The reach of human exploration has expanded through history This is in many ways a direct consequence of scientific advancement and improving technology The instinct to explore has been in place since humans first contemplated a mountaintop an ocean or even the Moon and stars But science has taken the will to explore and helped develop the way to reach places never before seen by human eyes 1522 Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan took three years to sail a ship around the globe thereby demonstrating Earth is round not flat 1800 Invention of theodolite surveying tool allows accurate mapping of European continent 1927 Pilot Charles Lindbergh becomes first person to fly an airplane across the Atlantic Ocean without stopping 1960 Submarine Trieste locates and explores Earth’s greatest ocean depth 1953 First climbers to reach the summit of Earth’s tallest mountain Mount Everest 6 1969 NASA puts first humans on the Moon
Satellite technology has allowed photographic imaging of other planets and moons It wasn’t until 1953 that human exploration reached the top of Thanks to the work of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA human exploration has increased at an astronomical rate in the past half century the world’s highest mountain Seven years later in 1960 a manned submarine descended to the deepest point of the ocean That meant it took all of recorded history up to that point for humans to reach the highest and lowest spots here on Earth Just nine years later in 1969 NASA explored the Moon 7
Pull Gravitational Reaching the highest and lowest points on the planet were celebrated accomplishments But they simply pale in comparison to the enormous scientific and mathematical complexity of trying to rocket people beyond the pull of Earth’s gravity account for the lack of oxygen and extreme cold of outer space and land on the Moon 8
Velocity miles per second kilometers per second 11 7 Escape No person or group in history has changed humankind’s perspective of Earth more than NASA Thanks to NASA and its scientific work over the past half century humans have stepped outside the confines of their own planet They not only explored outer space and the Moon but witnessed Earth as it truly is a living blue orb floating in the cold darkness of outer space 9
