Spacefaring

Last updated July 23, 2019

To be spacefaring is to be capable of and active in space travel or space transport, the operation of spacecraft or spaceplanes. It involves a knowledge of a variety of topics and development of specialised skills including: aeronautics; astronautics; programs to train astronauts; space weather and forecasting; ship-handling and small craft handling; operation of various equipment; spacecraft design and construction; atmospheric takeoff and reentry; orbital mechanics (a.k.a. astrodynamics); communications; engines and rockets; execution of evolutions such as towing, micro-gravity construction, and space docking; cargo handling equipment, dangerous cargoes and cargo storage; spacewalking; dealing with emergencies; survival at space and first aid; fire fighting; life support. The degree of knowledge needed within these areas is dependent upon the nature of the work and the type of vessel employed. "Spacefaring" is analogous to seafaring.

Human spaceflight is space travel with a crew or passengers aboard the spacecraft. Spacecraft carrying people may be operated directly, by human crew, or it may be either remotely operated from ground stations on Earth or be autonomous, able to carry out a specific mission with no human involvement.

A spacecraft is a vehicle or machine designed to fly in outer space. A type of artificial satellite, spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, Earth observation, meteorology, navigation, space colonization, planetary exploration, and transportation of humans and cargo. All spacecraft except single-stage-to-orbit vehicles cannot get into space on their own, and require a launch vehicle.

A spaceplane is an aerospace vehicle that can fly like an aircraft in Earth's atmosphere and maneuver like a spacecraft in the vacuum of space. To do so, spaceplanes must incorporate features of both aircraft and spacecraft, occupying an intermediate space between the two types. Orbital spaceplanes are more like spacecraft, sub-orbital spaceplanes are more like aircraft. All spaceplanes to date have been rocket powered but then landed as unpowered gliders.

Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. According to radiometric dating and other sources of evidence, Earth formed over 4.5 billion years ago. Earth's gravity interacts with other objects in space, especially the Sun and the Moon, Earth's only natural satellite. Earth orbits around the Sun in 365.26 days, a period known as an Earth year. During this time, Earth rotates about its axis about 366.26 times.

Earth's Moon is an astronomical body that orbits the planet and acts as its only permanent natural satellite. It is the fifth-largest satellite in the Solar System, and the largest among planetary satellites relative to the size of the planet that it orbits. The Moon is, after Jupiter's satellite Io, the second-densest satellite in the Solar System among those whose densities are known.

The European Space Agencypronunciation (help·info) is an intergovernmental organisation of 22 member states dedicated to the exploration of space. Established in 1975 and headquartered in Paris, France, ESA has a worldwide staff of about 2,200 in 2018 and an annual budget of about €5.72 billion in 2019.

Spacefaring entities can be both sovereign states and private corporations. Spacefaring nations are those capable of independently building and launching craft into space.^[1]^[2]^[3] A growing number of private entities have become or are becoming space faring.

In international law, a sovereign state, sovereign country, or simply state, is a political entity that is represented by one centralized government that has sovereignty over a geographic area. International law defines sovereign states as having a permanent population, defined territory, one government, and the capacity to enter into relations with other sovereign states. It is also normally understood that a sovereign state is neither dependent on nor subjected to any other power or state.

A corporation is an organization, usually a group of people or a company, authorized by the state to act as a single entity and recognized as such in law for certain purposes. Early incorporated entities were established by charter. Most jurisdictions now allow the creation of new corporations through registration.

Crewed spacefaring nations

Currently Russia and the People's Republic of China are the only two crewed spacefaring nations. The United States government ceased crewed space missions in July 2011 after STS-135. The U.S. is currently developing new crewed spacecraft, and many U.S. private businesses are in the planning and development stage of private crewed space flight.

Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country in Eastern Europe and North Asia. At 17,125,200 square kilometres (6,612,100 sq mi), Russia is by a considerable margin the largest country in the world by area, covering more than one-eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area, and the ninth most populous, with about 146.80 million people as of 2019, including Crimea. About 77% of the population live in the western, European part of the country. Russia's capital, Moscow, is one of the largest cities in the world and the second largest city in Europe; other major cities include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg and Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a wide range of environments and landforms. From northwest to southeast, Russia shares land borders with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia and North Korea. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk and the U.S. state of Alaska across the Bering Strait. However, Russia recognises two more countries that border it, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, both of which are internationally recognized as parts of Georgia.

