are not few and some of them sur humanity's current technological capacity. When a spacecraft is developed with the objective of carrying humans into space, a series of resources is needed to enable a safe journey.
Duration and distance are the biggest enemies because they require a system that can be operated only by the crew, with chances of failures tending to zero, as there is no way to send resources to solve a possible problem. Some of the technologies needed for long journeys listed by NASA include:
system 34p33
The main thing in space travel is the safety of your crew. Given this, an astronaut system becomes one of the main technologies in a space exploration trip. They are systems responsible for keeping crew alive in a way that is highly reliable and takes up minimal volume on the voyage. Being a combination of equipment responsible for making life possible as a carbon dioxide remover, a technology that can produce water for the crew, fire systems and even adequate bathrooms.
advanced propulsion 3u6869
A spacecraft propulsion is necessary for the trip to have the necessary precision to keep your desired course and that it is possible to crew return to Earth. The propulsion impacts the time and distance of the trip, being necessary enough fuel for its operation during the mission.
heat resistance 2e1hm
Returning home can be one of the most challenging steps in space exploration, and part of this problem stems from the heat generated by the spacecraft's entry into Earth's atmosphere. How much the farther the trip, the greater the heat generated on the return and due to this heat created, it is necessary that everything is heat resistant, so that there are no human and technological losses.
radiation protection 3436p
Around planet Earth there is a magnetic field that protects us every day against space radiation. In the case of a space trip, the spacecraft will be outside this field, suffering with constant radiations from celestial bodies like the sun. Given this, the spacecraft needs to be developed with a system that protects the crew and equipment from possible radiation events.
How long would it take to get to planets like Mars and Jupiter? t6s5w
The time required for a trip necessarily depends on the technology achieved that will determine the speed of the spacecraft and the trajectory of the planet's orbit. Considering that Mars is approximately 220 million kilometers from the Sun and Earth is 150 million kilometers away from the Sun, it is intuitive to think that our distance to Mars is 70 million kilometers.
However, the orbits of the planets are elliptical and occur around the Sun. Thus, the distance between the two planets depends mostly on their position in their respective orbits, which considerably modifies the travel time between these two locations. A trip to another planet is a journey from a moving location to another location that is also moving. then the distance between these two bodies is a variable.
The other essential factor for this calculation is the speed of the spacecraft. Taking into the highest speed possible according to physics — which is the speed of light — the trip between the two planets would only take 22 minutes, but this speed is not yet possible with the technology at our disposal. Thus, 260 days are needed, on average, for this trip.
In the case of a trip to more distant planets like Jupiter, we have as a reference the Juno probe, which is currently in orbit around the planet. According to NASA, Juno took almost 5 years to reach the planet. Therefore, a lot of technological and mathematical effort is still needed to determine the equipment and the ideal trajectory for the trip to occur in the most optimized way possible, requiring the least amount of time.
What are the risks of traveling like this? 162n1p
There are different risks in space travel and the main ones are linked to the necessary technologies mentioned above. The failure of technological equipment — so that it is not possible to maintain it during the trip — is one of the greatest possible risks. Because it is a trip far from our planet, engers are vulnerable to unavailable equipment needs.
However, several other risks are associated with a space exploration trip, such as physical and mental illness. During the pandemic of Covid-19, we have all been stuck at home for a long time and many people have felt the mental effects of the lack of with other people and the environment. And in the case of space travel, this scenario would not be much different. With a completely closed environment and with only limited between crew , there are serious risks of developing mental illness in crew .
Despite this, and all other challenges, space exploration is a desire of humanity, whether out of curiosity or the search for riches. After all, humanity is always on a relentless quest to know the unknown.
“Earth is a very small setting in a vast cosmic arena.”
Carl Sagan
See also other features:
We did a full article about all trips to the moon by NASA and a video telling why humanity has not gone to the moon more in recent decades:
Sources: NASA, thomas edward, Fernando Alcoforado e Space.
