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140-498: In space exploration , in situ resource utilization ( ISRU ) is the practice of collection, processing, storing and use of materials found or manufactured on other astronomical objects (the Moon, Mars, asteroids, etc.) that replace materials that would otherwise be brought from Earth. ISRU could provide materials for life support , propellants , construction materials , and energy to a spacecraft payloads or space exploration crews. It

280-521: A gravity assist from Jupiter . Its closest approach to Pluto was on 14 July 2015; scientific observations of Pluto began five months prior to closest approach and continued for 16 days after the encounter. The New Horizons mission also performed a flyby of the small planetesimal Arrokoth , in the Kuiper belt , in 2019. This was its first extended mission. Although many comets have been studied from Earth sometimes with centuries-worth of observations, only

420-453: A microwave transmitter or laser emitter, and transmit this energy to a collector (or microwave rectenna ) on Earth's surface. Contrary to appearances in fiction, most designs propose beam energy densities that are not harmful if human beings were to be inadvertently exposed, such as if a transmitting satellite's beam were to wander off-course. But the necessarily vast size of the receiving antennas would still require large blocks of land near

560-457: A 1 km diameter transmitting antenna and a 10 km diameter receiving rectenna for a microwave beam at 2.45 GHz . These sizes can be somewhat decreased by using shorter wavelengths, although they have increased atmospheric absorption and even potential beam blockage by rain or water droplets. Because of the thinned array curse , it is not possible to make a narrower beam by combining the beams of several smaller satellites. The large size of

700-602: A better appreciation of the Red Planet but also yield further insight into the past, and possible future, of Earth. The exploration of Mars has come at a considerable financial cost with roughly two-thirds of all spacecraft destined for Mars failing before completing their missions, with some failing before they even began. Such a high failure rate can be attributed to the complexity and large number of variables involved in an interplanetary journey, and has led researchers to jokingly speak of The Great Galactic Ghoul which subsists on

840-450: A boiler. The use of solar dynamic could reduce mass per watt. Wireless power transmission was proposed early on as a means to transfer energy from collection to the Earth's surface, using either microwave or laser radiation at a variety of frequencies. William C. Brown demonstrated in 1964, during Walter Cronkite 's CBS News program, a microwave-powered model helicopter that received all

980-461: A close flyby of Saturn's moon Titan, resulting in a trajectory incompatible with a Pluto flyby. Voyager 2 never had a plausible trajectory for reaching Pluto. After an intense political battle, a mission to Pluto dubbed New Horizons was granted funding from the United States government in 2003. New Horizons was launched successfully on 19 January 2006. In early 2007 the craft made use of

1120-574: A conspicuous anticyclone storm system rivaled in size only by Jupiter's Great Red Spot . Neptune also proved to have the fastest winds of any planet in the Solar System, measured as high as 2,100 km/h. Voyager 2 also examined Neptune's ring and moon system . It discovered 900 complete rings and additional partial ring "arcs" around Neptune. In addition to examining Neptune's three previously known moons, Voyager 2 also discovered five previously unknown moons, one of which, Proteus , proved to be

1260-554: A detailed timeline and capability roadmap to 2040 but it assumes lunar landers in 2010 and 2012. The Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander was intended to carry to Mars a test payload, MIP (Mars ISPP Precursor), that was to demonstrate manufacture of oxygen from the atmosphere of Mars, but the mission was cancelled. The Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment (MOXIE) is a 1% scale prototype model aboard the Mars 2020 rover Perseverance that produces oxygen from Martian atmospheric carbon dioxide ( CO 2 ) in

1400-484: A diet of Mars probes. This phenomenon is also informally known as the " Mars Curse ". In contrast to overall high failure rates in the exploration of Mars, India has become the first country to achieve success of its maiden attempt. India's Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) is one of the least expensive interplanetary missions ever undertaken with an approximate total cost of ₹ 450 Crore ( US$ 73 million ). The first mission to Mars by any Arab country has been taken up by

1540-472: A few clouds in the images of the planet. The magnetosphere of Uranus, however, proved to be unique, being profoundly affected by the planet's unusual axial tilt. In contrast to the bland appearance of Uranus itself, striking images were obtained of the Moons of Uranus, including evidence that Miranda had been unusually geologically active. The exploration of Neptune began with the 25 August 1989 Voyager 2 flyby,

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1680-650: A few comets have been closely visited. In 1985, the International Cometary Explorer conducted the first comet fly-by ( 21P/Giacobini-Zinner ) before joining the Halley Armada studying the famous comet. The Deep Impact probe smashed into 9P/Tempel to learn more about its structure and composition and the Stardust mission returned samples of another comet's tail. The Philae lander successfully landed on Comet Churyumov–Gerasimenko in 2014 as part of

1820-462: A given amount of equipment. The monopropellant hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) can be made from water on Mars and the Moon. Aluminum as well as other metals has been proposed for use as rocket propellant made using lunar resources, and proposals include reacting the aluminum with water. For Mars, methane propellant can be manufactured via the Sabatier process. SpaceX has suggested building

1960-511: A group with other similar satellites. There are many pros to Laser Solar Satellites, specifically regarding their lower overall costs in comparison to other satellites. While the cost is lower than other satellites, there are various safety concerns, and other concerns regarding this satellite. Laser-emitting solar satellites only need to venture about 400 km into space, but because of their small generation capacity, hundreds or thousands of laser satellites would need to be launched in order to create

2100-574: A high-risk venture." In 1997, NASA conducted its "Fresh Look" study to examine the modern state of SBSP feasibility. In assessing "What has changed" since the DOE study, NASA asserted that the "US National Space Policy now calls for NASA to make significant investments in technology (not a particular vehicle) to drive the costs of ETO [Earth to Orbit] transportation down dramatically. This is, of course, an absolute requirement of space solar power." Conversely, Pete Worden of NASA claimed that space-based solar

2240-518: A large number of Earth observation satellites have been deployed specifically to explore Earth from a space-based perspective. These satellites have significantly contributed to the understanding of a variety of Earth-based phenomena. For instance, the hole in the ozone layer was found by an artificial satellite that was exploring Earth's atmosphere, and satellites have allowed for the discovery of archeological sites or geological formations that were difficult or impossible to otherwise identify. The Moon

2380-542: A lengthy article "It's Always Sunny in Space" by Susumu Sasaki. The article stated, "It's been the subject of many previous studies and the stuff of sci-fi for decades, but space-based solar power could at last become a reality—and within 25 years, according to a proposal from researchers at the Tokyo -based Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)." JAXA announced on 12 March 2015 that they wirelessly beamed 1.8 kilowatts 50 meters to

