SpaCE TraVeLSpaCE TraVeL

James NguyenJames Nguyen

SpaCE TraVeL

By James

Discovery

Foods

Launch

Re-entry and Landing

Energy

Why do we travel through space? 1

Why do we travel through space? 2

Bibliography

DiscoveryDiscoveryDISCOVERY

NASA space crew Rocketdyne created the first space shuttles in 1963-69. George Mueller played a significant role in the space shuttles realization.

Also between 1963-69, Mueller led a program that took the Americans to the Moon.

foodfoodFOODOrdinary food cannot be brought into space because foods would often spill everywhere and that would generate the problem of cleaning in space.

There are several classification for food that is sent into space

-Beverages (B) - Various rehydratable drinks.-Fresh Foods (FF)- Foods that spoil quickly that needs to be eaten within the first two days of flight to prevent spoilage.-Irradiated (I) Meat - Beef steak that is specially packaged and sterilized with ionizing radiation.-Intermediate Moisture (IM) - Foods that have some moisture but not enough to cause immediate spoilage.-Natural Form (NF) - Mostly unprocessed foods such as nuts, cookies and granola bars that are ready to eat.-Rehydratable (R) Foods - Foods that have been dehydrated and allowed to rehydrate in hot water prior to consumption.-Thermostabilized (T) - Foods that have been processed with heat to destroy microorganisms and enzymes that may cause spoilage.

More common staples and condiments do not have a classification and are known simply by the item name:

-Shelf Stable Tortillas - Tortillas that have been heat treated and specially packaged in an oxygen free nitrogen atmosphere to prevent the growth of mold.-Condiments - Liquid salt solution, oily pepper paste, mayonnaise, ketchup, and mustard

LaunchingLaunchingLAUNCH It requires an immense

amount of energy to take a space shuttle into space, most of the energy is used up in the first few minutes.

About two or three minutes after launch, the first stage propellant runs out and the first stage detaches off the spacecraft. The rest of the spacecraft continues on, using as many as 5 different stages and discarding each one into the atmosphere when it runs out of fuel.

Re-entry and LandingRe-entry and LandingRE-ENTRY AND LANDING

A spacecraft must re-enter Earth's atmosphere from a very high orbital speed and not burn up like a meteor. It must give up a lot of energy to slow down so that it can land safely.

After a ship finishes its mission, it prepares for the bumpy ride down to Earth. It needs to slow down, so it turns around to fire its engines in order to have a low enough speed to fall down from orbit. The Space Shuttle lowers its speed by 200 miles per hour before re-entering the Earth's atmosphere. Then it turns around and faces down into the atmosphere at an angle of 30 degrees.

ENRGYENRGYENERGY

There are many different ways to power a space vehicle, here are some energy sources:

Batteries,Batteries store energy made on earth and release it as electricity. Although batteries use up energy pretty quickly, they can be recharged by solar panels thousands of times.

Solar Panels,Solar Panels power a spacecraft by converting sunlight into energy. Spacecraft usually use solar panels as their main power source not only because the sun provides light constantly, but also because they wear out very slowly compared to other power sources

RTGsRTG (radioisotope thermoelectric generator) , takes the heat that is generated from the natural decay of radioisotope materials and converts it into electricity.The major problem with RTGs is that the radioactive materials that they require in order to function are very expensive.

Fuel Cells

Fuel CellsFuel cells convert hydrogen and oxygen to create water. Sometimes an electron is created when the hydrogen and oxygen are being converted. However, they are extremely heavy, The price of carrying the fuel to support the weight of fuel cells is often not cost efficient, so it is sometimes better to use an alternate power source.

Why do we travel through Space?

People have been asking ‘Why do we travel through space?’ I wondered as well so I brought up a couple of ideas.

(1) Spin-offs. Few and far between. As reported in 1993 by space skeptic Bob Park, who writes a weekly news digest for the American Physical Society, an internal NASA study admitted, "To much of the public, NASA's technology transfer reputation is based on some famous examples, including Velcro, Tang and Teflon. Contrary to popular belief, NASA created none of these. . . . There have not been very many technology transfer successes compared to the potential." Park added, "In 1991, during a Senate debate on an amendment to slash funding for Space Station Freedom, Sen. [Howell] Heflin (D-AL) produced a NASA list of 74 'space spinoffs'--everything from synthetic teats for piglets to portable ice rinks. [I] challenged anyone to document that a single item on the list actually owed its existence to the space program. There were no takers."

(2) Research. This is what you're asking about. One of the original arguments for the manned space program was that in microgravity astronauts would be able to grow purer crystals and such. Many scientists now doubt the effort is worth the trouble. In 1998 the American Society for Cell Biology declared, "Most of [NASA's space-based life science research] is driven by the need to make use of the engineering temple called the International Space Station (ISS)"--that is, NASA didn't develop the ISS to do experiments, it dreamed up the experiments to justify the ISS. Space is an extremely difficult environment in which to do research, the ASCB said. Space studies to date have shown that biological processes are largely unaffected by microgravity. Most biological research can be conducted more effectively on the ground. "Areas of research such as protein crystallization, drug design, and basic animal and plant cell and developmental biology can not be used to justify a space mission," the ASCB concluded.

Why do we travel through Space?

People have been asking ‘Why do we travel through space?’ I wondered as well so I brought up a couple of ideas.

(3) Space colonies. Critics note that many space experiments are designed to examine the long-term effects of a low-gravity environment on astronauts. In other words, the purpose of the manned space program is to study the manned space program. The none-too-secret long-term agenda: To boldly go where no one has gone before and colonize the galaxy, just like in Star Trek. Except that space colonization is a romantic illusion. The best explication of this comes from a charming article written in the aftermath of the last space shuttle disaster by my fellow truth seeker Joel Achenbach and published in his Why Things Are: Answers to Every Essential Question in Life (1991). Short version: It's unlikely we'll ever be able to colonize other solar systems--they're too far away. Using next-generation propulsion systems it'd take 5,000 years to reach the nearest star. We'll probably never go much faster because of the physical limitations of the cosmos--you can't reach the speed of light (or even get remotely close to it) with any technology now on the horizon due to the vast amount of energy required. Talk of hyperdrives and such is just Hollywood fantasy. We could colonize our own solar system, but who'd want to go? The other planets are inhospitable rock piles, toxic cauldrons, or frigid balls of gas. Some say: Surely one day we'll figure out a way to sidestep the basic laws of the universe. I reply: Never say never. But it won't involve a bunch of creaky space buckets with loose tiles.

(4) Coolness. Our trips to the moon were a blast--I'm sure most Americans would vote for another one in a second. The question is whether, in the absence of a plausible new mission, the coolness of manned space flight justifies its enormous expense. Many scientists complain that the manned space program sucks up scarce funds that could be more usefully spent on robot probes and earth-based research. There's little in the solar system that seems to merit a personal visit (unless such a mission could demonstrate that life did, does, or could exist on Mars--I'd give that one a go). But I'd be hard put to say we should send people into space just because it's fun.

Bibliographyhttp://www.answerbag.com/q_view/11726

http://library.thinkquest.org/03oct/01581/SpaceTravelEnglish/energy/index.html

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2440/why-do-we-travel-in-space

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_food

 http://library.thinkquest.org/03oct/01581/SpaceTravelEnglish/reentry/launch.html

http://library.thinkquest.org/03oct/01581/SpaceTravelEnglish/reentry/reentryandlanding.html