Government Funding for NASA
Driving question: How can we learn about the possibility of future space travel by exploring the past?
Create a persuasive campaign to persuade the government to fund more space travel research.
Why more NASA funding?
We can't simply cut out the funding for NASA. NASA isnt just about space. NASA also develops aeronautics* research that makes aviation* possible. GE, Lockheed Martin, Boeing and many other small companies rely on NASA for direction, support and facilities. Without these companies our country's infrastructure would stop. NASA is responsible for creating technology to reduce noise polluion so people can live closer to airports. They are also responsible for research concerning the reduction of harmful emmisions like nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxide and Etc. Also research by NASA leads to development of wind and water turbines as energy harvesting methods, water purification and alternative fuels. Almost everything you use in your everyday life is impacted in some way by NASA. Air Force and army research, medical advances are also a result of NASA technology.
*aeronautics is the science involved with the study, design, and manufacturing of air flight capable machines.
*aviation is the operation of an aircraft.
Some History of NASA
"In 1936, as Braun was developing rockets for the German military, several young American engineers led by graduate student Frank Malina began working on rocketry at the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory of the California Institute of Technology (GALCIT). Malina’s group was supported by the eminent aerodynamicist Theodore von Kármán, GALCIT’s director, and it included Chinese engineer Qian Xuesen (Ch’ien Hsüeh-sen), who in the 1950s returned home to become one of the pioneers of rocketry in China. In 1943 Malina and his associates began calling their group the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a name that was formally adopted the following year. JPL soon became a centre for missile research and development for the U.S. Army. Following World War II, those weapons were adapted for use in early U.S. space experiments. After 1958, when it became part of the newly established National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), JPL adapted itself to being the leading U.S. centre for solar system exploration."
1. In 1936, Frank Malina and many young engineers began working on rocketry at GALCIT, Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory of the California Institute of Technology
2. In 1943, the group Malina and his associates had formed was called JPL ( jet propulsion laboratory)
3. JPL became a missile research and development centre for the U.S Army. They began doing research for advanced weaponry.
4. JPL adapted most of the weapons for future U.S space experiments.
5. In 1958, the JPL became NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. They made themselves the leading U.S centre for solar system exploration.
Sciences behind NASA
"Our solar system sits between two major spiral arms of the home galaxy in a structure called the Local Arm that, although previously thought to be only a small spur, instead is much more like the adjacent major arms and is likely a significant branch of one of them, they said.
"Our new evidence suggests that the Local Arm should appear as a prominent feature of the Milky Way," Alberto Sanna of the Max-Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy said at the American Astronomical Society's meeting in Indianapolis.
Astronomers have long struggled to determine the structure of the Milky Way, an effort made difficult by the Earth's position within it, and while astronomers have long agreed the galaxy has a spiral structure, there are disagreements on how many arms it has and on their specific locations.
Researchers have used the ultra-sharp radio vision of the National Science Foundation's Very Long Baseline Array to make new measurements, a release from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville, Va., reported Tuesday.
The measurements have led to an upgrade to the status of the Local Arm within which the solar system resides, between two major spiral arms of the galaxy, the Sagittarius Arm and the Perseus Arm.
"Based on both the distances and the space motions we measured, our Local Arm is not a spur," Sanna said. "It is a major structure, maybe a branch of the Perseus Arm, or possibly an independent arm segment.""
1.our solar system is in an arm known as the local arm, between two major spiral arms, of the Milky Way galaxy.
2. We now know that it's more like the other major arms and is likely a very significant arm.
3. There has been some difficulties in correctly identifying the structure of the Milky Way galaxy since we are positioned inside of it.
4. Scientist have been using ultra-sharp radio vision of the National Science Foundation's Very Long Baseline Array to take new measurements of the Milky Way.
5. Scientist then determined that the local arm is not a spur as they once thought but is most likely more major. It is either part of the Perseus arm or it is an independent arm.
- Knowing the structure of our galaxy and how to determine the structure of other galaxies could he us navigate through space.
Math
1. In one light year you can travel 9.46 trillion km in 31,536,000 seconds.
2. Since light travels at .00003 seconds the image is transferred to our eyes and seems almost instantaneous.
3.scientific notification makes the numbers easier to write since you don't have to write out all the zeros.
4.In order to calculate light years you have to know how many times 9.46trillion km goes into the distant or you could see how many times 31,536,000 seconds go into the time it take to get there.
This is relevant to my driving question since we will need to know how to calculate how far we need to travel so that we won't run out of fuel,supplies or anything that we will need to survive.
http://www-tc.pbs.org/teachers/mathline/concepts/space2/Act1Student.pdf
http://www-tc.pbs.org/teachers/mathline/concepts/space2/Act3Student.pdf
http://www.pbs.org/teachers/mathline/concepts/space/activity1.shtm
http://www.pbs.org/teachers/mathline/concepts/space/mannedspaceprogdatasheet.shtm