As of today, many countries have perfect space research projects. and many other nations will have especially during the past 15 years. China and India have played a huge role in space exploration. to a level that is on par with Russia, America, the European Union and Japan as well. Turkey, South Korea Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates There was also a space program with him. In Thailand, we have announced that there is a project to send a satellite to orbit the moon in 2027, which is considerably slower than other superpowers.
Because on October 4, 1957 (that is, 65 years ago), the whole world was stunned. when the Russian authorities sent a satellite (man-made stars Not a natural star) named Sputnik 1 or more orbit the Earth. The satellite body is made of steel, weighs 84 kg, looks like a sphere the size of a soccer ball. Inside there is a device that sends out radio waves regularly. Through four antennas with a length of 2.4-2.9 meters, the people of the world can receive waves. Although the signal sent does not provide any scientific information. In addition to informing everyone that the signal source is orbiting in space above the Earth’s surface. It has an elliptical orbit that is the closest and farthest from the Earth’s surface, at a distance of 215 kilometers and 939 kilometers, respectively. with an average speed of 29,000 km/h or 8 km/s
This news has made all Russians very proud of the talent of their nation. and at the same time This news has made the Western world worried because Sputnik 1 It weighs six times more than the first satellite that America intended to launch in 1958. The rockets used to launch Russian satellites must have much higher propulsion power than American rockets. And with this success the world knows that Russia was the first nation to conquer space. And the space age for humanity has arrived.
The first non-Russian person which received a signal from Sputnik 1 is Geoffrey Perry which is a radio amateur and is a science teacher at Kettering Grammar School in England. This success instantly made Perry a celebrity. Because after the end of World War II, Russia and the Western Allies had always been in the Cold War. Every activity the Russian people can do is top secret. Whether it’s about building nuclear bombs, guided missiles, submarines, moving troops, etc., and military testing hours. no matter what if it fails The outside world will never know. but if successful The whole world will know immediately. which is different from the work of the American government that whether it works well or does not work everyone will know
In addition to being a big news with a huge impact. Both politically and technologically, Sputnik 1 pioneered the era of remote sensing and spurred the Western world to reform science education in its nation. because when the president Dwight D. Eisenhower Upon hearing this news, he convened a meeting of 14 American science and technology advisers and directly asked if the United States had already defeated the Russian space race, Edwin Land, the man who invented the Polaroid camera. replied to the President The Russian people recognize science as a concept that everyone needs to have in their lives. But American society uses science to increase its wealth. The advisory panel recommended that the American government set up a program to encourage the nation’s younger generation to pay more attention to science. The survey found that the math and science abilities of American children are much lower than that of Russian children. All advisors therefore saw that in the future, in the near future America will definitely not catch up with Russia in space.
Therefore, the following year, the Eisenhower government established NASA The British, French and Canadian governments have also established their own national space agency. Eisenhower has also allocated $1 billion to advance the nation’s science and math education. This has resulted in all universities and schools in the United States changing, that is, teaching more math and science. as well as producing more scientists Then, within just 15 years, the number of people pursuing doctoral degrees in science in the United States has increased by as much as four times, and the number of schools that directly focus on teaching advanced sciences has also increased.
in just one year After America saw the Sputnik 1 satellite, America was able to follow Russia. With the launch of the Explorer 1 satellite, the satellite was equipped with cosmic radiation detectors, and Explorer 1 found the Van Allen radiation band that enveloped Earth for the first time. Russia also sent Sputnik 2, carrying a dog named Laika inside, into space. to pave the way for bringing humans to orbit around the world and finally to the moon
But launching a satellite into space in any nation will not be possible. If that nation does not have the technology to build highly efficient rockets. This necessity makes NASA A project to build an efficient rocket has to be taken seriously. Until the rocket can soar up from the base more safely and can bring the US satellite. a large number of orbits in space, such as Satellite TIROS-1 which was the first satellite to be sent to survey the world’s climate in 1960
The biggest challenge with these satellites is being able to take pictures from space above. and send the image signal back down to Earth using electronic technology which made the process go faster. But it wasn’t good. Later, the US had a good remote sensing satellite, ERTS-1, which started working in 1972.
