Curiosity: An international mission to Mars

Curiosity is a mission which consists of shooting a robot to Mars to analise its composition. It was shot in 2011, and since then it has been collecting usefull data which has been analised thorughout the whole world.

The NASA in USA coordinated the missions and built the whole robot, which each part made in different countries whose data is analised in their country.

For example, Spain provided the part to analise the atmosphere and climatic behaviour of the planet. This is held in spanish laboratories and it is paid by the government.

Here there is a video of some of the shots the robot's camera has taken:

The main objective of this mission is to determine whether life was present or not thousands of years ago and if it could be an inhabitable planet. It is a previous step to a future human tripulated mission to Mars.

Spanish Technology Used by the International Space Station

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) is the first complex scientific instrument made with spanish participation that travels to the International Space travel to accomplish a research space project. Spain has financed the project with over 11,4 million euros, approximately 4% of the total cost of the instrument's materials.

Other 16 countries have also participated in the project, headed by the USA.

Sources: http://www.agenciasinc.es/Noticias/Un-experimento-con-tecnologia-espanola-viajara-a-la-Estacion-Espacial-Internacional-a-bordo-del-Endeavour 

Graphs that show the responses of spanish people in the street on space travel questions

Spanish Space Tourism

In 2011 Spain headed space tourism just under USA. 12 spanish people paid over 137000 euros for a 2 hour spaceflight.

In 2012, the british engineer James Murray started an international consortium called Booster, whose objective was to make Spain the european headquarters from which the flights from this company will take off.

Spanish Space Trips

First spanish astronaut to go to space: Pedro Duque. 

He is a spanish astronaut and veteran of 2 space missions. He earned a degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the Politecnical University of Madrid in 1986. He worked for the European space agency and in 2003 he visited the International Space Station.

He has received many awards, both spanish and international.

 

Graph showing the spanish perspective among several questions about space travel. 

Epitome of American Space Travel

"That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." ~ Astronaut Neil Armstrong 

(July 20, 1969) 

...as he stepped on the moon

So What IS NASA? And What's the Big Deal about American Space Travel?

NASA, or the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, was created by the United States Congress and President Eisenhower in October 1958, "to provide for research into the problems of flight within and outside the Earth's atmosphere and for other purposes." The American space program was a direct reaction to Soviet’s launching Sputnik, the first satellite ever to go into space, in 1957. NASA focuses on technological innovation by encouraging small, high-tech companies to partner with NASA to help meet its research and development needs in key technology areas. NASA started out with only three major research laboratories - Langely, Ames, and Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory. Today, the space program has twenty large research laboratories throughout the United States. NASA, although they have since ceased sending people to space, has hosted 135 space trips in 30 years. The U.S. is now considered to be at the forefront of space technology and research.

......TIMELINE OF FIRST 20 YEARS......

• Mercury's single astronaut program (flights during 1961-1963) to ascertain if a human could survive in space

• From Cape Canaveral, Florida, Navy Commander Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. is launched into space aboard the Freedom 7 space capsule, becoming the first American astronaut to travel into space (May 1961)

• Project Gemini (flights during 1965-1966) with two astronauts to practice space operations, especially rendezvous and docking of spacecraft and extravehicular activity (EVA)
• Project Apollo (flights during 1968-1972) to explore the Moon. 

• Robotic missions to the Moon Ranger, Surveyor, and Lunar Orbiter), Venus (Pioneer Venus), Mars (Mariner 4, Viking 1 and 2), and the outer planets (Pioneer 10 and 11, Voyager 1 and 2)

• Aeronautics research to enhance air transport safety, reliability, efficiency, and speed (X-15 hypersonic flight, lifting body flight research, avionics and electronics studies, propulsion technologies, structures research, aerodynamics investigations)

• Remote-sensing Earth satellites for information gathering (Landsat satellites for environmental monitoring)

• Applications satellites for communications (Echo 1, TIROS, and Telstra) and weather monitoring

• An orbital workshop for astronauts, Skylab

• A reusable spacecraft for traveling to and from Earth orbit, the Space Shuttle

• Pioneer 10/Pioneer 11, launched on March 2, 1972 /April 5, 1973, traveled to Jupiter and Saturn to study the composition of interplanetary space

To work at NASA is considered a coveted experience. However, for such a thirsted for job, the pay isn't very incredible. Income starts at $60,000 for aerospace engineers and may increases to $100,000. Astronauts, which in the US are typically aviators who pass the exams, are paid $100,000 their entire careers. According to the 2013 Junior Archive Teens & Careers Survey, 61% of teenagers are interested in working in a STEM field. American high schools are now beginning to integrate more STEM opportunities into education - such as "MakerSpace" and internships. A makerspace is a laboratory and setting where "where young people have an opportunity to explore their own interests, learn to use tools and materials, and develop creative projects. It could be embedded inside an existing organization or standalone on its own. It could be a simple room in a building or an outbuilding that’s closer to a shed. The key is that it can adapt to a wide variety of uses and can be shaped by educational purposes as well as the students’ creative goals." As of 2013, 90,000 people were employed as aerospace engineers. There has never been more than 150 astronauts in the United States at any given time.

Some ethical repercussions people have on space travel is what is to come in the future because the idea of “commercializing” space and to eventually send more humans to live in outer space. This brings about a big question of how people will begin to “claim” ownership of parts of space and how to determine who gets to have what in space.

Sources: https://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com/2012/06/28/makerspaces-participatory-learning-and-libraries/

What Do American Teens Have to Say About Space Travel?

1. What do you think the Space Program going to do in the future?

   Person #1: Somehow, we’re going to figure out how to make other planets livable for humans

   Person #2: Aren’t they shut down?

   Person #3: We’re going to find habitable planet(s) and send people even farther into our galaxy
2. Perspectives on aliens
   

   Person #1:They probably don't exist

   Person #2: They probably exist

   Person #3:They exist - I am very excited to see what they look like
   Person #4: The government made them up!
3. How does the space program work?
   

   Person #1: They send out satellites to get digital pictures to planets and put people out in space to do the same...right?

   Person #2: Everyone who works at NASA and the astronauts have to be very smart. No one goes to space anymore. People - the scientists - at NASA send satellites into space.

   Person #3: Do the astronauts have to know how to float on command

   Person #4: Government allocates a certain amount of $$ to the space program and that’s how they carry out their studies/experiments/space trips
4. Are you curious about how the space program works?

   Person #1: No, don’t care

   Person #2: Sometimes

   Person #3: No, not really...
   Person #4: It's their jobs
   
   This survey shows that teenagers/students in the United States (or especially those in Pennsylvania) have only a very limited knowledge of what happens outside their little green world. This is something that needs to change, and I feel that the modern age of technology will eventually turn students into experts of all types of scientists.