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Space technology
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Space technology is technology for use in outer space. Space technology includes space vehicles such as spacecraft, satellites, space stations and orbital launch vehicles; deep-space communication; in-space propulsion; and a wide variety of other technologies including support infrastructure equipment, and procedures.
Many common everyday services for terrestrial use such as weather forecasting, remote sensing, satellite navigation systems, satellite television, and some long-distance communications systems critically rely on space infrastructure. Of the sciences, astronomy and Earth science benefit from space technology.[1] New technologies originating with or accelerated by space-related endeavors are often subsequently exploited in other economic activities.
History of space technology
[edit]The first country on Earth to put any technology into space was the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union sent the Sputnik 1 satellite on October 4, 1957. It weighed about 83 kg (183 lb), and is believed to have orbited around the globe. Analysis of the radio signals was used to gather information about the electron density of the ionosphere, while temperature and pressure data was encoded in the duration of radio beeps.
The first successful human spaceflight was Vostok 1, carrying 27-year-old Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in April 1961. The entire mission was controlled by either automatic systems or by ground control. This was because medical staff and spacecraft engineers were unsure how a human might react to weightlessness, and therefore it was decided to lock the pilot's manual controls.[2][3]
The first probe to impact the surface of the Moon was the Soviet probe Luna 2, which made a hard landing on September 14, 1959. The far side of the Moon was first photographed on October 7, 1959, by the Soviet probe Luna 3.s On December 24, 1968, the crew of Apollo 8, Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders, became the first human beings to enter lunar orbit and see the far side of the Moon in person. Humans first landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969. The first human to walk on the lunar surface was Neil Armstrong, commander of Apollo 11. The first space probe to land on moon South Pole of India.Chandrayaan-3 was launched aboard an LVM3-M4 rocket on 14 July 2023, at 09:05 UTC from Satish Dhawan Space Centre Second Launch Pad in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, India, entering an Earth parking orbit with a perigee of 170 km (106 mi) and an apogee of 36,500 km (22,680 mi).
Apollo 11 was followed by Apollo 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17. Apollo 13 had a failure of the Apollo service module, but passed the far side of the Moon at an altitude of 254 kilometers (158 miles; 137 nautical miles) above the lunar surface, and 400,171 km (248,655 mi) from Earth, marking the record for the farthest humans traveled from Earth in 1970.
The first robotic lunar rover to land on the Moon was the Soviet vessel Lunokhod 1 on November 17, 1970, as part of the Lunokhod program. To date, the last human to stand on the Moon was Eugene Cernan, who, as part of the Apollo 17 mission, walked on the Moon in December 1972. Apollo 17 was followed by several uncrewed interplanetary missions operated by NASA. Also Technological innovations in space exploration have important effects on the economy, society, and the environment.
Economically, new safety features and technology have made space missions cheaper. Using reusable rockets helps companies save money because they do not need to fix or replace rockets as often. This makes space exploration more affordable and encourages more people to invest in the space industry.
Socially, these new technologies have created many jobs in areas like engineering, research, and aerospace manufacturing. The growth of the space industry also helps other industries, such as telecommunications and materials engineering, by creating new job opportunities.
Environmentally, using reusable rockets helps reduce space debris. By reusing rockets, space agencies can produce less waste and lessen the impact of space missions on the environment. This approach supports cleaner space exploration and a more sustainable future.
In summary, technological advances in space exploration positively affect the economy, create jobs, and promote environmental sustainability, helping the field continue to grow.
One of the notable interplanetary missions is Voyager 1, the first artificial object to leave the Solar System into interstellar space on August 25, 2012. It is also the most distant artificial object from Earth.[4] The probe passed the heliopause at 121 AU to enter interstellar space.[5] Voyager 1 is currently at a distance of 145.11 astronomical units (2.1708×1010 km; 1.3489×1010 mi) (21.708 billion kilometers; 13.489 billion miles) from Earth as of January 1, 2019.[6]
Hazards caused by space technology
[edit]All launch vehicles contain a huge amount of energy that is needed for some part of it to reach orbit. There is therefore some risk that this energy can be released prematurely and suddenly, with significant effects. When a Delta II rocket exploded 13 seconds after launch on January 17, 1997, there were reports of store windows 10 miles (16 km) away being broken by the blast.[7]
Space is a fairly predictable environment, but there are still risks of accidental depressurization and the potential failure of equipment, some of which may be very newly developed.
