Hubble is celebrating its 30th birthday. The universe is so big, I want to see it

　　Hubble's 30-year-old birthday dragon spacecraft launches "Tianwen-1" into the sky

I want to see the universe so big

　　At 12:41 noon on July 23, China's first Mars rover "Tianwen-1" carried the Long March 5 Yaosi carrier rocket successfully lifted off from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan. This launch has attracted worldwide attention because of the "Tianwen-1" plan to achieve the three missions of Mars orbiting, landing and patrolling, that is, completing the "circumnavigation" with three birds with one stone. At present, only the United States has completed the "swivel and two" Mars exploration method. . If successful, China will achieve leapfrog development in its deep space exploration capabilities and become the third country in the world to land on Mars and the second to patrol on Mars.

　　Exploring space is not the patent of modern people. Human beings have had a strong curiosity and yearning for the starry sky since ancient times. The great poet Li He of the Tang Dynasty once traveled to space and wrote "Tianhe drifts back to the stars at night, Yinpu flows The verse of "the sound of water from the cloud" Hundreds of years later, in the far west, scientist Galileo pointed at the vast starry sky with a telescope. Astronomy has undergone earth-shaking changes with the invention of the telescope. Since then, people have learned about sunspots, craters on the moon, and four surrounding Jupiter. The Hubble Space Telescope then came into being with cosmic phenomena such as satellites and the glittering Milky Way.

　　After being able to look up at the starry sky clearly, mankind has shown full "ambition" for walking towards that starry sky. The rocket used as a weapon has become a tool for mankind to go to the sky from the beginning. The fierce collision of the "space hegemony" between the United States and the Soviet Union gave birth to countless firsts in the history of human aerospace-the first artificial earth satellite. , The first manned spacecraft, the first space station, the first space probe...

　　Due to physical and time constraints, humans cannot reach farther than the moon by themselves, so the task of exploring the universe is handed over to space probes and let them be our eyes in space. However, the cost of heading deeper into the starry sky is extremely high. Even in the United States, there are many voices that disagree with the development of aerospace industry. However, space exploration is like the previous era of great navigation, with risks and opportunities. Most countries have continued to increase their investment in space exploration. For example, Russia plans to establish a research station on Mars after 2030; the European Union launched the Galileo satellite navigation system. Want to compete with the GPS positioning system of the United States; Japan and India have also launched lunar probes one after another, becoming one of the few countries in the world that masters lunar exploration technology.

　　The successful launch of "Tianwen-1" is only the first step in the Chinese long march to explore Mars. Many aerospace agencies have sent congratulations. The European Space Agency and NASA have also successfully launched the Mars probe not long ago. The UAE Space Agency of the United Arab Emirates sent congratulatory messages, wishing the next mission of "Tianwen-1" all the best. "The world is so big, I want to see it", and exploring a universe that is broader than the world is the dream of countless generations of people, both ancient and modern. No matter how many countries all over the world have gone through in space exploration, how many detours they have taken, and how much they have paid, the cause of space exploration is undoubtedly a dream that benefits all mankind and is worthy of joint efforts by all countries.

telescope

"Hubble" freezes the mysterious universe

　　April 24, 2020, is the 30th anniversary of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope. The illustrious "Hubble" has been in service for the entire 30th anniversary. It has captured the solar system, the Milky Way, and even the depths of the universe. photo. In order to commemorate this special "Hubble" birthday, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has launched a special birthday gift from the end of March-published 366 precious images of the universe on its official website. You can view the image of the universe on your birthday.

　　The Hubble Space Telescope is a large orbital observatory in space. Its history can be traced back to 1946 by astronomer Lyman Spitzer Jr. “The Advantages of Astronomical Observation Beyond Earth”. In the article, Spitzer pointed out two major advantages of establishing an observatory in space. One is that the observation results are not affected by the earth's atmosphere, and the other is that it can observe infrared and ultraviolet rays that are completely absorbed by the atmosphere.

　　You know, observing the celestial bodies in space through the atmosphere of the earth is like seeing the world through a glass of water, everything is distorted or unclear. Only outside the earth’s atmosphere can telescopes detect light from stars, galaxies, and other celestial bodies in space. These lights have not been distorted and absorbed by the atmosphere, and the observation results will be clearer.

　　In order to realize his dream of setting up astronomical telescopes in space, Spitzer made space telescopes his life's work. In 1965, the United States established a scientific committee to build space telescopes, and Spitzer was appointed as its chairman. In 1975, NASA and the European Space Agency began to develop a space telescope together.

　　In 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope was successfully launched on the Space Shuttle Discovery. From Spitzer’s first idea of ​​a space telescope to the successful launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, it took humans 44 years to set up the telescope on the ground. Launched into space.

　　Throughout the history of the development of telescopes, you will find that the development of telescopes is almost closely related to astronomy. In 1608, Dutch eyeglass manufacturer Hans Liebesch created a telescope that could magnify images of distant objects three times and applied for a patent for it. Just a year later, the Italian scientist Galileo pointed the telescope at the sky, creating the first astronomical telescope in human history. This astronomical telescope can magnify distant objects by 30 times. Galileo used it to observe mountains and craters on the moon, observed four moons of Jupiter, and saw a band of light diffused in the sky— -Galileo didn't know that this light belt was our Milky Way.