2520-450: A method would depend on a thorough mineral survey of the candidate asteroids; thus far, we have only estimates of their composition. One proposal is to capture the asteroid Apophis into Earth orbit and convert it into 150 solar power satellites of 5 GW each or the larger asteroid 1999 AN10, which is 50 times the size of Apophis and large enough to build 7,500 5-gigawatt solar power satellites The potential exposure of humans and animals on

2660-454: A milestone. As of 1 December 2022, there were 5,284 confirmed exoplanets discovered. The Milky Way is estimated to contain 100–400 billion stars and more than 100 billion planets . There are at least 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe . HD1 is the most distant known object from Earth, reported as 33.4 billion light-years away. MW 18014 was a German V-2 rocket test launch that took place on 20 June 1944, at

2800-532: A mountaintop in Maui and the island of Hawaii (92 miles away), by a team under John C. Mankins . Technological challenges in terms of array layout, single radiation element design, and overall efficiency, as well as the associated theoretical limits are presently a subject of research, as it was demonstrated by the Special Session on "Analysis of Electromagnetic Wireless Systems for Solar Power Transmission" held during

2940-771: A national goal. JAXA has a roadmap to commercial SBSP. In 2015, the China Academy for Space Technology (CAST) showcased its roadmap at the International Space Development Conference. In February 2019, Science and Technology Daily (科技日报, Keji Ribao), the official newspaper of the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China , reported that construction of a testing base had started in Chongqing's Bishan District. CAST vice-president Li Ming

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3080-458: A pilot beam transmitter. The long-term effects of beaming power through the ionosphere in the form of microwaves has yet to be studied. The typical reference system-of-systems involves a significant number (several thousand multi-gigawatt systems to service all or a significant portion of Earth's energy requirements) of individual satellites in GEO. The typical reference design for the individual satellite

3220-768: A process called solid oxide electrolysis . The experiment produced its first 5.37 grams of oxygen on 20 April 2021. The lunar Resource Prospector rover was designed to scout for resources on a polar region of the Moon, and it was proposed to be launched in 2022. The mission concept was in its pre-formulation stage, and a prototype rover was being tested when it was scrapped in April 2018. Its science instruments will be flown instead on several commercial lander missions contracted by NASA's new Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLSP) program, that aims to focus on testing various lunar ISRU processes by landing several payloads on multiple commercial landers and rovers. The first formal solicitation

3360-480: A propellant plant on Mars that would use this process to produce methane ( CH 4 ) and liquid oxygen (O 2 ) from sub-surface water ice and atmospheric CO 2 . It has long been suggested that solar cells could be produced from the materials present in lunar soil. Silicon, aluminium, and glass, three of the primary materials required for solar cell production, are found in high concentrations in lunar soil and can be used to produce solar cells. In fact,

3500-410: A small receiver by converting electricity to microwaves and then back to electricity. This is the standard plan for this type of power. On 12 March 2015 Mitsubishi Heavy Industries demonstrated transmission of 10 kilowatts (kW) of power to a receiver unit located at a distance of 500 meters (m) away. The SBSP concept is attractive because space has several major advantages over the Earth's surface for

3640-612: A sort of bubble of particles made in the Galaxy by the Sun's solar wind . The Sun is a major focus of space exploration. Being above the atmosphere in particular and Earth's magnetic field gives access to the solar wind and infrared and ultraviolet radiations that cannot reach Earth's surface. The Sun generates most space weather , which can affect power generation and transmission systems on Earth and interfere with, and even damage, satellites and space probes. Numerous spacecraft dedicated to observing

3780-414: A sustainable impact. A single satellite launch can range from fifty to four hundred million dollars. Lasers could be helpful for the energy from the sun harvested in space, to be returned back to Earth in order for terrestrial power demands to be met. The main advantage of locating a space power station in geostationary orbit is that the antenna geometry stays constant, and so keeping the antennas lined up

3920-415: A system of as few as thirty solar power satellites of 10 GW capacity each. In 1980, when it became obvious NASA's launch cost estimates for the space shuttle were grossly optimistic, O'Neill et al. published another route to manufacturing using lunar materials with much lower startup costs. This 1980s SPS concept relied less on human presence in space and more on partially self-replicating systems on

4060-699: A total of six spacecraft with humans landing on the Moon starting from 1969 to the last human landing in 1972. The first interplanetary flyby was the 1961 Venera 1 flyby of Venus , though the 1962 Mariner 2 was the first flyby of Venus to return data (closest approach 34,773 kilometers). Pioneer 6 was the first satellite to orbit the Sun , launched on 16 December 1965. The other planets were first flown by in 1965 for Mars by Mariner 4 , 1973 for Jupiter by Pioneer 10 , 1974 for Mercury by Mariner 10 , 1979 for Saturn by Pioneer 11 , 1986 for Uranus by Voyager 2 , 1989 for Neptune by Voyager 2 . In 2015,

4200-419: A very large antenna (up to one square kilometer) on the satellite to a much larger one, now known as a rectenna , on the ground. Glaser then was a vice president at Arthur D. Little , Inc. NASA signed a contract with ADL to lead four other companies in a broader study in 1974. They found that, while the concept had several major problems – chiefly the expense of putting the required materials in orbit and

4340-714: Is about five orders of magnitude more expensive than solar power from the Arizona desert, with a major cost being the transportation of materials to orbit. Worden referred to possible solutions as speculative and not available for decades at the earliest. On November 2, 2012, China proposed a space collaboration with India that mentioned SBSP, "may be Space-based Solar Power initiative so that both India and China can work for long term association with proper funding along with other willing space faring nations to bring space solar power to earth." In 1999, NASA initiated its Space Solar Power Exploratory Research and Technology program (SERT) for

In situ resource utilization - Misplaced Pages Continue

4480-591: Is by no means certain that NASA or the ESA will favour this approach over a more conventional direct mission. A typical proposal for ISRU is the use of a Sabatier reaction , CO 2 + 4H 2 → CH 4 + 2H 2 O , in order to produce methane on the Martian surface, to be used as a propellant. Oxygen is liberated from the water by electrolysis , and the hydrogen recycled back into the Sabatier reaction. The usefulness of this reaction

4620-576: Is called a Propulsive Fluid Accumulator . Atmospheric gases like oxygen and argon could be extracted from the atmosphere of planets like the Earth, Mars, and the outer giant planets by Propulsive Fluid Accumulator satellites in low orbit. In October 2004, NASA's Advanced Planning and Integration Office commissioned an ISRU capability roadmap team. The team's report, along with those of 14 other capability roadmap teams, were published 22 May 2005. The report identifies seven ISRU capabilities: The report focuses on lunar and martian environments. It offers

4760-409: Is construction largely from locally available lunar materials, using in-situ resource utilization , with a teleoperated mobile factory and crane to assemble the microwave reflectors, and rovers to assemble and pave solar cells, which would significantly reduce launch costs compared to SBSP designs. Power relay satellites orbiting around earth and the Moon reflecting the microwave beam are also part of

