EARLY SPACE EXPLORATION, KEPLER’S LAWS, EARTHKAM, AND

THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATIONBy: Riley, Lauren, Kamand, and

Madeline(Group 1)

Kepler’s Laws

The 1st Law- The Law of Eclipses

The path of the planets about the sun is elliptical in shape, with the center of the sun being located at one focus.

The Meaning of the 1st Law This law explains that planets are orbiting

the sun in a path described as an ellipse.

Try This! If you want to demonstrate the 1st law- Try

this! What you need- a pencil, two tacks, a string,

a sheet of paper, and a piece of cardboard. What you do- Tack the sheet of paper to the

cardboard using two tacks. Take your pencil and pull the sting until the pencil and two tacks make a triangle. Then begin to trace out a path with the pencil, keeping the string wrapped tightly around the tacks. The resulting image will be an ellipse.

The 2nd Law-The Law of Equal Areas

An imaginary line drawn from the center of the sun to the center of the planet will sweep out equal areas in equal intervals of time.

What does it mean? Sometimes referred to as the law of equal

areas- describes the speed at which any given planet will move while orbiting the sun. The speed at which any planet moves through space is constantly changing. A planet moves fastest when it is closest to the sun and slowest when it is furthest from the sun. Yet, if an imaginary line was drawn from the center of the planet to the center of the sun that line would sweep out the same area in equal periods of time.

The 3rd Law- The Law of Harmonies

The ratio of the squares of the periods of any two planets is equal to the ratio of the cubes of their average distances from the sun.

What does it Mean? It compares the orbital period and radius

of orbit of a planet to those of other planets. Unlike Kepler’s first and second laws that describe the motion characteristics of a single planet, the third law makes a comparison between the motion characteristics of different planets.

Early Space Exploration Since ancient times, people have

dreamed of leaving their home planet to explore other worlds. In the later half of the 20th century, that dream became reality. The space age began with the launch of the first artificial satellites in 1957. An artificial satellite is any object purposely placed into orbit around the Earth, other planets, or the Sun.

What are Some Satellites? Sputnik 1- Launched Oct. 4th 1957 Sputnik 2- Launched Nov. 3rd 1957

Interesting Fact!- Animals in Space!!!

Sputnik 2 sent a dog because this was the first time a living thing was sent into space, they didn’t want a human to get hurt, or die.

Unfortunately, the dog died of increased temperatures within the satellite. The dog’s name was Laika

The Russians also sent two other dogs, Strelka and Belka. Luckily they came back safely by parachute. They also sent monkeys, flies, ants, frogs, mice, bees, sea urchins, and over 2000 jellyfish.

The First American Satellite

Explorer 1- Launched on Jan. 31st 1950 Its successful flight made the United

States the second nation in space. It was only four months after the

Russians launched Sputnik 1

The First Human in Space A human first went into space in 1961.

Since then people have ventured into space, even living aboard orbiting space stations for months!

The International Space Station(ISS)

Facts and Figures The International Space Station marks its 10th

anniversary of continuous human occupation on Nov. 2, 2010. Since Expedition 1, which launched Oct. 31, 2000, and docked Nov. 2, the space station has been visited by 196 individuals from eight different countries.

At the time of the anniversary, the station’s odometer will read more than 1.5 billion statute miles (the equivalent of eight round trips to the Sun), over the course of 57,361 orbits around the Earth. Since the first module, Zarya, launched at 1:40 a.m. EST on Nov. 20, 1998, it has made a total of 68,519 orbits of our home planet, or about 1.7 billion miles on its odometer.

Continued… As of the Nov. 2 anniversary date there have been

103 launches to the space station: 67 Russian vehicles, 34 space shuttles, one European and one Japanese vehicle. A total of 150 spacewalks have been conducted in support of space station assembly totaling more than 944 hours.

The space station, including its large solar arrays, spans the area of a U.S. football field, including the end zones, and weighs 827,794 pounds. The complex now has more livable room than a conventional five-bedroom house, and has two bathrooms and a gymnasium.

EarthKAM

What is EarthKAM? EarthKAM (Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle school

students) is a NASA educational outreach program enabling students, teachers and the public to learn about Earth from the unique perspective of space. During EarthKAM missions (periods the EarthKAM camera is operational), middle school students around the world request photos of specific locations on Earth. The entire collection of EarthKAM images is available in a searchable EarthKAM image archive. This image collection and accompanying learning guides and activities are extraordinary resources to engage students in Earth and space science, geography, social studies, mathematics, communications and art.

Morocco

Jacksonville

Mt. Everest

Ireland

Ocean

Works Cited http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/ci

rcles/u6l4a.cfm

http://library.thinkquest.org/J0112188/early_space_exploration.htm

www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

https://earthkam.ucsd.edu/about