Cosmos ... One word, but how many bewitching paintings stand before your eyes! The myriads of galaxies scattered throughout the Universe are distant and at the same time infinitely close and dear to the Milky Way, the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, peacefully located in an immense horizon ... You can enumerate to infinity. In this article we will get acquainted with the history of space exploration and some interesting facts.
Space research in antiquity: how did you look at the stars before?
In the distant, distant antiquity, people could not observe planets and comets through powerful Hubble-type telescopes. The only instruments for admiring the beauty of the sky and doing space research were their own eyes. Of course, nothing but the sun, moon and stars could be discerned by human "telescopes" (except for a comet in 1812). Therefore, people could only guess about what these yellow and white balls in the sky really look like. But even then the population of the globe was notable for its attentiveness, so it quickly noticed that these two circles were moving across the sky, now hiding behind the horizon, then again showing up. And they also found that not all stars behave the same way: some of them remain motionless, while the other changes its position along a complex path. This is where the great exploration of outer space and what is hidden in it began.
The ancient Greeks achieved particular success in this field. They were the first to discover that our planet has the shape of a ball. Their opinions on the location of the Earth relative to the Sun were divided: some scientists believed that the globe revolves around a celestial body, others believed that it was the other way around (they were supporters of the geocentric system of the world). The ancient Greeks did not come to a consensus. All their works and space research were imprinted on paper and framed in a whole scientific work called “Almagest”. Its author and compiler is the great ancient scientist Ptolemy.
The Renaissance and the destruction of previous ideas about space
Nikolai Copernicus - who did not hear this name? It was he who in the 15th century destroyed the erroneous theory of the geocentric system of the world and put forward his own, heliocentric, which claimed that the Earth revolves around the Sun, and not vice versa. Unfortunately, the medieval Inquisition and the church did not doze off. They immediately proclaimed such speeches as heretical, and the followers of the theory of Copernicus were brutally persecuted. One of her supporters, Giordano Bruno, was burned at the stake. His name has remained for centuries, and still we recall the great scientist with respect and gratitude.
Growing interest in space
After these events, scientists' attention to astronomy only intensified. Space exploration has become more and more exciting. As soon as the 17th century began, a new large-scale discovery occurred: the researcher Kepler established that the orbits along which the planets revolve around the Sun are not round at all, as was previously thought, but elliptical. Thanks to this event, serious changes have occurred in science. In particular, Isaac Newton discovered mechanics and was able to describe the patterns by which bodies move.
Discovery of new planets
Today we know that there are eight planets in the solar system. Until 2006, their number was nine, but after the most recent and the most remote planet from heat and light - Pluto - was excluded from the number of bodies orbiting our heavenly body. This happened because of its small size - the area of ​​Russia alone is already larger than the whole of Pluto. He was given the status of a dwarf planet.
Until the 17th century, people believed that there were only five planets in the solar system. There were no telescopes then, so they judged only by those celestial bodies that they could see with their own eyes. Scientists could not see anything further than Saturn with its ice rings. Probably, to this day we would have been mistaken if not for Galileo Galilei. It was he who invented telescopes and helped scientists to study other planets and see the rest of the celestial bodies of the solar system. Thanks to the telescope, it became known about the existence of mountains and craters on the moon, satellites of Jupiter, Saturn, Mars. Also, the same Galileo Galilei discovered spots on the Sun. Science not only developed, it flew forward by leaps and bounds. And by the beginning of the twentieth century, scientists already knew enough to build the first spaceship and set off to conquer the stellar expanses.
How space science developed in Soviet times
Soviet scientists conducted significant space research and achieved very great successes in the study of astronomy and the development of shipbuilding. True, more than 50 years have passed since the beginning of the 20th century before the first space satellite set off to conquer the vastness of the universe. It happened in 1957. The device was launched in the USSR from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The first satellites did not pursue high results - their goal was to reach the moon. The first space exploration device landed on the lunar surface in 1959. And also in the 20th century the Space Research Institute was opened, in which serious scientific work was developed and discoveries were made.
Soon, the launch of satellites became commonplace, and yet only one mission to land on another planet ended successfully. We are talking about the Apollo project, during which several times, according to the official version, the Americans landed on the moon.
International Space Race
1961 was a memorable year in the history of astronautics. But even earlier, in 1960, two dogs visited the space, the nicknames of which the whole world knows: Belka and Strelka. They returned from space unharmed, becoming famous and becoming real heroes.
And on April 12 of the next year, Yuri Gagarin, the first man who ventured to leave the Earth on the Vostok-1 ship, set off to plow the expanses of the Universe.
The United States of America did not want to concede superiority to the USSR in the space race, therefore, they wanted to send their man into space before Gagarin. The United States lost in launching satellites: Russia managed to launch the device four months earlier than America. Such space explorers as Valentina Tereshkova and Alexei Leonov have already visited the airless space . The latter was the first in the world to go into outer space, and the most significant achievement of the United States in the development of the Universe was only the launch of an astronaut into orbital flight.
But, despite the significant successes of the USSR in the "space race", America, too, was not a blunder. And on July 16, 1969, the Apollo 11 spacecraft, on board of which there were five space explorers, launched to the surface of the moon. Five days later, the first man stepped onto the surface of the Earth’s satellite. His name was Neil Armstrong.
Victory or defeat?
Who, after all, won the lunar race? There is no exact answer to this question. Both the USSR and the USA showed their best side: they modernized and improved technical achievements in space shipbuilding, made many new discoveries, took priceless samples from the lunar surface, which were sent to the Space Research Institute. Thanks to them, it was found that the Earth’s satellite consists of sand and stone, and also that there is no air on the moon. Traces of Neil Armstrong, left more than forty years ago on the lunar surface, and are now there. There is simply nothing to erase them: our satellite is deprived of air, there is neither wind nor water. And if you go to the moon, then you can leave your mark in history - both in direct and figurative meaning.
Conclusion
The history of mankind is rich and extensive, it includes many great discoveries, wars, grand victories and devastating defeats. The development of extraterrestrial space and modern space research rightfully occupies far from the last place on the pages of history. But none of this would have happened if there weren’t such brave and selfless people like German Titov, Nikolai Copernicus, Yuri Gagarin, Sergey Korolev, Galileo Galilei, Giordano Bruno and many, many others. All these great people were distinguished by an outstanding mind, developed abilities to study physics and mathematics, a strong character and iron will. We have something to learn from them, we can learn from these scientists a priceless experience and positive qualities and character traits. If humanity will try to resemble them, read a lot, train, successfully study at school and university, then we can confidently say that we still have a lot of great discoveries ahead, and deep space will soon be explored. And, as one famous song says, our footprints will remain on the dusty paths of distant planets.