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Spacecraft for Astronomy Frontiers in Space Spacecraft for Astronomy Joseph A. Angelo, Jr. SPACECRAFT FOR ASTRONOMY Copyright © 2007 by Joseph A. Angelo, Jr. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permis- sion in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Facts On File, Inc. An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Angelo, Joseph A. Spacecraft for astronomy / Joseph A. Angelo, Jr. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8160-5774-5 1. Space probes Juvenile literature. 2. Astronomical instruments Juvenile literature. 3. Astronomical observatories Juvenile literature. 4. Space telescopes Juvenile literature. I. Title RL795.3.A54 2006 522'.2919 dc22 2006004875 Facts On File books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755. You can find Facts On File on the World Wide Web at http://www.factsonfile.com Text design by Erika K. Arroyo Cover design by Salvatore Luongo Illustrations by Sholto Ainslie Printed in the United States of America VB FOF 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is printed on acid-free paper. ✧ In memory of my beloved daughter, Jennifer April Angelo (April 26, 1975 to June 14, 1993)— a beautiful young woman, whose promise-filled life was cut short by the careless actions of others. Jenny, your radiant smile and dazzling emerald green eyes provided all who knew you precious glimpses into the loving soul of a very special person touched by the goodness and power of God. ✧ Contents Preface ix Acknowledgments xii Introduction xiii ✧ 1 From Petroglyphs to the Spitzer Space Telescope 1 From Petroglyphs to The Almagest 2 Modern Constellations 4 Astrometry and the Hipparcos Spacecraft 5 Galileo Galilei and Telescopic Astronomy 7 Supernovas 10 Balloons and Sounding Rockets Lead the Way into Space 13 Electromagnetic Spectrum 15 Lyman Spitzer Jr. and the Vision of Space-Based Astronomy 17 NASA’s Orbiting Astronomical Observatory 20 Robot Spacecraft in Service to Astronomy 20 ✧ 2 High-Energy Astrophysics: Meeting the Universe Face-to-Face 25 Elementary Particles—It Is a Truly Small, Small World 26 Fundamental Forces in Nature 32 Sir Isaac Newton—The World’s First Astrophysicist 33 NASA’s High-Energy Astronomy Observatory 37 Role of Modern Astrophysics 40 NASA’s Copernicus Spacecraft 41 ✧ 3 A Revolution in Planetary Astronomy 50 A Golden Age of Solar System Exploration 52 Venera Probes and Spacecraft 56 The New Wave of Planetary Exploration 63 Galileo Mission 63 Cassini/Huygens Spacecraft 65 Mars Exploration Rover Mission 70 Exploring Small Bodies in the Solar System 71 Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous Mission 73 Giotto Mission 74 Stardust Mission 74 Deep Impact Mission 75 New Horizons Pluto–Kuiper Belt Flyby Mission 78 ✧ 4 Optical Astronomy and the Hubble Space Telescope 82 Anders Ångström 84 Stars and Their Life Cycles 85 Betelgeuse 87 Henry Norris Russell and the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram 93 The Hubble Space Telescope 95 Edwin Powell Hubble 96 ✧ 5 Gamma-ray Astronomy and the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory 108 Gamma-ray Bursts 108 NASA’s Compton Gamma Ray Observatory 111 Arthur Holly Compton 112 Cosmic Ray Satellite (COS-B) 116 Swift Spacecraft 116 ✧ 6 X-ray Astronomy and the Chandra X-ray Observatory 118 X-ray Burster 120 NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory 121 Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (aka: Chandra) 123 NASA’s Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer 127 NASA’s Planned Constellation X-ray Observatory 128 ✧ 7 Infrared Astronomy and the Spitzer Space Telescope 131 The Spitzer Space Telescope 132 NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope 137 ✧ 8 Ultraviolet Astronomy and the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer 139 International Ultraviolet Explorer 140 Supernova 1987A 140 Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer 141 Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer 141 NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer 142 Active Galaxies 145 ✧ 9 A Visit to the Nearest Star: Space-Based Solar Physics 148 The Sun: Humans’ Parent Star 148 Skylab 151 Yohkoh Spacecraft 153 Solar and Heliospheric Observatory 155 Ulysses Mission 155 Star Probe Mission 157 ✧ 10 The Moon as a Platform for Astronomy and Astrophysics 160 Lunar-Base Scenarios and Concepts 160 The Moon 162 Lunar Farside Radio Astronomy and Other Potential Astronomical Facilities 166 Orbiting Quarantine Facility 170 ✧ 11 Searching for Extrasolar Planets, Brown Dwarfs, and Dark Matter 172 Extrasolar Planets 173 Earth-like Planet 173 Transit (Planetary) 177 Brown Dwarfs 180 Dark Matter 182 ✧ 12 Wrinkles in the Cosmic Microwave Background 185 Early Cosmologies 186 The Copernican Revolution 187 Big Bang Cosmology 188 Cosmological Principle 189 Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe 191 Cosmology in the 21st Century 193 The Fate of the Universe 193 