ISSUE 2 NOVEMBER 2004 £2.50 VOYAGE A Journey of Learning Through Space

THIS ISSUE: Rockets and Spacecraft FLYING MODEL ROCKETS THE SATURN V Apollo’s ride to the Moon

BUILD YOUR OWN TITAN LANDER

THE X-PRIZE

THUNDERBIRDS - from TV to film via Mercury

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Professional Affiliation ...... (& Address if Applicable) Job Position or Title ...... Application constitutes acceptance of the Society’s Constitutional Rules...... Return to the British Interplanetary Society ...... 27/29 South Lambeth Road London SW8 1SZ Signature ...... Date ...... England Voyage *Normally £64.50 (US$119) †Normally £43.50 (US$80) ‡Normally £22.50 (US$42) Offer ends 30 November 2004 CONTENTS ROCKETS AND SPACECRAFT

So, You Want to be a Rocket Scientist? 8

It’s not just NASA or other nations that can fly rockets. You can do it yourself in model form. MAT IRVINE tells us how to get started in this world-wide hobby.

14 The Ansari X-Prize

Regular space toruism may only be a matter of a few years away, and it’s getting closer as the competition to win $10 million hots up. STEVEN CUTTS fills us in.

Did You Know About - The Saturn V Rocket 30

34 On the Cover: Shuttle Rollout

PLUS Mr Pilbeam’s Lab 18 Who’s Who in Space 40 Voyager Card Game 24 Re-Entry: Hubble Telescope 44

FEATURES and COMPETITIONS

Sci-Fi Focus - Thunderbirds 20 The 1960s Gerry Anderson puppet show has been turned into a great all-action movie. But it also has a link with the early days of the American Space Program. BRIAN LONGSTAFF shows us the connection. 26 The Night Sky

Ever looked up at the stars and wondered which was which? If you want to learn more about the fascinating sights in the night sky, DAVE BUTTERY provides a great beginner’s guide. Future Space - Humans on Mars 28

With talk of sending missions back to the Moon and on to Mars in the near future, STEVEN CUTTS looks at how we might get to the Red Planet, and how we can survive when we’re there.

Great Puzzles and Competitions

Test your knowledge of space with: Get your entry in the next issue of Voyage Puzzle page on page 12 Caption Competition on page 13 Giant Wordsearch on page 31 Photo Competition on page 35 WIN A Die-Cast Space Shuttle Model in our great competition on PAGE 16 1 The best laid plans... Editor: Mike Shayler It just goes to show that predicting the future is a risky business. Production Assistant: We’ve had such a fantastic response to the first issue that many Mary McGivern of the articles planned and advertised for this one have had to be left out in favour of the ones that actually made it. There’s been Voyage Marketing: such an encouraging input of new articles for Voyage that we Suszann Parry were simply spoilt for choice.

V o y a ge Voyage OFFICE Some of the items left out of this issue will appear in later ones, but we’ve learned 27/29 South Lambeth Road, very quickly not to make any predictions for the content. Issue 3 will have an London, SW8 1SZ, England. astronomy theme, though, so if you’ve never tried astronomy before, have a look at the beginners article on page 26. Tel: +44 (0)20 7735 3160 Fax: +44 (0)20 7820 1504 E-mail: [email protected] We also have some great competition prizes to give away in this issue, so why not have a go. And if you or your school would like to write something for the magazine, www.bis-space.com/education just drop me a line or an email at the addresses below.

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2 Thirty years ago in 1974, my two crewmates and I set a new American record of 84 days in space, which lasted for over 20 years. We also travelled 35 million miles in our Skylab space station. We were proud when we landed, but then we compared what we had done with what lies in the future — travel to the stars. Light covers the 35 million miles that we travelled in just three minutes. Yet it takes light over four years to reach our nearest star. Clearly, when it comes to real space travel, we barely nudged our toe out the front door.

Are there other life forms out there among the stars? Do they think or look like us? Are they smarter than us? Finding the answer to these questions is behind much of our drive to leave our home planet and reach outward. It has been calculated that the number of planets in the universe that could support some form of life is about the same as the number of grains of sand on all the beaches of the world. So here we sit, on our own one grain of sand, asking, ”Could there could be other intelligent life out there?” You bet, the answer has to be YES!

You are now just learning about science and space, and all of us whose careers are mostly over really envy you. Your future is exciting – return to the Moon, on to Mars, then out to the rest of our Solar System. Many of us believe that as we understand more about physics and the science of space travel, we will find a practical way to travel to the stars. Sixty years ago human flight to the Moon was thought to be ridiculous, if not totally impossible. Human drive, ingenuity, and advancements in science turned the impossible into reality. So it will be with travel to the stars.

When will we reach the stars or find life outside of Earth? No one knows, but one thing is sure – every step of the way will be challenging and exciting. You can be as large a part of it all as you desire. Learn science, work hard, and enjoy!

Ed Gibson Science Pilot Skylab III

For a chance to win a datacard autographed by Ed Gibson, try the competition on page 35 3 FUN IN SPACE Clowning Around

by Ed Hengeveld

Flying Blind

It is December 1965 and these six X-15 pilots pose in a jolly mood at NASA’s Flight Research Center in California’s Mojave Desert. Left to right (you will have to take our word for it) are: Joe Engle, Bob Rushworth, Jack McKay, Pete Knight, Milt Thompson and Bill Dana. On the tarmac behind them is one of the three legendary aircraft, which earned some of its pilots the title “astronaut” when it flew higher than 50 miles.

It’s All Gone to His Head

Who said that being an astronaut means that you have to be serious all day? Certainly not Jim McDivitt, who is shown here taking a break from posing for an official portrait. The model which appears to be giving him a headache is of a Titan-2 rocket that launched the two-man Gemini spacecraft in 1965 and 1966. McDivitt commanded the Gemini-4 flight in 1965 and later Apollo-9 in 1969.

Birthday Boy

On 25 March 1970, during the final stages of training for Apollo-13, astronaut Jim Lovell is presented with a cake to celebrate his 42nd birthday at the Kennedy Space Center. Behind the cake is a giant card signed by thousands of KSC workers. This almost turned out to be Lovell’s last birthday, because three weeks later the Apollo-13 mission became headline news as an explosion crippled the spacecraft on the way to the Moon. Lovell and his fellow-crewmen Jack Swigert and Fred Haise barely survived the crisis.

4 FUN IN SPACE

Playing Superman.

Two astronauts perform acrobatics aboard Skylab, the first US space station, in 1973. Commander Gerry Carr appears to balance pilot Bill Pogue on his finger, but of course in the weightless environment of space Pogue would remain hanging there even if Carr removed his hand.

Now, this won’t hurt a bit!

Mission specialist Tony England appears to be the victim of an experiment during Space Shuttle mission STS-51F in August 1985. Fellow- astronaut Story Musgrave has an almost sadistic smile on his face as he is taking a blood sample. Small consolation for England is that Musgrave is a medical doctor and should probably know what he is doing.

5 FUN IN SPACE You’ve Been Framed

Trick or treat?

Challenger commander Hank Hartsfield is unrecognisable during Space Shuttle flight STS-61A in November 1985. He sports this “jack-o-lantern” mask to mark Halloween, a popular cause for celebration.

Tough Guys

The crew for Space Shuttle mission STS-98 dress up as a street gang in an aggressive but tongue-in- cheek approach to promoting safety among Shuttle workers. Left to right are Marsha Ivins, Robert Curbeam, Ken Cockrell, Mark Polansky and Tom Jones (no, not the singer).

What A Save

Apparently a soccer fan, astronaut John Blaha appears to be having a ball aboard the Shuttle Discovery during mission STS-33 in November 1989.

6 As you can see, astronauts are highly trained, highly educated, serious, dedicated individuals - most of the time! FUN IN SPACE

Groovy Baby

The Austin Powers movie inspired the crew of Shuttle mission STS-92 to pose for this hilarious portrait. These gag- portraits have become something of a tradition and date back to the Gemini programme in the 1960s.

They’ll Never Find Me in Here

Apparently trying to avoid some unpleasant duty, astronaut Daniel W. Bursch squeezes under compartments on the middeck of the Space Shuttle Endeavour, during the visit of STS-111 to the International Space Station in June 2002. Bursch was flight engineer of the fourth crew aboard the ISS.

7 FEATURE So, You Want to be a by Mat Irvine The atmosphere is tense. A hand “People have tried hovers over a red firing button. The not by the actual launching and flying, countdown has begun – three, two, burning them, sawing but by the fact that putting the one – ignition. There is a them in half, and even miniature rocket motor into the rocket whooshing sound and a rocket was deemed ’manufacturing’, as soars majestically into the sky. running them over in defined by the Explosives Act that Then, scanning the skies, you a car or firing bullets went back to the 19th Century! No suddenly spot it reappearing, one got around to amending this Act floating gracefully down to Earth on at them.” to allow for model rocketry until the a parachute. But this is not NASA, 1980s when several rocketry ESA or even the Russians, enthusiasts banded together and had but a large field just down the appropriate tests done that the road, and the rocket is changed the classification of the only 30 cm tall. This is the model rocket motors. In the end it hobby of flying model wasn’t until 1987 that the changes rockets, a world-wide hobby came into being, but now model where anyone can rocketry comes under the same type participate. of regulations that cover fireworks.

The rockets are light in Model rocket motors though are much weight, made from card tube, safer than fireworks. For a start, they balsa wood and vacuum- are usually far lighter than an formed plastic. The engines equivalent 5 November rocket and are small, very safe and they are far more under control. Plus highly reliable solid fuelled when they return to Earth, they have motors, and the whole rocket the advantage of floating down gently returns to Earth to be fitted on a parachute, not returning under with a new motor and have its the increasing influence of 1G of parachute checked and gravity – with the possibility of doing The entrance to White Sands Missile Range, where the repacked, ready for the next majority of early testing of American rocketry went on after damage! flight. World War II. It can also be said to be the location for the start of Model Rocketry Flying The idea of launching miniature The hobby of flying model versions of rockets can be traced rockets in this country is actually not years we were legally stopped from back to much earlier times and many as old as you may think. For many participating in the world-wide hobby, of the world’s leading rocket scientists started by flying, if not what we now call ‘model rockets’, certainly small versions of larger rockets. However up until the 1950s, there were no real regulations or control, and certainly no safe commercially manufactured rocket motors. Model ‘rocketeers’ were using standard explosives, probably with little regard to safety, and accidents were occurring.

