Chapter 9 Chapter 8 Frontiers in Space

The first artificial satellites were hailed as humanity's first stepping stones into space, the first progress beyond the frontiers of space.Newsstands, bookstores and libraries are stocked with newspapers and books describing the beauty of this frontier.We read about manned space stations and entire cities in the sky.Traveling to the moon, traveling to the planets, conquering the galaxy, colonizing other planetary systems, etc. have become commonplace. Of course, space operas are mere amusing fictions, essentially cowherd tales expanded to planets and galaxies.But there are also articles on space technology by professional engineers and scientists.In recent years, governments and industry have paid increasing attention to space activities.They set up experimental institutions and recruited engineers and scientists to study space navigation and space medicine.From their efforts emerged a clear vision of the possibilities of spaceflight.

Humans have traveled to space for the first time in a rocket ship.No one doubts any longer that the fundamental problems of interplanetary flight can be solved in one way or another in the next ten to thirty years.Therefore, we must ask: what exactly is man doing in space? Science fiction has done a lot to educate the world about the true purpose of space operations, but it has also created many misunderstandings.Even newspaper reports of the space activities of the United States and the Soviet Union tended to get the true meaning of the news wrong.The imagination of the world has been aroused by the achievements so far, and it is easy to believe those big words, thinking that it is really possible to detect and immigrate to other planets, and even fly to other stars.At this point, we have to think about it.

Let's take the planets as an example.Since the invention of Galileo and his thirty-magnification telescope, astronomers have assembled a wealth of detailed information on the physical and chemical makeup of worlds beyond our solar system.Although much remains unknown, we can say with certainty that none of our neighboring planets offers anything of great practical value to mankind.Judging from the existing knowledge, the scientific and economic benefits obtained from large-scale planetary exploration seem to be not worth spending so much public money and mobilizing so many scientific talents.In the foreseeable future, such space activities are mainly necessary to maintain the reputation of a great power.

In the past, people resolutely explored the unknown world and made many important scientific discoveries; therefore, those who question whether large-scale exploration is worthwhile are often scolded for hindering the progress of science.Nevertheless, the costs of venturing into space, in terms of money and scientific talent, must be honestly weighed against the possible benefits.In the past, the cost of exploring the unknown world could be lower.The equipment that Faraday used to discover electromagnetic induction can be purchased for a few bucks.On the surface, our ancestors have done all the experiments that don't cost much money, leaving some expensive experiments for us to do.When it comes to detecting planets, that's true.What we already know about the planets shows that direct contact with the senses does not seem to produce revolutionary scientific discoveries like those that have changed the course of human history.As far as human affairs are concerned, there are only two bodies in the solar system of real importance: the sun, which is the stabilizer and source of energy of the whole system; and the earth, which has properties especially favorable to life.

In any case, it's just a question of where to focus.While other planets and even the stars are legitimate targets for adventurous humans, the current emphasis on manned spaceflight is outstripped by their true importance.If almost the same amount of funds and talents as used for space activities are used to meet the major needs of mankind, such as education, technical assistance for developing countries, and preservation of the earth's resources, etc., it will definitely produce immediate practical benefits and international reputation. Preferable to a reputation built on miraculous abilities.

But there is indeed great promise on the frontier of space.For many years to come, the primary purpose of spaceflight could be for Earth itself.Satellites can perform many practical jobs that are extremely important in our technological civilization. Let's take television as an example.The image and sound of the TV are transmitted by the carried electric waves, which spread out like light.But this kind of radio wave cannot be broadcast directly according to the curvature of the earth; therefore, the signal sent by the TV station can only reach a limited range.If the television network is to spread to a large area, it is necessary to set up retransmission stations in key locations to amplify the signal sent by the original transmitter and rebroadcast it.Now such relay stations are located on the ground; in the future they will be located in the sky.It is really easy to use artificial satellites to bounce signals out to reach vast areas beyond the curvature of the earth.

Intercontinental television broadcasting can be carried out by a series of satellites, as long as they are distributed in strategic orbits.In fact, a satellite can be taught to stay in the sky over a certain point: the trick is to put it in an orbit 22,300 miles above the ground; in this way, the satellite makes one revolution every twenty-four hours .Assuming that the satellite is flying eastward over the equator of the earth, it seems to be stationary in the sky, because the earth also rotates once every 24 hours, just as fast as the satellite, neither first nor later.If a lot of satellites are arranged in key locations over the equator, that is to actually set up several fixed relay stations.They will receive the signal from the ground, pass it on, and broadcast it back to the ground, thousands of miles away.In this way, a worldwide television network can be established.