4900-501: Is in the 1-10 GW range and usually involves planar or concentrated solar photovoltaics (PV) as the energy collector / conversion. The most typical transmission designs are in the 1–10 GHz (2.45 or 5.8 GHz) RF band where there are minimum losses in the atmosphere. Materials for the satellites are sourced from, and manufactured on Earth and expected to be transported to LEO via re-usable rocket launch, and transported between LEO and GEO via chemical or electrical propulsion. In summary,

5040-410: Is most often sought directly as fuel or as feedstock for fuel production. Applications include its use in life support, either directly for drinking, for growing food , producing oxygen , or numerous other industrial processes, all of which require a ready supply of water in the environment and the equipment to extract it. Such extraterrestrial water has been discovered in a variety of forms throughout

5180-425: Is now very common for spacecraft and robotic planetary surface mission to harness the solar radiation found in situ in the form of solar panels . The use of ISRU for material production has not yet been implemented in a space mission, though several field tests in the late 2000s demonstrated various lunar ISRU techniques in a relevant environment. ISRU has long been considered as a possible avenue for reducing

5320-445: Is one of the main sources for space science . While the observation of objects in space, known as astronomy , predates reliable recorded history , it was the development of large and relatively efficient rockets during the mid-twentieth century that allowed physical space exploration to become a reality. Common rationales for exploring space include advancing scientific research, national prestige, uniting different nations, ensuring

5460-676: Is required. Glass and glass fiber are straightforward to process on the Moon and Mars. Basalt fibre has also been made from lunar regolith simulators. Successful tests have been performed on Earth using two lunar regolith simulants MLS-1 and MLS-2 . In August 2005, NASA contracted for the production of 16 tonnes of simulated lunar soil, or lunar regolith simulant material for research on how lunar soil could be used in situ . Other proposals are based on Phobos and Deimos . These moons are in reasonably high orbits above Mars, have very low escape velocities, and unlike Mars have return delta-v 's from their surfaces to LEO which are less than

5600-489: Is said to have been invented in 1608 in the Netherlands by an eyeglass maker named Hans Lippershey , but their first recorded use in astronomy was by Galileo Galilei in 1609. In 1668 Isaac Newton built his own reflecting telescope , the first fully functional telescope of this kind, and a landmark for future developments due to its superior features over the previous Galilean telescope . A string of discoveries in

5740-428: Is simpler. Another advantage is that nearly continuous power transmission is immediately available as soon as the first space power station is placed in orbit, LEO requires several satellites before they are producing nearly continuous power. Power beaming from geostationary orbit by microwaves carries the difficulty that the required 'optical aperture' sizes are very large. For example, the 1978 NASA SPS study required

In situ resource utilization - Misplaced Pages Continue

5880-419: Is that—as of 2008, when the availability of water on Mars was less scientifically demonstrated—only the hydrogen (which is light) was thought to need to be brought from Earth. As of 2018, SpaceX has stated their goal of developing the technology for a Mars propellant plant that could use a variation on what is described in the previous paragraph. Rather than transporting hydrogen from Earth to use in making

6020-424: Is the electrolysis of the atmospheric carbon dioxide, It has also been proposed the in situ production of oxygen, hydrogen and CO from the Martian hematite deposits via a two-step thermochemical CO 2 /H 2 O splitting process, and specifically in the magnetite / wüstite redox cycle. Although thermolysis is the most direct, one-step process for splitting molecules, it is neither practical nor efficient in

6160-524: Is to use fluorine brought from Earth as potassium fluoride to separate the raw materials from the lunar rocks. Over twenty different methods have been proposed for oxygen extraction from the lunar regolith. Oxygen is often found in iron-rich lunar minerals and glasses as iron oxide . The oxygen can be extracted by heating the material to temperatures above 900 °C and exposing it to hydrogen gas. The basic equation is: FeO + H 2 → Fe + H 2 O. This process has recently been made much more practical by

6300-425: Is to use a retrodirective phased array antenna/rectenna. A "pilot" microwave beam emitted from the center of the rectenna on the ground establishes a phase front at the transmitting antenna. There, circuits in each of the antenna's subarrays compare the pilot beam's phase front with an internal clock phase to control the phase of the outgoing signal. If the phase offset to the pilot is chosen the same for all elements,

6440-619: The Bumper-WAC reached an altitude of 393 kilometres (244 mi), becoming the first human-made object to enter space, according to NASA . The first successful orbital launch was of the Soviet uncrewed Sputnik 1 ("Satellite 1") mission on 4 October 1957. The satellite weighed about 83 kg (183 lb), and is believed to have orbited Earth at a height of about 250 km (160 mi). It had two radio transmitters (20 and 40 MHz), which emitted "beeps" that could be heard by radios around

6580-467: The Cassini spacecraft, which lasted from 2004 until 2017. Saturn has at least 62 known moons , although the exact number is debatable since Saturn's rings are made up of vast numbers of independently orbiting objects of varying sizes. The largest of the moons is Titan , which holds the distinction of being the only moon in the Solar System with an atmosphere denser and thicker than that of Earth. Titan holds

6720-793: The Chandrayaan programme , while the European Union and Japan have also planned future crewed space missions. The two primary global programs gaining traction in the 2020s are the Chinese-led International Lunar Research Station and the US-led Artemis Program, with its plan to build the Lunar Gateway and the Artemis Base Camp , each having its own set of international partners. The first telescope

6860-602: The Moon itself and progressing to the use of lunar resources to underpin a future industrial capability within the Earth-Moon system. Natural resources include solar power, oxygen, water, hydrogen, and metals. The lunar highland material anorthite can be used as aluminium ore . Smelters can produce pure aluminium, calcium metal, oxygen and silica glass from anorthite. Raw anorthite is also good for making fiberglass and other glass and ceramic products. One particular processing technique

7000-491: The Moon or Mars . Metallic asteroids contain huge amounts of siderophilic metals , including precious metals . ISRU research for Mars is focused primarily on providing rocket propellant for a return trip to Earth—either for a crewed or a sample return mission—or for use as fuel on Mars. Many of the proposed techniques use the well-characterised atmosphere of Mars as feedstock. Since this can be simulated on Earth, these proposals are relatively simple to implement, though it

7140-573: The Peenemünde Army Research Center in Peenemünde . It was the first human-made object to reach outer space , attaining an apogee of 176 kilometers, which is well above the Kármán line . It was a vertical test launch. Although the rocket reached space, it did not reach orbital velocity , and therefore returned to Earth in an impact, becoming the first sub-orbital spaceflight . In 1949,