The story of the ‘hobby model rocket industry’ itself however, probably started in 1954 in America, with a rocket engineer, G. Harry Stine. Stine was then working at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico on full- size rockets, and was sent some

Parts layout of a typical flying rocket kit – this being Estes’ Saturn 1B – There is the card tube (top sample model rocket engines by left) parachute and cord (top right), vacuum-formed plastic for the fins (centre), and injection-moulded Orville Carlisle of Nebraska. Stine plastic (centre bottom) for the Apollo capsule. Mat Irvine was already a regular author on such 8 Rocket Scientist? FEATURE

topics in the magazine Mechanix sledgehammers, running them over Illustrated, and he tested these Although Stine is regarded as the by car and even firing bullets directly motors, made improvements and ‘father of the modern model rocket’, at them! By far and away the vast eventually founded the first model the name most associated with the majority of these tests have failed to rocket company – Model Missiles Inc. hobby is Vern Estes, the founder of cause the motors to ignite. Since the the world’s largest hobby rocket beginnings of the commercial model company – Estes Industries in rocket industries back in the 1950s, Denver, Colorado. Because there had there have been many millions of been a number of accidents involving these engines manufactured and there ‘amateur’ model rockets, unfortunately is no recorded instance of a serious including some fatalities, Estes set accident anywhere that they were about designing and manufacturing a correctly used. model rocket engine that would be safe. He ended up with a small Model rockets can be bought ready compact design for a solid-fuel rocket made, and virtually ready to fly, motor that used a pressed black though the original idea was that you powder and potassium nitrate built your own, which is much more compound contained in a very strong fun! Although Estes still remains card tube. probably the largest supplier, there are other companies around the world The motors can only be fired using – including Quest, Aerotech, PML, specially manufactured electric Apogee, Rocketvision – that have igniters made by the model rocket joined in and supply kits of parts that companies themselves. In fact, one can vary from the very simple to the reason why the hobby is so safe is extremely complex – and then that it is virtually impossible to get the onwards and upwards to where motors to ignite any other way. Over virtually all the rocket is custom built. the years many tests have been done The designs can also vary A scale model of the Gemini-Titan II launcher caught before it has ‘cleared the tower’ (Or in to try and ignite these motors considerably. At the simpler end there this case the end of the rod). Note the length of ‘accidentally’, including burning them, are generic, (generalised, non- the exhaust – it is not that great. Mat Irvine sawing them in half, hitting them with specific), rockets that basically ‘look’

Some of the many ‘generic’, non-specific rockets Many of the model rockets are created to be Some of the full scale models are so detailed that have been available from this company. The scale replicas of the real thing. These are some it is difficult to tell them from the real thing. picture does include the infamous ‘Egg Lofter’ of Estes full scale rockets, (l-r) Saturn 1B, This is Estes Mercury Atlas, and from this (centre right) designed for launching a hen’s Scout, Mercury Redstone, Titan IIIE- Centaur. angle, it’s difficult to tell that it is a model! egg. Mat Irvine Mat Irvine Mat Irvine 9 The general layout of the launching section of a model rocket site. Note that it is a good distance from the nearest houses. The rocketeers set up their launch systems within the taped off area, using FEATURE launch stands that are normally based on camera tripods. At launch, the rocketeer (in blue on the left) stands a safe distance away from the rocket. Mat Irvine

like a rocket, but are not meant to set the general direction of travel or to represent any real rocket in particular. Once the rocket has launched, then it allow for a slight wind (it is Then there are what are termed ‘semi- is a matter of choosing someone to unadvisable to fly rockets in anything scale’, where the model generally race off across the field to find where more than a light breeze – mainly as looks like a real missile or launch the rocket is landing. It is however you probably won’t see them again!). rocket, but some compromises have always advisable to try and look The rod is supported by some method had to be made to get the thing to fly. where you are going – it is very so that it – somewhat obviously – Lastly there are the true scale models, tempting to keep gazing upwards doesn’t fall over. The commercial which are true miniatures of the full following the parachutes, not realising launch pads usually stand on a simple size rocket down to the smallest you are just about to fall in a ditch, three-legged base – and the larger the detail. run into a tree or hurtle headlong into model rocket, the larger the stand. a cow! However experienced model However complex the finished rocket rocketeers usually end up devising may be, the starting point for virtually and building their own launch pad, all these models is the same - a “After launch, just some attached to portable work- central body formed from a thin but benches for working space and strong card tube. To this is added the choose someone to stability, or maybe adapting camera external details – fins, stabilisers and race across the field tripods, with pan and tilt heads to the nose cone. Inside there are the allow for the adjustment. actual working parts – the engine and to find where the its holder at one end, and the rocket lands - but At the base of the launch rod is a flat parachute and recovery system at the metal plate. This is to deflect the other. make sure they look rocket exhaust on lift-off and protects where they’re going!” the stand. All the combustion actually At this point it is worth explaining takes place within the motor casing so exactly how the whole system works, the resulting exhaust is purely the for it involves slightly more than ‘just’ The rockets are fired from special expanding gases. Standard black firing the rocket off the launch pad. All launch pads. All the major powder motors have an exhaust gas in all there are three parts to a manufacturers make them, although temperature of around 230oC at a standard (and here we are talking from experience some are more speed of around 850 m/s. This about single stage) model rocket substantial than others. What is extends to around 23-33 cm from the launch and recovery. There is the lift required at the very least is a vertical motor nozzle, and although once the off, then the cruise stage, then rod, which the rocket slides over – rocket is in the air it is contained parachute deploying, and all of this is usually by means of two small tubes within a small space, it is certainly hot determined by the rocket motor glued to the side of the main body. enough to burn or melt plastic support classification (see ‘The Technical The rod sets the initial trajectory for stands on the initial firing, as will be Bit’). the rocket, and most can be angled to seen by the progressive blackening of 10 FEATURE

The Technical Bit

Rocket motors are classified by a series of letters and numbers, an internationally recognised standard that should be found on any model rocket motor manufactured anywhere in the world. The motors are first classified by their total impulse (their total power) indicated by a letter of the alphabet. Each increase in the letter equals a doubling of power. So a ‘B’ engine is twice as powerful as (left) Estes rocket igniters – electrically fired and about the only way you are likely to get the rocket an ‘A’ and a ‘C’ twice as powerful as a motors to fire! (right) A selection of solid fuelled rocket motors, with some of the numbering. Top is an ‘B’. The power is measured in Newton A8-3, next a B6-4, then a C6-7 and at the bottom a smaller ‘A’ engine – an A10. The top two are single seconds – Ns – and is set for each size stage engines, the bottom two are upper stage engines. Mat Irvine of motor. For example, an A motor has a total impulse of 2.5 Ns; a B has 5 Ns; a C has 10 Ns and a D has 20 Ns – so you this plate! Incidentally although the distance away. Commercial firing can see the power doubles as the letters exhaust is hot, the exterior of the boxes usually have a set length of progress. motor casing remains cool throughout cable, which gives you the sort of the burn, so there is really no danger recommended distance. However for The letter is followed – usually – by two of setting the model itself alight. Note newcomers – and even experienced numbers, separated by a hyphen, eg C6- also these motors are single use only flyers – the best course is to join a 4. This is because the motor fires not only at lift-off, but also has a built in – the casing cannot be re-loaded, so club. There are local clubs, but the cruise stage and a final ejection charge there is no possibility of mistakes two main national flying model rocket that fires in the opposite direction. From occurring during such a process. organisations in the UK are the BSMA the classification you can therefore work – British Space Modelling Association out the total power, the duration of the The motors are fired using tiny and UKRA – United Kingdom Rocket thrust and the duration of the cruising electrical igniters placed up inside the Association. The former is mostly for stage, in sequence. motor. Firing the rocket fires the the ‘smaller’ end of the hobby, while In our example the ‘C’ is the ‘size’ of the igniters, which in turn ignites the the latter specialises in more powerful rocket motor, which for C motors is a solid-fuel mix. The voltage for most rockets. The organisations will also mean thrust of 10 Newton seconds. small igniters is usually said to be help with finding suitable launch sites, From the next digit – the ‘6’ in our adequate at 3 volts. However more for – as already emphasised - example – you can work out the firing reliable firing takes place using a although the hobby is safe in that the time in seconds. To get how long the higher voltage, and 12 volts is rockets are very light and far safer motor actually fires (in seconds) you generally recommended. The firing than Guy Fawkes rockets – you do divide this first number into the total line is attached to the igniter wires via not want to fly them when there are impulse, in this case 10 (for the 10Ns of ‘C’ motors), divided by 6, which equals very small crocodile clips that pull power lines around, near roads or 1.6 seconds. This may not seem a very away as the rocket leaves its launch water, with animals in the field, or long time, but the thrust is concentrated pad. really in any built-up area. Official into a very short firing time – which is the clearance is also required past a main reason why model rockets leave the Although the hobby of flying model certain altitude or in certain areas, launch pad as fast as they do. rockets is very safe, obviously one and again the official clubs know has to take care with many aspects – these details. The last number after the hyphen is the especially when loading the motors, cruise time, or delay time when the rocket is cruising along with no power. fitting the igniters, attaching the leads The charge in the motor is still burning Web Sites: and the firing itself. The firing box though, producing a smoke trail to allow must be disconnected from the Both the national organisations mentioned you to track the rocket – which by now batteries when attaching leads to the above work through the British Model Flying could be at a couple of thousand metres igniter, (some commercial boxes have Association and not exactly visible to the eye! Then, a built-in ‘key’ to help with this.) In www.bmfa.org after the seconds indicated by the last addition, common sense dictates that number, the final ‘ejection charge’ fires. This is a very brief burst in the forward you obviously don’t stand directly over The UK Rocket Association also has its direction to create a sudden expansion of a rocket when pressing the firing own ‘Site gases. This literally pushes off the nose button and that the firing lead is long www.ukra.org.uk cone, and releases the parachutes. enough to stand a respectable 11 PUZZLE PAGE WORD SEARCH Cross out or circle the hidden words in the grid as you find them from the list. When you find the words marked with an asterisk (*) use a different coloured pen or highlighter. When you have completed the puzzle, these words will reveal an image. Answers on page 42/43.

QWU R P T Y S P O I U Y R R

ORB I TDAFPGHJ KAL Atlas* Black Hole* ASDFGLGHJAKLMTN Day* GHGFTSSAZBCXCSV Galaxy AZXACAVEBLNEMLK Lunar Mars LTYERTDGSADFGHJ Orbit AASDFEGAHCJPKLP Pluto Satellite* XSLCVLSYDKCLVBN Sky* YQUWELROTHTUYUS Space*

BBNNMI TVYOUT I OR Speed Star SMACBTXCVLBONMA Sun* PTRDFESDFEGHJPM UFO* Voyage ESDFSGHYJKULZXC

ETYURQKWAERFTYU

DMNBVSSDFDQWOER

ANAGRAMS Solve the anagrams using the clues to each word. Then see if you can fit the words into the grid to find the key word in the yellow boxes

MONO (Our planet’s natural satellite) ______

HEART (The planet we live on) ______

RAMS (The next planet after ours) ______

FILE (There’s lots of this on our world) ______

ITEM (Seconds, minutes and hours) ______

The hidden key word is: ______(clue: extra-terrestrial)

12 CAPTION COMPETITION

Tell us what you think these astronauts are thinking or saying. You can have more than one of them speaking but please keep your answers short — and nothing rude please!

In this photo are: (left to right) Pavel Vinogradov (Russia), Gennedy Manakov (Russia), John Blaha (NASA) and Claudie Andre-Deshays (France)

The best answers will be printed in the next issue and the one we consider the funniest will win.

THE PRIZE We have 4 copies of the Voyager card game for the winner (see page 24). Runners up will receive a copy of the next issue of Voyage. Please mark your entry Caption Competition 2 and send to the address on page 2

LAST ISSUE

Winner: David Steel, Nottingham “You should have gone to Specsavers”

Runners Up: Jonathan Davis, Crawley “Look at these great pictures of us in Voyage”

Claire Randall, Milton Keynes “Yes, but it doesn’t keep your breath fresh does it?”

