January 22 - Space-Stuff Day

 Posted on January 22, 2021

This is an update of my January 22, 2010, post:

On this date in 1992, Dr. Roberta Bondar, Canada's first female astronaut, became the first neurologist to enter space. She flew on the Discovery space shuttle and did microgravity experiments with a variety of organisms. Dr. Bondar also served as NASA's head of space medicine.


On this date in 1997, American Lottie Williams became the first—and, so far, only— human ever reported to be hit by human-made space debris (also known as “space junk”). Williams was jogging in a park near her Oklahoma home very early in the morning, and she saw a brilliant fireball-type meteor. She felt a “gentle tap” on her shoulder and looked down; on the ground was a piece of blackened metal. 

Later it was confirmed that the metal was a piece (shown in her hands, above) of a fuel tank for a rocket that had launched a U.S. Air Force satellite the year before. The rest of the fuel tank crashed into a field in Texas (shown below).

On this date in 2003, we said goodbye to Pioneer 10, the first thing made by humans to leave the solar system. The next day (January 23, 2003) scientists were able to detect the last feeble signal from the spacecraft as it continued to speed away from Earth.

Launched in 1972, Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to fly through the asteroid belt and to fly by Jupiter. Even though it accomplished these two main goals before two years had passed, Pioneer kept up the studies and transmissions as it streaked through the outer regions of our solar system. All told the spacecraft studied interplanetary and planetary magnetic fields; solar wind parameters; cosmic rays; the heliosphere; neutral hydrogen abundance; distribution, size, mass, flux, and velocity of dust particles, Jovian aurorae and radio waves, atmosphere of Jupiter and some of its satellites. Of course, it also photographed Jupiter and its satellites.

The mission was formally ended in 1997. After that time the probe was used in training flight controllers on how to acquire radio signals from space. Scientists believe that no longer have contact with Pioneer 10 because it is too far away and because the power supply is dwindling—not because of equipment failure.

A Message to Aliens?

Before Pioneer 10 and its sister spacecraft Pioneer 11 were launched, a journalist named Eric Burgess had a great idea—putting a message of some sort to any alien intelligences that may discover the probe, somewhere, someday. He made his suggestion to Carl Sagan, a famous astronomer and science writer.

Sagan loved the idea and, with the help fellow scientist Frank Drake and wife Linda Salzman Sagan, created a clever message to unknown creatures and minds, trying to communicate with images a little about who we humans are and where we live.

The plaque is 9 inches by 6 inches and made of gold-adonised aluminum. Here is an explanation of what the various symbols mean. And here is a great website to learn more about Pioneer 10.

Read about Space Junk.

Build a Pioneer 10 paper model.

Run gravity simulations.

Also on this date:

Birthdays of new kinds of celebrities 

Data Innovation Day

 Choreographer George Balanchine's birthday

 St. Vincent's Day in Valencia

 Answer Your Cat's Questions Day

 Space-stuff Day

 (original post)

 Anniversary of the installation of Cleopatra's  Needle in NYC

 St. Vincent's Day in St. Vincent and the Grenadines

 Anniversary of an Evo-Victory

 Day of Unity in Ukraine

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest pages on:

• January holidays
• January birthdays
• Historical anniversaries in January
  
  

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

• February holidays
• February birthdays
• Historical anniversaries in February

September 29, 2010

Canada's first satellite is launched – 1962

With the launching of Alouette I, Canada became the third nation to build a satellite that was successfully put into Earth orbit. (I'm sure you know that the Soviet Union and U.S. were the first two space-faring nations.)

Alouette was launched by NASA in the U.S., but it was constructed in Canada by Canadians. It was designed to study the ionsphere, a region in the upper atmosphere—the region that many future satellites would be located. After the planned ten years of operation, the satellite was deliberately shut off. However, the satellite remains in orbit, and it is remotely possible that it could be turned on again someday.

By now there are a few hundred operational satellites in Earth orbit, from more than 50 countries—plus thousands of unused satellites (like Alouette I) and satellite parts. It seems to me that space is getting just a bit too crowded! Even if the volume of orbiting space is hugely greater than the amount of human-made stuff we have sent up there, a collision could be disastrous. The problem of space junk will have to be dealt with eventually.

SAT Facts

Satellites are used for observation for military and civilian reasons. Check out these satellite photos! Look at a satellite image of your own house using Google Maps.  Or download Google Earth. 

Satellites are (of course!) used for communication—that's why we have cell phones and satellite TV! 

They're used for navigation and location devices such as GPS. If you have an I-Phone or a GPS, you can do geocaching, which is like a really cool scavenger hunt. 

They're used for study and prediction of weather and for other scientific research. I love looking at photos and more photos from the Hubble space telescope! 

And of course some satellites are meant for humans! The largest satellite now in use is the International Space Station. 

January 22, 2010

Space-Stuff Day

On this date in 1992, Dr. Roberta Bondar, Canada's first female astronaut, became the first neurologist to enter space. She flew on the Discovery space shuttle and did microgravity experiments with a variety of organisms. Dr. Bondar also served as NASA's head of space medicine.


On this date in 1997, American Lottie Williams became the first—and, so far, only— human ever reported to be hit by human-made space debris (also known as “space junk”). Williams was jogging in a park near her Oklahoma home very early in the morning, and she saw a brilliant fireball-type meteor. She felt a “gentle tap” on her shoulder and looked down; on the ground was a piece of blackened metal. Later it was confirmed that the metal was a piece (shown here, right) of a fuel tank for a rocket that had launched a U.S. Air Force satellite the year before. The rest of the fuel tank crashed into a field in Texas (shown here, left).


On this date in 2003, we said bye to Pioneer 10, the first thing made by humans to leave the solar system. The next day (January 23, 2003) scientists were able to detect the last feeble signal from the spacecraft as it continued to speed away from Earth.

Launched in 1972, Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to fly through the asteroid belt and to fly by Jupiter. Even though it accomplished these two main goals before two years had passed, Pioneer kept up the studies and transmissions as it streaked through the outer regions of our solar system. All told the spacecraft studied interplanetary and planetary magnetic fields; solar wind parameters; cosmic rays; the heliosphere; neutral hydrogen abundance; distribution, size, mass, flux, and velocity of dust particles, Jovian aurorae and radio waves, atmosphere of Jupiter and some of its satellites. Of course, it also photographed Jupiter and its satellites.

The mission was formally ended in 1997. After that time the probe was used in training flight controllers on how to acquire radio signals from space. Scientists believe that no longer have contact with Pioneer 10 because it is too far away and because the power supply is dwindling—not because of equipment failure.

A Message to Aliens?

Before Pioneer 10 and its sister spacecraft Pioneer 11 were launched, a journalist named Eric Burgess had a great idea—putting a message of some sort to any alien intelligences that may discover the probe, somewhere, someday. He made his suggestion to Carl Sagan, a famous astronomer and science writer.

Sagan loved the idea and, with the help fellow scientist Frank Drake and wife Linda Salzman Sagan, created a clever message to unknown creatures and minds, trying to communicate with images a little about who we humans are and where we live.

The plaque is 9 inches by 6 inches and made of gold-adonised aluminum. Here is a simple explanation of what the various symbols mean.

Read about Space Junk.

Build a Pioneer 10 paper model.
Help design microgravity experiments!

Run gravity simulations.