A nation is a stable community of people, formed on the basis of a common language, territory, history, ethnicity, or psychological make-up manifested in a common culture.

The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country comprising 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of more than 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the most populous city is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.

Spacefaring nations listed by year of first crewed launch:

Soviet Union ( Russia) (1961)
United States (1961)
China (2003)

Uncrewed spacefaring nations

The following nations or organizations have developed their own launchers to launch uncrewed spacecraft into orbit either from their own territory or with foreign assistance (date of first launch in parentheses):^[4]

Soviet Union (1957)
United States (1958)
Canada (1962)
Italy (1964)
France (1965)
Australia (1967)
Japan (1970)
China (1970)
United Kingdom (1971)
European Space Agency (1979)
India (1980)
Israel (1988)
Ukraine (1991)*^[5]
Russia (1992)*
Iran (2009)^[6]
North Korea (2012)^{[ citation needed ]}
South Korea (2013)^[7]
New Zealand (2018)

* Previously the major part of Soviet Union

Note that a larger number of countries other than those listed above have launched suborbital spacecraft , and could also, in a loose sense, be considered spacefaring.^[8] If one considers merely launching an object beyond the Kármán line to be the minimum requirement of spacefaring, then Germany, with the V-2 rocket, became the first spacefaring nation in 1942.^[9]

The Kármán line, or Karman line, is an attempt to define a boundary between Earth's atmosphere and outer space. This is important for legal and regulatory measures; aircraft and spacecraft fall under different jurisdictions and are subject to different treaties.

Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central and Western Europe, lying between the Baltic and North Seas to the north and the Alps, Lake Constance and the High Rhine to the south. It borders Denmark to the north, Poland and the Czech Republic to the east, Austria and Switzerland to the south, France to the southwest, and Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands to the west.

The V-2, technical name Aggregat 4 (A4), was the world's first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was developed during the Second World War in Germany as a "vengeance weapon", assigned to attack Allied cities as retaliation for the Allied bombings against German cities. The V-2 rocket also became the first man-made object to travel into space by crossing the Kármán line with the vertical launch of MW 18014 on 20 June 1944.

Also several countries, such as Canada, Italy and Australia, had semi-independent spacefaring capability, launching locally-built satellites on foreign launchers. Canada had designed and built satellites (Alouette 1 & 2) in 1962 & 1965 which were orbited using US launch vehicles. Italy has designed and built several satellites, as well as pressurized (crewed) modules for the International Space Station. Early Italian satellites were launched using vehicles provided by NASA, first from Wallops Flight Facility in 1964 and then from a spaceport in Kenya (San Marco Platform) between 1967 and 1988;^{[ citation needed ]} Italy has led the development of the Vega rocket programme within the European Space Agency since 1998.^[10] The United Kingdom abandoned its independent space launch programme in 1972 in favour of co-operating with the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO) on launch technologies until 1974. Australia abandoned its launcher programme shortly after the successful launch of WRESAT, and became the only non-European member of ELDO.

Non-governmental suborbital flights

A number of private organizations are developing crewed spacefaring missions, though still largely suborbital. Mike Melvill and Brian Binnie of Mojave Aerospace Ventures are the first such private individuals to achieve suborbital space travel status. A range of organizations including UP Aerospace are also planning private launches, while others such as SpaceX plan eventually to launch crewed orbital missions.

General space civilization

Generally, a planet-based civilization might have varying levels of difficulty in reaching space. Both the planet's gravity and atmosphere influence the ease of space exploration. Gravity on a more massive planet would generally make it more difficult to launch a spacecraft into orbit. The effects of atmospheric friction on the craft must also be taken into consideration, as well as the amount of resources, including exotic materials possibly needed for construction of a spacecraft. Generally, only a species or civilization capable of interplanetary and/or interstellar flight is considered^{[ by whom? ]} "truly" spacefaring. In fiction, such civilizations often possess colonies, either in their home system or possibly other planetary systems. As of present-day technology, humanity would not be considered^{[ by whom? ]} a space faring civilization because interplanetary travel, even within the Solar System, has not yet been achieved by an actual living human. Many probes and non-human relays have been dispatched throughout the system and in outlying space however.