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7280-635: The Space Shuttle program , and from competition to cooperation as with the International Space Station (ISS). With the substantial completion of the ISS following STS-133 in March 2011, plans for space exploration by the U.S. remained in flux. The Constellation program aiming for a return to the Moon by 2020 was judged unrealistic by an expert review panel reporting in 2009. Constellation ultimately

7420-700: The US Naval Research Laboratory conducted its first test of solar power generation in a satellite. In August 2021, the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) announced that it planned to launch a SBSP test array by 2023, and at the same time revealed that Donald Bren and his wife Brigitte, both Caltech trustees, had been since 2013 funding the institute's Space-based Solar Power Project, donating over $ 100 million. A Caltech team successfully demonstrated beaming power to earth in 2023. In 1941, science fiction writer Isaac Asimov published

7560-550: The dwarf planets Ceres and Pluto were orbited by Dawn and passed by New Horizons , respectively. This accounts for flybys of each of the eight planets in the Solar System , the Sun , the Moon , and Ceres and Pluto (two of the five recognized dwarf planets ). The first interplanetary surface mission to return at least limited surface data from another planet was the 1970 landing of Venera 7 , which returned data to Earth for 23 minutes from Venus . In 1975, Venera 9

7700-466: The far side of the Moon . India's Chandrayaan-3 in 2023 achieved the world's first landing on the lunar south pole region. Crewed exploration of the Moon began in 1968 with the Apollo 8 mission that successfully orbited the Moon, the first time any extraterrestrial object was orbited by humans. In 1969, the Apollo 11 mission marked the first time humans set foot upon another world. Crewed exploration of

7840-415: The regolith . Most schemes electrolyse the water to produce hydrogen and oxygen and cryogenically store them as liquids. This requires large amounts of equipment and power to achieve. Alternatively, it may be possible to heat water in a nuclear or solar thermal rocket , which may be able to deliver a large mass from the Moon to low Earth orbit (LEO) in spite of the much lower specific impulse , for

7980-412: The 2010 IEEE Symposium on Antennas and Propagation. In 2013, a useful overview was published, covering technologies and issues associated with microwave power transmission from space to ground. It includes an introduction to SPS, current research and future prospects. Moreover, a review of current methodologies and technologies for the design of antenna arrays for microwave power transmission appeared in

8120-548: The Moon began with the Ranger 4 impactor in 1962. Starting in 1966, the Soviets successfully deployed a number of landers to the Moon which were able to obtain data directly from the Moon's surface; just four months later, Surveyor 1 marked the debut of a successful series of U.S. landers. The Soviet uncrewed missions culminated in the Lunokhod program in the early 1970s, which included

8260-426: The Moon did not continue for long. The Apollo 17 mission in 1972 marked the sixth landing and the most recent human visit. Artemis II is scheduled to complete a crewed flyby of the Moon in 2025, and Artemis III will perform the first lunar landing since Apollo 17 with it scheduled for launch no earlier than 2026. Robotic missions are still pursued vigorously. The exploration of Mars has been an important part of

8400-485: The Moon may reduce the cost of building a solar power satellite from lunar materials. Some proposed techniques include the lunar mass driver and the lunar space elevator , first described by Jerome Pearson. It would require establishing silicon mining and solar cell manufacturing facilities on the Moon . Physicist Dr David Criswell suggests the Moon is the optimum location for solar power stations, and promotes lunar-based solar power. The main advantage he envisions

8540-460: The Moon. Also, probes were sent throughout the known Solar System, and into Solar orbit. Uncrewed spacecraft have been sent into orbit around Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercury by the 21st century, and the most distance active spacecraft, Voyager 1 and 2 traveled beyond 100 times the Earth-Sun distance. The instruments were enough though that it is thought they have left the Sun's heliosphere,

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8680-453: The OSHA long-term levels as over 95% of the beam energy will fall on the rectenna. However, any accidental or intentional mis-pointing of the satellite could be deadly to life on Earth within the beam. Exposure to the beam can be minimized in various ways. On the ground, assuming the beam is pointed correctly, physical access must be controllable (e.g., via fencing). Typical aircraft flying through

8820-520: The Proceedings of the IEEE. Laser power beaming was envisioned by some at NASA as a stepping stone to further industrialization of space. In the 1980s, researchers at NASA worked on the potential use of lasers for space-to-space power beaming, focusing primarily on the development of a solar-powered laser. In 1989, it was suggested that power could also be usefully beamed by laser from Earth to space. In 1991,

8960-473: The SELENE project (SpacE Laser ENErgy) had begun, which included the study of laser power beaming for supplying power to a lunar base. The SELENE program was a two-year research effort, but the cost of taking the concept to operational status was too high, and the official project ended in 1993 before reaching a space-based demonstration. Laser Solar Satellites are smaller in size, meaning that they have to work as

9100-449: The Solar System (and beyond) followed, then and in the next centuries : the mountains of the Moon , the phases of Venus , the main satellites of Jupiter and Saturn , the rings of Saturn , many comets , the asteroids , the new planets Uranus and Neptune , and many more satellites . The Orbiting Astronomical Observatory 2 was the first space telescope launched 1968, but the launching of Hubble Space Telescope in 1990 set

9240-423: The Solar System are accomplished at a cost in energy, which is described by the net change in velocity of the spacecraft, or delta-v . Due to the relatively high delta-v to reach Mercury and its proximity to the Sun, it is difficult to explore and orbits around it are rather unstable. Venus was the first target of interplanetary flyby and lander missions and, despite one of the most hostile surface environments in

9380-539: The Solar System, has had more landers sent to it (nearly all from the Soviet Union) than any other planet in the Solar System. The first flyby was the 1961  Venera 1 , though the 1962  Mariner 2  was the first flyby to successfully return data. Mariner 2 has been followed by several other flybys by multiple space agencies often as part of missions using a Venus flyby to provide a gravitational assist en route to other celestial bodies. In 1967, Venera 4 became

9520-690: The Sun, beginning with the Apollo Telescope Mount , have been launched and still others have had solar observation as a secondary objective. Parker Solar Probe , launched in 2018, will approach the Sun to within 1/9th the orbit of Mercury. Mercury remains the least explored of the Terrestrial planets . As of May 2013, the Mariner 10 and MESSENGER missions have been the only missions that have made close observations of Mercury. MESSENGER entered orbit around Mercury in March 2011, to further investigate

9660-528: The United Arab Emirates. Called the Emirates Mars Mission , it was launched on 19 July 2020 and went into orbit around Mars on 9 February 2021. The uncrewed exploratory probe was named "Hope Probe" and was sent to Mars to study its atmosphere in detail. The Russian space mission Fobos-Grunt , which launched on 9 November 2011, experienced a failure leaving it stranded in low Earth orbit . It

