How unmanned space aircraft have changed overtime

Unmanned spacecrafts have long been a dream of human civilization. The allure of the unknown combined with mans quest for knowledge has created rapid innovations within the unamend spacecraft field. Its history has spanned many decades, with large leaps in innovation, safety, and efficiency. Even today, both manned and unmanned space crafts are now launching into space routinely. What once was a very esoteric and fearful proposition has now become much more routine. It is through these innovations that man hopes to pioneer space travel and better understanding of the cosmos.

To begin the history of unmanned spacecraft has its roots in man’s fascination with space. For centuries, man has postulate about space, its origins, and mans place within the cosmos. The bible in many respects was mans first attempt to not only make sense of the world but also of space. These theories, quickly morphed overtime with many thoughtful notions that seemed reasonable during the time of discover. For example, there was a period in human history that academics believe the earth was the center of the universe. There was also a period of time that academics prior to Christopher Columbus and Magellan believe the earth was flat. Astronomy was used to help provide direction and chart ocean voyages. Still others believed the stars to be various Gods watching over human kind. Many of these theories related to the space, the cosmos, and earths place within it, were proven incorrect. These failures however, have done little to abate man’s interest in space and how it works (Bilstein, 2003).

Transitioning into the early 20th century, man began to make quantum leaps in terms of innovation and society prosperity. This prosperity manifested itself within the industrial revolution which ushered in new modernizations of existing goods, products and services. The automobile, airplane, and train all became staples in the new American economy. Although not fully viable yet, the aircraft industry was beginning to take form. Along with this prosperity came two world wars that further enhanced the ingenuity and creative potential of America and its pursuit of space travel. Due in part to the war, much more research and development was plowed into the aviation industry. The innovations after the war ultimately created large breakthrough in unmanned space craft which culminated into what we are currently experiencing now (Gawdiak, 2000).

Unmanned space craft in the 1950 marked a very bitter battle and space race between the soviet union and the United States. Roughly three years before on Oct. 14, 1947, an American test pilot name Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier for the first time in human history. This ushered in a very competitive battle between the soviet union and the United States as they both attempted to leverage this technology to enter, and eventually colonize space. The first frontier was the moon, with the Soviet Union launching Sputnik and Sputnik 2. It was during this period that the first living animal was sent to space. Later in 1958, America attempted to overtake the Soviet Union with the launch of Explorer 1. Explorer 1 was unique in that it would become the first satellite in the world with an onboard telemetry system. After a successful launch, it was able to collect, analyze and sent data back to America. Later that year NASA was founded and unveiled planes for a manned space mission. Next, in 1959, America continue to make advances by launching the first primates into space, Able and Baker. Finally, in late 1959, America launch yet another unmanned space craft named Explorer 6. This was a particularly impactful success as Explorer 6, became the first unmanned space craft to take photos of the Earth from space (Corliss, 1972).

The next few decades of the 1960 and 1970 saw continue innovation in the unmanned aircraft sector. The primary innovations related to safety, security and efficiently. As the industry itself was just being started unmanned aircrafts for space were unreliable. The Soviet Union had numerous explosions and failed attempts when attempting to leave the earth’s atmosphere. Even the United States saw many explosions and failed attempts during this period as the technology was being perfected. This period nearly all flights were unmanned as the risks where simply too high as compared to the potential reward. The worst incident occurred in the 1960 where 126 people were killed in Russia, when the R-16 ICBM exploded at the Baikonur Cosmodrome during launch preparations. Despite these setbacks, both American and the U.S.S.R continued in their approach to land a man on the moon. The 1960 where characterized by very bold proclamations. Here man was beginning to enter space much more routinely. Both Russia and America place humans in space. In addition, the unmanned aircraft became slightly more reliable than their earlier ventages. For example, on July 10, 1962, the United States launches Telstar 1, which enabled trans-Atlantic transmission of television signals. This again was a large breakthrough as entire industries were spawned from this discovery. Satellite television, cloud computing, and other modern-day innovations are a direct result of this particularly breakthrough in 1962 (Gawdiak, 1997). The 1960 and 1970s saw a much more robust growth in telecommunications and other unmanned innovations. This ultimately enabled the creation of space stations and other unmanned innovations that can be used continuously over long period of time and provide information back to earth (Chertok, 2006).

The 1980’s and 1990’s leverage many of the learnings of the past generation and applied new innovations to unmanned space travel. As is the case in the 2000’s to present, data and data processing was the central theme in this decade. Due to the numerous innovations, data can now be effectively utilized to improve processes and ultimately performance of unmanned spacecraft. As noted above the 1970’s allowed for the creation, adaption and innovation of international space stations. Now with a permanent and static base in space, the 1980’s and 1990’s allowed for much more exploration and scientific work in space. This included small unmanned vehicle used to conduct scientific experiments and other space exportation activities. These vehicles allowed astronauts to college samples of materials and experiment on them with much more accuracy and precision. Many of these unmanned vehicles allows society to become more aware of substances and elements that were previously unknown. Many of the unmanned aircraft during this period where able to map the surfaces of planets, conduct flybys of comets, gather materials on nearby planets such as mars, and even send photographs of planets from very far distances (Burrows, 1998).