In December 1960, an aircraft company in California on the west coast of the United States and a telephone company on the east coast announced plans to build some television and telephone communication satellites, which could even be used by private industry for practical business .The proposed broadcast satellite is shaped like a cake, only 30 inches in diameter, and weighs only about 32 pounds, but it can directly communicate with television between continents, and it can also serve as the function of thousands of transoceanic telephone lines.The future transcontinental long-distance telephone will look like this: When we want to talk to someone far away on the other side of the earth, we first send the voice into space, and then turn back to the earth to reach the other party.

Large Tiros-style satellites carry television cameras, tiny transmitters, and solar cells to power everything.The signal sent by this electronic eye flying high in space can be directly used by the TV station on the ground and broadcast to every household. In this way, we can sit in the living room and enjoy the scene in the sky after going deep into space.So, we can watch our earth floating peacefully in space! Television cameras can be mounted like telescoping pans to watch ships and airplanes.This will usher in a new era for transoceanic traffic management.Forest fires can be detected immediately, and icebergs can be tracked as they drift off into warmer waters.There are many things on the surface of the earth that need to be watched, and satellites with keen eyes will be of great benefit to modern civilization.

And what are the benefits of manned spaceflight?Now we can say that man is probably suitable for space.Teaching people to actually live in space for days, weeks, or months, and manage a huge, manned space station, might be difficult; but it might not have to be done by humans.Automated equipment capable of performing all tasks Versatile scientific robots that are superior to humans in terms of sensitivity, reliability, and speed of action have made great progress in recent years.Assuming that a satellite can hold a thousand pounds of payload, it can carry a lot of instruments, perhaps more capable than humans, because humans have to carry at least the same weight of equipment to the sky to maintain their lives.