As of today, there are tens of thousands of satellites orbiting the Earth. and send a variety of data back down to the project staff for analysis, such as Meteosat satellite which takes pictures of clouds in the atmosphere around the world Then send the images back down every 15 minutes for meteorologists to analyze. To be able to predict weather conditions in advance and Landsat satellites that take pictures of the land and forest. To see the events of wildfires occurring in forests around the world or that may occur. without anyone knowing The resulting photos can also help the Ministry of Agriculture know that. What kind of crops are farmers in different nations growing? Because sometimes farmers do not provide real information. these spy satellites will help inform the authorities that What crops are they planting and where are they planting and how much or how little? Undercover satellites can also be used for military intelligence, such as where enemy guided missile launchers are located, what types of rockets can be launched. Where is the atomic bomb factory located, and the troops are moving anywhere? Spy satellites are therefore a new type of weapon that every nation needs to have. for an advantage in war
on the issue of environmental surveys The satellite can also capture images that show the flow of river currents that often change rapidly, such as the Brahmaputra River in India. that some years there will be several branches of the flow path Until people on the ground can’t tell which path the river will flow when there is a lot of flooding, flow data can tell that. How does the flow of water depend on time? infrared ray satellite Those used to receive and transmit infrared waves can also tell the quality level of plant and forest health.
for the designed satellite to forecast the intensity of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions In addition to being able to photograph underwater volcanic eruptions near Tonga Island, the world can see the dangers of tsunamis. Therefore, satellites help us understand the nature of our planet better. as well as helping us know that How fast or slow is the world changing?
As for the role of communication Author Arthur C. Clarke first proposed the idea of using satellites for communication. by sending up to orbit at an altitude of 35,786 km above the equator to complete one orbit around the Earth in 1 day, just like the Earth. The satellite therefore looks like it is fixed in the sky. in the way that it is geostationary is always above a certain location, such as a Telstar satellite used to receive radio signals from a station on the planet. and give the signal reflected at the satellite to send it back to another station on earth This idea is more than a reality. Everyone had to wait until 1962 because the rocket was sent very far from Earth. A rocket with high enough power is needed.
After sending tens of thousands of satellites to orbit the Earth The next step is to send a satellite to orbit the moon. In 1966 Russia launched the Luna 10 spacecraft for the first time around the moon. The United States later on the Apollo program sent astronauts to the moon for the first time in 1969. China was the third country to follow Russia and the United States. To explore the moon 15 years ago (in 2007) and 12 years later, China sent a vehicle to the moon. In 2014, India sent the Mars Orbiter to Mars, and in 2022, India and the European Space Agency (ESA, the European Space Agency) will collaborate on the SMILE project. Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer) to study the influence that the Earth’s magnetic field has on the solar wind from the Sun. This project is pure science research in the United States, with the National Academy of Sciences as its main institution. There are also many space research projects that will use a large number of satellites and space telescopes. in search of planets outside the solar system At the National Space Science Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, China’s project DAMPE (from Dark Matter Particle Explorer) attempts to detect gamma rays emitted by dark matter.
All these approved lunar exploration projects. arises from the use of two conditions:
1. The results obtained are important new knowledge.
2. It is a project that has received cooperation from international personnel to work together and is a project that requires a network of multiple satellites to explore the moon. It may take as many as 1,000 researchers from many countries to have the greatest impact on society. The project does not focus on the amount of research published, such as conditions.
in the journal IEEE Spectrum January issue of this year JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) Organization The United States and Italy’s Argotec have proposed a project for the Andromeda satellite network, which consists of 24 satellites that will orbit the moon in four different orbits. Each orbit has six satellites to cover the moon’s surface completely. Each satellite has three antennas to transmit and receive data between the Earth and the Moon at all times. The satellite is a cubic box, measures 44x37x40 centimeters, which is powered by solar cells. Having a “GPS” satellite system around the moon will help to navigate and communicate various scientific data by giving the satellite orbit. It is a stable orbit for at least 5 years and has an elliptical orbit with an orbital period of 12 hours, with a closest distance of 720 km and a farthest of 8,090 km.
A big project called Lunar Gateway It is a project (which includes the Andromeda project) with international cooperation. To send a space station to orbit the moon. in order to be the resting place for astronauts before going down to explore the lunar surface and took a short break after the end of the lunar exploration This is just one of 90 projects the international government will undertake from 2022 to 2030 to pilot a permanent lunar exploration station for astronauts. especially at the south pole of the moon which has large craters that many scientists think There was ice deep in the bottom of the hole. for astronauts to use water to grow plants and split the ice into liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. to use as rocket fuel when traveling back to Earth On the side of the moon facing away from Earth at all times, NASA has a project to build a large radio telescope. To use to explore the universe in the future, these are events that will occur in the next 8 years, where the impact will be so large that only one Thai satellite will play an important role or not Can someone answer this observation?
The Sputnik 1 satellite didn’t significantly change the way people live on Earth in 1957. But this satellite It has created enormous consequences in many ways over the past 65 years, and there will likely be many more significant in the future. When humans send satellites to explore and explore other planets.
Read more from How to build a moonbase by Elizabeth Gibney in the journal Nature, Issue 562, October 25, 2018.
Suthat Yoksan : Work history – Royal Graduate School of Science Department of Physics and Astronomy and Professor, Level 11, Department of Physics Srinakharinwirot University, Outstanding Scientist and National Outstanding Researcher Physical and Mathematics Educational background-Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from the University of London, PhD from the University of California.
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