{"id":17134,"date":"2019-07-08T01:54:09","date_gmt":"2019-07-08T01:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=17134"},"modified":"2019-07-09T08:52:21","modified_gmt":"2019-07-09T08:52:21","slug":"5-moon-landing-innovations-that-changed-life-on-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/5-moon-landing-innovations-that-changed-life-on-earth\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Moon-landing innovations that changed life on Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jean Creighton<\/a>, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Much of the technology common in daily life today originates from the drive to put a human being on the Moon. This effort reached its pinnacle when Neil Armstrong stepped off the Eagle landing module onto the lunar surface 50 years ago.<\/p>\n

As a NASA airborne astronomy ambassador and director of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Manfred Olson Planetarium<\/a>, I know that the technologies behind weather forecasting, GPS and even smartphones can trace their origins to the race to the Moon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

1. Rockets<\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>
A Saturn V rocket carrying Apollo 11 and its crew toward the Moon lifts off on July 16, 1969.<\/span>
\nNASA<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

October 4, 1957 marked the dawn of the Space Age, when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1<\/a>, the first human-made satellite. The Soviets were the first to make powerful launch vehicles by adapting World War II-era long-range missiles, especially the German V-2<\/a>.<\/p>\n

From there, space propulsion and satellite technology moved fast: Luna 1<\/a> escaped the Earth\u2019s gravitational field to fly past the Moon on January 4, 1959; Vostok 1<\/a> carried the first human, Yuri Gagarin, into space on April 12, 1961; and Telstar<\/a>, the first commercial satellite, sent TV signals across the Atlantic Ocean on July 10, 1962.<\/p>\n

The 1969 lunar landing also harnessed the expertise of German scientists<\/a>, such as Wernher von Braun, to send massive payloads into space. The F-1 engines<\/a> in Saturn V<\/a>, the Apollo program\u2019s launch vehicle, burned a total of 2,800 tons of fuel at a rate of 12.9 tons per second<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Saturn V still stands as the most powerful rocket ever built, but rockets today are far cheaper to launch. For example, whereas Saturn V cost US$185 million<\/a>, which translates into over $1 billion in 2019, today\u2019s Falcon Heavy launch costs only $90 million<\/a>. Those rockets are how satellites, astronauts and other spacecraft get off the Earth\u2019s surface, to continue bringing back information and insights from other worlds.<\/p>\n

2. Satellites<\/h2>\n

The quest for enough thrust to land a man on the Moon led to the building of vehicles powerful enough to launch payloads to heights of 21,200 to 22,600 miles (34,100 to 36,440 km) above the Earth\u2019s surface. At such altitudes, satellites\u2019 orbiting speed aligns with how fast the planet spins \u2013 so satellites remain over a fixed point, in what is called geosynchronous orbit<\/a>. Geosynchronous satellites are responsible for communications, providing both internet connectivity and TV programming.<\/p>\n

At the beginning of 2019, there were 4,987 satellites<\/a> orbiting Earth; in 2018 alone, there were more than 382 orbital launches worldwide. Of the currently operational satellites<\/a>, approximately 40% of payloads enable communications, 36% observe the Earth, 11% demonstrate technologies, 7% improve navigation and positioning and 6% advance space and earth science.<\/p>\n