9800-604: The air the focus. Both the Soviet Union and the U.S. were racing to prove their superiority in technology through exploring space. In fact, the reason NASA was created was as a response to Sputnik I. The launch of the first human-made object to orbit Earth , the Soviet Union's Sputnik 1 , on 4 October 1957, and the first Moon landing by the American Apollo 11 mission on 20 July 1969 are often taken as landmarks for this initial period. The Soviet space program achieved many of

9940-426: The air using a simple process such as WAVAR . Another possible source of water is deep aquifers kept warm by Mars's latent geological heat, which can be tapped to provide both water and geothermal power. Rocket propellant production has been proposed from the Moon's surface by processing water ice detected at the poles . The likely difficulties include working at extremely low temperatures and extraction of water from

10080-543: The asteroid 4 Vesta , two of the three largest asteroids, were visited by NASA's Dawn spacecraft , launched in 2007. Hayabusa was a robotic spacecraft developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to return a sample of material from the small near-Earth asteroid 25143 Itokawa to Earth for further analysis. Hayabusa was launched on 9 May 2003 and rendezvoused with Itokawa in mid-September 2005. After arriving at Itokawa, Hayabusa studied

10220-428: The asteroid's shape, spin, topography, color, composition, density, and history. In November 2005, it landed on the asteroid twice to collect samples. The spacecraft returned to Earth on 13 June 2010. The exploration of Jupiter has consisted solely of a number of automated NASA spacecraft visiting the planet since 1973. A large majority of the missions have been "flybys", in which detailed observations are taken without

10360-644: The beam provide passengers with a protective metal shell (i.e., a Faraday Cage ), which will intercept the microwaves. Other aircraft ( balloons , ultralight , etc.) can avoid exposure by using controlled airspace, as is currently done for military and other controlled airspace. In addition, a design constraint is that the microwave beam must not be so intense as to injure wildlife, particularly birds. Suggestions have been made to locate rectennas offshore, but this presents serious problems, including corrosion, mechanical stresses, and biological contamination. A commonly proposed approach to ensuring fail-safe beam targeting

10500-494: The broader Rosetta mission . Deep space exploration is the branch of astronomy , astronautics and space technology that is involved with the exploration of distant regions of outer space. Physical exploration of space is conducted both by human spaceflights (deep-space astronautics) and by robotic spacecraft . Solar power satellite Solar panels on spacecraft have been in use since 1958, when Vanguard I used them to power one of its radio transmitters; however,

10640-405: The building blocks for more complex reaction series which are able to make plastics. Ethylene is used to make plastics such as polyethylene and polypropylene and can be made from carbon monoxide and hydrogen: The Moon possesses abundant raw materials that are potentially relevant to a hierarchy of future applications, beginning with the use of lunar materials to facilitate human activities on

10780-447: The case of either H 2 O or CO 2 . This is because the process requires a very high temperature (> 2,500 °C) to achieve a useful dissociation fraction. This poses problems in finding suitable reactor materials, losses due to vigorous product recombination, and excessive aperture radiation losses when concentrated solar heat is used. The magnetite/wustite redox cycle was first proposed for solar application on earth by Nakamura, and

10920-684: The collection of solar power: The SBSP concept also has a number of problems: Space-based solar power essentially consists of three elements: The space-based portion will not need to support itself against gravity (other than relatively weak tidal stresses). It needs no protection from terrestrial wind or weather, but will have to cope with space hazards such as micrometeors and solar flares . Two basic methods of conversion have been studied: photovoltaic (PV) and solar dynamic (SD). Most analyses of SBSP have focused on photovoltaic conversion using solar cells that directly convert sunlight into electricity. Solar dynamic uses mirrors to concentrate light on

11060-647: The cost of such a venture, the uncertainty lay in the cost and complexity of fabrication procedures on the lunar surface. The colonization of planets or moons will require obtaining local building materials , such as regolith . For example, studies employing artificial Mars soil mixed with epoxy resin and tetraethoxysilane , produce high enough values of strength, resistance, and flexibility parameters. Asteroid mining could also involve extraction of metals for construction material in space, which may be more cost-effective than bringing such material up out of Earth 's deep gravity well, or that of any other large body like

11200-428: The diameter of the proposed SPSP array is increased by 2.5x, the energy density on the ground increases to 1 W/cm . At this level, the median lethal dose for mice is 30-60 seconds of microwave exposure. While designing an array with 2.5x larger diameter should be avoided, the dual-use military potential of such a system is readily apparent. With good array sidelobe design, outside the receiver may be less than

11340-498: The direct cost of a new coal or nuclear power plant ranges from $ 3 billion to $ 6 billion per GW (not including the full cost to the environment from CO 2 emissions or storage of spent nuclear fuel, respectively). Gerard O'Neill , noting the problem of high launch costs in the early 1970s, proposed building the SPS's in orbit with materials from the Moon . Launch costs from the Moon are potentially much lower than from Earth because of

11480-468: The discovery of significant amounts of hydrogen -containing regolith near the Moon's poles by the Clementine spacecraft . Lunar materials may also be used as a general construction material, through processing techniques such as sintering , hot-pressing, liquification , and the cast basalt method. Cast basalt is used on Earth for construction of, for example, pipes where a high resistance to abrasion

11620-684: The distinction of being the only object in the Outer Solar System that has been explored with a lander, the Huygens probe deployed by the Cassini spacecraft. The exploration of Uranus has been entirely through the Voyager 2 spacecraft, with no other visits currently planned. Given its axial tilt of 97.77°, with its polar regions exposed to sunlight or darkness for long periods, scientists were not sure what to expect at Uranus. The closest approach to Uranus occurred on 24 January 1986. Voyager 2 studied

11760-519: The end users. The service life of space-based collectors in the face of long-term exposure to the space environment, including degradation from radiation and micrometeoroid damage, could also become a concern for SBSP. As of 2020, SBSP is being actively pursued by Japan, China, Russia, India, the United Kingdom, and the US. In 2008, Japan passed its Basic Space Law which established space solar power as

11900-533: The energy required at launch to reach Jupiter, albeit at the cost of a significantly longer flight duration. Jupiter has 95 known moons , many of which have relatively little known information about them. Saturn has been explored only through uncrewed spacecraft launched by NASA, including one mission ( Cassini–Huygens ) planned and executed in cooperation with other space agencies. These missions consist of flybys in 1979 by Pioneer 11 , in 1980 by Voyager 1 , in 1982 by Voyager 2 and an orbital mission by

12040-510: The engineering feasibility of such a project. They include: The project was not continued with the change in administrations after the 1980 United States elections . The Office of Technology Assessment concluded that "Too little is currently known about the technical, economic, and environmental aspects of SPS to make a sound decision whether to proceed with its development and deployment. In addition, without further research an SPS demonstration or systems-engineering verification program would be

