A geosynchronous orbit (GSO) is an Earth orbit where the orbital period matches the Earth’s rotation. There is a special case of a GSO called a geostationary orbit where a circular GSO has no inclination to the Earth’s equatorial plane and is directly over the equator at an altitude of about twenty three thousand miles.
I have blogged in the past about the fact that space is not a friendly place. It takes a toll on human beings who spend a lot of time there. Calcium leaches out of the bones, muscles lose mass, there is damage to the visual system, and dangerous radiation is common and could lead to cancers. Today, I am going to go into more detail on the damage to astronauts’ eyes.
I have blogged before about all the debris orbiting the Earth left over from space launches. It is estimated that there are more than one hundred million pieces of debris that are less than 1 centimeter in size. They are too small to track with radar, but some are still big enough to cause serious damage to a space craft because they are traveling so fast.
I have often blogged about the International Space Station, a cooperative project of space faring nations in orbit around the earth. A lot of experiments are carried out by the international crew of the ISS. The U.S. and Russia are two of the major players in the project.
Many fairytales and legends feature a person being put into a long sleep, in some cases decades. With the advent of the scientific age, the idea of being able to put someone into a deep sleep in order for them to endure long space flights became popular.
Many science fiction movies begin with the return of a probe from space which brings some sort of alien life to Earth from space to wreak havoc on our ecosystem. For a long time it was though that the conditions in space were too harsh for the survival of any sort of living organism. However, we have found a living creature called a tardigrade which is so hearty that it can survive vacuum and radiation.
Part 2 of 2 parts (Please read Part 1 first)
Part 1 of 2 parts.
One danger of a manned space launch is that there could be a major problem during launch. If this happens, there should be a way for the crew capsule to be jettisoned so that it can return safely to Earth. We have lost astronauts during launch before. There have been a variety of safety systems proposed.
An increasingly large share of the satellite market is being taken up by what are referred to as “small satellites.” These are defined as weighing less than one thousand one hundred pounds. It is estimated that between 2015 and 2019, over five hundred small satellites will have been launched into low Earth orbit.
