scuola energia e ambiente
Space Exploration
In 2007 there were the celebrations for the fiftieth anniversary of the launching of the first artificial satellite, the Sputnik; and on 20 July 1969 at 9.39 p.m. (21 July at 4.56 a.m. in Italy), Neil Armstrong started slowly descending the steps of the ladder outside the lunar excursion module, or LEM.
In the mid 70s, planet Mars, our neighbour became a fundamental objective and the American mission Phoenix, that will bring a new lander to the northern polar regions of Mars, to inspect Martian soil, was launched on the 4th of August this year.
The Aurora Programme of ESA, the European Space Agency, is a long term programme to explore the Solar System that will culminate with the first human voyage to Mars in 2030 and will also see man’s return on the Moon.
The MELISSA project (Micro-Ecological Life Support System Alternative) studies exactly how, by using microorganisms and superior plants, it can be possible to reconstruct a vital cycle, that is fundamental for the survival of mankind, plants and bacteria.
The history of space exploration is a recent one that is well worth discovering.
subjects dealt with in Space Exploration
First steps in space
Space exploration belongs to our recent history. In fact, 2007 marked the first fifty-year celebrations of the launch of the…
Space Missions
How is a probe launched into space? In order to succeed in sending any object into space, or even simply…
special reports
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14 May 2014 / Space
Another Earth in the Universe
A world similar to the Earth Finally the news we were waiting for, for so long, has arrived. It was…
31 March 2014 / Space
A day on board the International Space Station
A day in space Every day, on board the ISS (International Space Station), the one and only human outpost in…
29 November 2012 / Space
Exobiology
A strange message We are on board a probe that has gone down in the pages of history because it…
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28 January 2014 / Space
Gaia satellite scanning the sky
Ready, set ... go! On December 19, 2013 the new satellite of the European Space Agency (ESA) called GAIA (Global…
11 March 2013 / Space
Curiosity’s recent discoveries
New information from the Red Planet A few months after the start of its mission on Mars, NASA’s Curiosity rover…
26 October 2012 / Space
Curiosity rover: the exploration of Mars
NASA's Curiosity rover and the exploration of Mars It has a body with arms, legs, hands, eyes and a brain.…
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5 October 2006 / Space
Mars
Martial explorations Thera are a lot of missions, in the present and in the past, on Mars. One of these…
23 January 2013 / Space
Close encounter with a comet
Introduction 2013 will definitely be remembered as the year of asteroids and comets. These smaller objects of the Solar System…
9 May 2013 / Space
Asteroid hunters
Risk of asteroids hitting Earth When we think of the likelihood of an asteroid, comet or meteorite hitting Earth, our…
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14 May 2014 / Space
Another Earth in the Universe
A world similar to the Earth Finally the news we were waiting for, for so long, has arrived. It was…
31 March 2014 / Space
A day on board the International Space Station
A day in space Every day, on board the ISS (International Space Station), the one and only human outpost in…
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29 November 2012 / Space
Exobiology
A strange message We are on board a probe that has gone down in the pages of history because it…
28 January 2014 / Space
Gaia satellite scanning the sky
Ready, set ... go! On December 19, 2013 the new satellite of the European Space Agency (ESA) called GAIA (Global…
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11 March 2013 / Space
Curiosity’s recent discoveries
New information from the Red Planet A few months after the start of its mission on Mars, NASA’s Curiosity rover…
26 October 2012 / Space
Curiosity rover: the exploration of Mars
NASA's Curiosity rover and the exploration of Mars It has a body with arms, legs, hands, eyes and a brain.…
14 May 2014 / Space
Another Earth in the Universe
A world similar to the Earth Finally the news we were waiting for, for so long, has arrived. It was…
31 March 2014 / Space
A day on board the International Space Station
A day in space Every day, on board the ISS (International Space Station), the one and only human outpost in…
29 November 2012 / Space
Exobiology
A strange message We are on board a probe that has gone down in the pages of history because it…
from the Multimedia section
curiosities
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Neutrinos
Neutrinos are extremely light neutral particles; for a long time, it was believed that they were massless. Now we know…
The comet’s tail
Comets are “dirty snowballs” that spend most of their life at the edges of the Solar System. Due to gravitational…
The definition of a dwarf planet
Astronomy, like all scientific disciplines, is continuously evolving. Along with it, even its classification structure is subjected to periodic up-dates.…
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The PP cycle
Nuclear fusion within the stars begins with the different passages of hydrogen transformation into helium. Stars that are going through…
Children of the stars
We are made of star dust. The iron in our blood, the oxygen we breathe, the calcium in our bones,…
The Olbers paradox
Why is the sky dark at night? What seems like an obvious question, actually needs a more complex explanation. If…
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A black hole in our galaxy
All the existing galaxies, and our Milky Way too, hide in their centres giant black holes, with masses estimated in…
The cosmic microwave background radiation
In 1965, while studying the ground noise of a radio antenna, two technicians of the Bell Telephone Laboratories heard a…
Cosmic collision
When two galaxies start to approach, the tidal attraction forces deform their structures, creating sometimes particular forms, like filaments or…
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Neutrinos
Neutrinos are extremely light neutral particles; for a long time, it was believed that they were massless. Now we know…
The comet’s tail
Comets are “dirty snowballs” that spend most of their life at the edges of the Solar System. Due to gravitational…
-
The definition of a dwarf planet
Astronomy, like all scientific disciplines, is continuously evolving. Along with it, even its classification structure is subjected to periodic up-dates.…
The PP cycle
Nuclear fusion within the stars begins with the different passages of hydrogen transformation into helium. Stars that are going through…
-
Children of the stars
We are made of star dust. The iron in our blood, the oxygen we breathe, the calcium in our bones,…
The Olbers paradox
Why is the sky dark at night? What seems like an obvious question, actually needs a more complex explanation. If…
Neutrinos
Neutrinos are extremely light neutral particles; for a long time, it was believed that they were massless. Now we know…
The comet’s tail
Comets are “dirty snowballs” that spend most of their life at the edges of the Solar System. Due to gravitational…
The definition of a dwarf planet
Astronomy, like all scientific disciplines, is continuously evolving. Along with it, even its classification structure is subjected to periodic up-dates.…