12180-449: The first milestones, including the first living being in orbit in 1957, the first human spaceflight ( Yuri Gagarin aboard Vostok 1 ) in 1961, the first spacewalk (by Alexei Leonov ) on 18 March 1965, the first automatic landing on another celestial body in 1966, and the launch of the first space station ( Salyut 1 ) in 1971. After the first 20 years of exploration, focus shifted from one-off flights to renewable hardware, such as

12320-458: The first of which was Galileo , which flew past two: 951 Gaspra in 1991, followed by 243 Ida in 1993. Both of these lay near enough to Galileo' s planned trajectory to Jupiter that they could be visited at acceptable cost. The first landing on an asteroid was performed by the NEAR Shoemaker probe in 2000, following an orbital survey of the object, 433 Eros . The dwarf planet Ceres and

12460-506: The first probe to enter and directly examine the atmosphere of Venus. In 1970, Venera 7 became the first successful lander to reach the surface of Venus and by 1985 it had been followed by eight additional successful Soviet Venus landers which provided images and other direct surface data. Starting in 1975, with the Soviet orbiter Venera 9 , some ten successful orbiter missions have been sent to Venus, including later missions which were able to map

12600-412: The first uncrewed rovers and also successfully brought lunar soil samples to Earth for study. This marked the first (and to date the only) automated return of extraterrestrial soil samples to Earth. Uncrewed exploration of the Moon continues with various nations periodically deploying lunar orbiters. China's Chang'e 4 in 2019 and Chang'e 6 in 2024 achieved the world's first landing and sample return on

12740-692: The following purposes: SERT went about developing a solar power satellite (SPS) concept for a future gigawatt space power system, to provide electrical power by converting the Sun's energy and beaming it to Earth's surface, and provided a conceptual development path that would utilize current technologies. SERT proposed an inflatable photovoltaic gossamer structure with concentrator lenses or solar heat engines to convert sunlight into electricity. The program looked both at systems in Sun-synchronous orbit and geosynchronous orbit . Some of SERT's conclusions: The May 2014 IEEE Spectrum magazine carried

12880-575: The future survival of humanity, and developing military and strategic advantages against other countries. The early era of space exploration was driven by a " Space Race " between the Soviet Union and the United States . A driving force of the start of space exploration was during the Cold War. After the ability to create nuclear weapons, the narrative of defense/offense left land and the power to control

13020-406: The globe. Analysis of the radio signals was used to gather information about the electron density of the ionosphere, while temperature and pressure data was encoded in the duration of radio beeps. The results indicated that the satellite was not punctured by a meteoroid . Sputnik 1 was launched by an R-7 rocket. It burned up upon re-entry on 3 January 1958. The first successful human spaceflight

13160-601: The ground to the high power microwave beams is a significant concern with these systems. At the Earth's surface, a suggested SPSP microwave beam would have a maximum intensity at its center, of 23 mW/cm . While this is less than 1/4 the solar irradiation constant , microwaves penetrate much deeper into tissue than sunlight, and at this level would exceed the current United States Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) workplace exposure limits for microwaves at 10 mW/cm At 23 mW/cm , studies show humans experience significant deficits in spatial learning and memory. If

13300-399: The hematite, abundantly available on Mars, is an industrial process well known on Earth, and is performed by the following two main reduction reactions: The proposed 2001 Mars Surveyor lander was to demonstrate manufacture of oxygen from the atmosphere of Mars , and test solar cell technologies and methods of mitigating the effect of Martian dust on the power systems, but the project

13440-664: The lack of experience on projects of this scale in space – it showed enough promise to merit further investigation and research. Between 1978 and 1986, the Congress authorized the Department of Energy (DoE) and NASA to jointly investigate the concept. They organized the Satellite Power System Concept Development and Evaluation Program. The study remains the most extensive performed to date (budget $ 50 million). Several reports were published investigating

13580-459: The last largest moon in the system. Data from Voyager 2 supported the view that Neptune's largest moon, Triton , is a captured Kuiper belt object. The dwarf planet Pluto presents significant challenges for spacecraft because of its great distance from Earth (requiring high velocity for reasonable trip times) and small mass (making capture into orbit difficult at present). Voyager 1 could have visited Pluto, but controllers opted instead for

13720-445: The location of the particular application in question. Another potential application of lunar-derived solar arrays is providing power to Earth. In its original form, known as the solar power satellite , the proposal was intended as an alternate power source for Earth . Solar cells would be launched into Earth orbit and assembled, with the resultant generated power being transmitted down to Earth via microwave beams. Despite much work on

13860-469: The longest ever Soviet planetary surface mission. Venus and Mars are the two planets outside of Earth on which humans have conducted surface missions with uncrewed robotic spacecraft . Salyut 1 was the first space station of any kind, launched into low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 19 April 1971. The International Space Station (ISS) is currently the largest and oldest of the 2 current fully functional space stations, inhabited continuously since

14000-571: The lower gravity and lack of atmospheric drag . This 1970s proposal assumed the then-advertised future launch costing of NASA's space shuttle. This approach would require substantial upfront capital investment to establish mass drivers on the Moon. Nevertheless, on 30 April 1979, the Final Report ("Lunar Resources Utilization for Space Construction") by General Dynamics' Convair Division, under NASA contract NAS9-15560, concluded that use of lunar resources would be cheaper than Earth-based materials for

14140-564: The lunar surface under remote control of workers stationed on Earth. The high net energy gain of this proposal derives from the Moon's much shallower gravitational well . Having a relatively cheap per pound source of raw materials from space would lessen the concern for low mass designs and result in a different sort of SPS being built. The low cost per pound of lunar materials in O'Neill's vision would be supported by using lunar material to manufacture more facilities in orbit than just solar power satellites. Advanced techniques for launching from

14280-466: The lunar surface, and 400,171 km (248,655 mi) from Earth, marking the record for the farthest humans have ever traveled from Earth in 1970. As of 26 November 2022 Voyager 1 was at a distance of 159 AU (23.8 billion km; 14.8 billion mi) from Earth. It is the most distant human-made object from Earth. Starting in the mid-20th century probes and then human missions were sent into Earth orbit, and then on to

14420-422: The mass and cost of space exploration architectures, in that it may be a way to drastically reduce the amount of payload that must be launched from Earth in order to explore a given planetary body . According to NASA , "in-situ resource utilization will enable the affordable establishment of extraterrestrial exploration and operations by minimizing the materials carried from Earth." In the context of ISRU, water

14560-499: The material launched need not be delivered to its eventual orbit immediately, which raises the possibility that high efficiency (but slower) engines could move SPS material from LEO to GEO at an acceptable cost. Examples include ion thrusters or nuclear propulsion . Infrastructure including solar panels, power converters, and power transmitters will have to be built in order to begin the process. This will be extremely expensive and maintaining them will cost even more. To give an idea of