13 FUTURE SPACE The Next X-Prize by Steve Cutts

October 2004 – Rutan’s team wins a space spectacular in October 2004. the X Prize Burt Rutan, of the famous company But if we take away the excitement and Scaled Composites, had already media gloss, what is the X-Prize likely These days, it’s unusual for an achieved international fame by to achieve? aerospace record to hit the producing the first aircraft capable of headlines, but in October 2004, Burt flying around the world without Firstly, we have to acknowledge that it Rutan’s team did exactly that, taking refuelling. With that title under his belt, is truly remarkable that a private the $10 million dollar X-Prize for the his company has gone on to produce a company can send a manned vehicle first commercial space craft to fly to new and remarkable machine called into space at all. Until very recently, the edge of space. Spaceship One. only organisations like NASA could even think about doing this sort of For the other competitors in this race, Using a single test pilot, Rutan’s team thing. To those of us who were weaned Rutan’s victory must have been a bitter made a series of flights to an altitude of on the adventures of Captain Kirk and pill to swallow but almost immediately, 62 miles or 100 kilometres. For a Luke Skywalker, the pace of space the Ansari X-Prize was re-issued, with a private aviation endeavour, the event exploration has been more than staggering $50 million dollar prize on attracted a massive audience. Road disappointing. Maybe that’s all about to offer for the first team to build a private links to the remote dessert air strip change. space craft capable of reaching low were packed tight with spectators as Earth orbit. Space Ship One returned from its trip to Many believe that space tourism can make perfect landing. play a significant role in the future The original Ansari X Prize was a exploration of outer space. Thus far reward of $10 million for the first team The achievement has captured the only two tourists have flown in space, to fly a piloted spacecraft beyond the imagination of the world and the and at very high cost. Dennis Tito was Earth’s atmosphere. When it was flamboyant British billionaire, Richard an American rocket scientist in his announced, many in the industry Branson, has ordered a small fleet of youth and a successful financial expert dismissed the whole idea as gimmick. similar spacecraft with which he hopes in later life. Flushed with millions from In fact, the prize initiated a whole string to send wealthy would-be astronauts his Wall Street adventures, he decided of innovative, low cost designs for a into space. It seems as if true at the age of 60 to approach the manned space craft capable of commercial space travel is about to Russian space programme and offer achieving a height of over 100 kms. begin. $20 million in return for a one-week adventure on the International Space The issuing of prizes in aerospace Station. history is not without precedent. For example, the Schneider Trophy was The Russians agreed and eagerly centred around a race around the Isle cashed the cheque. Over in the USA, of Wight in the 1930s. On one NASA was furious, presumably occasion, the legendary British because they hadn’t thought of the idea company Super Marine managed to win themselves, but also because Tito had with an aircraft which would become not gone through their astronaut the forefather of the Spitfire. training for safety purposes. When Tito flew with the Russians, he was The people who set up the initial Ansari restricted to their parts of the space X prize were both challenging and station. realistic about the rules. They required a privately funded reusable machine to For their part, the Russian scientists fly to a height of 100 kilometres were grateful for all the hard currency carrying three people. To prove that the they could get and soon recruited vehicle is reusable they had to repeat Mark Shuttleworth, the South African the same journey within two weeks. A Internet entrepreneur, as their second more substantial challenge would have space tourist at the tender age of 28. been beyond the capabilities of any He fared much better than Tito, as he small private organisation. went through full NASA training and went up there with a full programme

Sure enough, one of the leading teams The UK Starchaser Industry entry to the X-Prize. of experiments to run, so his visit was in this competition managed to pull off Image from www.starchaser.co.uk useful as well as being newsworthy. 14 Just how hard would it be to send a single staged rocket into orbit and then return it to FUTURE SPACE earth, ready for refuelling and repeat flight? have been able to carry any payload or The best possible fuel return to Earth. The reality is that currently available for practically the only room for spacecraft is liquid hydrogen improvement in such rockets is to and liquid oxygen and current reduce the weight of every component Spaceship One, which successfully test-flew into space in and this laborious process is now June and October this year. Scaled Compsites Inc rocket engines can burn this fuel with an efficiency of over underway. For example, the heavy Since then dozens of adventurous 95%. This means that even the best computers that guided the space billionaires have made inquiries about a engineers can only squeeze a few shuttle of the 1980s into orbit can now long weekend in zero gravity. It’s been percent more performance out of such be replaced by something the size of a suggested that if the cost of space an engine. In order to achieve orbital laptop. Similarly, much of the electrical tourism could fall there might be speed, such a rocket needs to be 90% cabling can be replaced by lightweight hundreds of wealthy people willing to fuel at take-off. In other words, a 100- fibre optics. Advances in materials splash out on just such an adventure tonne rocket on the launch pad would technology mean that the likely weight every year. consist of 90 tonnes of fuel and 10 of of a heat shield has also been reduced. metal, electronics and astronauts. From Behind the scenes, NASA has been On a more sober note, we have to this, we can begin to see that the ideal quietly making refinements to the remember the limitations of these spacecraft would be a thinnest possible Space Shuttle and has succeeded in machines. The first thing to accept is structure, encircling its own fuel in like reducing the takeoff weight by several that the original $10 million price is an egg shell surrounds the white and tonnes over the last 10 years. peanuts in comparison to the cost of the yolk of an egg. designing and building a suitable The organisers of the X Prize have rocket. All the groups involved in this raised the public profile of a new breed contest have other sources of finance of aviation heroes. Doubtless someone and other ambitions. Spaceship One will succeed in winning the $50 million will only be capable of launching a crew prize for orbital flight but we shouldn’t to an altitude of 100 miles. This will be surprised if others fail and amidst give them a view revealing the the excitement of it all, we shouldn’t curvature of the planet and several forget that it’s an adventure that may minutes of zero gravity, but nothing cost the lives of some of the innovators compared to what the professional involved. Once they’ve succeeded astronauts get to experience. The there’ll be other hurdles to cross and for current batch of X-Prize contenders fall the average man in the street, it’s likely well short of an orbital capability. to be many years before true space Artist’s impression of the Da Vinci Project Wild tourism becomes possible. Fire. Courtesy of www.davinciproject.com And orbital capability is the requirement for the next $50 million dollar X-Prize. Steve Cutts is a doctor and Even the organisers have admitted that Unfortunately, a commercially viable freelance writer with a life long they don’t expect the prize to be won spacecraft would have to be reusable interest in space exploration. before 2010. Here’s why. and therefore would have to cram a heat shield, retrorockets and In order to stay in space we have to perhaps also parachutes into Artist’s impression of the Vanguard Spacecraft Eagle. achieve a horizontal speed of 28,000 the 10% of take-off weight that Courtesy of www.vanguardspace.com kph, that’s 8 km per second. Another can be solid matter. way to express this is a speed of 25 times the speed of sound, or Mach 25. Before you get too concerned Spaceship One was merely capable of about this, remember that Mach 3. These simple statistics serve rocket scientists have been on to remind us that the would-be amateur the edge of producing this astronauts of our times are still a long machine for some 30 years. way from catching up with NASA. For example, the second stage Sadly, any spacecraft designer is of the Saturn V moon rocket restrained not just by government could also almost have been a regulations, but by the much harsher single-stage rocket, although rules of chemistry and physics. in that capacity it would not 15 Voyage PRIZE COMPETITION WIN A

This is an artist’s impression of what we might do when we go back to the Moon in the future. To win the competition, all you have to do is answer the following questions:

1. What year was the last Apollo flight to the Moon?

a) 1972 b) 1982 c) 1992

2. The picture shows a small lander coming in to land. What was the name of the Apollo 11 lander?

a) Spider b) Columbia c) Eagle

3) Where on the Moon did Apollo 11 land?

a) Sea of Tranquillity b) Sea of Crises c) Ocean of Storms

Please mark your entry Shuttle Competition and send or email it to the address on page 2

ISSUE 1 CD COMPETITION

The correct answers were:

1. A. International Space Station 2. C. Michael Foale 3. B. 9

Congratulations to: Jonathan Davis of Crawley, who wins the Space Station CD ROM

16 DIE-CAST SPACE SHUTTLE MODEL

17 MR PILBEAM’S LABORATORY No. 1 Landing

The ESA probe ‘Huygens’ will soon Modelling Titan’s surface material - other items such as wax be on its way to attempt a landing on granules used for making candles will Titan, the cloud-enshrouded moon of Equipment needed: three old plastic do just as well). Saturn. washing up bowls; Plaster of Paris; cat litter, sand or wax granules; wallpaper You don’t have to follow these Because the surface of Titan is paste; anything else you might want to instructions exactly – as long as you obscured by its dense atmosphere, the add to your ‘planet surfaces’. have at least three different types of designers of the probe have had to ‘planet’, you can use any materials you make guesses as to just what kind of Procedure: Mix up enough Plaster of have available. surface Huygens will encounter. Paris to make a thick layer (about 6-7 cm) in one bowl and leave to set hard. Designing the probe Will it be a solid surface such as rock Use the remaining dry Plaster of Paris or ice? Perhaps it will land in slushy powder to make a layer just as thick in Equipment needed: a raw egg; hydrocarbon snow, or perhaps it won’t the second bowl. Make up a good thick general craft construction materials ‘land’ at all: it may be that there are gooey load of the wallpaper paste in the (card, balsa wood, paper fasteners, lakes and seas of methane, ethane and third bowl, to the same depth as the paper clips, rubber bands, suitable other chemicals, which can be liquid at other two. glues and tools etc); reference pictures the temperatures and pressures of various landers. encountered on Titan. The surfaces now need to be made to look as similar as possible. To do this, To simulate the probe’s delicate (and To give you an insight into the scatter sand or cat litter over the top of expensive) electronics, a raw egg is problems space engineers have to face each surface until they look the same useful and you can run a few tests when designing probes and how they (this won’t be completely possible with beforehand to show how eggs survive overcome them, try this (potentially the wallpaper paste, as the moisture drops on concrete, grass, water etc. messy) experiment. will eventually soak into the surface You now need to turn your egg into a

There will be another great experiment from Mr Pilbeam’s Laboratory in the next issue. We’d like to hear how your experiments went, so if you want to send in a class report, or pictures of your Egg ‘Payload’ spacecraft designs, we’ll put the best ones in the magazine.

Mr Pilbeam’s Laboratory presents a variety of interactive activities ranging from the Victorian era to the Space Age, including presentations on the phenomena of reflection, the exploration of Mars, rockets and robots. You can use Balsa wood or thick card for the Although primarily aimed at able solar panels. Make your hinges from tape and children in Key Stages 2, 3 and 4, tension them with rubber bands glued in place. the activities are suitable for a wide range of audiences, including special interest groups for adults or children.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE MR PILBEAM’S LABORATORY TO VISIT YOUR SCHOOL, CONTACT TREVOR SPROSTON AT Bottom View Top View [email protected]

18 on Titan MR PILBEAM’S LABORATORY No. 1

space probe. It will need some form of Get hold of about 15 cm of plastic added a sampler arm, this should also structure which will survive landing on drainpipe, large cardboard tube or deploy. different surfaces, and be able to something which will let an egg pass deploy a sampling device to examine through without touching the sides. This Finally, fasten the tube to a convenient the surface it lands on. To make it a bit represents the container which has place, such as a fence or a stepladder, more challenging, your probe design protected the probe during its journey to so that the top is about two metres should leave the egg exposed, and use your planet, and limits the size of the above the ground. Fold up your probe, as little material as possible (as is the probe which can go through it. It also drop it through the tube, and see if it case when building real spacecraft). creates a control element into the test, unfolds before it hits the surface, and in that the tube provides standard that it lands upright. Test it without an Cosmic “Splat the Rat” conditions for each test. egg first, using plasticene to simulate the weight of the egg. If it works as Space probes often end up wider than Now decide on the unfolded width of expected, add the egg. the rocket which carries them. This is the probe, but it must be at least 33% because delicate items like solar panels wider than the tube. You have to design Now place one of the bowls on the need to be big to catch enough it so that it folds up to fit through the ground, underneath the tube. Drop your sunlight, and rockets are normally of a tube, and then unfolds when it comes probe and see what happens. fixed diameter. So any satellite or probe out of the end, ready for landing on the Everything should unfold before it hits has to fold up to fit into a limited space, surfaces. How you design your probe is the surface. If the egg survives and and then unfold when it reaches its up to you, but the aim is that the egg remains upright, recover it and move on destination. should remain upright on all of the to the next tray. If not…well, at least surfaces, sink in as little as possible, you will get another chance; Huygens and also remain intact. If you have won’t.