　　However, Galileo’s astronomical telescope is a refracting telescope that uses a lens as the objective lens. This type of telescope has a big disadvantage, that is, the problem of chromatic aberration. Because light is a mixture of countless different colors of light waves, each light wave has a different wavelength, and different wavelengths. When light waves pass through a single lens, they will be focused on slightly different focal points, so the observed image will become blurred. Before 1668, all astronomers felt that the problem of chromatic aberration was inevitable, until Newton used a metal concave mirror to make a reflective telescope, which reflected the refracted light to a flat mirror through the mirror, and the flat mirror reflected the light to The eyepiece of the telescope solves the chromatic aberration problem of the refracting telescope well.

　　After the era of Galileo and Newton, astronomy flourished, and astronomical telescopes have been getting bigger and more complicated. With the advancement of technology, astronomers have discovered many faint stars and calculated the distance between them.

　　In the 19th century, astronomers used a new instrument called a spectroscope to collect information about the chemical composition and physical motion of celestial bodies. In the 20th century, astronomers realized that whether it is a huge telescope or a specialized instrument, it will be affected by the earth's atmosphere, and the observation results will also be shifted due to the weather on the earth. So just like Galileo more than 400 years ago, they moved their eyes to space again, and the Hubble Space Telescope came into being.

rocket

Robert's research laid the technical foundation

　　At 3:22 am on May 31, 2020, Beijing time, the Dragon spacecraft of SpaceX, a space exploration technology company carrying two American astronauts, was successfully launched and flew to the International Space Station on the "Falcon 9" rocket. This is the first time since 2011 that the United States has used its own rockets and spacecraft to send astronauts from its homeland to the International Space Station. It is the first commercial manned space launch developed by a private company in human history.

　　In fact, the rocket was only a weapon at the beginning, until Robert Gould published the book "The Way to Reach Super High Altitude" in 1920-this book attracted the attention of the whole world, praise and ridicule followed, people do not think The rocket can reach the moon. The New York Times even opened a large column called "Multi-stage rockets can reach the moon" to mock Robert, commenting that he "doesn't even understand the basic physics knowledge in high school, so he began to dream about traveling to the moon all day." .

　　Regardless of what others say, Robert continues his rocket research: In 1926, he launched a liquid fuel rocket in Auburn, Massachusetts, USA-the first liquid rocket "Neil" launched by mankind, but it was a pity that he only flew in total. After 2.5 seconds, he plunged into the vegetable field 184 meters away. Although Robert's research was not used until his death, his research on rockets laid the foundation for human liquid fuel rocket technology so far.

Spacecraft

"Space building blocks" turned out

　　After the rocket technology matured, launch vehicles appeared. People would use launch vehicles to send spacecraft such as artificial earth satellites, manned spacecraft, space stations, and space probes into space. After the mission was completed, the launch vehicle was abandoned and fell to the ground again. Then he officially started his career.

　　In the 1960s and 1970s, the US-Soviet "space hegemony" witnessed the development and rise of spacecraft. The first spacecraft in the world was the "Artificial Earth Satellite 1" launched by the former Soviet Union on October 4, 1957. The R7 rocket of the former Soviet Union was launched from the Baiknur space base. The launch of satellites allowed mankind to move further into space. The great success of the R7 rocket also deterred the entire Western world at that time, which triggered a series of events in the United States, such as the Sputnik crisis and the Wall Street small stock market disaster.

　　The passionate collision of the "space hegemony" between the United States and the Soviet Union in the aerospace industry has sparked many sparks. In 1958, the United States launched its first satellite-"Explorer 1" in Cape Caravinar, Florida, and NASA was also established; in 1961, the former Soviet Union astronaut Yuri Gagarin took The spacecraft entered space and flew in space for 108 minutes, becoming the first person to orbit the earth; in 1969, American astronaut Neil Armstrong took "one small step on the moon, human A big step" to become the first astronaut in human history to successfully land on the moon...

　　After the disintegration of the former Soviet Union, the United States became more ambitious about space exploration. In 1971, it launched the Mars rover "Sailor 9" to prepare for a manned landing on Mars. But this project requires too much funding, and politicians generally expressed their disapproval.

　　So NASA made a new move. In 1976, it launched the "Columbia" space shuttle program to develop a cheap space vehicle that can be used multiple times. This project did give the United States the hope of low-cost space flight at the beginning, but what the United States never expected was that after each flight, the space shuttle basically had to replace other parts except the engine. The cost of building a space shuttle is around US$3 billion, but it costs US$500 million per year for maintenance alone, not to mention the frequent occurrence of space shuttle accidents, which ultimately cost 17 astronauts their lives. The United States was forced to stop the space shuttle program in 2011.

　　Looking at the world, space exploration is like the great nautical era. At that time, many European countries seized the first opportunity and became one of the world's powers. This time, the United States and the Soviet Union are at the forefront of space exploration. The competition also stimulated other countries to "go out to sea." In January 1998, 16 countries including the United States, Russia, Japan, Canada, Brazil, and the 11 member states of the European Space Agency signed an agreement to establish an "International Space Station."