Dark Energy 194 Consciousness and the Universe 197 Gravitation 197 Black Holes 201 ✧ 13 Conclusion 208 Chronology 209 Glossary 231 Further Reading 271 Index 277 Preface It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow. —Robert Hutchings Goddard rontiers in Space is a comprehensive multivolume set that explores F the scientific principles, technical applications, and impacts of space technology on modern society. Space technology is a multidisciplinary endeavor, which involves the launch vehicles that harness the principles of rocket propulsion and provide access to outer space, the spacecraft that operate in space or on a variety of interesting new worlds, and many dif- ferent types of payloads (including human crews) that perform various functions and objectives in support of a wide variety of missions. This set presents the people, events, discoveries, collaborations, and impor- tant experiments that made the rocket the enabling technology of the space age. The set also describes how rocket propulsion systems support a variety of fascinating space exploration and application missions— missions that have changed and continue to change the trajectory of human civilization. The story of space technology is interwoven with the history of astron- omy and humankind’s interest in flight and space travel. Many ancient peoples developed enduring myths about the curious lights in the night sky. The ancient Greek legend of Icarus and Daedalus, for example, por- trays the age-old human desire to fly and to be free from the gravitational bonds of Earth. Since the dawn of civilization, early peoples, including the Babylonians, Mayans, Chinese, and Egyptians, have studied the sky and recorded the motions of the Sun, the Moon, the observable planets, and the so-called fixed stars. Transient celestial phenomena, such as a passing comet, a solar eclipse, or a supernova explosion, would often cause a great deal of social commotion—if not out right panic and fear—because these events were unpredictable, unexplainable, and appeared threatening. ix Spacecraft for Astronomy It was the ancient Greeks and their geocentric (Earth-centered) cos- mology that had the largest impact on early astronomy and the emer- gence of Western Civilization. Beginning in about the fourth century b.c.e., Greek philosophers, mathematicians, and astronomers articulated a geocentric model of the universe that placed Earth at its center with everything else revolving about it. This model of cosmology, polished and refined in about 150 c.e. by Ptolemy (the last of the great early Greek astronomers), shaped and molded Western thinking for hundreds of years until displaced in the 16th century by Nicholaus Copernicus and a helio- centric (Sun-centered) model of the solar system. In the early 17th cen- tury, Galileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler used astronomical observations to validate heliocentric cosmology and, in the process, laid the foundations of the Scientific Revolution. Later that century, the incomparable Sir Isaac Newton completed this revolution when he codified the fundamental principles that explained how objects moved in the “mechanical” universe in his great work The Principia. The continued growth of science over the 18th and 19th centuries set the stage for the arrival of space technology in the middle of the 20th cen- tury. As discussed in this multivolume set, the advent of space technology dramatically altered the course of human history. On the one hand, mod- ern military rockets with their nuclear warheads redefined the nature of strategic warfare. For the first time in history, the human race developed a weapon system with which it could actually commit suicide. On the other hand, modern rockets and space technology allowed scientists to send smart robot exploring machines to all the major planets in the solar sys- tem (save for tiny Pluto), making those previously distant and unknown worlds almost as familiar as the surface of the Moon. Space technology also supported the greatest technical accomplishment of the human race, the Apollo Project lunar landing missions. Early in the 20th century, the Russian space travel visionary Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky boldly predicted that humankind would not remain tied to Earth forever. When astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin stepped on the Moon’s surface on July 20, 1969, they left human footprints on another world. After mil- lions of years of patient evolution, intelligent life was able to migrate from one world to another. Was this the first time such an event has happened in the history of the 14-billion-year-old universe? Or, as some exobiolo- gists now suggest, perhaps the spread of intelligent life from one world to world is a rather common occurrence within the galaxy. At present, most scientists are simply not sure. But, space technology is now helping them search for life beyond Earth.
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