Rubber Band Actuator

Approx Suggestion for the basis of your design. 2 Metres You can make it look as hi-tech or as simple as you want. Experiment with different designs to see what works best.

ab c

19 SCI-FI FOCUS Thunderbirds - The first Americans flew in space by Brian Longstaff over forty years ago, but thanks to a recent film and a TV series from the Four… Charles Conrad set a new space endurance 1960s, you probably know the first Like Gordon Tracy, L. Gordon Cooper, Jr record with a time of 190 hours and 56 names of most of the astronauts loved adventure, with hobbies such as minutes. from NASA’s Project Mercury. When skiing and boating. While Gordon Tracy was Gerry Anderson wanted names for involved in a hydrofoil speedboat crash Three… the sons of former astronaut Jeff which put him in hospital for four months, Alan Tracy was trained as an astronaut and Tracy in ‘Thunderbirds’, he chose to Gordon Cooper’s Mercury flight on 15-16 it is said that his abilities in space were honour those early astronauts by May 1963 was far from trouble-free. After outstanding. Alan B. Shepard, Jr also has using their names. the 19th orbit of Earth, a faulty indicator light quite a record when it comes to space: On 5 came on. During the 20th orbit, he lost all May 1961, he piloted ‘Freedom 7’, his Five… readings on how high above the planet he Mercury spacecraft, to become the first John Tracy was named after John H. Glenn, was. On the 21st orbit, his control system American in space. With a sub-orbital flight* Jr. John Glenn flew the first Mercury lost power, and it was decided to end the of 302 miles and a height of 116 miles, the mission to actually orbit the planet on 20 mission. After 34 hours 19 minutes and 49 flight lasted only 15 minutes and 28 February 1962. Named ‘Friendship 7’, the seconds, his Mercury capsule, ‘Faith 7’, seconds but it put him in the history books. spacecraft orbited the Earth three times splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, south during the flight, which lasted only 4 hours east of Midway Island. He was also spacecraft commander on 55 minutes and 23 seconds. Apollo 14, making him (like Jeff Tracy) one Cooper’s second flight was on the Gemini 5 His second time in space came over 36 mission two years later, when he and years later, when he joined the crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-95 – a nine-day mission covering 134 Earth orbits (3.6 million miles). Glenn was 77 years old at the time, which makes him not only the first American to orbit the Earth, but also the oldest astronaut of all!

20 Mercury is Go! SCI-FI FOCUS minutes from lift-off to splashdown. of the first men to land on the Moon. His the musical) was “unsinkable”! Virgil honours include The Congressional Medal of Grissom was due to be in the crew of the During a leave of absence from NASA, Honor (Space); two NASA Distinguished first Apollo mission, but there was a fire in Carpenter took part in the US Navy’s Man- Service Medals; NASA Exceptional Service the capsule during a test and he and his two in-the-Sea project, living and working in a Medal, and many more. companions, Ed White and Roger Chaffee seafloor habitat for 30 days, making him an were all killed. aquanaut as well as an astronaut. Returning Two… to NASA, he helped design the Apollo Lunar Virgil Tracy is a graduate of the Denver One… Landing Module, as well as helping train School of Advanced Technology, and his Scott Tracy was named for M. Scott astronauts for EVA** by working lack of fear and iron nerve make him one of Carpenter, the second American astronaut underwater. the bravest pilots in the International Rescue to orbit the Earth in the Mercury 7 team. Virgil I. ‘Gus’ Grissom not only spacecraft ‘Aurora 7’ on 24 May 1962. Like Who…? excelled as a pilot, gaining him the John Glenn before him, Scott orbited the One of the flown Mercury astronauts didn’t Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal Earth three times, taking 4 hours and 54 make it into ‘Thunderbirds’ – Walter M. with cluster, but also studied Aeronautical Schirra, pilot of the Mercury spacecraft Engineering at the Air Force Institute of ‘Sigma 7’. His flight lasted for nine hours, 15 Technology before becoming an astronaut. minutes and nine orbits on 3 October 1962. Grissom was pilot of the ‘Liberty Bell 7’ He then went on to be command pilot on spacecraft, the second and final sub-orbital Gemini 6, which made space history when it flight* before John Glenn’s first orbital rendezvoused with Gemini 7. Finally, he mission. It lasted 15 minutes and 37 was command pilot on the first successful seconds, and took him to a height of 118 Apollo Mission, Apollo 7, making him the miles before landing 302 miles downrange only astronaut to fly in all three projects. from the launch pad at Cape Kennedy. Unfortunately, his capsule sank after Why his name was not chosen to be one of splashdown. the Tracy family is not known. We can only guess that perhaps “Walter Tracy” doesn’t Grissom also served as command pilot on have the same ring to it as the other names. the first Gemini flight, Gemini 3, which he We can, however, thank ‘Thunderbirds’ nicknamed ‘Molly Brown’, who (according to creator Gerry Anderson for an interesting way to remember the Project Mercury astronauts.

From Left to Right: John Glenn and John Tracy Gordon Cooper and Gordon Tracy Alan Shepard and Alan Tracy *A sub-orbital spaceflight (or sub-orbital Virgil Grissom and Virgil Tracy flight) is a space flight that does not involve Scott Carpenter and Scott Tracy putting a vehicle into orbit. Walter Schirra **EVA – Extra-vehicular Activity is work Astronaut images courtesy of: NASA done by an astronaut away from the Earth Thunderbirds images courtesy of: ITC Productions and outside of his or her spacecraft, such Thunderbirds is a trademark of Carlton as a spacewalk. International Media Ltd 21 ON THE COVER

This picture shows the US Space Shuttle on its way to the launch pad. The separate parts of the Shuttle launch vehicle, known as the ‘Stack’, are brought together in a huge building called the Vehicle Assembly Building, or VAB. This photo was taken from the roof of that building. The Stack consists of the Orbiter vehicle (the bit that looks like an aircraft) plus two Solid Rocket Boosters (the two tubes on either side) and the External Tank (the big orange fuel tank).

The Stack is taken from the VAB to the launch pad on top of this crawler transport. The pad is 5 km away from the building and the crawler transport is very slow. It was originally built to carry the giant Saturn V rocket (see page 30) which weighed almost 3 million kg.

The Shuttle stack is lightweight in comparison, but still weighs on average almost 2 million kg. The crawler has to carefully take the whole load down to the launch pad, so it can’t accelerate very quickly or come to a sudden stop. The best speed it can manage is about 0.8 kph, so it takes almost six hours to get to the launch pad.

With that much weight at such a slow speed, you certainly wouldn’t want the caterpillar tracks to run over your foot!

22 SHUTTLE ROLLOUT

There have been six American Space Shuttles altogether, including one that was used only for testing and was never able to fly in space. The six vehicles are: Atlantis, Challenger, Columbia, Discovery, Endeavour and Enterprise. How much do you know about the Space Shuttle program and its vehicles? Answers on page 42/43. a) Which shuttle was the first one to fly in space? b) Which shuttle flew most of the American missions to the Russian Space station Mir? c) Which shuttle has never flown in space and was only used for testing? d) Which two shuttles are named after sailing ships commanded by Captain Cook the explorer? e) Which shuttle was the first one lost in a launch accident in 1986? f) The very first space shuttle flight was on 12 April 1981. That was the 20th anniversary of a very important flight. What was it? g) The very first American woman to go into space flew aboard the Space Shuttle on a mission called STS-7. What was her name? h) Most of the Shuttle Stack can be used again on later missions. Which is the only part that always has to be replaced?

23 RESOURCES Voyager Card Game

Everyone knows that students at was played to see what information the school like to play games in the students had learned. All the comments classroom, but can playing a game and suggestions given during the tests actually help you learn some were used to develop a final version of science? To answer this question, ‘Voyager’, complete with a set of a card game called ‘Voyager’ was companion notes containing ideas for developed to inform students about projects and further classroom activities the many scientific satellites there using the card game as the starting are and the large involvement of point. The notes also give information the UK in space science and about the relevance of ‘Voyager’ to the astronomy. National Curriculum and include a complete list of the web addresses on The game consists of 32 cards, each each of the satellite cards for easy detailing a scientific satellite, giving a reference. colour picture, the satellite’s full name, the countries involved with its Comments received by students construction and operation, a brief included: “I didn’t know that there are description of what the satellite does so many satellites around”; “I really and the six characteristics required to enjoyed playing this game. I think it is play the game. fun as well as educational”; “I think that An example of a card from the game. Actual size is 6.5 x 9.5 cm it is a good game and anyone can enjoy The game is simple to play and uses it”; “I thought it was really good fun and six satellite statistics: Launch, Lifetime, Research Council (PPARC) in 2001, you learn lots. I would like to play Mass, Power, Range and Orbit. The several copies of the initial game were again”; “I didn’t think science was fun first player chooses one of these produced and tested in three different until today!” categories from their top card and schools. compares the value to that on their The ‘Voyager’ card game was very well opponent’s card. The player who has Over 140 students aged between 9 and received by both students and teachers the highest value wins the round, taking 13 took part in the ‘Voyager’ testing. at the three schools, with students their opponent’s card and putting it to Feedback was obtained by talking to being interviewed about the game by a the back of their own deck. The aim of the students and teachers and also by local radio station and by the local the game is to win all 32 cards. their completion of a short press. Interest generated by the media questionnaire. Some questions were coverage resulted in the remaining few The satellites chosen for the game are asked both before and after the game copies of the trial game being quickly from the past, present and future, covering a wide range of different scientific goals including Earth observation, Optical, X-ray and Gamma-ray astronomy.

Cards include the Hubble Space Telescope, The International Space Station, XMM-Newton and ENVISAT. Each card in the game also includes a satellite specific web address allowing interested students to find out further information.

In order to see if students would enjoy playing the game, if teachers would find the game suitable for use in science lessons and if students would actually learn anything from playing the game, ‘Voyager’ needed to be tested in schools. Thanks to funding from the Particle Physics and Astronomy 24 RESOURCES

Other activities have included students creating their own satellite models and even doing small research projects about their favourite satellite in the game, using the web addresses included on the cards to obtain more information. A number of teachers even designed their own cards on different topics using the same principle as ‘Voyager’ to handed out to interested schools. Centre in Leicester for schools visiting address other areas of the science the space museum. curriculum. The success of the school trials and the popularity of ‘Voyager’ showed the Over 1500 copies of ‘Voyager’ have The development of ‘Voyager’ has game had the potential to be a very been distributed at the time of writing shown that playing games in the useful and fun educational tool. The this article and many comments about classroom and learning some science quality of the cards was then improved the game and suggestions for at the same time is indeed possible. and 8 new cards added to the game. A classroom activities involving the game ‘Voyager’ has proved to be a useful second funding award from PPARC at have been obtained from both students educational tool and a number of the end of 2003 meant that over 3000 and teachers. ideas for future ‘Voyager’ card games are currently being investigated.

Students at Thomas Estley Community College, Hinckley trying out the Voyager game.

