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Sputnik and space history
As I'm sure many of you know, October 4, 2007 will mark the 50th
anniversary of the launch of Sputnik, the first man-made object ever to leave the atmosphere and successfully orbit the earth. Throughout the world, events are being planned to celebrate the "Sputnik Year," which begins on the anniversary and runs through December 31, 2008. I'm part of the production team on Sputnik: The Movie, which is set to come out this year as part of the celebration of Sputnik's 50th anniversary. The movie, which tells the satellite's story from America's point of view, resonates with me today even though I'm far too young to have lived through the age of Sputnik. The film is based on Paul Dickson's bestselling book Sputnik: The Shock of the Century, which I love. Longtime PBS journalist Mark Shields narrates the film with his unique grandfatherly, yet opinionated, style of storytelling. Anyway, I wanted to make you all aware of this movie and the importance it'll have this year. For more information, you can go to www.sputnikmovie.com, or feel free to contact me with any questions you have. A question for all of you: if you were alive when Sputnik was launched, what do you remember about that day? And if not, what in your lifetime compares to the magic of mankind's first venture into outer space? |
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Sputnik and space history
On 26 Feb 2007 23:16:14 -0800, "slate91"
wrote: A question for all of you: if you were alive when Sputnik was launched, what do you remember about that day? ....Cue Henry and Mary! OM -- ]=====================================[ ] OMBlog - http://www.io.com/~o_m/omworld [ ] Let's face it: Sometimes you *need* [ ] an obnoxious opinion in your day! [ ]=====================================[ |
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Sputnik and space history
On 26 Feb 2007 23:16:14 -0800, "slate91"
wrote: As I'm sure many of you know, October 4, 2007 will mark the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik, the first man-made object ever to leave the atmosphere and successfully orbit the earth. Nice try, but Sputnik was faked. It's impossible to leave the atmosphere. There's nothing past that for a rocket to push against. Duh.... Dale |
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Sputnik and space history
OM wrote: On 26 Feb 2007 23:16:14 -0800, "slate91" wrote: A question for all of you: if you were alive when Sputnik was launched, what do you remember about that day? ...Cue Henry and Mary! And me. My memories of that historic day were going poo-poo in my diapers, and wishing it could have been on Khrushchev's head instead. ;-) The first space mission I have any detailed memory of was Carpenter's Mercury flight, as I remember the balloon failing to deploy properly, and the Navy searching for him after the landing. Pat |
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Sputnik and space history
In article ,
OM wrote: A question for all of you: if you were alive when Sputnik was launched, what do you remember about that day? ...Cue Henry and Mary! Maybe Mary. I was alive then, but not yet really paying attention. :-) -- spsystems.net is temporarily off the air; | Henry Spencer mail to henry at zoo.utoronto.ca instead. | |
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Sputnik and space history
I was a month short of my 13th birthday, and a space nut already. I'd read the magazines and newspaper articles and seen the science class posters, and knew space travel was coming. But when the launch was announced late Friday evening, and made the radio news, my folks didn't bother me -- I was going to sleep and they felt I needed my rest. In the morning, I got up and went out to chores before they remembered to tell me. It wasn't until noon when I picked up my stack of newspapers (the 'Reporter Dispatch' out of White Plains), and saw the headline, that I knew the course of my life was forever changed. After delivering the papers I walked down to a local convenience store, bought up all the other newspapers (the serious ones, from New York City), and then just stood outside leaning against a fence, bringing up the subject with anybody walking by. A month later, we heard the news of Sputnik-2 on the radio Sunday morning. A few days later, driving to White Plains for a movie as part of my birthday celebration, the radio news kept reporting rumors that the dog's capsule was headed back to Earth. It wasn't the first 'space spectacular' on radio. The previous summer, as we drove to a lake for vacation, there were repeated radio reports that an Atlas rocket launch had gone into orbit around the Earth (it had really exploded) -- and no, I'm not confusing this with the exciting 'Score' surprise announcement in December 1958. |
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Sputnik and space history
On Tue, 27 Feb 2007 04:45:21 -0600, Pat Flannery
