Science Study Guide: The Space Race
Section I: An Intro to Space Exploration
1) When did the Space Race begin?
2) How did Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev use the Sputnik news?
3) What are the benefits of satellites for governments?
4) What was the 1st artificial Earth satellite and when did it launch?
5) Who was the 1st human to go in space and when was he launched?
6) When was the 1st lunar landing?
7) What are the 5 general areas of scientific research in space?
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
8) What was the 1st scientific discovery made by instruments orbiting in space and by what?
9) What was the U.S’s 1strobotic spacrecraft called that tried exploring the moon, but was unsuccessful? What year did this happen?
10) What was the U.S.S.R’s 1st robotic spacrecraft called that tried exploring the moon, but was unsuccessful? What year did this happen?
11) What was special about Luna 2?
12) What did the Mariner 10 probe study?
12) What did the Cassini spacecraft explore?
13) In 1976, what spacecraft explored Mars?
14) What has been “learned to date” from our space explorations of our solar system?
15) What are U.S’s Great Observatories? List them.
16) What was the purpose of the COBE spacecraft?
17) Why is the term microgravity used instead of true zero gravity?
18) What is a geostationary orbit?
19) What types of orbit are meteorological satellites placed? Why?
20) Who operates the U.S’s meteorological satellites?
21) What is GPS and what does it require to work?
22) What is the purpose of NASA’s Landsat program?
Section II: Rocket Science and Orbital Mechanics
23) How do you calculate force?
24) How do you generate more force/thrust from an object?
25) A rocket engine is throwing mass in the form of what?
26) What is thrust and how is it measured?
27) What are the 3 parts to a space shuttle?
a)
b)
c)
28) What is special about solid fuel rocket engines? Who invented them?
29) What is the basic idea behind a solid rocket engine?
30) Draw a picture of a solid fuel rocket channel cross section. Why so many points (Pg 23)
31) What are 3 advantages to solid fuel rockets?
a)
b)
c)
32) What are 2 advantages of solid fuel rockets?
a)
b)
33) What is a lquid propellant rocket?
34) What types of fuels are used in the liquid propellants rockets?
35) What is a pressurized nitrogen thruster?
36) A rocket engine derives its force through Newton’s law of reaction. Describe this law.
37) What is the equation for thrust?
38) How are rocket engines rated?
39) How do you calculate a rocket’s exhaust velocity? What is the gravitational constant?
40) What is the “Rocket Equation” and what does it show?
41) What is the relationship between ΔV and C?
42) What is a satellite?
43) Compare an apogee to a perigee.
44) How much space junk is in space?
45) How big was Sputnik?
46) What tools did Sputnik carry?
47) What happened to Sputnik?
48) How does a satellite get into orbit?
49) What is the importance of the inertial guidance system?
50) What direction does the flight plan call for in a satellite mission?
51) Why is a boost needed of the equator (for a satellite)?
52) To travel around Earth in 24 hours, how fast does a point on Earth’s surface have to move?
53) What is the area called over the equator in reference to satellites?
54) What is an asynchronous orbit?
55) What is a polar orbit?
56) Why was Tsiolkovsky so famous?
57) What was Tsiolkovsky’s 1st book called? What can you find in it?
58) What book did Tsiolkovsky publish in 1885 and what was its importance?
59) Who wrote that Tsiolkovsky “founded the theory of rocket flight?”
Section III: The Space Race
60) What does Sputnik mean in Russian?
61) In response to Sputnik, what did we (the US) launch in 1958? Who designed it?
62) What was also created in 1958 under Dwight Eisenhower? What was its purpose?
63) What was the purpose of “Corona?”
64) What did the Russians launch in 1959 and what did it do that was sooo significant?
65) What was Yuri Gagarin’s spaceship called?
66) What was U.S’s project for sending a man to space?
67) Who was the 1st American in space (but not to orbit)? What year did this happen?
68) Who was the 1st American to orbit in space? What year did this happen?
69) Who and when did we land on the moon?
70) What was the public’s (of the USA) reaction to the Russians going into space 1st?
71) Describe the speed and orbit of Sputnik in 1957.
72) How did the Democrats use the Sputnik launch?
73) What was the “Missile Gap?”
74) What was the official Soviet newspaper called?
75) When did Sputnik II launch? What was it carrying?
76) Describe Laika.
77) How long did Sputnik II last? What happened to Laika?
78) To make it to the moon, the US used scouts to obtain info on the moon. Describe Project Ranger (mission, launches, etc.)
79) What is the “Apollo Zone?”
80) Who was responsible for the Lunar Orbiter’s camera?
81) What did Lunar Orbiter I leave and what did it do?
82) What were mascons? How did this help the Apollo missions?
83) Who was Sergei Korolev?
84) What did Luna 9 do?
85) What was sigificant about the Surveyor I mission?
86) Why is there a 14 day lunar night on the moon?
87) What rocket was carrying the Surveyor spacecraft?