In April 2004 the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety was established in the Netherlands to further international cooperation and scientific advancement in space systems safety.[8]See also
[edit]
References
[edit]- ^ Hall, Loura (2015-03-16). "About Us". NASA. Retrieved 2020-06-27.
- ^ "Oleg Ivanovsky - obituary". The Daily Telegraph. September 21, 2014. Retrieved September 25, 2014.
- ^ Burgess and Hall, p.156
- ^ "Voyager 1". BBC Solar System. Archived from the original on February 3, 2018. Retrieved September 4, 2018.
- ^ Harwood, William (September 12, 2013). "Voyager 1 finally crosses into interstellar space". CBS News.
- ^ "Voyager - Mission Status". Jet Propulsion Laboratory. NASA. Retrieved January 1, 2019.
- ^ "Unmanned rocket explodes after liftoff". CNN.
- ^ "The second IAASS: Introduction". Congrex. European Space Agency. Archived from the original on 24 July 2012. Retrieved 3 January 2009.
- ^ "Space Technology and Satellite Technology - Space Tech". 2024-02-04. Retrieved 2024-02-07.
External links
[edit]
Space technology at Wikipedia's sister projects
Definitions from Wiktionary
Media from Commons
News from Wikinews
Quotations from Wikiquote
Texts from Wikisource
Textbooks from Wikibooks
Resources from Wikiversity
- Media related to Space exploration technologies at Wikimedia Commons
- NASA images and videos of space technology
- NASA solar system overview
- Space-Tech: To Infinity and Beyond
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Space technology
View on Grokipediafrom Grokipedia
Space technology encompasses the engineering disciplines, tools, and systems developed to facilitate human activities beyond Earth's atmosphere, including spacecraft design, propulsion, life support, and communication infrastructure for exploration, satellite operations, and scientific research.[1] Defined as technologies supporting operations above the Kármán line—approximately 100 kilometers (62 miles) above sea level—it enables both crewed missions, such as those to the International Space Station, and uncrewed endeavors like deep space probes and Earth-orbiting satellites.[2]
The origins of space technology trace back to early 20th-century rocketry experiments, but it emerged as a distinct field in the late 1950s amid Cold War competition. On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, which orbited Earth and transmitted radio signals, marking the onset of the Space Age and demonstrating practical rocketry for space access.[3] This spurred the United States to establish NASA in 1958 and accelerate developments, leading to milestones like the first human spaceflight by Yuri Gagarin in 1961 and the Apollo program's six successful Moon landings from 1969 to 1972, which advanced propulsion, guidance, and life support systems. By the early 1980s, reusable launch vehicles like the Space Shuttle had been introduced to improve efficiency and reduce costs, while international collaboration culminated in the International Space Station (ISS), operational since 1998 as a platform for long-duration human presence in space.[4]
In the 21st century, space technology has expanded dramatically, driven by commercialization and miniaturization. As of November 2025, approximately 13,500 active satellites orbit Earth, supporting global telecommunications, GPS navigation, and environmental monitoring, though this proliferation has increased the total number of tracked objects, including debris, to over 45,000.[5][6] Key components include launch vehicles for orbital insertion, in-space propulsion systems (chemical, electric, and emerging propellantless types), spacecraft subsystems for power, thermal control, and avionics, and ground-based networks for data handling.[7] The rise of the "NewSpace" economy, led by private entities, has lowered launch costs through reusable rockets and enabled small satellite constellations like Starlink, while initiatives such as NASA's Artemis program target sustained lunar exploration and preparation for Mars missions.[2] These advancements not only push the boundaries of scientific discovery but also yield Earth-based benefits, including improved weather forecasting and disaster response technologies.[8]
