Sunday, September 7th, 2008

SPACE

Improvements in Technology

There have been a lot of improvements over the years that have made the space program possible.

Here are just a few examples:

Galileo's telescope 1609

This is Galileo’s telescope – the one he used to figure out that the planets were revolving around the sun, and not around the Earth…

Venus

…and this is how clear the planet Venus appeared through that telescope.

Hubble Telescope This is the Hubble Space Telescope, a long way

from Galileo’s telescope…

…and these are the images it can take from across millions of light years.

Model T Ford 1908 This is the Model T Ford, the first mass

produced car in history…

Moon buggy 1971 …and this is the

moon buggy we

brought to the moon

with us.

Sputnik 1957 This is the first

satellite that was

launched into

space.

It travelled around the earth for 22 days and was capable of measuring atmospheric pressure.

Voyager 1, 1977

Voyager, by comparrison, travelled throughout our solar system, taking pictures and measurements of our planets for the first time.

It left our solar system in 2003 and is still functioning.

Salyut 1 (1971) and Skylab (1973)

The first space stations were amazing achievements, but we’ve come a long way in 35 years.

Space station 2008

NASA Home and SpaceThere have been many

spinoffs from the space

program that affect all of

our lives. To see how

many there are, click on

this link or click this

picture

and answer the questions

on your worksheet.

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/mmgallery/index.html