Spacefaring in popular culture

Science fiction often deals with more advanced spacefaring cultures, and the opportunities and challenges that this might bring to such societies.

One example is Star Trek , where humanity, though already spacefaring, is still struggling to adapt to interstellar life, and in many cases, politics.

An additional example would follow the premise of science fiction author Larry Niven. In his short story, The Fourth Profession Mr. Niven postulates the arrival of a spacefaring culture of traders that depend in part on the technical sophistication of the civilizations being visited to build the requisite launch lasers to accelerate their mothership to the next star system. Cultures lacking resources to achieve crewed spaceflight are ignored as animals.

Related Research Articles

Interplanetary spaceflight spaceflight between planets

Interplanetary spaceflight or interplanetary travel is travel between planets, usually within a single planetary system. In practice, spaceflights of this type are confined to travel between the planets of the Solar System.

Space exploration is the discovery and exploration of celestial structures in outer space by developing and growing space technology. While the study of space is carried out mainly by astronomers with telescopes, the physical exploration of space is conducted both by unmanned robotic space probes and human spaceflight.

Robotic spacecraft uncrewed spacecraft, usually under telerobotic control

A robotic spacecraft is an uncrewed spacecraft, usually under telerobotic control. A robotic spacecraft designed to make scientific research measurements is often called a space probe. Many space missions are more suited to telerobotic rather than crewed operation, due to lower cost and lower risk factors. In addition, some planetary destinations such as Venus or the vicinity of Jupiter are too hostile for human survival, given current technology. Outer planets such as Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are too distant to reach with current crewed spacecraft technology, so telerobotic probes are the only way to explore them.

Spaceflight is ballistic flight into or through outer space. Spaceflight can occur with spacecraft with or without humans on board. Yuri Gagarin of the Soviet Union was the first human to conduct a spaceflight. Examples of human spaceflight include the U.S. Apollo Moon landing and Space Shuttle programs and the Russian Soyuz program, as well as the ongoing International Space Station. Examples of unmanned spaceflight include space probes that leave Earth orbit, as well as satellites in orbit around Earth, such as communications satellites. These operate either by telerobotic control or are fully autonomous.

The Europa rocket was an early expendable launch system of the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO), which was the precursor to the European Space Agency (ESA). It was developed with the aim to delivering space access technology, and more specifically to facilitate the deployment of European-wide telecommunication and meteorological satellites into orbit.

Space Adventures, Inc. is an American space tourism company founded in 1998 by Eric C. Anderson. As of 2010, offerings include zero-gravity atmospheric flights, orbital spaceflights, and other spaceflight-related experiences including cosmonaut training, spacewalk training, and launch tours. Plans announced thus far include sub-orbital and lunar spaceflights. As of October 2009, seven clients have participated in the orbital spaceflight program with Space Adventures, including one person who took two separate trips to space.

BepiColombo is a joint mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to the planet Mercury. The mission comprises two satellites launched together: the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and Mio. The mission will perform a comprehensive study of Mercury, including characterization of its magnetic field, magnetosphere, and both interior and surface structure. It was launched on an Ariane 5 rocket on 20 October 2018 at 01:45 UTC, with an arrival at Mercury planned for December 2025, after a flyby of Earth, two flybys of Venus, and six flybys of Mercury. The mission was approved in November 2009, after years in proposal and planning as part of the European Space Agency's Horizon 2000+ programme; it is the last mission of the programme to be launched.

The Italian Space Agency is a government agency established in 1988 to fund, regulate and coordinate space exploration activities in Italy. The agency cooperates with numerous national and international entities who are active in aerospace research and technology.

Orbital Sciences Corporation is an American company specializing in the design, manufacture and launch of small- and medium- class space and rocket systems for commercial, military and other government customers. In 2014 Orbital merged with Alliant Techsystems to create a new company called Orbital ATK, Inc., which in turn was purchased by Northrop Grumman in 2018. Orbital Sciences Corporation today is a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman.

Private spaceflight is a spaceflight or the development of new spaceflight technology that is conducted and paid for by an entity other than a government agency.