wrote: OM wrote: On 26 Feb 2007 23:16:14 -0800, "slate91" wrote: A question for all of you: if you were alive when Sputnik was launched, what do you remember about that day? ...Cue Henry and Mary! And me. My memories of that historic day were going poo-poo in my diapers, and wishing it could have been on Khrushchev's head instead. ;-) The first space mission I have any detailed memory of was Carpenter's Mercury flight, as I remember the balloon failing to deploy properly, and the Navy searching for him after the landing. Pa One of my earliest childhood memories is the night we looked for Sputnik. My family drove out into the countryside to my uncles house to visit and try and see Sputnik through binoculars. They think they may have spotted it. I also remember that my cousin was building a cutaway model of a rocket. What I remember more strongly is that my uncle also had a large jug full of pennies and he said that I could have it if I could lift it, but of course I could not. I would have been about two for the first Sputnik, so I suspect that it was one of the later Sputniks. I have a more vivid memory of watching Alan Shepard taking his first flight on TV. Alan |
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Sputnik and space history
Jim Oberg wrote: I was a month short of my 13th birthday, and a space nut already. I'd read the magazines and newspaper articles and seen the science class posters, and knew space travel was coming. Now here's a story even _you_ might not know about...Sputnik 1 and its ties to Russian plasma stealth technology: http://www.aeronautics.ru/archive/plasma/index.htm "One of the most interesting articles related to the effect of plasma on the RCS of aircraft was published back in 1963 by the IEEE. The article is entitled "Radar cross sections of dielectric or plasma coated conducting spheres and circular cylinders" http://tinyurl.com/2uhmxy (IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, September 1963, pp. 558-569). Six year earlier - in 1957 - the Soviets launched the first artificial satellite. While trying to track the Sputnik it was noticed that its electromagnetic scattering properties were different from what was expected for a conductive sphere. This was due to the satellite traveling inside of a plasma shell. You know what the Sputnik looked like and it's simple shape ideally serves as an uncomplicated illustration of plasma's effect on the RCS of an aircraft. Naturally, an actual aircraft has a far more elaborate shape and it made of a greater variety of materials, but the basic effect remain the same. To summarize the article, in the case with the Sputnik flying through the ionosphere at high velocity and surrounded by a naturally occurring plasma shell we deal with two separate radar reflections: the one from the conductive surface of the satellite itself and the second one from the dielectric plasma shell. The authors of the research found that a dielectric shell (a plasma shell) may decrease or increase the echo area of the object. If either one of the two reflections (from the object itself or from the plasma shell) is considerably greater, then the other weaker reflection will not contribute much to the overall effect. The authors also stated that the EM signal that penetrated the plasma shell and reflected off the object's surface will drop in intensity while traveling through plasma. This is self-explanatory. The most interesting effect is observed when the two reflections are of the same order of magnitude. In this situation the two components (the two reflections) will be added as phasors and the resulting field will determine the overall RCS. When these two components are out of phase relative to each other cancellation occurs. This means that under such circumstances the RCS becomes null and the object is completely invisible to the radar." Pat |
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Sputnik and space history
I was 8 years old, inthe 3rd grade and already a budding space geek. I
remember going to school (must have been the following Monday) and the teacher asked if anyone could define what a "satellite" was. I don't know if anyone just replied "like Sputnik" or what, but I remember giving a more or less correct definition of something like a smaller object that was in orbit around a larger one. David Takemoto-Weerts JPL Solar System Ambassador Davis, CA |
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Sputnik and space history
Alan Jones wrote: I also remember that my cousin was building a cutaway model of a rocket. Probably this: http://tinyurl.com/39n6t2 ....or this: http://www.ninfinger.org/~sven/model...0Restored.html * * What I remember more strongly is that my uncle also had a large jug full of pennies and he said that I could have it if I could lift it, but of course I could not. I would have been about two for the first Sputnik, so I suspect that it was one of the later Sputniks. I have a more vivid memory of watching Alan Shepard taking his first flight on TV. First satellite I remember seeing was one of the Echos. Pat |
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