The Early Days of Space Exploration

The Early Days of Space Exploration — page 3 — Pathways from Earth to the stars began to be charted thousands of years ago Stargazers in ancient civiliza tions were mesmerized by the night skies Early scien tists began recording notes of what they saw or thought they were seeing The science of astronomy the scholarly exam ination of objects and phenomena in outer space began in these ancient cultures The word itself comes from two Greek words meaning star astron and to name nemein Philosophers and writers penned musings of what it might be like to fly above Earth and visit the stars They envi sioned aerial warfare among the gods of their cultures Some of their myths were handed down through the centuries A classic tale is that of Daedalus and Icarus In Greek mythology Daedalus was an inventor and sculptor whose work led to dangerous entanglements with gods and human royalty He and his son Icarus were imprisoned by an angry king inside a complex labyrinth To escape Daedalus made them wings consisting of feathers bound by wax Daedalus flew to freedom but Icarus flew too high approaching the sun The heat melted his wings and he fell to his death This legend is one of many age-old stories referring to spaceflight Writings in different societies told of flying machines and voyages to other worlds No serious efforts were made to convert such fanta sies to reality The necessary materials and technology sim ply did not exist Humans had no way to propel themselves 4 IntroduCtIon

The Early Days of Space Exploration — page 4 — IntroduCtIon The first piloted gas balloon launched in 1783 did not come close to the edge of space but it was a milestone in the history of flight upward except to jump or climb So for many centuries their studies of the upper realms were limited to visual observa tions Using only the naked eye and primitive instruments of measurement early scientists studied the sun moon star constellations and first known planets They wrote down their findings They formed theories usually flawed about the motions and relationships of heavenly bodies 5

The Early Days of Space Exploration — page 5 — Then came the telescope Beginning in the early 1600s astronomers were able to view cosmic objects close up The enlargements were not at all great by modern stan dards but they were astonishing at the time New knowl edge helped correct and clarify old notions about how the universe functions Telescopes were steadily improved and new tools were introduced The first successes in actually probing the heights occurred more than two hundred years ago Experiment ers first leveraged wind power to fly kites Beginning in the 1780s balloons filled with hot air or lighter-than-air gases such as hydrogen and helium were sent higher and higher into the skies The first piloted balloon flight was made in 1783 The great breakthrough in the quest to explore space was the invention of the powered airplane in the early twentieth century After that the ultimate objective of space scientists was tantalizingly within reach manned flights above Earth’s atmosphere 6 the early days of spaCe exploratIon

The Early Days of Space Exploration — page 6 — What’s Up there The earliest humans gazing into night skies dotted with white specks must have wondered What’s up there Every generation since then has asked the same question Over the centuries dedicated astronomers have accumulated an immense body of knowledge about the solar system and the immeasurable space beyond Still they probe New discoveries are made every day It is obvious though that the puzzle of the stars can never be completely understood When studying the universe questions that are finally answered present new mysteries EARLY ASTRONOMERS The earliest sophisticated astronomy arose in ancient Baby lonia Babylonian scholars believed the universe existed on six levels The surface of Earth was one level the visible stars above it another level They believed two additional levels of heaven existed above the visible sky and two underworlds existed beneath Earth’s surface 7 Chapter tItle runnIng head goes here Chapter 1

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