where is the gravitational constant (), is the mass of the central body (for Earth, ), and is the distance from the body's center (Earth's radius is approximately ). For Earth at the surface, this yields about 11.2 km/s. Orbital mechanics governs how objects move under gravity, building on Newton's law of universal gravitation. Kepler's three laws describe planetary and satellite motion: (1) orbits are ellipses with the central body at one focus; (2) a line from the body to the orbiting object sweeps equal areas in equal times, implying varying speed; (3) the square of the orbital period is proportional to the cube of the semi-major axis , or . These laws apply to artificial satellites as well. Common orbit types include low Earth orbit (LEO) at altitudes of 160–2,000 km, with periods around 90 minutes, used for Earth observation; and geostationary orbit (GEO) at 35,786 km altitude, with a 24-hour period matching Earth's rotation, allowing fixed positioning over a point. To change orbits efficiently, the Hohmann transfer uses an elliptical path tangent to both initial and target circular orbits, requiring two impulsive burns: one to enter the transfer and one to circularize at the destination.[10][11][12] The space environment imposes unique challenges due to its near-vacuum conditions, thermal extremes, and microgravity. In the vacuum of space near Earth, pressure is approximately Pa, far below atmospheric levels, leading to outgassing where volatile materials in spacecraft components sublimate or evaporate, potentially contaminating optics or altering surfaces. Thermal extremes arise from direct exposure to solar radiation without atmospheric buffering; at 1 AU from the Sun, the solar flux, known as the solar constant, is about 1,366 W/m², causing temperatures to fluctuate from -150°C in shadow to +120°C in sunlight, stressing materials through expansion and contraction. Microgravity, effectively weightlessness, affects fluid behavior and material processing, such as preventing bubbles from rising in liquids during manufacturing or causing uneven sedimentation in experiments, which must be mitigated through design or active control.[13][14][15]
Fundamentals
Basic Principles
Space technology relies on fundamental principles of physics and engineering to enable operations beyond Earth's atmosphere. Newton's laws of motion provide the core framework for understanding spacecraft behavior in space. The first law states that an object remains at rest or in uniform motion unless acted upon by an external force, explaining why satellites maintain orbit without continuous propulsion once inserted. The second law, , relates thrust to acceleration, guiding the design of propulsion systems to achieve necessary velocities. The third law, action-reaction, underpins rocket propulsion, where expelling exhaust gases propels the vehicle forward.[9] To escape a celestial body's gravitational pull, such as Earth's, a spacecraft must attain escape velocity, the minimum speed required to reach infinity without further propulsion. This is derived from conservation of energy and given by the formulawhere is the gravitational constant (), is the mass of the central body (for Earth, ), and is the distance from the body's center (Earth's radius is approximately ). For Earth at the surface, this yields about 11.2 km/s. Orbital mechanics governs how objects move under gravity, building on Newton's law of universal gravitation. Kepler's three laws describe planetary and satellite motion: (1) orbits are ellipses with the central body at one focus; (2) a line from the body to the orbiting object sweeps equal areas in equal times, implying varying speed; (3) the square of the orbital period is proportional to the cube of the semi-major axis , or . These laws apply to artificial satellites as well. Common orbit types include low Earth orbit (LEO) at altitudes of 160–2,000 km, with periods around 90 minutes, used for Earth observation; and geostationary orbit (GEO) at 35,786 km altitude, with a 24-hour period matching Earth's rotation, allowing fixed positioning over a point. To change orbits efficiently, the Hohmann transfer uses an elliptical path tangent to both initial and target circular orbits, requiring two impulsive burns: one to enter the transfer and one to circularize at the destination.[10][11][12] The space environment imposes unique challenges due to its near-vacuum conditions, thermal extremes, and microgravity. In the vacuum of space near Earth, pressure is approximately Pa, far below atmospheric levels, leading to outgassing where volatile materials in spacecraft components sublimate or evaporate, potentially contaminating optics or altering surfaces. Thermal extremes arise from direct exposure to solar radiation without atmospheric buffering; at 1 AU from the Sun, the solar flux, known as the solar constant, is about 1,366 W/m², causing temperatures to fluctuate from -150°C in shadow to +120°C in sunlight, stressing materials through expansion and contraction. Microgravity, effectively weightlessness, affects fluid behavior and material processing, such as preventing bubbles from rising in liquids during manufacturing or causing uneven sedimentation in experiments, which must be mitigated through design or active control.[13][14][15]