For further information about ‘Voyager’ and to obtain copies of the game, please contact David Smith at:

Dr David Ryan Smith Dept Electronic and Computer Engineering Brunel University Uxbridge Middlesex copies of ‘Voyager’ and the companion One response included a number of UB8 3PH notes could be produced. These copies letters from students who had written UK are available free of charge to any their views and feelings about the game school teacher or science educator who as part of a writing exercise: “I am Email: [email protected] would like to try the game out. writing to you because I enjoyed The ‘Voyager’ webpage for more Voyager. I think it was the best card information about the game is: A webpage containing information game in the world. I enjoyed it because http://www.star.le.ac.uk/ about ‘Voyager’ was created to inform when you finish the game you can find classroomspace/Voyager.htm people about the game and so far out more about your favourite card on during 2004, copies of ‘Voyager’ have the internet”, “ Thank you for making made their way to a vast number of the game Voyager. I enjoyed playing WE HAVE 4 COPIES OF VOYAGER schools throughout the UK, with some the game because it is scientific, fun TO GIVE AWAY TO ONE SCHOOL copies even going to schools in Europe and the cards are colourful and have IN OUR CAPTION COMPETITION and the US. The game has also been lots of information”. ON PAGE 13 made available at the National Space 25 THE NIGHT SKY 1. Starting Out: By Dave Buttery, FRAS Of all the various sciences, astronomy is the one that so immediately fills the observer “The best way to with wonder. It becomes very enticing! start is just to go outside on a clear In this series of articles, I’m going to show you how to start in the night, look up and fascinating hobby of Astronomy. There are many resources such as see what you can books, CD ROMs, videos, magazines see.” and hundreds of web sites dedicated to this topic, so where are we going to start? in order to capture both the detail and the colour. Secondly of course, this Eyes Only Figure 1: Hubble Image of the Cone Nebula. picture was taken by the Hubble Well first of all, despite what many Space Telescope using lenses and astronomers say, my advice is don’t under the right circumstances. mirrors costing millions of pounds, get either a telescope or binoculars and this sort of equipment is way (we’ll look at equipment later on). The Not only will this method of starting beyond anything an amateur can best way to start any hobby or interest set very strong foundations for later purchase! You have to be realistic in is to lay a nice firm foundation and in on when you have optical equipment your expectations. Sadly these days, Astronomy, the foundation is to learn such as binoculars and telescopes, with professional equipment such as the night sky. Don’t get confused with but it will also save you spending a lot Hubble and the European Southern co-ordinates, setting circles, azimuth, of money on expensive equipment Telescope, we are spoilt, and many declination and all the other fancy that you may never use if you decide think this sort of quality image is words that you will find in many you don’t want to carry on after all. within the grasp of back garden books. The best starting point is telescopes. Sorry, they’re not. Figure simply to look up on a clear night and Hubble You ‘Ain’t 2 shows the same area of the sky see what you can see. You’ll see One thing to say before we go any taken with an 18" telescope costing patterns of stars, constellations, the further; images such Figure 1 cannot thousands. Moon, and maybe what appears to be be seen using amateur telescopes a brighter than normal or strangely within the budget of most ordinary But don’t despair, there are still coloured ‘star’ which is in fact a people, for two reasons. Firstly, with wondrous sights to see, albeit in planet. Under a really dark sky well naked eye observations, you will smaller versions, on any clear night. away from city lights, you can also never see the colours the way In fact under very clear night skies, see a band of cloudy grey stretching photographs capture them. This is this nebula is just visible as a fuzzy across the sky. This is our galaxy, the because most pictures such as this patch of light using only binoculars. Milky Way, as we can see it from our one of the Cone Nebula in the But remember to begin with, we’re not small world. constellation of Monoceros, have going to be using optical equipment at been taken using very long exposures all, just our eyes. Naked eye astronomy is, in my opinion, the only way to start. Why? It’s quite simple really. Once you can Figure 2. identify the major constellations visible throughout the year, you know On the left is an how to navigate the sky and then you image similar to can begin to search for more exotic what the naked eye objects, such as the great nebula of would see, on the Orion, or our closest galactic right is a long exposure photo neighbour the Great Andromeda

Galaxy. You can also observe star [Images courtesy of clusters such as the Pleiades, or the Astronomy club Seven Sisters as it’s sometimes of Nashville] known. All these objects and many more are visible to the naked eye 26 Beginning Astronomy THE NIGHT SKY

be able to find them on your star wheel. You’re now well on your way! Star Chart useful piece of equipment is a torch. The first, and one of the most Not a normal one though, you need You will find that your star wheel will important pieces of equipment in your one that shines RED light (this can be have the Ecliptic and the Celestial inventory should be a decent as simple as sticking red paper or Equator marked on it (or should have planisphere (star finder) or star chart. cellophane over an existing torch, or if it’s a good one). What do these You can buy these from most large as exotic as a variable intensity LED words mean? It’s very important to bookshops and stationers, as well as design). The reason for this, what I know the difference. Astronomers virtually all reputable astronomy/ consider vital ‘bit of kit’, is simple: you refer to the stars, planets and telescope dealers. Alternatively, you need to be able to see where you’re galaxies as being in the Celestial can download the information from going and read your star wheel, BUT Sphere (another strange phrase). In many web sites, such as http:// you don’t want to be using a normal reality, it’s just the universe as seen school.discovery.com/ white light source. Why, I hear you looking out in ALL directions from schooladventures/skywatch/howto/ ask? Well, white light causes your Earth (fig 3). It’s very similar to the planisphere1.html or http:// pupils to contract, and for good way the ancients thought of the skymaps.com/downloads.html and stargazing you need them as dilated universe, with Earth at the centre then make your own. But you must as possible (so no popping back (because it is when you’re looking out, make sure you are getting one for the inside to a hot coffee; make a flask of if you think about it). Therefore the it and take it with whole sky is like a big sphere with our you). fragile little planet in the middle.

So, suitably The Ecliptic is the path taken by the armed with our Sun as it apparently travels around red torch, star the sphere and is very different to the finder and flask of Celestial Equator, which is really a coffee, we set off projection of the Earth’s equator out into the dark onto the sphere. Finally, your Zenith (wearing warm is what is directly over your head, not clothing and the North Pole (unless you’re gloves of course). actually standing there), and therefore What do we do changes depending on your viewing now? Well the location. You don’t need to worry Figure 3: The Celestial Sphere, showing planet Earth in the centre first thing to do is about the other numbers and phrases to work out the such as RA (Right Ascension) or Dec correct latitude of your location date/time on your star wheel, and (Declination), we’ll look at those (Northern Europe / 52 degrees is then look at it and compare it to the another day. fine). This is a simple mistake to sky. Remember to view the correct make, but very frustrating if you are horizon on the star wheel as you gaze Before we begin our session, one final planning a night under the British sky upwards. You should easily make out note. ALL star wheels and charts give armed with your newly bought the bright stars and constellations and time as Universal Time (UT). This is planisphere, only to find that yours is for the New Zealand sky!

Now, try and identify the patterns/ constellations on the star wheel against what you can see in your sky. It may take a little while to see them, for a number of reasons. Firstly, maps of the sky and the actual sky look very different; secondly, some of the constellations are very faint (such as Aries) or are very hard to spot (Cancer); and finally, you may well be looking at them upside down (you wouldn’t be the first)! One other really 27 Figure 5. Working out how far 1o 5o 10o THE NIGHT SKY apart the stars appear: based on Greenwich Mean Time horizon lies the zodiac (GMT), so when the clocks go constellation Leo. It forwards for summer, you have to depicts a crouching lion – allow for this or your sky will be one the backward question hour out! mark, or Sickle, is Leo’s 15o 25o head and chest, and the Star Hopping triangle-shape his rear The next step is to learn to ‘Star Hop’ and tail. Leo can also be – no it’s not a dance for astronomers! found by following the It’s a great way of moving from one Arc of the Plough constellation to another without forward. See how easy having to look down. It takes a bit of star hopping can be. Of practice, but it’s well worth it (fig 4). course here we are using very bright before it reaches us (except for our stars and constellations, but the Sun, whose light takes about eight Use the sky map to find the Big principle holds true for dimmer stars minutes). As it travels across space, Dipper (or Plough) and then the North and fainter constellations as well. even really bright stars appear Star, Polaris, by following the two dimmer than our Sun. Astronomers ‘pointer stars’ that make up the front Before we move on, one final area refer to how bright a star appears as of the Plough’s blade (or Big Dipper’s needs to be covered. It’s not easy, its Magnitude. This scale of ladle). Once you find Polaris, you will and to be honest, it confuses many brightness was first written by the have also found the Little Dipper (a experienced amateurs! It’s known as ancient Greek astronomer Hipparchus very faint constellation under city Degrees (°) of RA or Dec (I know I (190-120 BC), who classified the stars lights). Using the two brightest stars said we would look at these another into six brightness classes. in the Little Dipper, follow them day, but I think it’s important to have Hipparchus said that the brightest across the sky to the W- or M-shaped a brief look here), in view of degrees stars he could see were 1st constellation of Casseopia. (°) of separation, or to put it another magnitude (or biggest), slightly fainter way, how far apart the stars appear! stars were 2nd magnitude, and so on Now, go back to the Plough and this (see Figure 5) to magnitude 6 (the faintest visible). time follow the curved handle of the Around AD 140, Claudius Ptolemy Plough and “arc to Arcturus”, the Magnitude copied this system in his own star list, brightest star north of the celestial To put it simply, magnitude is the which became the basic text for equator and the fourth brightest star brightness of stars (as we see them). astronomers until the invention of in the entire sky. About halfway The light from stars has travelled telescopes in the middle ages. between Arcturus and the western many millions or billions of years Therefore, everyone used a six magnitude system.

Then along came Galileo. Using his telescope, he could see much fainter stars: “Indeed, with the glass you will Casseopia detect below stars of the sixth magnitude such a crowd of others Polaris that escape natural sight that it is hardly believable,” he wrote in 1610. The magnitude scale soon became open-ended, and remains so today. Most naked eye observers cannot see stars below the 6th magnitude (some say 8th is possible under clear dark Bootes The Plough skies with very good eyesight). Binoculars enable us to see to the 9th and small telescopes to the 13th. By Arcturus comparison, the Hubble Space Telescope has seen as low as the 31st magnitude! Leo Figure 4: Star Hopping around the Night Sky

28 “The next step is to scale, another problem became unavoidable. Some ‘1st-magnitude’ learn to ‘Star Hop’ - stars were a lot brighter than others. THE NIGHT SKY Astronomers had no choice but to no, it’s not a dance extend the scale out to brighter values years). At this distance, our Sun for astronomers!” as well as faint ones. Stars like Rigel, would be magnitude 4.85, and quite Capella, Arcturus, and Vega are unimpressive. On sky maps, absolute magnitude 0, an awkward statement magnitudes are always written with a that sounds like they have no capital M and apparent magnitudes brightness at all, but it was too late to with a lower-case m. As science and astronomy progressed start again from scratch. The further, a TRUE definition of magnitude scale extends even further Finally, what can we see this magnitude (rather then Hipparchus’s than this, into negative numbers: Autumn? naked eye judgement) was needed Sirius shines at magnitude –1.5, Autumn is a great time for star and by the middle of the 19th century, Venus reaches –4.4, the full Moon is gazing. The nights are not too cold, astronomers realized there was a about –12.5, and the Sun blazes at and it gets dark nice and early. There pressing need to define the entire magnitude –26.7. are few planets around this year; Mars magnitude scale more precisely. They is on the wrong side of the Sun, had already determined that a 1st- Before we finish, one final point on Jupiter is in the daytime sky (not magnitude star shines with about 100 magnitude. Up to now we have talked visible), Venus can be seen before times the light of a 6th-magnitude about ‘apparent magnitude’ or to put it sunrise in the EAST shining as star, so the resulting magnitude scale another way, how we see the stars. brightly as it did in the West last was logarithmic, in neat agreement As we said earlier, the light from stars winter. Only Saturn is a night object with the 1850s belief that all human is ‘diluted’ as it travels through space. but before Christmas, it rises just in senses are logarithmic in their We don’t know how intrinsically bright Gemini at around 10 pm. response to stimuli. The decibel scale an object really is until we also take Constellation wise, the autumn sky is for rating loudness was likewise made its distance into account, so truly superb, from Hercules in the logarithmic. astronomers built the Absolute West (setting early evening) to Taurus Magnitude scale. An object’s absolute in the East. The main southern sky is Backwards Scale magnitude is simply how bright it dominated by the Andromeda legend, Now that star magnitudes were would appear if placed at a standard with all the characters Perseus, ranked on a precise mathematical distance of 10 parsecs (32.6 light- Cassiopeia, Cetus, Cephus, Andromeda and Pegasus visible. Under a clear dark sky, the Andromeda galaxy M31 is visible easily to the naked eye. The northern sky sees the plough sitting in its ‘traditional’ position, blade forward.