14700-505: The methane and oxygen, they have said they plan to mine the requisite water from subsurface water ice , produce and then store the post-Sabatier reactants, and then use it as propellant for return flights of their Starship no earlier than 2023. As of 2023 SpaceX has not produced or published any designs, specifications for any ISRU technology. A similar reaction proposed for Mars is the reverse water gas shift reaction , CO 2 + H 2 → CO + H 2 O . This reaction takes place rapidly in

14840-403: The mining ship would be traditional aerospace-grade payload. The rest would be reaction mass for the mass-driver engine, which could be arranged to be the spent rocket stages used to launch the payload. Assuming that 100% of the returned asteroid was useful, and that the asteroid miner itself couldn't be reused, that represents nearly a 95% reduction in launch costs. However, the true merits of such

14980-437: The native vacuum on the lunar surface provides an excellent environment for direct vacuum deposition of thin-film materials for solar cells. Solar arrays produced on the lunar surface can be used to support lunar surface operations as well as satellites off the lunar surface. Solar arrays produced on the lunar surface may prove more cost effective than solar arrays produced and shipped from Earth, but this trade depends heavily on

15120-494: The observations made by Mariner 10 in 1975 (Munsell, 2006b). A third mission to Mercury, scheduled to arrive in 2025, BepiColombo is to include two probes . BepiColombo is a joint mission between Japan and the European Space Agency . MESSENGER and BepiColombo are intended to gather complementary data to help scientists understand many of the mysteries discovered by Mariner 10's flybys . Flights to other planets within

15260-426: The planet's unique atmosphere and magnetosphere . Voyager 2 also examined its ring system and the moons of Uranus including all five of the previously known moons, while discovering an additional ten previously unknown moons. Images of Uranus proved to have a uniform appearance, with no evidence of the dramatic storms or atmospheric banding evident on Jupiter and Saturn. Great effort was required to even identify

15400-579: The power it needed for flight from a microwave beam. Between 1969 and 1975, Bill Brown was technical director of a JPL Raytheon program that beamed 30 kW of power over a distance of 1 mile (1.6 km) at 9.6% efficiency. Microwave power transmission of tens of kilowatts has been well proven by existing tests at Goldstone in California (1975) and Grand Bassin on Reunion Island (1997). More recently, microwave power transmission has been demonstrated, in conjunction with solar energy capture, between

15540-428: The presence of an iron-chrome catalyst at 400 °C, and has been implemented in an Earth-based testbed by NASA. Again, hydrogen is recycled from the water by electrolysis , and the reaction only needs a small amount of hydrogen from Earth. The net result of this reaction is the production of oxygen, to be used as the oxidizer component of rocket fuel. Another reaction proposed for the production of oxygen and fuel

15680-586: The probe landing or entering orbit; such as in Pioneer and Voyager programs. The Galileo and Juno spacecraft are the only spacecraft to have entered the planet's orbit. As Jupiter is believed to have only a relatively small rocky core and no real solid surface, a landing mission is precluded. Reaching Jupiter from Earth requires a delta-v of 9.2 km/s, which is comparable to the 9.7 km/s delta-v needed to reach low Earth orbit. Fortunately, gravity assists through planetary flybys can be used to reduce

15820-444: The problem of transmitting energy from orbit. Since wires extending from Earth's surface to an orbiting satellite are not feasible with current technology, SBSP designs generally include the wireless power transmission with its associated conversion inefficiencies, as well as land use concerns for antenna stations to receive the energy at Earth's surface. The collecting satellite would convert solar energy into electrical energy, power

15960-483: The project. A demo project of 1 GW starts at $ 50 billion. The Shimizu Corporation use combination of lasers and microwave for the Luna Ring concept, along with power relay satellites. Asteroid mining has also been seriously considered. A NASA design study evaluated a 10,000-ton mining vehicle (to be assembled in orbit) that would return a 500,000-ton asteroid fragment to geostationary orbit. Only about 3,000 tons of

16100-473: The resources required to make plastics exist on Mars. Many of these complex reactions are able to be completed from the gases harvested from the martian atmosphere. Traces of free oxygen, carbon monoxide, water and methane are all known to exist. Hydrogen and oxygen can be made by the electrolysis of water, carbon monoxide and oxygen by the electrolysis of carbon dioxide and methane by the Sabatier reaction of carbon dioxide and hydrogen. These basic reactions provide

16240-527: The return from the Moon. Ceres is further out than Mars, with a higher delta-v, but launch windows and travel times are better, and the surface gravity is just 0.028 g, with a very low escape velocity of 510 m/s. Researchers have speculated that the interior configuration of Ceres includes a water-ice-rich mantle over a rocky core. Near Earth Asteroids and bodies in the asteroid belt could also be sources of raw materials for ISRU. Proposals have been made for "mining" for rocket propulsion , using what

16380-456: The same means. In a 2012 report presented to NASA on space solar power, the author mentions another potential use for the technology behind space solar power could be for solar electric propulsion systems that could be used for interplanetary human exploration missions. One problem with the SBSP concept is the cost of space launches and the amount of material that would need to be launched. Much of

16520-454: The satellite would be received in the dipoles with about 85% efficiency. With a conventional microwave antenna, the reception efficiency is better, but its cost and complexity are also considerably greater. Rectennas would likely be several kilometers across. A laser SBSP could also power a base or vehicles on the surface of the Moon or Mars, saving on mass costs to land the power source. A spacecraft or another satellite could also be powered by

16660-430: The scale of the problem, assuming a solar panel mass of 20 kg per kilowatt (without considering the mass of the supporting structure, antenna, or any significant mass reduction of any focusing mirrors) a 4 GW power station would weigh about 80,000 metric tons , all of which would, in current circumstances, be launched from the Earth. This is, however, far from the state of the art for flown spacecraft, which as of 2015

16800-498: The science fiction short story " Reason ", in which a space station transmits energy collected from the Sun to various planets using microwave beams. The SBSP concept, originally known as satellite solar-power system (SSPS), was first described in November 1968. In 1973 Peter Glaser was granted U.S. patent number 3,781,647 for his method of transmitting power over long distances (e.g. from an SPS to Earth's surface) using microwaves from

16940-474: The solar system, and a number of potential water extraction technologies have been investigated. For water that is chemically bound to regolith , solid ice, or some manner of permafrost, sufficient heating can recover the water. However this is not as easy as it appears because ice and permafrost can often be harder than plain rock, necessitating laborious mining operations. Where there is some level of atmosphere, such as on Mars, water can be extracted directly from

17080-428: The sole visit to the system as of 2024. The possibility of a Neptune Orbiter has been discussed, but no other missions have been given serious thought. Although the extremely uniform appearance of Uranus during Voyager 2 ' s visit in 1986 had led to expectations that Neptune would also have few visible atmospheric phenomena, the spacecraft found that Neptune had obvious banding, visible clouds, auroras , and even

