Striking Space

by Alexis

Humans wonder what will happen to Earth next, as well as life on Mars. Astronomers have been so close to finding life, like how they state they’ve found water. But what really is space? Space has stars, planets, solar systems, galaxies and maybe even aliens. For years, humans have studied space and learned so much about the planets and our solar system. This is all possible because of the exploration of NASA and other space agencies around the world. They have found planets nobody else would find and are able to explore them.

Method Mars and Easy Earth

One thing that makes up space is our solar system. Our solar system has eight planets, including Mercury, which is the closest to the sun, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune which is the furthest from the sun. Our solar system also has a dwarf planet named Pluto. Although many do think that Pluto’s still considered a planet, it was reclassified to be a dwarf planet in 2006. A dwarf planet is a planet that’s not classified in the solar dwarf planets that lack the gravitational forces that are needed to pull in all of the mass found in their orbits.

*Solar System Images*

FUN FACT! Mars is 61.731 million miles away from Earth, and Earth is 24,901 miles around, so it would take about 2,450 Earths to make it to Mars.

The Candy?

Our solar system is in the Milky Way. No, not the candy, but the galaxy we live inside of! A galaxy is a big collection of gas, dust, and billions of stars. Our Sun hosts eight planets. In our galaxy, the Milky Way, there are around 100 billion estimated planets at the least, and in other galaxies estimated about 150 million planets. Astronomers came up with an estimate of between about 100 and 200 billion galaxies too. So, that means there are a trilliard (150,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) planets estimated in the universe. WOW. That means that there are billions of planets we haven’t explored yet.

*Wikimedia Commons*

FUN FACT! Einstein’s theory states that the Sun bends our solar system making our planets come closer, not the gravitational pull. Example: Think of our solar system as a blanket. If we put a big, heavy sphere in the middle of the blanket, and other spheres light on the outside, the outer spheres will slowly come into the heavy sphere.

Constructing Rockets

Another topic of space is exploration. Making rockets, sending them to space, collecting samples, bringing them back to the lab, and so much more goes into the exploration of space. The first spaceship by NASA was made on November 11, 1958. It was made in the US too. The spaceship included all of the following; three antennas, windows, forward hatch, porch, MESA, landing gear, ladder, engine, helium tank, fuel tank, stage, engine covers, the second stage, thruster assembly, crew compartment, and the docking fixture and tunnel. That’s a lot of equipment for the first ever rocketship. To make a rocket fly, you only need two liquids. Liquid fuel rockets pump both fuel (gas) and oxidizer into the combustion chamber. You need lots of liquid for one of the NASA rockets, and more than just the liquid products. The more fuel and oxidizer, the more thrust you get. Thrust is the force that the engine produces. Thrust and weight are also equal so you have to cut a bunch of weight on your rocket.

*Wikimedia Commons*

FUN FACT! Newton’s second law of motion at work shows force = mass x acceleration.

Sweet Treat of Heat

That brings us into making a rocket. While making a rocket, they had temperature problems as well! They had dartlike shapes of compressed air. Therefore, in 1957 they came up with a blunt body shield, so the shock waves from outside just hit the shield. But they still needed to let less heat come in the crew compartment. As a result, scientists came up with taking a honeycomb like figure, and injecting resin/fiberglass into them for layers. They then layered the honeycomb, along with insulation and a char layer for the outside of the rock. So outside it is -270°F. While traveling though, the rocket heats up, so the outside of the actual rocketship is 5,000° F. Then, it’s 3,000°F in the first layer, then we go into the other layers. Layer one is 600°F, layer two is 200°F and lastly layer three is between 150-70°F which makes the crew compartment a perfect temperature of 60°F.

*National Museum Of The United States Air Force*

FUN FACT! There are five main layers from lowest to highest: troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere and exosphere.

*NASA (National Aeronics of Space Administration)*

It’s unknown what space will become next, between aliens, more planets and even the discovery of life in black holes maybe. NASA will continue to find planets and more unknown galaxies beyond our solar system. But, let’s all appreciate the work they’ve done currently.

https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/

https://www.nasa.gov/