　　In 1998, the Russian-made "Dawn" functional cargo compartment was launched into space, and the International Space Station began to be officially assembled. After more than ten years of construction, the construction task was finally completed in 2010, and the "International Space Station" entered the stage of full use. Now, this large "space building block" has become a permanent symbol of human existence in space. The scramble of various countries in the cause of space exploration has left a rich legacy to the world's space technology, promoted the leap of space technology such as meteorological satellites, manned spaceflight, and the International Space Station, and also allowed mankind to explore the mysterious universe once unknown.

Space probe

Towards the depths of the starry sky

　　With existing technology, the farthest planet humans can reach is the moon. Due to physical and time constraints, humans handed over the task of exploring the universe to an unmanned spacecraft-space probes, allowing them to take long-distance photographs of planets, satellites, and comets and collect scientific data, or land on various Similar to planets and analyze the composition of soil and air.

　　Space probes, also known as deep space probes, are unmanned spacecraft used to detect celestial bodies and interstellar space beyond the Earth. The "Moon 1" probe launched by the former Soviet Union on January 2, 1959 was the first space probe successfully launched by mankind. It flew over 5000 kilometers from the surface of the moon and measured the moon during the flight. The magnetic field, cosmic rays and other data then entered the heliocentric orbit and became the first artificial planet on Earth.

　　For most space probes, walking into the starry sky means an endless journey. Currently, the farthest space probe is the Voyager 1 launched by NASA in 1977. The 43-year-old Voyager 1 has visited Jupiter and Saturn, and is the first spacecraft to provide high-resolution and clear pictures of its satellites. It passed through the Jupiter system in 1979, the Saturn system in 1980, sailed to the center of the Milky Way in 1989, reached the edge of the solar system in 2012, and left the solar system to fly to other stars in 2014. As the first vehicle made by humans to break out of the solar system, as of August 16, 2020, the distance between Voyager 1 and the earth has reached 149.83 astronomical units, which is 22.4 billion kilometers.

Space age

All countries you chase me

　　Although the vast starry sky can bring endless reverie and hope to mankind, the cost of moving toward the beautiful starry sky is not low. Therefore, even in the United States, there are many voices that do not agree with the development of aerospace industry. These doubts existed when the United States decided to start aerospace industry, and reached its peak when the United States decided to build the International Space Station. Because the United States invested nearly 100 billion U.S. dollars in this project, it still needs to invest 3 billion to 4 billion U.S. dollars every year. To ensure the normal operation of the space station, politicians who were originally interested in this plan couldn't help but hesitate.

　　In 2005, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said in an interview with USA Today that the construction of space shuttles and space stations was a costly "strategic error." Now everyone recognizes that this is a wrong path and the United States is working hard. Minimize losses. In 2018, the US "Washington Post" quoted NASA documents and reported that the US government plans to stop direct capital injection into the International Space Station in 2025 and intends to transfer it to private companies. There are various signs that the International Space Station may now be a burden and burden to NASA.

　　While the United States was struggling with the International Space Station, other countries did not stop. Although space exploration is a bottomless pit, no one knows when the space economy and the space age will come, so powerful countries will still allocate Part of the financial funds will support the development of domestic aerospace industry.

　　Russia has inherited 90% of the aerospace industry of the former Soviet Union. After entering the 21st century, the Russian economy has recovered and the space revival plan has been put on the agenda. In 2009, Russia passed the first domestic law on satellite navigation-the "GLONASS" and "Navigation Activities Law", which stipulated that Russian military and civilian vehicles and vehicle management equipment must be equipped with "GLONASS" navigation equipment. Enhance Russia's defense potential and safety, and improve transportation management. In 2012, the Russian Federal Space Agency issued the "2030 and Future Russian Space Development Strategy (Draft)", declaring that Russia will establish a research station on Mars after 2030.

　　On November 11, 2003, the European Union launched the "Space Policy Action Plan White Paper", proposing the strategic thinking of integrating all European resources to develop aerospace industry. In order to be able to enter the space independently, Europe decided to work hard on the satellite positioning system. In 2003, it launched the Galileo satellite navigation system plan and officially put it into use in 2016. Compared with the GPS system in the United States, the "Galileo" navigation system has more satellites, higher orbital positions, and a larger coverage area. It is the world's first purely civilian satellite navigation and positioning system.

　　Japan and India have also continued their efforts in the aerospace industry in recent years: Japan launched the "Moon Goddess" lunar probe in 2007, issued the "Basic Law of the Universe" and "Basic Plan of the Universe" in 2008, and successfully launched the space station in 2009 Transit Vehicle 1 (HTV1)-Japan's first unmanned space cargo ship. India is striving to establish a good foundation for cooperation with major aerospace powers, and is constantly increasing its aerospace budget. In October 2008, the Indian Space Research Organization successfully launched India’s first lunar probe, Lunar Ship 1, making it the fifth country in the world to master lunar exploration technology.

　　This edition text/Tian Mengyuan