Dave Buttery is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and a member of many Astronomical and Educational groups.

He is the senior partner in AURIGA Astronomy, an astronomical education service for schools, which helps teachers with the astronomical components of the National Curriculum via his mobile planetarium ‘The Auriga Star Dome’.

For further details on what Dave can offer your school, call 01909 531507 or visit AURIGA Astronomy’s website www.auriga-astronomy.com

29 DID YOU KNOW ABOUT..? THE APOLLO SATURN V MOON ROCKET

One Year Long The Saturn V was 111 m (365 feet) tall from the base of the five huge F1 engines to the tip of the launch escape tower. Weighing 2,750 tonnes it burned Storage Space 54.5 million litres of fuel in 11 Each of the fuel tanks in the first minutes and contained stage was big enough to hold three 2,000,000 working parts. The double decker buses at one go and only part of the whole ‘stack’ together they could store enough that returned to Earth was the liquid oxygen to fill 54 railway tanker 3.5 m tall Command Module trucks that splashed down in the ocean at the end of the mission Heavyweight There were 2,500,000 solder joints inside the moon rocket and if just 1 mm too much wire had been used on each of Deep Freeze those joints, it would have The insulation of the cold added 40 tonnes to the weight storage fuel tanks of the Saturn of the rocket V was so good that if you put ice cubes inside, they would take eight years to melt. Ground Force The power and thunder of a Saturn V launch was so immense that watchers nearby said it felt like Florida was sinking a few inches Put the Light On The rocket generated enough thrust at launch to power the whole of New York for 1.5 hours Overtime It took four months and 5000 workers to construct the rocket stack, check it, move Fill Her Up it to the launch pad and To launch a Saturn V required launch it 26,500,000 litres of liquid nitrogen, 16,000,000 litres of liquid oxygen, 9,000,000 litres of liquid hydrogen, and 395,000 litres of liquid helium. The total fuel weight was 500 times the weight of the Apollo spacecraft at the top, with some of it stored at -221oC to keep it

30 GIANT WORDSEARCH - AMERICAN ASTRONAUTS

Hidden in this grid are the names of all the American astronauts up to the end of the Apollo missions, along with some of their vehicles and places. Cross out or circle the words in the list as you find them, looking forwards, backwards, up, down or diagonally for the answers. When you’ve found all the words, you will have some letters left over. When read from left to right and top to bottom, these extra letters spell out the names of eight space ‘firsts’. They’re not all American and they’re not all people, but they are the first of their kind in space. Answers on Page 42/43.

NE DROWNATITLLEHCTIM

HA MTREGIWSYLGNITTAM

EC APSCANAVERALLAITK

DR OFFATSCHMITTAGELD

RE TNEPRACOLLINSAIAA

AS OORMERCURYOUNGSSR

MA RRIHCSNOTYALSGEAN

AR ISNAVETIHWNOHTLEO

HR EISBGHLOVELLECEMC

GK WBOENLONMLREPOOCH

NR ERMOIVNAOOMLALEDA

IA MIDUKESPONONRUOII

NA NRQVLCARIASNDMDVS

NI ONEGOSHGANSRMBAIE

UG AORTSMRALRINSIATL

CR SATURNANDERSYAUTT

TR AKCIEWHCSCGNIRDLA

WORD LIST

Aldrin Conrad Irwin Scott Anders Cooper Lovell Shepard Apollo Cunningham Mattingly Slayton Armstrong Duke McDivitt Space Atlas Eagle Mercury Stafford Bean Eisele Mitchell Swigert Borman Evans Moon Titan Canaveral Gemini Roosa Tranquility Carpenter Glenn Saturn White Cernan Gordon Schirra Worden Collins Grissom Schmitt Young Columbia Haise Schweickart

31 SPACE HISTORY Astronauts in Iceland by Arthur Smith One of the last places on Earth where you would expect to meet a spaceman is Iceland. Yet one day, many years ago, I stood beside a steaming hot spring far from the capital, Reykjavik, as a group of US astronauts splashed happily in the bubbling water.

They were taking a little rest and recreation after a hard day on the lava fields. Apollo astronauts were trained in lecture rooms, laboratories, in simulators, factories and in tropical volcanic rocks when they saw them. As been born and grown up there, the jungles (the latter just in case they it happens, they also visited the children of Iceland find it hard to sleep came back on the wrong trajectory from Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific, where when there is really no darkness! (In the Moon). But they also carried out they studied the different types of the winter, of course, the opposite is part of their training for the incredible volcanoes which have built up the true, for there is then little daylight as journey to the Moon in an improbable island chain over millions of years. the Sun stays stubbornly below the place – Iceland. horizon for most of the day and night.) In fact, one of the biggest debates Now you may think that this cold, bleak about the origin of the Moon before The astronauts were well prepared for island in the North Atlantic is probably astronauts went there was whether the their trip. An Icelandic professor of not the place you would expect to visit lunar surface was formed by the impact world renown with a special knowledge to prepare you for a trip to the Moon – of thousands of meteorites or by of the way Iceland has been formed but there is a very good reason why it is volcanic eruptions. As we shall see, the taught the astronauts how to find and an ideal training ground. Iceland has question was largely answered in the identify volcanic rocks and my been formed over the past few million late 1960s and 1970s by some of the photographer and I trailed along behind years as molten rock has been forced astronauts whom I accompanied to them. On the first night we camped with up to the surface between two of the Iceland. As a science writer, I was lucky the astronauts on a stretch of lava ‘tectonic plates’ that make up the enough to be sent there to tour the beside a gushing stream of melt water Earth’s crust. The North American plate island with them and observe their from a glacier. They kindly offered us and the European plate are moving training. No-one knew three years one of their modern, metal-framed very slowly away from each other and before the Apollo 11 landing in July tents, which we shared with a French as they do so, molten rock wells up 1969 who would be the first man to set journalist. Little did we know that the from the sub-surface ‘mantle’. This has foot on the Moon, but as luck would tent was not really designed for forced up the Mid-Atlantic ridge, of have it a modest, quiet-spoken civilian Iceland’s weather. It might have been which Iceland forms a part. test pilot called Neil Armstrong was one fine in the deserts of Arizona – but a of the party and as the world knows, it torrential storm hit Iceland’s far wetter It is an island of huge glaciers and red- was he who made that first small step terrain during the night. hot lava, violent eruptions and new land for a man in the Sea of Tranquillity. which is still coming out of the sea. The We watched with trepidation as drips hot springs in which we bathed at the Iceland’s days are long in June, as it is began to accumulate on the roof of the end of the day on that long-ago trip are not far south of the Arctic Circle. The tent and when we woke in the morning a by-product of the volcanic activity. midnight sun is not quite a reality there there were several inches of rainwater The underground water is heated by the (it only happens north of the Arctic in the bottom of the tent. Our sleeping hot rocks under the surface and it Circle), but it sets not long before 12 bags were soaked and it was obvious bubbles up like the water boiling in a and rises again not long after, so we that we couldn’t spend several more kettle. had long days as our four-wheel drive nights in the tent. vehicles toured the empty, grey ash Because the surface of the Moon was fields and lava flows of Iceland. It was The next night we did better. We had thought to be partly built up by strange to tour the streets of the engaged the services of an Icelandic volcanoes, a party of twenty or so Icelandic capital and see children schoolteacher who was skilled and Apollo astronauts were sent there in playing on the corners in almost experienced as a traveller on the rough 1966 to make sure that when they went completely broad daylight after terrain of the island and he had brought to the Moon they would recognise midnight. It seems that even having with him a little, unsophisticated ‘Boy 32 Scout’ tent – the sort of thing that has crashing the third stage of a Saturn V the shape of an old-fashioned haystack. rocket on the surface. SPACE HISTORY Our guide offered us the hospitality of his tent and so the four of us, sleeping One of the results of the natural like sardines in a tin, remained tremors is that boulders lying on slopes Well, they did find them, including completely dry. I never did ask the are sometimes dislodged and roll several of those on the Iceland trip who astronauts how they had fared in their downhill, leaving a trail behind in the later flew Apollo spacecraft a quarter of tents, similar to the one they had lent dust. Some of these trails may have a million miles on the most hazardous us, but I suspect that they spent a fairly been made thousands or even millions journey ever undertaken. uncomfortable time in them. of years ago, for the surface of the Moon is almost unchanging. As well as Neil Armstrong, our picture The astronauts toured the various areas Throughout their trip, whenever they shows several of the men who landed of volcanic rocks and even made a brief had a spare moment, the astronauts on the Moon in the late 1960s and early excursion to the huge Vatnajokull would try to emulate these trails on the 1970s. Prominent among them, second glacier – although they didn’t expect to Icelandic ash by rolling boulders from the right, is Jack Schmitt, the only find anything like that on the Moon! In downhill. (I don’t think that any of them geologist to be included in Project the middle 1960s, a series of tried this manoeuvre when they went to Apollo. He flew on the very last unmanned photographic probes called the Moon – that would have been very mission, Apollo 17, and he had a Ranger had been sent by NASA to unscientific – but on Apollo 17, for particular aim. crash on the surface of the Moon. In the instance, the crew did find some of minutes before they crashed, they sent these boulder trails as they toured the In the photographs from orbit, there back brilliant and unprecedentedly clear highlands in their lunar rover.) were dark areas on the part of the photographs of the lunar craters, rilles Moon where Apollo 17 was landing. and ‘seas’. Obviously the astronauts The astronauts worked long and hard to Schmitt thought they might show signs were familiar with these pictures and study and understand the rocks on the of recent volcanic eruptions but when one of the features which they picked lava flows and ash fields and it was he got there, he found that like virtually out concerned rocks that had rolled very late in the evening when they had all the rest of the lunar surface, the dark down slopes on the Moon. finished their supper. Then several of areas were well over three billion years them showed that they were determined old. Not much has happened on the lunar to enjoy their visit to Iceland and went surface for several billion years but off to nearby streams with rod and line That’s the trouble; nothing has there are ‘moonquakes’ occasionally, to fish for trout and salmon. As for me, happened on the Moon for so long. similar to our own earthquakes but I didn’t show the same devotion to duty There have been plenty of lava flows on much smaller in power. This was and by midnight I was snuggled down the surface and if you look up on a proved later when the instruments in the little white tent and slept soundly moonlit night you will see dark areas placed on the Moon by Project Apollo despite the near daylight conditions known as the ‘seas’ (maria in Latin), astronauts included seismometers. A outside. which are full of lava. But they, too, number of natural flowed almost four billion years ago and moonquakes have been recorded, as What was the conclusion of the great true volcanic activity on the surface of well as an artificial one caused by search for volcanic rocks on the Moon? the Moon has been found only rarely. Even so, that trip to Iceland helped to prepare those twenty-one spacemen for the task of sorting out the jumble of rocks they found when they went across the gulf of space.

There’s a weird coincidence in the picture. Fred Haise, the little chap in the middle wearing a black hat and peering from behind two other astronauts, was one of the crew of the ill-fated Apollo 13, which almost came to grief when the Service Module exploded on the way to the Moon. And, would you believe it, he is standing 13th from the left in the row of astronauts. I’m not superstitious and I’m sure it was just a coincidence; Jack Swigert, another of the Apollo 13 crew, is standing fourth from the right. 33 WHERE TO GO

This map of the UK is going to build into a guide to all the places that you can go to experience space and science displays, shows or interactive days out. It only has a few entries at the moment, so we’d like your help to fill it up. If you or your school have been to a science centre near you, tell us about it and we’ll add it to the map.

