Week 9: Space + Art

For the younger generation, space travel is never a new topic. It is common nowadays for children to have a dream of being an astronaut. What many of us do not know is that the first space travel happened only several decades ago, and the development of space industry has been accelerating in a rapid manner. As mentioned in the lecture, advance in space industry was initially due to the fierce space race between the Soviet Union and the US. For example, in 1961, Alan Shepard, an American astronaut, was sent to space soon after Yuri Gagarin, an astronaut of the Soviet Union, had become the first human in space. Science education has also been encouraged in order to boost the development in space industry to the greatest extent. 

Space race between US and USSR
(from Google images)

Compared to limited resources on the Earth, potential resources in the space are countless. In the lecture, it was mentioned that Planetary Resources is planning to create a fuel depot in space to extract liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen from asteroid for rocket fuel. This reminds me of the Kepler mission which has discovered over 3000 exoplanets and brought about unlimited possibilities. In Kepler mission, the transit method is used and an exoplanet can be discovered once its brightness changes. The planet’s orbital size can be calculated using Kepler’s Third Law as well. Through this highly effective method, many Earth-size and smaller planets have been discovered, some of which are even habitable for humans.

Potential habitable exoplanets founded in Kepler mission
(from Google images)

Another extremely interesting and popular topic about space is the black hole. Black hole is a region where matter is so dense that no force can resist the crush of gravity in it. Time also changes when one gets closer to black hole. If someone on Earth observes a traveler going to the black hole, he will find that the speed of the traveler is getting slower all the time and the traveler will never fall into the black hole. Time becomes still at the event horizon, which is the surface of black hole.

Time twisted around black hole
(from Google images)

Space is a fascinating subject, and it can be the answer to resource exhaustion, human origin and even where in space we can live as in science fictions. Nevertheless, space industry is full of risks and unknowns. It is important that scientists try their best to avoid tragedies like Apollo one happening again.

Sources:

NASA. “Kepler and K2”, 8 Feb 2017. <https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/overview/index.html> Accessed 2 June 2017. Web.

NASA. “What Is a Black Hole?”, 8 March 2017. <https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/nasa-knows/what-is-a-black-hole-k4.html> Accessed 2 June 2017. Web.

Temming, Maria. “How is Time Changed Inside a Black Hole?”, Sky & Telescope, 22 July 2014. <https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/overview/index.html> Acdssed 2 June 2017. Web.

Wikipedia. “Kepler (spacecraft)”, 22 May 2017. Accessed 2 June 2017. Web.

Youtube. “Space pt1” to “Space pt6”, uconlineprogram, 30 May 2012. Accessed 2 June 2017. Video.