50 Years into Space Exploration, Scientists Look Ahead

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Astronaut Neil Armstrong approaches the Eagle capsule after planting an American flag on the moon.

Washington — In the 50 years since the dawn of space exploration, astronauts with the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have circled the Earth, walked on the moon, piloted the first winged spacecraft and built the International Space Station.

And that’s not all, NASA scientists noted at the "Solar System Exploration @ 50" symposium October 25–26 in Washington. NASA has engineered robotic spacecraft that have observed the Sun and all its planets, imaged the universe at many wavelengths and, in August, landed a new rover craft, Curiosity, on Mars, the second-closest planet to Earth.

“NASA literally invented planetary science starting in 1962,” James Green, the agency’s director of planetary science, said at the symposium. “Everything we knew about planetary science up until then we got from the back of a telescope.”

Now scientists have “the opportunity to get up close and personal” with many bodies in the solar system, he said.

In February 1962, astronaut John Glenn orbited the Earth aboard the Friendship 7 capsule propelled into orbit by a Mercury spacecraft. The flight put NASA on course to achieve more ambitious goals.

And in August 1962, Mariner 2 sent back valuable atmospheric information about Venus, the Earth’s closest planetary neighbor. It was the world’s first successful interplanetary mission.

A WALK ON THE MOON

The 10 two-man Gemini space flights of 1965 and 1966 showed that humans could function in space and paved the way for the first trips to the moon.

History was made just three years after the last Gemini flight when Neil Armstrong became the first person to step onto the moon. “That is one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind," he said during the Apollo 11 mission, summarizing the importance NASA and the world gave to the historic accomplishment. In all, 12 people have set foot on the moon.

The next major step in space exploration came in 1981 with the launch of Columbia, the first space shuttle. The mission showed that a winged spacecraft could take off vertically and glide to an unpowered landing. Unfortunately, in 1986, the shuttle Challenger exploded at takeoff.

The accident demonstrated that space scientists have had “epic success and epic failure” in learning about the solar system, said James Crocker, a vice president of Lockheed Martin Corporation, one of three companies NASA has contracted to study advanced designs for spacecraft that could take to the skies in 2025.

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION

 

Another major accomplishment is the International Space Station, a collaboration involving the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan and the countries participating in the European Space Agency. The first two elements of the station were launched in 1998, and the first crew arrived in 2000. Larger than a football field, the station is the longest continuously inhabited spacecraft and continues to expand the boundaries of space research.

Today the station has state-of-the-art equipment supporting experiments in physics, remote sensing and protein crystallization, plus research into human bones and muscles, radiation, plants and fluids, among other areas.

NASA has engaged other organizations in the space program, including other federal agencies and private companies. In October, Sunita Williams opened the International Space Station’s hatch to Space Exploration Technologies' Dragon capsule, the first commercial cargo craft to reach the station.

VOYAGER

NASA’s longest-operating spacecraft are Voyager 1 and 2, launched in 1977 and still going strong. Voyager 1 is drawing close to exiting the solar system and entering interstellar space. Voyager 2, the first to launch, is the only spacecraft to explore Uranus and Neptune.

NASA’s exploratory space work has reaped technological advancements including digital computers with software that can be quickly revised, nanotechnology, micro-spacecraft, data management techniques and technologies that can be adapted for everyday use, said Peter Westwick, a historian with the University of Southern California. NASA missions also have advanced knowledge of sciences like geology and meteorology, and continue to inspire young people to study math and science, he said.

FUTURE OF SPACE EXPLORATION

Green said future space exploration will include craft collecting samples from interplanetary bodies and returning them to Earth for analysis. It will include rovers that can go beneath Mars’ surface and exploration of comets, asteroids and the outer solar system.

As they were when Glenn orbited Earth and Armstrong walked on the moon, people around the world still are in awe of space exploration, Westwick said. He noted that in October, as the retired shuttle Endeavour slowly rolled past onlookers along streets in Los Angeles to its resting spot at the California Science Center, the city’s police chief said he had never seen a crowd “so large and so proud.”

“Our exploration of space has taught us to view the Earth, ourselves and the universe in a new way,” NASA states on its history website.

“We also are humbled by the realization that Earth is just a tiny ‘blue marble’ in the universe,” it says.

NASA and the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum sponsored the symposium.