Shooting a man into space is an astonishing feat: a man can do no more than an instrument, in fact less.Dr. Vannevar Bush, who was director of the Institute of Science during the war and is now chairman of the board of trustees of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, testified before the House of Representatives Committee on Science and Space Navigation in 1960 of.He also said that there are many serious things to do, and you can't always perform strange skills.So far, the American people don't understand the difference, and we tend to swarm like a swarm of new things.I don't think demonstrating our technology to the world is worthless.I also don't underestimate the effect of such amazing performances on the hearts of the people.However, some people are clamoring to pay attention to the role of space activities in publicity, but I don't think it is worthwhile. Of course, it is man who builds the machine and makes it function.The instruments on a thousand-pound satellite naturally need to be repaired and readjusted from time to time to make them perform various tasks, and this must be done by humans.A spaceship rotating in orbit can carry a man into space at any time to inspect his instruments and equipment, and these instruments will not feel unhappy even if they stay in space for many years. A flight into space would be at least as exhausting as a long-distance trip in a modern military aircraft.After staying in the air for thirty hours, people only want a good night's sleep.In spaceflight, this is not easy.In the long term in the future, manned space flights may only be able to fly one day at a time, otherwise it is impractical.However, one day is enough time for people to fly from the ground to the satellite in the sky, check the instruments, find out the faults, decide how to fix them, fix them, and return to the ground. With the tools of future spaceflight greatly developed, we can embark on the most important and promising project on the frontier of space: controlling the weather and climate.Control means much more than observing the weather by satellite.Taming the recalcitrant atmosphere will be one of the greatest tasks in human history. Consider how much weather affects humans.Three severe hurricanes raged in 1955, killing more than 250 people and destroying almost $2 billion in property.In the past few years, the cruel storms hit the embankments of the Netherlands, broke the embankments, and destroyed the cities, villages and thousands of hectares of good land by the sea.There are thousands of such catastrophes; and although man claims to be the master of the earth, we all know that the atmosphere is still out of control.Every year, cyclones, hurricanes, floods, droughts, and sudden cold snaps kill many people, cause much tragedy, and destroy much material.Every day we are at the mercy of the changing weather in our business whether in science, industry, art, commerce, or simply in our personal lives.Our knowledge is so poor that we can do nothing about the weather.At best we can only try to predict what the atmosphere will do.Regardless of whether the weather forecast is accurate or not, wind, frost, rain and snow always hit at will, regardless of whether the civilized area or the wilderness area is affected. Controlling the violent atmosphere seems to be only possible for the kind of aliens who call the wind and rain, but it can be done.It is only because we lack scientific knowledge that we cannot command the weather at will.One of the fundamental laws of applied science: nothing can be manipulated without exhaustive knowledge.We must gain a better understanding of the behavior of the atmosphere if we are to make any progress in controlling the weather. The atmosphere is a shell of gas that stretches far and wide, enveloping the entire Earth.It is constantly on the move, its movements forming a global, indivisible whole.Storm centers and calm regions, jet streams and air masses, etc., pay no heed to national boundaries; they come and go without hindrance within man-made boundaries.Despite great advances in climatology, these atmospheric phenomena have so far been observed sporadically.There are not enough weather stations in the world to track and detect the total and interrelated movement of the atmosphere around the world.If you look at the distribution map of all the weather stations in the world, you will know that they are densely concentrated in the civilized countries of the northern hemisphere, and are pitifully rare near the poles, the equator and the southern hemisphere.In the vast ocean, except for regular shipping and aircraft routes, there are almost no meteorological observation stations in other vast areas.Little is known about the atmosphere above the Antarctic ice cap and the ocean surrounding it to the north.The information we have obtained today only shows bits and pieces of the situation here and there, not comprehensive. Meteorologists can collect a large number of valuable data at a certain weather station, such as temperature, humidity, wind speed, wind direction, cloud cover, rainfall, etc.But this station was only a point the size of a pinhead on the earth, and what he saw was only a tiny bit of the grandeur of the sky.If the data collected by many weather stations are brought together and coordinated by a central agency, a blurred picture can be formed, but it is still not enough to form a bold and remote picture.What meteorological science needs is a panorama of the global atmosphere in all directions, that is, a comprehensive and clear view of the earth from the outside, that is, a view from space. Meteorologists don't have to shoot themselves into space to see for themselves: Satellites can do the job.The most promising beginnings in this field of research have already been made by a fantastic set of Tyros moons.These satellites are arguably the most useful and practical satellites ever built and operated.The name Tiros is a transliteration of the English Tiros. It is composed of the first letter of the five English words. It originally means Television and Infra｜Red Observation Satellites.These satellites are specially designed for global weather observations.These drum-shaped payloads weigh 280 pounds and are powered by 9,260 solar cells strewn across the flat surface of the cylindrical satellite.Each satellite is equipped with two television cameras, one with a wide-angle lens and one with a telephoto lens.The wide-angle lens points directly at the earth below, and each picture covers an area of ​​about 750 square miles, while the scope of the telescopic lens is 100 times smaller than this, but the image of the scene within this range is magnified and photographed .The pictures captured by the television cameras are all stored on video tapes (Video｜tape), and the images recorded on the tapes are expanded and transmitted to the ground according to the radio commands from the command posts in California and New Jersey.In addition, the Tyros satellite has five infrared detectors that measure the amount of radiation emitted by various parts of the Earth's surface and atmosphere. From the launch of the first Tyros satellite into orbit in April 1960, to June 17 of the same year when its signal failed, it sent nearly 23,000 pictures of cloud panoramas from space, among which More than 60% is excellent.The results so far have been excellent, and hold great promise both for improving weather forecasting techniques and for providing critically important information about weather emergencies.Sometimes the weather eye in space sees cloud patterns over the Caribbean that don't match earlier storm warnings from the U.S. Weather Service.When this evidence from space is reconciled with the conditions in the area, the storm warning can be withdrawn.Occasionally, satellites detect a very unusual cloud structure; two hours later, a cyclone appears in the area.There is no doubt that these amazing helpers of meteorology will revolutionize the method of weather forecasting in the next decade. The Tyros moons were just the beginning.The giant weather satellites of the future will collect huge amounts of data from all over the world, based on which the behavior of the atmosphere in various regions can be accurately predicted.This will be the first phase of action to control climate, namely to make meteorology and climatology sound sciences.The huge electronic computer will make a long-term weather almanac based on the data collected by satellites, forecasting sunny days, rainy days, high temperatures, and low temperatures, and has already calculated the future weather conditions of every important place on the earth.Many major activities in our civilized society are still unsafe because our predictions about future weather are still only half based on scientific observations and the other half on guesswork.Huge satellites and computers will greatly eliminate the need for sky-watching, making agriculture, water resource planning, travel, business, sports, and vacation planning all with certainty.The losses avoided by accurate forecasting of the weather in agriculture alone are worth many times the cost of sending out huge satellites over the years, and the cost of satellites is by no means cheap. But this is only the beginning.Once humans fully understand the forces that create weather and climate, they can do something about them.Seeding (spreading dry ice) in cloud structures to rain down has dried up to great effect.In the future, people will always find other more efficient ways to start this huge climate machine and teach it to produce what humans need.In the future era of planetary engineering, we will create climate and weather at will according to our own needs. Controlling weather and climate can only be successful on a global scale.People of all countries must work together towards a common goal.Perhaps the most valuable outcome that can be expected from our efforts to conquer space is the emergence of a powerful force for peace and international understanding. As far as human beings are concerned, the earth is the most important planet in the solar system.Shiny satellites are best used as tools for studying the earth, not as weapons; one day it should be a concerted effort by all countries in the world to design, manufacture and operate satellites.Satellites, the first human achievement in the art of spaceflight, can lead to a goal greater than anything else: building a better, safer planet for people all over the world.