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English 212, section 16 -- Topics in Critical Writing--Bablyon 5: Envisioning the Future

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

Brook Batey
Shannon Blackwell
Todd Buckingham

NASA stands for National Aeronautics and Space Agency. NASA is an agency of the U.S. government and is responsible for the nation’s public space program. It was formed on July 29, 1958 by the National Aeronautics and Space Act passed by President Eisenhower. NASA was founded because of the Soviet Union’s successful launch of Sputnik. NASA’s motto is “for the benefit of all”. 35 years ago NASA launched Apollo 17, the last manned mission to the moon. NASA satellites keep an eye on natural disasters such as hurricanes and wildfires. NASA spends $17 billion a year developing and launching satellites and space shuttles into space to observe things like black holes and other planets. NASA has helped develop a product that thoroughly cleanses fruits and vegetables being sent into space, helping to increase their shelf life. NASA technology helps keep fruits and veggies clean and safe from germs. NASA teamed with Microcide, Inc., of Troy, Michigan A nontoxic, biodegradable, microbicidal product to disinfect fresh fruit and vegetables for Space Shuttle crews. NASA space technology is helping doctors diagnose and monitor treatments for hardening of the arteries in its early stages, before it causes heart attacks and strokes. Hospitals and doctors around the country are using ArterioVision software developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory along with a standardized, painless, non-invasive ultrasound examination of the carotid artery, which carries blood from the heart to the brain.

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Space Race

Kara Porubsky
Shelby Price
Kayla Hobart

Space Race

The Space race began when The Soviet Union launched its first satellite Sputnik. This began in 1957. The space race was a competition between The Soviet Union and The United States to see who could send human life to the moon first. The race was inspired by both nations desire to prove their own military strength and scientific discoveries. The space race ended on July 20, 1969 when two American men landed on the moon. Although America did win the space race, after the Cold War the United States and the Soviet Union came together to build a space station to aid them in further space explorations.

The Space Race was a competition that lasted from about 1957 to 1975.  The United States and the Soviet Union were opponents as they raced to explore outer space with artificial satellites in order to find a way to get humans into space.  The race began after the Soviet Union put Sputnik 1 in space.  Tensions between the two countries became an important part of the Cold War.  Russians felt they had won in the end by sending the first man into space, yet America felt that victory was theirs because they were the first to reach the moon.

• Space race-the competition between the Soviet Union and the United States to explore space from 1957-1975.
• Goal was to explore space with satellites, send people into space, and to land people on the moon
• How it started:  the Soviet Union came out with the first satellite to orbit the Earth, “Sputnik.”  This created fear and insecurity in the US and turned into the creation of NASA and the beginning of the Space Race
• US released 1st satellite 4 months after Sputnik
• US got the first animals in space, fruit flies
• The Soviet Union had the first human in space.

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Cold War

Derek Estrada
Matt Gauthier
Dewanna Isom

• The Cold War was after World War II. A conflict between the U.S and its allies and the USSR and its allies
• It’s a big debate on who started the Cold War. Was it Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin or Harry Truman?
• In 1946, Churchill warned that an “iron curtain” was descending through the middle of Europe; because of this Stalin asserted to the U.S. that World War II was unavoidable and may reoccur.
• During the war nuclear war became evident when the Soviet Union had an idea of placing Nuclear Missiles in Cuba to counter the Americans. This idea was tried to be backed up by telling Cuba it would also protect them from another U.S. invasion, like the failed attempt at the Bay of Pigs.
• Stalin and Truman founded the United Nations but disagreed on every thing else including Truman’s Marshall Plan, the international monetary fund and the formation of the World Bank.
• The growing of Weapons of Mass Destruction became a big issue during this time.
• Cold War was mainly a battle of Democracy vs. Communism.

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Space exploration

Kayla Ciszewski
Keri Tenbusch
Smriti Pant

Space Exploration

• 3000 BCE-Babylonian astrologers begin making methodological observations of the skies.
• 2000 BCE-Babylonians develop a zodiac
• 1608 AD- Telescopes invented
• 1942- The first air-to-air and air-to-surface rockets were launched.
• 1946- The first American built rocket to leave the Earth’s atmosphere was launched into space.
• 1955- Unnamed satellites were announced to be launched to circle the earth.
• 1957-Sputnik the first earth orbiter was launched by the Russians.
• 1960- First TV weather satellite and first communications satellite are sent up. Sputnik 5 returns two dogs safely to Earth, being the first animals to be successfully returned to Earth.
• 1969- The first man walked on the moon.
• The best reason to explore space is the genetic predisposition to expand in all possible niches.
• Another reason for space exploration is to find more resources for mankind.
• Radio waves have long wave lengths and use low frequency and energy. They are detected through satellites. Radio waves are used for observation along with: gamma, X-ray, infrared, ultraviolet and visible rays.
• Foundations of observational space exploration include not only the frequencies of electromagnetic radiation visible to our eyes, but frequencies throughout the spectrum from long radio waves to microwave, to infrared through visible, ultraviolet, x-rays, and gamma rays. The electromagnetic spectrum consists of photons of increasing energy associated with different events producing radiation.

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Galaxy

Lynn Frederick
Kalynne Abel
Mike Pries

-Types of Galaxies
--Spiral, lenticular, elliptical, and irregular

-Galaxies were first known as island universes.
-Galaxy is a massive, gravitationally bound system consisting of stars, and interstellar medium of gas, dust, and dark matter.
-They are huge agglomerations of stars like the sun counting several millions to several trillions.
-There are reasons to believe that the fluctuations which seeded the large scale universe must have been primordial in origin. Its associated with some of the earliest times after the Big Bang.
-Galaxies normally emit light of every wave length.
-Galaxies range from dwarfs with ten million stars to giants with one trillion stars.
-They can also hve many star systems, star clusters, and various interstellar clouds.

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