17220-436: The space exploration programs of the Soviet Union (later Russia), the United States, Europe, Japan and India. Dozens of robotic spacecraft , including orbiters , landers , and rovers , have been launched toward Mars since the 1960s. These missions were aimed at gathering data about current conditions and answering questions about the history of Mars. The questions raised by the scientific community are expected to not only give

17360-715: The surface of Venus using radar to pierce the obscuring atmosphere. Space exploration has been used as a tool to understand Earth as a celestial object. Orbital missions can provide data for Earth that can be difficult or impossible to obtain from a purely ground-based point of reference. For example, the existence of the Van Allen radiation belts was unknown until their discovery by the United States' first artificial satellite, Explorer 1 . These belts contain radiation trapped by Earth's magnetic fields, which currently renders construction of habitable space stations above 1000 km impractical. Following this early unexpected discovery,

17500-486: The term (and acronyms) above are generally used in the context of large-scale transmission of energy for use on Earth. Various SBSP proposals have been researched since the early 1970s, but as of 2014 none is economically viable with the space launch costs. Some technologists propose lowering launch costs with space manufacturing or with radical new space launch technologies other than rocketry . Besides cost, SBSP also introduces several technological hurdles, including

17640-481: The thermal input of energy if compared with the most direct, one-step process for splitting molecules. However, the process needs wüstite (FeO) to start the cycle, but on Mars there is no wustite or at least not in significant amounts. Nevertheless, wustite can be easily obtained by reduction of hematite (Fe 2 O 3 ) which is an abundant material on Mars, being especially conspicuous are the strong hematite deposits located at Terra Meridiani . The use of wustite from

17780-403: The transmitted beam should be centered precisely on the rectenna and have a high degree of phase uniformity; if the pilot beam is lost for any reason (if the transmitting antenna is turned away from the rectenna, for example) the phase control value fails and the microwave power beam is automatically defocused. Such a system would not focus its power beam very effectively anywhere that did not have

17920-459: The transmitting and receiving antennas means that the minimum practical power level for an SPS will necessarily be high; small SPS systems will be possible, but uneconomic. A collection of LEO ( low Earth orbit ) space power stations has been proposed as a precursor to GEO ( geostationary orbit ) space-based solar power. The Earth-based rectenna would likely consist of many short dipole antennas connected via diodes . Microwave broadcasts from

18060-433: The year 2000. The other, Tiangong space station built by China, is now fully crewed and operational. Voyager 1 became the first human-made object to leave the Solar System into interstellar space on 25 August 2012. The probe passed the heliopause at 121 AU to enter interstellar space . The Apollo 13 flight passed the far side of the Moon at an altitude of 254 kilometers (158 miles; 137 nautical miles) above

18200-444: Was Vostok 1 ("East 1"), carrying the 27-year-old Russian cosmonaut , Yuri Gagarin , on 12 April 1961. The spacecraft completed one orbit around the globe, lasting about 1 hour and 48 minutes. Gagarin's flight resonated around the world; it was a demonstration of the advanced Soviet space program and it opened an entirely new era in space exploration: human spaceflight . The first artificial object to reach another celestial body

18340-401: Was Luna 2 reaching the Moon in 1959. The first soft landing on another celestial body was performed by Luna 9 landing on the Moon on 3 February 1966. Luna 10 became the first artificial satellite of the Moon, entering in a lunar orbit on 3 April 1966. The first crewed landing on another celestial body was performed by Apollo 11 on 20 July 1969, landing on the Moon. There have been

18480-500: Was 150 W/kg (6.7 kg/kW), and improving rapidly. Very lightweight designs could likely achieve 1 kg/kW, meaning 4,000 metric tons for the solar panels for the same 4 GW capacity station. Beyond the mass of the panels, overhead (including boosting to the desired orbit and stationkeeping) must be added. To these costs must be added the environmental impact of heavy space launch missions, if such costs are to be used in comparison to earth-based energy production. For comparison,

18620-480: Was cancelled. The Mars 2020 rover mission includes an ISRU technology demonstrator (the Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment ) that will extract CO 2 from the atmosphere and produce O 2 . It has been suggested that buildings on Mars could be made from basalt as it has good insulating properties. An underground structure of this type would be able to protect life forms against radiation exposure. All of

18760-575: Was expected in 2019. The spiritual successor to the Resource Prospector became VIPER (rover) , that was also cancelled in 2024. Space exploration Space exploration is the use of astronomy and space technology to explore outer space . While the exploration of space is currently carried out mainly by astronomers with telescopes , its physical exploration is conducted both by uncrewed robotic space probes and human spaceflight . Space exploration, like its classical form astronomy ,

18900-420: Was one of the first used for solar-driven two-step water splitting . In this cycle, water reacts with wustite (FeO) to form magnetite (Fe 3 O 4 ) and hydrogen. The summarised reactions in this two-step splitting process are as follows: and the obtained FeO is used for the thermal splitting of water or CO 2  : This process is repeated cyclically. The above process results in a substantial reduction in

19040-443: Was quoted as saying China expects to be the first nation to build a working space solar power station with practical value. Chinese scientists were reported as planning to launch several small- and medium-sized space power stations between 2021 and 2025. In December 2019, Xinhua News Agency reported that China plans to launch a 200-tonne SBSP station capable of generating megawatts (MW) of electricity to Earth by 2035. In May 2020,

19180-472: Was replaced with the Artemis Program , of which the first mission occurred in 2022 , with a planned crewed landing to occur with Artemis III . The rise of the private space industry also began in earnest in the 2010s with the development of private launch vehicles, space capsules and satellite manufacturing. In the 2000s, China initiated a successful crewed spaceflight program while India launched

19320-399: Was the first celestial body to be the object of space exploration. It holds the distinctions of being the first remote celestial object to be flown by, orbited, and landed upon by spacecraft, and the only remote celestial object ever to be visited by humans. In 1959, the Soviets obtained the first images of the far side of the Moon , never previously visible to humans. The U.S. exploration of

19460-431: Was the first to return images from the surface of another planet, returning images from Venus. In 1971, the Mars 3 mission achieved the first soft landing on Mars returning data for almost 20 seconds. Later, much longer duration surface missions were achieved, including over six years of Mars surface operation by Viking 1 from 1975 to 1982 and over two hours of transmission from the surface of Venus by Venera 13 in 1982,

19600-480: Was to begin exploration of the Phobos and Martian circumterrestrial orbit, and study whether the moons of Mars, or at least Phobos, could be a "trans-shipment point" for spaceships traveling to Mars. Until the advent of space travel , objects in the asteroid belt were merely pinpricks of light in even the largest telescopes, their shapes and terrain remaining a mystery. Several asteroids have now been visited by probes,

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