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English 212, section 08 -- Topics in Critical Writing: Envisioning the Future--Bablyon 5

Are you interested in the future? Are you curious about how science fiction depicts the future? This course covers the television series, Babylon 5, and the novel, Patternmaster.

Our look at the future will be in various modes. We will do some research on the future, watch shows that depict the future, read about the future, and envision the future as presented by what we have read, seen, and imagined about it.

 

NASA :: space race :: cold war :: space exploration :: galaxy

 

NASA

English 212-16 class

NASA's mission is to pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery, and aeronautics research.

NASA conducts its work in four principle organizations, called mission directorates:

• Aeronautics: pioneering and proving new flight technologies that improve our ability to explore and which have practical applications on Earth.
• Exploration Systems: creating new capabilities for affordable, sustainable human and robotic exploration
• Science: exploring the Earth, moon, Mars and beyond; charting the best route of discovery; and reaping the benefits of Earth and space exploration for society.
• Space Operations: providing critical enabling technologies for much of the rest of NASA through the space shuttle, the international space station and flight support.

NASA stands for National Aeronautics and Space Administration

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) first landed men on the moon in 1969, but hasn't been back since 1972; now NASA is looking to return to the moon...and land men on Mars. NASA was created in 1958, partly in response to the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik. Ironically, Russia is now one of NASA's chief partners in the troubled $60 billion International Space Station, which houses astronauts conducting space research. NASA also runs the Space Shuttle program and launches unmanned satellites and probes to explore space. NASA has launched a new "building block" strategy that includes replacing the Shuttle by the end of the decade, landing men on the moon by 2020, and landing men on Mars.

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Space Race

Michael Bowers
Jon Hunter
Mary Alexandrowicz
Elizabeth Shirey

Space Travel

The space race was a competition between the United States and the Soviet Union. They were competing to see who could explore space with artificial satellites, send humans into space and land a man on the moon.

1957. The soviet Union launches Sputnik
1958. The United States launches Explorer I and Nasa is founded.
1959. The Soviet Union launches Luna 2 and they are able to hit the moon.
1961. Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gargain is the first man to orbit the earth.
1962. John Glenn orbits Earth for the United States.
1963. Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space.
1968. The United States launches Apollo 8 the first manned space mission to orbit the moon.
1969. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first men to walk on the moon.

Even though the Soviet Union were the first to reach space, it is said that the United States won the Space Race because they were the first to have man land on the moon.

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Cold War

Antonio Lucio, Colin Yerby, Matt Young, Alyssa Puse

-Cold War 1945-1991 dominated international affairs

- Between the Soviet Union and United States

-no combat fighting because the fear of nuclear war, a threat of killing too many people

-were allies during World War II but differed in opinion after the war

-The Cold War was a period of East-West competition, tension, and conflict short of full-scale war, characterized by mutual perceptions of hostile intention between military-political alliances or blocs. There were real wars, sometimes called "proxy wars" because they were fought by Soviet allies rather than the USSR itself -- along with competition for influence in the Third World, and a major superpower arms race.

- It immediately followed WWII

• After Stalin’ death, there were periods of time where the Cold War was at a relaxed state. There were brief times in late 60’s and 70’s

• Military spending increased and hurt the economy of the United States

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Space Exploration

Jennifer Sandelich, Chris Mauney, Greg Hanson, Brittany Burke

Space Exploration

Space Exploration began in 1957 with the launching of Russian satellite Sputnik. NASA was formed one year later, with the beginning of America’s journey in Space Exploration. Space Exploration was most active in the 1960’s and 70’s, and has since been less active. Project Mercury, in progress from 1958 to 1963, was America’s first program to attempt to send a manned spaceship into space. Everything from satellites to manned space shuttles have been launched into outer space. Space exploration  has also endured its fair share of tragedy, the first of which occurring on January 27th of 1967 when a spark caused a fire during a routine test on a space shuttle, killing three men. One major Interest in outer space stems from the idea that living in a foreign atmosphere could be achieved if life on earth were one day threatened. Current space exploration projects mainly involve the exploration of comets and planets beyond what we can simply see in the sky. A major interest of current space exploration is in Mars, and answering the question of whether or not life may have existed on this planet in the past.

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Galaxy

Jason Bierlein
Ryan Smith
Sean Myers

A galaxy is a system of over 100 billion stars
Our sun is a member of the famous “Milky Way” galaxy
There are billions of galaxies in the observable universe
Spiral Galaxies are consist of a flat large disk which often contains a lot of intersteller matter and young star clusters
Lenticular Galaxies are smooth disk galaxies where the stellar formation stopped a long time ago.
Elliptical Galaxies take the ellipsoidal shape. They have very little global angular momentum, and do not rotate as a whole.
Irregular Galaxies are distorted because of the gravitation pull of intergalactic neighbors.
Greek philosopher Democritus was the first person to believe the Milky Way consists of distant stars
Galileo proved this theory in 1610 when using a telescope to study the milky way.
Dwarf Galaxy is the closest galaxy to the Milky Way and is about 30,000 light years away. It can be seen if looking towards the constellation Virgo.

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