The Benefits of Spaceflight and Space Exploration

The Benefits of Spaceflight and Space Exploration — page 1 — Published in 2018 by Britannica Educational Publishing a trademark of Encyclopædia Britannica Inc in association with The Rosen Publishing Group Inc 29 East 21st Street New York NY 10010 Copyright 2018 The Rosen Publishing Group Inc and Encyclopædia Britannica Inc and Encyclopædia Britannica Britannica and the Thistle logo are registered trademarks of Encyclopædia Britannica Inc All rights reserved Distributed exclusively by Rosen Publishing To see additional Britannica Educational Publishing titles go to rosenpublishing com First Edition Britannica Educational Publishing J E Luebering Executive Director Core Editorial Andrea R Field Managing Editor Compton’s by Britannica Rosen Publishing Kathy Kuhtz Campbell Senior Editor Nelson Sá Art Director Brian Garvey Series Designer Greg Tucker Book Layout Cindy Reiman Photography Manager Karen Huang Photo Researcher Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names Porterfield Jason author Title The benefits of spaceflight and space exploration Jason Porterfield Description First edition New York NY Britannica Educational Publishing in association with Rosen Educational Services 2018 Series From Earth to the stars Audience Grades 5 to 8 Includes bibliographical references and index Identifiers LCCN 2016057939 ISBN 9781680486643 eBook Subjects LCSH Space flight Juvenile literature Aerospace engineering Juvenile literature Technological innovations Juvenile literature Outer space Exploration Juvenile literature Classification LCC TL793 P577 2018 DDC 629 4 dc23 LC record available at https lccn loc gov 2016057939 Photo credits Cover p 1 NASA Bridget Caswell cover and back cover background nienora Shutterstock com pp 5 7 9 15 23 35 NASA p 10 Sean Pavone Shutterstock com p 12 Adapted from information from Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc source NASA Goddard Space Flight Center p 13 National Severe Storms Laboratory NOA p 14 NOAA p 17 Courtesy of the U S Geological Survey p 19 Anatoly Tiplyashin Shutterstock com p 21 Blausen Medical Communications Inc CC BY 3 0 p 25 Vstock LLC VStock Thinkstock p 26 NASA JHUAPL SWRI p 27 NASA JPL-Caltech MSSS p 29 NASA ESA and K Noll STScl p 32 NASA JPL Space Science Institute p 36 Walter Jaffe Leiden Observatory Holland Ford JHU STScI and NASA p 37 Sidharth Nikam NASA p 39 NASA Ames JPL-Caltech interior pages graphic pp 7 13 19 26 34 Hallowedland Shutterstock com On the cover NASA engineers test a flywheel motor built for a heart pump that was designed to help children born with only one heart ventricle

The Benefits of Spaceflight and Space Exploration — page 3 — Spaceflight has taken humans to the moon and propelled a probe past the limits of the solar system It has enabled people to maintain space stations and place thousands of artificial man-made satellites in Earth’s orbit But what do human beings gain by venturing into space Considering all the opportunities and mysteries to be investigated on Earth not to mention problems to be solved what’s the point of dedicating resources to spaceflight To begin with space exploration satisfies a basic curiosity about worlds beyond our own It’s human nature to want to explore the unknown Spaceflight has yielded dis coveries and wonders that have inspired writers and artists and that have answered some religious and philosophical questions while raising new ones On a more practical level space exploration has helped to foster enthusiasm for sci ence in general Landmark space missions have captured the public imagination and educational programs related to space exploration have engaged students in science Along with its ability to inspire space exploration has more tangible or concrete benefits Of course it has greatly advanced scientific knowledge of Earth and the rest of the universe Beyond that however space explora tion has also provided technologies and products that most people take for granted Today’s advances in space explo ration may yield tomorrow’s benefits from space tourism to the diversion of asteroids that would otherwise collide with Earth 4 IntroduCtIon

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