If you are a space or science centre, we want to let people know you are there, so send us some details about your centre to let schools and students know what you do. We will be featuring different centres in future issues.

Aberdeen: Satrosphere 01224 640340 www.satrosphere.net

Glasgow: Glasgow Science Centre 0141 420 5000 www.gsc.org.uk

Edinburgh: Royal Observatory Macclesfield: Jodrell Bank 0131 668 8405 www.roe.ac.uk/vc 01477 571 339 www.jb.man.ac.uk/scicen

Newcastle: Discovery Museum 0121 232 6789 www.twmuseums.org.uk/discovery Armagh: Armagh Planetarium 028 3752 3689 Halifax: Eureka! the Museum for Children wwwarmaghplanet.com 01422 330 069 www.eureka.org.uk

Leicester: National Space Centre 0870 607 7223 www.spacecentre.co.uk

Birmingham: Thinktank at Millennium Point 0121 202 2222 www.thinktank.ac

Norwich: Inspire 01603 612612 Oxford: Curioxity www.science-project.org/inspire 01865 247004 www.oxtrust.org.uk/curioxity

Cardiff: Techniquest 02920 475 475 www.techniquest.org Hailsham: Observatory Science Centre 01323 832731 www.the-observatory.org Bristol: At-Bristol Weymouth: Discovery 0845 345 1235 London: London Planetarium 01305 789 007 www.at-bristol.org.uk 0870 400 3010 www.london-planetarium.com www.discoverdiscovery.co.uk

34 PHOTO COMPETITION - WHAT IS IT

This picture was taken by the astronauts aboard the Skylab space station that hosted crews in 1973 and 1974, including Ed Gibson. All you have to do is tell us what you think it’s a picture of.

The winning answer will be printed in the next issue of Voyage.

THE PRIZE Signed copies of Ed Gibson AND Jack Lousma’s Data Cards (see page 3). Runners up will receive a copy of the next issue of Voyage. Please mark your entry Photo Competition 2 and send to the address on page 2

LAST ISSUE:

Nobody correctly guessed that Dr Adam Baker was holding a piece of solid rocket fuel in last issue’s photo, so we will carry over the prize to this issue.

The winner of the competition will receive two autographed Data Cards; one of Ed Gibson and one of Jack Lousma, both former Skylab astronauts

35 FUTURE SPACE Humans on Mars by Steven Cutts The recent spate of robotic probes to reach Mars has captured the planets are in a suitable position to imagination of a new generation. permit the flight home, the crew would Hollywood has already opened our have to spend at least three to six minds to the idea of space months on the surface of the planet. exploration, but amid the hype, it’s In essence, we’re talking about an worth pausing for a moment and eighteen month space mission. Is this asking some serious questions. possible?

Could human beings really follow in More than a year in space the footsteps of probes such as Spirit Basically, yes, but it’s not easy. The and Opportunity and if we did, might Russians have kept people in orbit for they merely suffer the fate of Beagle over a year and although the 2? Even if we arrived safely at our cosmonauts developed some medical destination, what would be the problems, they did recover. chances of establishing a manned Unfortunately, a mission to Mars is settlement there? very different from a long duration mission in low Earth orbit. The Besides the Earth, there are two other astronauts heading to Mars would planets in the solar system that might have no hope of a rapid return to be suitable for colonisation. The first Earth. If any thing went wrong they is Venus. destination, this is actually an would be beyond hope of rescue. advantage since it wouldn’t be too Hell Planet difficult to fly back from. What would During the flight, they would be Venus is a promising little planet, a mission to Mars be like and what exposed to the dangerous radiation of almost exactly the same size as the sort of world could we build when we interplanetary space. It’s even been Earth, with a dense atmosphere and got there? suggested that the first astronauts plenty of clouds. If you could stand on would be people approaching the surface of Venus, the force of Would a manned mission to Mars retirement, who already had grown up gravity would be more or less the be dangerous? children and who, essentially, same as on Earth and its proximity to The spacecraft would have to be wouldn’t mind becoming infertile or the sun would certainly keep the place launched in separate components and developing long term illnesses. sunny. Unfortunately you’d also boil assembled in orbit around the Earth. to death in seconds. Venus is a The crew would be flown to the Lifeboats and Rescue hellishly hot planet where a block of completed ship by ferry vessel and Most plans to visit Mars involve a solid lead would melt and turn to transferred over to their quarters crew of at least six. If the resources liquid if you put it on the floor. ready for the flight. You would expect were available, it would make sense them to smile for the television to send two ships separated by a few In the long term, Venus probably cameras but none of them will be miles. If one ship malfunctioned, the offers the best hope of a second, under any illusions as to the risks other could rescue the stranded Earth like home for mankind. involved. Catastrophic failure would astronauts and function as a life boat. Unfortunately, we would first have to be unsurprising in a mission of this But conditions on the space craft tame its ferocious atmosphere. kind. would be cramped. The crew would Incredible though it may sound, there have to fly to Mars surrounded by vast are scientists working on this problem The ferry would retreat to a safe stock piles of equipment, spare parts right now and some of their plans distance and the Mars vessel would and food parcels. These parcels sound almost feasible. The process of fire its motors to break out of Earth would serve the additional purpose of turning a hostile, alien planet into an orbit and set off on a trajectory that protecting them from the radiation Earth-like world has even been given will take it to Mars. Once the rocket found in outer space and in time, they a name, terra forming, but it would motors have fired, it will be might ‘eat their way’ into a more probably take century or more to impossible to turn back. Using generous living space by throwing work. present day rockets, it will take about their empty bottles and cans six months to get to Mars, and the overboard. So what about Mars? return journey will take a similar The force of gravity on Mars is about period. To justify such a long flight Carbon dioxide can be filtered from one third of the Earth’s. For a first and in order to wait until the two the atmosphere quite quickly, but the 36 air would soon begin to taste stale. missions confirmed that the It’s also difficult to shower in space atmosphere is far too tenuous for this and the odour of a chemical toilet and any astronauts will have to wear FUTURE SPACE would be impossible to eliminate. The cumbersome space suits with sealed interiors of current manned space gloves and helmets. craft are filled with white noise from which there is literally no escape and On the other hand, to add to that, some planners having a tenuous envisage taking chickens to provide atmosphere isn’t all fresh eggs and meat. Drinking water bad. The crew could would have to be recycled. use the Martian atmosphere as a If men and women were sent together, brake to slow down sexual tensions might develop their space craft. To between the astronauts. If married do this using rocket couples were sent and the fuel would be relationships broke down, the warring immensely parties would be trapped with their expensive, but this crew mates in an inescapable technique, called confined space, compelled to aerobraking, has complete the mission in the allotted already been used time. Medically, we would also have on several robotic missions. As the oxygen cylinders. to come up with better ways to astronauts enter the atmosphere, all prevent muscle weakness and radio communications with their Is there anything the crews could calcium loss in the bones. colleagues back on Earth will be lost. do to improve their chances? If the heat shield failed, all the It’s likely that each crew to visit Mars What about Mars itself? astronauts would die. Mission Control would try to set up a small base. The Well, we’ve known for some time that would simply never hear from them journey outward would have been there’s an atmosphere on Mars and again. If they survived re-entry and cramped, but collapsible habitats before the first probes visited the succeeded in deploying parachutes or could be stored on board the space retrorockets, they craft, inflated some distance from the would be unable to landing site and partially covered with use the air bag dust as protection against radiation. technique used in Kevlar walls would protect against the recent robotic meteorite penetration and a Perspex landings, but a roof could allow in sunlight. The human pilot would habitat could provide a much more be able to observe spacious and psychologically pleasant the landing zone environment for the crew and later carefully and crews could add further sections to manoeuvre away enlarge the base further. Mars has a from any unwanted similar day/night cycle to Earth and a cliffs, slopes and reasonable approximation of normal boulders. In any human lifestyle could emerge. Plants case, the landing could be grown in small greenhouses zone would almost to provide oxygen and fresh food and certainly have been by unfolding solar panels, electrical scouted out by power could be generated by day. robotic buggies During the night, batteries would have beforehand. Radio to maintain life support systems until beacons from the dawn. planet, there was a hope in some buggies could direct the spacecraft quarters that it might allow people to towards an area already known to be It’s likely that earlier, automated live there. Even if the surface flat and safe. rockets would have landed supplies of pressure was as tenuous as the top of food, fuel and oxygen ready for the Mount Everest, the astronauts could Once on the planet, the crew could astronauts to use. However, plans are breathe oxygen from gas cylinders emerge in full pressure suits and already afoot to extract fuel from the like scuba divers, perhaps wearing proceed to explore the new world. Martian atmosphere. By sucking the thermal insulation for warmth. Every few hours they would have to very tenuous gas into compressors, Unfortunately, the first robotic space return to the mother craft change their some of the components of the 37 oxygen and hydrogen FUTURE SPACE rocket fuel. atmosphere could be used to make We know that rocket fuel. If the first astronauts Mars once had could refuel as they reach the planet, flowing water on this would vastly ease the engineering its surface challenge of sending a return mission because the Mars. At the time of writing, NASA outlines of rivers scientists are planning to send have been miniature ‘fuel making’ devices to clearly Mars on robotic probes to demonstrated demonstrate the feasibility of this from orbit. We technique. also know also that it’s The surface of Mars is very cold, impossible for about as cold as Antarctica by day, water to exist in and much colder at night. a near vacuum. Realistically, the first manned landing If you tried to would be on the equator but there make a cup of would be a strong incentive to travel tea on Mars from there to the polar ice caps. today, the water would evaporate Water and Ice within seconds of you pouring it out of and evaporate back into the Mars is known to have considerable the kettle. And yet, if Mars once had atmosphere, dramatically increasing ice at both poles. Most of this ice is running water, it must also have had an the surface pressure. Long before the frozen carbon dioxide, but there is atmosphere capable of allowing that pressure was high enough to explore emerging evidence that it may also water to exist. It’s likely that both the without space suits, very hardy, contain water ice. If this is true, the water and the atmosphere still exist but genetically engineered plants would exploration of Mars would become that they have become trapped in the have been bred that might flourish in an considerably easier, with the crew permafrost under the surface of the environment still too hostile for man. melting the ice and converting it to rocks. These plants would convert carbon dioxide atmosphere into oxygen as they A Large once did on our own planet. Colony? If later But it would be naive to suggest that expeditions this would be easy. One year after the could reliably Pilgrim Fathers arrived in their own obtain water New World, they settled down to a much larger service of Thanksgiving. On that day, settlements those who were still alive knew that would be viable, more than half of the people on the with the Mayflower had already died. Building a astronauts New World has never been easy and growing their going to Mars is one of those things own food in that either gets you or it doesn’t. Many greenhouses, people look at those pictures of an alien tended to by wasteland and struggle to understand miniature the attraction, but as long as there are robots. There is people alive who are willing to go, the also the dream will live on. Fantastic as it may possibility of yet seem, a new generation of Pilgrim terra forming Fathers may yet found another world Mars! It would for mankind. involve All the artwork used in this article was created persuading the for NASA by various artists for concept studies water ice at the into potential missions to Mars and the systems and hardware that might be created for such North and South missions. NASA does not yet have any firm poles to melt plans for human missions to Mars 38 Voyage Subscribe for 2005

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39 Who’s Who in Space Konstantin by Neil Fairweather A variant on this idea was a sort of cluster rocket, which would start with (say) four engines firing at full power. Then, after half the fuel in each was used up, fuel from two of the engines would be transferred to the other two and the empty engines would be ejected. This could be repeated to reduce the engines from two to one, thus making the best possible use of the engines as well as the fuel.

