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NASA At 50

NASA At 50. By: Ian McCord. 1958: Project Mercury Begins.

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NASA At 50

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  1. NASA At 50 By: Ian McCord

  2. 1958: Project Mercury Begins Project Mercury was the first time the USA sent a man into space. It was a phenomenal moment of discovery for the structure of the spacecraft. The blunt bottom design by Max Faget could resist intense heat and drag. The Mercury spacecraft design was also used in the Gemini and Apollo programs.

  3. 1959: X-15 Aircraft Makes Its First Flight The X-15 was a very big confidence booster because it got up to mach 6 and won many medals for going mach 4, mach 5, and mach 6. The builders of the X-15 had to make the metal more heat resistant. T hey did this by changing the metal shell to titanium and adding a liquid that would boil and evaporate and take the heat away with it.

  4. 1960: Transonic Dynamics Tunnel Begins Operation The TDT was built because at this period in time when planes would reach high speeds the wings on the plane would “flutter” or sometimes even break off. The TDT was kind of like a test area because people would put the planes in the TDT to see how safe the plane was and how they should fix it. The TDT has conducted over 500 tests on 26 commercial and military aircrafts.

  5. 1961: Flexible Wing Design Used for Hang Gliders The flexible wing was an invention not even started at NASA. The man who built it started to construct it at his home. The flexible wing design was almost going to replace the parachute because this design made it easier for astronauts to control the capsule on re-entry. Even though the design was not used for that purpose, it is used for the fun sport of hang gliding.

  6. 1962: Project Gemini begins Gemini launch 4 Project Gemini a bunch of tests to see what happens when you get into space. Even though project Gemini is not talked about as much as the Apollo and Mercury missions, it was very critical that this had to work out or those events wouldn’t exist. Project Gemini was named after the Gemini constellation .

  7. 1963: Lifting Body Design Concept Tested The lifting body concept brought three new things to the space craft design. One was that this airplane had no wings. Two was it gave the astronauts a softer landing method. Three this gave NASA a reusable spacecraft.

  8. 1972: Nixon Authorizes Space Shuttle Program The researchers at NASA finally realized that the space crafts they were using were too expensive and not reusable. President Nixon authorized the space shuttle program to build a space shuttle that could be reused on quick notice. The NASA space shuttle program is set for retirement in May 2010.

  9. 1976: Viking Landers Touch Down on Mars When the Landers touched down on Mars they began to conduct experiments and take photos. Some of the experiments they conducted were to see if there were possible life forms or not, and some of the photos showed possible river beds. It was said that we learned more about Mars in the first five minutes after the Landers touched down on Mars than the previous five hundred years.

  10. 1985: Research Begins on Wind Shear Detection System This detection system was a “cure” for wind shear because the pilot could now know about wind shear 40 seconds In advance . This radar is now in most planes around the world. These wind bursts mostly happen during thunder storms and such and now planes don’t fly in thunder storms or bad weather to avoid chances of wind shear.

  11. 1987: Icing Research Tunnel Designated as Historic Landmark This tunnel was like the TDT because they were both research tunnels and they both tested on air planes . The Icing research tunnel was a tunnel that would recreate a plane flying at high speeds with cold and damp air to test how to get frozen ice off the wings. During World War II the Allies lost more than 1,000 planes over the Himalayan Mountains due to icing

  12. 1994: GPS Satellite Constellation Completed The GPS is a way to find out where you are on this planet or in it’s atmosphere. There are 24 satellites in the GPS orbit. 12 will be above you at all times and 12 will be on the other side of the earth. The GPS receiver will find the four closest satellites to you, do a series of mathematic equations and find your position. The GPS has worked it’s way into cars, planes, computers, and even some cell phones. GPS reserve GPS satellites

  13. 1998: Work Begins to Preserve Charters of Freedom This was more like an “operation” NASA performed on a piece of really old and important paper. They had to figure out a way to see why mysterious white spots would appear on the charters of freedom. They did this by freezing a small corner of the document and using “paper laser surgery”.

  14. 1999: HELIOS Prototype Makes Its First Flight The HELIOS is a low cost eco friendly satellite. When satellites are launched into space they are there for good so their technology gets old. The HELIOS could land and get the newest technology. The HELIOS was also made to fly for weeks or months at a time by harnessing the suns power and by using motors at night.

  15. 2001: MISSE Containers Attached to International Space Station MISSE is like another research center except it’s in space. Astronauts will go up and test how earth materials react in space. Then a year or so later they will get picked up and return to earth and test if anything has changed about the object.

  16. 2002: Low-Temperature Oxidation Catalysts Developed for Commercial Use NASA took an already made invention and made it better. The catalytic converter was put into cars to change gases to not as harmful gases but the converter would have to be hot to do the converting. NASAs low temperature converter would start to convert the gases almost as soon as the car was turned on .

  17. 2004: X-43A Sets Speed Record for Jet-Powered Aircraft This aircraft was another huge leap in aircraft technology. This plane set the speed record of mach 10 and scientists hope to branch of this and even make it possible to go the speed of light. This hypersonic flight speed would make a modern day flight a whole lot quicker and also safer.

  18. 2005: Huygens Probe Reaches Titan's Atmosphere One of Saturn's moons Titian is interesting because it has an atmosphere similar to early earth. Also Titian’s molecular structure itself is like earth’s. The Huygens mission will be on Saturn and on a few of its moons including Titian.

  19. 2007: Phoenix Lander Sent to Mars This is another mission to Mars that was supposed to dig deeper into the red planet into it’s ice layer. This will help us study about life forms on Mars. The Phoenix landed on Mars on May 27 2008 but we have lost contact with it.

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