Points to Consider
- To date, a total of 22 people have died on space missions. In the two space shuttle
disasters alone, 14 people died. However, space exploration and research have led to
many great discoveries and new technologies. Do you think sending people into space
is worth the risk? Why or why not? - In the past several years, private companies have been developing vehicles and launch
systems that can take people into space. - What applications can you think of for such vehicles? What advantages and disadvan-
tages are there to private companies building and launching spacecraft?
Image Sources
(1) NASA.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Arecibo_naic_big.gif. Public
Domain.(2) NASA.http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/how_l1/spectra.html.
Public Domain.(3) USAF.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Milstar.jpg. Public Domain.(4) NASA.http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ksc-69pc-442.jpg. Public
Domain.(5) NASA.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Mir_module.jpg. Public Domain.(6) http://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/archive/e0004.html. Public Domain.(7) http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:USA.NM.VeryLargeArray.01.jpg.
CC-BY-SA 2.0, GNU-FDL.(8) NASA.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:
Apollo-Soyuz-Test-Program-artist-rendering.jpg. Public Domain.(9) NASA. http://exploration.grc.nasa.gov/education/rocket/TRCRocket/
history_of_rockets.html. Public Domain, Public Domain.(10) NASA.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Skylab_%28SL-4%29.jpg. Public
Domain.
(11) NASA.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Challenger_explosion.jpg.
Public Domain.
(12) NASA.http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Hubble_01.jpg. Public
Domain.