This has not actually been done yet, as transferring the fuel would be excessively complicated, but it does bear some resemblance to the idea of the booster rockets strapped onto the side of a spacecraft such as the Space Shuttle, which provide extra thrust during launch and are ejected as soon as their fuel is used up.

The Moon in Stages Tsiolkovsky had ideas about how space travel would develop in general. One suggestion of his, which was popular among space travel theorists for quite some time, was that before missions were sent to the Moon and beyond, a large space station near to the Earth would be the first thing needed. (This Konstantin Edouardovich Tsiolkovsky 1857-1935 was sometimes poetically referred to as a “city in the aether”, aether being a At one time, the Soviet Union tried Tsiolkovsky realised, supposedly from term at the time for what we would now to convince the world that its looking at an untied balloon, the way in think of as empty space.) population had invented all sorts of which rockets would work, and also important things. One of the more realised that they wouldn’t need any air This wasn’t how the Moon was justifiable examples they gave was to push against, making them ideal for eventually reached, as the Americans that of Konstantin Edouardovich use in space. needed to get there quickly in order to Tsiolkovsky, “the father of space beat the Russians, but it determined the travel.” Rocket Train Russian attitude to the way forwards Following on from this came one of the through most of their space program’s Ideas and Theories most well-known of Tsiolkovsky’s ideas, history and links in with current On his own, Tsiolkovsky, who was a the multistage rocket (or rocket train, as American plans for the ISS before they teacher in Kaluga in Russia, dreamed he called it). Given what was possible move onwards. Quite apart from the up many scientific and technical ideas. with the materials of the time, he uses of spacecraft for observing our Some of his ideas had already been realised that a rocket would not planet’s surface (although this would thought up by other people, but many physically be able to carry all the fuel it tend nowadays to be done with of them were new, and a lot of these needed to get into orbit around the unmanned spacecraft due to modern related to space travel. A lot of these Earth, let alone further, but the technology), launching spacecraft seem very imaginative even now, let multistage rocket gets around this onwards would be far easier from alone when he first published them over problem by dropping away each of its space stations than from the surface of a hundred years ago, but as sections as the fuel in them is used up, the planet, simply because most of the Tsiolkovsky himself said, “The meaning that there is less mass to pull gravity would already have been impossible of today will become the as the journey goes on and thus, less overcome - something starting off at a possible of tomorrow.” fuel is needed to pull it. space station would be two-thirds of the 40 way to escape velocity already! Also, Travel” (this being the title of a book Tsiolkovsky he wrote). People ask the point of spacecraft would not need to be going into an designed to enter an atmosphere at unnatural, artificial each end of their journey, as they would and highly only need to travel between space dangerous stations; travellers would change to environment when different craft in order to go down to the we have the Earth, surface. with its atmosphere, at our Zero Gravity disposal. Tsiolkovsky saw some of the implications of living in space. He Tsiolkovsky imagined structures which wouldn’t turned this on its collapse under their own weight, no head by pointing matter what their size. He realised that out all the ‘up’ and ‘down’ would be meaningless disadvantages of in space and that movement would the atmosphere require throwing things or pushing off in and the resultant one direction to move in the opposite weather, and by direction by reaction. The idea of using pointing out how rockets followed naturally from there. much better it He also realised that the forces of would be if we acceleration when going into space could control our needed to be prepared for, and air, temperature suggested the use of centrifuges to and so on, not to simulate these effects, putting huge mention being able to use all the Above: In 1903, the same year the Wright forces onto trainee space travellers energy falling on us from the Sun, Brothers successfully flew the first powered aircraft. Tsiolkovsky published a report that (human or animal) by spinning them rather than having it wasted on suggested the use of liquid fuels as rocket round in a circle at high speed... creating the weather or just reflected propellants. He theorised that this would give a back into space. In fact, he made it rocket greater range, as he believed that the The Purpose of Space Travel sound as though the Earth was a speed and range of a rocket were limited by the Perhaps Tsiolkovsky’s most insightful spaceship without any of the velocity of its exhaust gases. idea was about “The Purpose of Space advantages!

Basically, Tsiolkovsky predicted many of the ways in which space flight would come to pass, and In the 1890s, speculated on many which will Tsiolkovsky published several books on the hopefully come about in the future. theoretical problems of He had an idealistic view of the using rocket engines in future, considering our progress space. onwards and upwards to be inevitable (something which made His ideas were very the Soviet Union eager to publicise advanced and took into his work, as this fitted in very well account many aspects with their political system of of space travel by rocket beliefs), and inspired several that have since been generations of enthusiasts and proven accurate by our pioneers through his writings and space programs. talks. He also left us with one of the These included most famous quotes about why we navigation, re-entry should reach for space. It has been heating, fuel translated and quoted so many requirements and the times that I am not sure exactly use of multistage how he phrased it, but here is one rockets version: “The Earth is the cradle of the mind... but man can not live forever in his cradle...”

41 SOLUTIONS

WORD SEARCH PLUS PAGE 12

QWURPTYS PO IUYR R

OR B I T D A FPG HJ K A L AS D F G L GHJ A KL M T N MONEY WORRIES G HGF TSSAZBCXCS V NASA’s current budget is £15 A ZXA C A V E B L N E ML K billion. That may seem like a lot, but there are businessmen and L TYERT D G S A DF G H J celebrities who are worth more than that. A ASDFE G A H C J P KL P The US government expects to X S L CVL S Y D K C L VB N have spent $543 billion in 2004 on Y Q U WEL R O T H T U YU S its Department of Health, and the US Senate has passed a funding BB N NM I T V Y O U T IOR bill for defence for 2005 of $416 billion. S M A CBT XCVL B O NM A Compared to this, money spent on P T R DFE SDFE GH J P M space flight is really insignificant E SDFS GHY JK U LZXC

E TYU RQK W A ERF TY U

D M N BVS SDFD QW O ER

ANAGRAMS PAGE 12

The anagrams in order are: They should be fitted into the grid as:

MOON MARS EARTH LIFE MARS TIME LIFE EARTH TIME MOON

To give you the hidden word: ALIEN

GOOD HOUSEKEEPING SPACE CAVEMEN The Russians were never really known for their pristine clean If the cavemen had built a rooms at launch time, unlike the Americans. space rocket and flown to the nearest star outside our When the first Westerners visited the Russian launch site in the solar system, they would still 1970s, they were amazed to see Russian hardware covered in only be halfway there today! dust and sand from the desert steppes. When asked about this, the Russians replied: “We rollout the rocket, stand it up, launch it and the dirt just falls off. No more problem!”

42 SOLUTIONS

GIANT WORD SEARCH PAGE 31

NEDROWN ATIT LLEHCTIM

HA M TREG IWS Y LGNITTAM

ECAPSCA NAV E RALLAIT K

DROFFAT SCH M ITTAGEL D

RETNEPR ACO L LINS A IA A

ASOORME RCUR YOUNGSSR

MARRIHC SNO T YALS G E A N

A RISNAV ETI H WN OH T L E O

H REI S BG H LOV ELLECEMC

G K WBOEN LO NM LREPOOCH

NRERMOI V N A OOML ALE DA

IAMIDUK ESP O NO N RUO II

NA N RQ V LCARI AS ND M D VS

NI O NE GO SH G A NS RM B A IE

UGAORTS MRA L RI NS I A T L

CRSATUR NAN D ERSY A U T T

TRAKCIE WHCS CGNIRDLA

All the letters in the grid are used, so the solution above shows only the ON THE COVER letters you need to make up the eight extra names. These are: PAGE 22

HAM - the first chimpanzee in space a) COLUMBIA LAIKA - the first living being in space (a Russian dog) b) ATLANTIS GAGARIN - the first man in space c) ENTERPRISE TERESHKOVA - the first woman in space d) DISCOVERY and ENDEAVOUR LEONOV - the first person to do a spacewalk RIDE - the first American woman in space e) CHALLENGER SHARMAN - the first British astronaut f) First ever man in space, Yuri SALYUT - the first ever space station Gagarin 12 April 1961 g) SALLY RIDE h) The orange External Tank

HOME SWEET HOME

Getting used to life back on Earth again after a long time in space can be quite tricky.

One astronaut got out of bed in his home expecting to float but broke his arm as he fell on the floor!

Another astronaut kept dropping plates in the kitchen because he let go thinking they would float. He broke so many that his wife served his food on paper plates until he got used to being on Earth again!

43 RE-ENTRY: A look back at significant moments in space history The Hubble Space Telescope Our Eye on the Universe

Co-operative Venture first place? It’s a good question. In by Ian Favell In 1946, astronomer Lyman Spitzer fact, in the 1960s before Hubble was at Yale University was the first to built, many astronomers were explain in detail the benefits of a opposed to space telescopes, space telescope, but it would be sometimes due to the cost and several decades before his idea sometimes for other reasons. came to fruition. Although originally Nevertheless, even the critics were an American project, in 1977, willing to accept that a space NASA agreed to share the telescope had some advantages. development of the space Since Earth’s atmosphere absorbs telescope with the European Space almost all the radiation that reaches Agency (ESA), which would it from space, astronomical contribute one of the science phenomena could only be seen with instruments - the Faint Object ground-based telescopes at those Camera (FOC) - and the solar wavelengths to which the panels. Hardware atmosphere is transparent, principally The original intention was to build the visible light and radio waves. Getting off the Ground telescope with a 3 m primary mirror, Named in 1983 after astronomer but it was eventually launched with a A space telescope lets astronomers Edwin Hubble (1889-1953), who was smaller 2.4 m one. The telescope is view the universe using light that does the first to demonstrate that spiral 15.9 m long and 4.2 m in diameter, not easily reach the Earth’s surface, if nebulae were galaxies in their own with two solar panels each measuring at all: for example, in infra-red and right, the telescope was finally 7.1 m x 2.6 m that power Hubble’s ultra-violet light. Infra-red light can be launched into Earth orbit on 24 April computers and scientific instruments. used to see stars and other objects 1990 aboard the Space Shuttle The latest solar panels are the most that would be hidden to visible light Discovery. The telescope, which rigid and generate 20% more power, due to dust and gas. In fact, using orbits the Earth about every 96 allowing all of the science instruments infra-red, Hubble has peered through minutes, reaches a maximum altitude to be turned on at once. the thick atmosphere of Saturn’s of 610.44 km (apogee) and a largest moon, Titan, to give us views minimum altitude of 586.47 km Why was it Needed? of its surface, something the earlier (perigee) in its elliptical orbit. So, why put a telescope in space in the Voyager spacecraft couldn’t do.

Short-Sighted Telescope End of the Mission?

Hubble returned its first images in May 1990, but there It was hoped that the Hubble Telescope would remain in was something wrong. The images were slightly blurred use until about 2010. Unfortunately, on 16 January and the telescope couldn’t focus. It was eventually 2004, NASA announced that there would be no more determined that the device used to build the primary shuttle repair missions to the Hubble telescope for mirror had been faulty and had made the mirror too flat, safety reasons and cancelled the fourth servicing only by about 1/500th of a millimetre (or 1/50th the mission. Alternatives are being explored in the hope of width of a human hair), but enough to prevent the extending Hubble’s lifetime, because without the ability telescope doing its job properly. The error was corrected to repair and maintain it, the telescope’s performance is during a shuttle repair mission in December 1993, which expected to degrade in the next few years. also replaced the solar panels.

44 ASTRO INFO SERVICE LIMITED SCHOOL PRESENTATIONS 2004/2005

AT HOME IN SPACE JOURNEY ROUND THE SOLAR SYSTEM ONE SMALL STEP

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