The European Space Research Organisation (ESRO) was an international organisation founded by 10 European nations with the intention of jointly pursuing scientific research in space. It was founded in 1964. As an organisation ESRO was based on a previously existing international scientific institution, CERN. The ESRO convention, the organisations founding document outlines it as an entity exclusively devoted to scientific pursuits. This was the case for most of its lifetime but in the final years before the formation of ESA, the European Space Agency, ESRO began a programme in the field of telecommunications. Consequently, ESA is not a mainly pure science focused entity but concentrates on telecommunications, earth observation and other application motivated activities. ESRO was merged with ELDO in 1975 to form the European Space Agency.

This is a timeline of first orbital launches by country. While a number of countries have built satellites, as of 2018, eleven countries have had the capability to send objects into orbit using their own launch vehicles. Russia and Ukraine inherited the space launchers and satellites capability from the Soviet Union, following its dissolution in 1991. Russia launches its rockets from its own and foreign (Kazakh) spaceports. Ukraine launched only from foreign launch facilities until 2015, after which political differences with Russia effectively halted Ukraine's ability to produce orbital rockets. France became a space power independently, launching a payload into orbit from Algeria, before joining space launcher facilities in the multi-national Ariane project. The United Kingdom became a space power independently following a single payload insertion into orbit from Australia, before discontinuing official participation in space launch capability, including the Ariane project, in the 1970s.

Spaceflight began in the 20th century following theoretical and practical breakthroughs by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and Robert H. Goddard. The Soviet Union took the lead in the post-war Space Race, launching the first satellite, the first man and the first woman into orbit. The United States caught up with, and then passed, their Soviet rivals during the mid-1960s, landing the first man on the Moon in 1969. In the same period, France, the United Kingdom, Japan and China were concurrently developing more limited launch capabilities.

Outline of space exploration Overview of and topical guide to space exploration

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to space exploration:

The British space programme is the UK government's work to develop British space capabilities. The objectives of the current civil programme are to "win sustainable economic growth, secure new scientific knowledge and provide benefits to all citizens."

The Space RIDER is a planned uncrewed orbital spaceplane aiming to provide the European Space Agency (ESA) with affordable and routine access to space. Its expected maiden flight is 2022.

References

↑ spacefaring - Definitions from Dictionary.com
↑ spacefaring. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000 Archived 2005-03-26 at the Wayback Machine
↑ space-faring nation thefeedictionary.com
↑ Space Today Online – Iran space satellite launch
↑ "Launches of Ukrainian LV". State Space Agency of Ukraine. Retrieved 20 April 2014.
↑ "Iran Launches Small Earth-Watching Satellite Into Orbit: Report". space.com. 2012-02-03. Retrieved 2014-01-01.
↑ "S. Korea successfully launches space rocket". xinhuanet.com. 2013-01-30. Archived from the original on 2013-02-04. Retrieved 2013-02-10.
↑ Space Today Online - space rocket launch sites around the world
↑ Peenemünde, Walter Dornberger, Moewig, Berlin 1984. ISBN 3-8118-4341-9.
↑ "Vega Programme". www.esa.int. ESA. Retrieved February 10, 2013.

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[1] spacefaring - Definitions from Dictionary.com

[2] spacefaring. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000 Archived 2005-03-26 at the Wayback Machine

[3] space-faring nation thefeedictionary.com

[4] Space Today Online – Iran space satellite launch

[5] "Launches of Ukrainian LV". State Space Agency of Ukraine. Retrieved 20 April 2014.

[space20140101-6] "Iran Launches Small Earth-Watching Satellite Into Orbit: Report". space.com. 2012-02-03. Retrieved 2014-01-01.

[xinhua20130130-7] "S. Korea successfully launches space rocket". xinhuanet.com. 2013-01-30. Archived from the original on 2013-02-04. Retrieved 2013-02-10.

[8] Space Today Online - space rocket launch sites around the world

[9] Peenemünde, Walter Dornberger, Moewig, Berlin 1984. ISBN 3-8118-4341-9.

[ESA_Vega_Programme-10] "Vega Programme". www.esa.int. ESA. Retrieved February 10, 2013.