Astronaut And Space Essay Example For Students

Astronaut And Space Essay On May 25, 1961, John F. Kennedy delivered one of the most memorable State of the Union addresses in the history of the United States. I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the earth (http://www.cs Alexander the Great EssayHistory of space flight has been very rich with accomplishments and milestones, but it appears that the world has reached a small bottleneck for technology in the area of space exploration. In addition, the lack of competition from any other country has slowed down the pace of innovation. With the Russian Space Program in shambles, as well as the whole country of Russia, the former USSR has not produced much useful technology lately. With a huge space station in the making, Russia is the only country that has not made the necessary parts for its completion, due to costly maintenance of their old space station, Mir, on which Russia and America have wo rked together on conducting experiments in the years after the USSRs break-up. With Mirs retirement, Russia now has the time and the resources to complete their part of the International Space Station which will accelerate space exploration. America has a few of its own projects going on right now, like the Galileo, the Pathfinder, and the Mars Polar Lander. Galileo is one of the probes out right now, scheduled to study the environmental conditions of Venus and Jupiter (http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov, Galileo). The Mars Pathfinder, launched 2 years ago, has recently made some important discoveries about the water content on Mars, and the climate history of the red planet. Endless information has been sent back to earth about Mars ice caps, and rock formations, which have concluded that there was standing water on Mars, including oceans and seas (http://polarlander.jpl.nasa.gov/, Pathfinder). Although the Pathfinder has set the Mars exploration mission on the right track, the recent fai lures with the Mars Polar Lander mission have set back the program. The communication with the new lander could not be established and the ship is presumed lost. Critics say that the faster, cheaper, better approach taken with the lander has actually cost the government more than $36 million, and the valuable time of building and getting a new lander in position (Associated Press, 1A). Although the present movement of the space program appears to have stalled, maybe the future holds the answers. What is in the future of the space program ? Eventually, people will settle on the planets close to earth, if not because of exploration, but because of a lack of natural resources, which is catching up with mankind. Prototypes of human habitats on Mars are being made, and NASA hopes to have humans on Mars by 2050. The International Space Station should be well on its way to being built, and should be functioning in the next five to ten years (http://polarlander.jpl.nasa.gov, Future). New ch eaper satellites and explorers are also coming in the near future. The new explorers with plasma propulsion are already in design, and are going to cost no more than one million per unit greatly slashing todays price. They are also going to have a virtually inexhaustible fuel capacity, because of the special engine design using metal for fuel. This explorer will be so affordable that they could be sent out in many directions to explore countless star systems, and still be inexpensive enough to lose (Chaikin, 60). Plans that are being talked about right now may be a little far fetched sometimes, but even if some of them will materialize, the future looking bright indeed. Forty-eight years ago, John F. Kennedy set a grand plan in motion. His State of the Union address pushed the United States to its limits. Better training methods, and many schools for future astronauts have made a big difference in the level of the training, ability and intelligence of the future crews of American spaceships. Now, even with interest dwindling, and problems piling up, Americans have to try their best to stare in the face of adversity, and look at the big picture the endless playground known as outer space. Technology Essays