On Dec 11 2022, NASA’s Artemis 1 Orion capsule returned from it’s orbit around the Moon, and successfully splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, with the capsule landing safely and intact. Paving the way for Artemis 2 to take a 4 person crew around the Moon, in preparation for the Artemis 3 crewed moon landing, the first human precense on the Moon since Apollo 17 in the 70’s. Here’s a 1 min edit of the NASA stream covering the reentry of the Orion capsule.
Rocketry, space agencies and exploration, moon mission and human landing on Mars! Explanation of rocketry flight and propulsion, basics of space exploration and orbital mechanics. I explain current efforts into space exploration on behalf of the world’s space agencies and programs. You can think of the video as a crash course in space travel, rocketry and orbital mechanics.
Within the next decade, through NASA’s Artemis missions, we should be seeing humanity’s return to the moon, and a human landing on Mars! The first landing of a human on another planet!
Topics covered:
– Intro (JFK’s Speech)
– Rocketry and basics of rocket launches into space
– History of the development of rocketry, and development in the cold war
– The Artemis Missions
– Rocket engine stages and Multistage rockets (Basics of Orbital mechanics) – Rockets vs cannons
– Current state of the Artemis missions
– Institutional knowledge
– China National Space Administration
– Indian Space Research Organization and other space programs
– Why to go space?
– Artemis Accords
– Losses in the quest to explore space, in remembrance
The equation was formulated in 1961 by Frank Drake. Drake’s Equation is an attempt to estimate the chances of there being intelligent life somewhere out there in the universe, using mathematics and the known values of the universe to estimate the chance that there is intelligent life. Formulated at the first scientific meeting for the search of extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), it was meant to spur debate, and not meant to be a serious attempt to estimate the amount of civilizations in the Milky Way.
Drake’s Equation is defined in Wikipedia as:
R∗ = the average rate of star formation in our Galaxy
fp = the fraction of those stars that have planets
ne = the average number of planets that can potentially support life per star that has planets
fl = the fraction of planets that could support life that actually develop life at some point
fi = the fraction of planets with life that actually go on to develop intelligent life (civilizations)
fc = the fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space
L = the length of time for which such civilizations release detectable signals into space
In the end, Drake’s equation is more of a thought experiment. It is based on a lot of conjecture and highly speculative estimates of the known universe, it’s not like a scientific law or theory. It’s just an attempt to guess how likely life could be, based on some assumptions, and still a good intellectual exercise.
New video about the history of moon missions and NASA’s Artemis program coming out next week, so make sure you check out and subscribe to my youtube channel:
Taco Banana 