88) Using Curium 242, Surveyor 5 was able to determine soil components of the soil. What is in the soil of the moon?
89) What does Vostok mean? What was it chosen for?
90)How many peeps could fit in Vostok?
91) Describe Gagarin’s rise to fame.
92) How long was Gagarin’s flight? What couldn’t Gagarin do on his spacecraft?
93) How did Gagarin get out of Vostok? What was the Russian’s dirty little secret about Vostok’s reentry?
94) How many Vostok missions were there?
95) Who was Valentina Tereshkova?
96) What were the 3 goals of Project Mercury by the USA?
a)
b)
c)
97) Where did the US draw astronauts from?
98) What were the size requirements to be an astronaut?
99) Why was Chuck Yeager not allowed to be an astronaut?
100) Describe the Mercury capsule.
101) What type of rockets carried the Mercury capsules?
102) Who was Ham?
103) Who piloted the first Mercury mission? When? What did he accomplish?
104) What did Gus Grissom do?
105) What was John Glenn’s flight like? When did it happen?
106) Why was Scott Carpenter not allowed to be a captain of a spacecraft anymore?
107) What was special about the Sigma 7 flight?
108) What was Project Gemini?
109) What was Soyuz? Why was Voskhod developed?
110) Who flew on Voshkod 1?
111) What did Leonov do on Voshkod 2?
112) Summarize Project Gemini’s mission:
a)
b)
c)
113) Describe the Gemini capsule. Who was the 1st to fly it? When?
114) What was the highlight of the Gemini 4 mission?
115) Who was the 1st Chinese taikonaut? When? What did he fly on? What were his accomplishments?
116) Describe the Apollo spacecraft:
117) What rocket launched the Apollo missions? Who made it?
118) What propellant was used in this rocket?
119) 3 astronauts were on the Apollo spacecraft, yet only 2 landed on the moon. What did the 3rd guy do?
120) What happened on the first Apollo 1/AS-204 pre-launch?
121) What happened to Soyuz 1?
122) What happened on Apollo 8? When did it launch?
123) Who was on Apollo 11? What date did it launch?
124) What was Apollo 11’s Lunar Module called? Where did it touchdown?
125) What did Armstrong and Aldrin do while on the moon?
126) What happened on Apollo 13? Watch the movie for a visual
127) What was the last Apollo mission?
128) Poor Russians…what happened to Luna 15?
129) When did the Russians admit we were in a Space Race?
130) What important scientific discovery did Luna 16 make?
131) Why did the Russians start the Lunokhod program?
132) What was NASA’s 1997 Mars rover called?
Section IV: Space Stations and the Space Shuttle
133) What is a space station? Who proposed the first one in 1923?
134) What was MOL?
135) What were the goals of Skylab?
136) Describe the spider story of Skylab 3.
137) Space station Mir replaced what Russian space station?
138) How long was Mir in orbit?
139) Who was the 1st private citizen to fly to space and to stay on Mir? How much did he pay?
140) What did the American find on Mir in 1995?
141) Space station Freedom and Station Alpha failed. What was the new space station called? How and when was it created?
142) How was the ISS designed? What was the first module called and when did it launch?
143) What were the other modules called that linked to make the ISS?
144) What’s up with Dennis Tito?
145) What happened on February 1, 2003?
146)What is the microgravity science glovebox?
147)What is MELFI?
148) Why do we lose bone in space? How much?
149) 1972: Reusable space shuttle idea is introduced. What are the 4 shuttles created?
150) What happened on January 28, 1986?
151) Why was the Endeavour created?
152) What were the names of the Russian shuttles?
153) What sickness do most astronauts get?
154) What are some effects to the body from space travel?
155) What was the last space shuttle landing?
156) What happened to the Enterprise shuttle?
157) What was the 1st shuttle launch? Where did it launch from? Where did it land?
158) Describe some helpful commercial benefits of space travel.
159) What is the future of space travel?
Section V: The Future of Space Exploration
160) Why do space programs like X-33 and Project Constellation keep getting cut by the government?
161) What are Chinese astronauts called?
162) Why is landing on an asteroid do-able?
163) What is Mars500?
164) What is a Lagrange point? Which ones are best suited for orbit?
165) How many robots does NASA currently have?
166) Describe what the Voyager (1 and 2) spacecraft did/aredoing.
167) What is the magnetic jacuzzi?
168) What is Curiosity?
169) What is LCROSS?
170) How is most lunar water created?
171) What is Taylor’s hypothesis of lunar water creation?
172) How did the moon form?
173) What does Stone plan on doing with the hydrogen on the moon?
174) What does Jones want to do to the moon?
175) How much could you buy a piece of the moon for from Dennis Hope?
176) Describe the Mars the Viking landers found in 1976.
178) What did the Phoenix find Mars was like?
179) Describe a Mars landing.
180) How long is a Martian day? What is its name?
181)What was discovered in the soil from the Phoenix rover? Implications?