Now, what do you think of when you hear the word “voyager”? A voyage is like a journey or long trip. When I think of “voyager,” I think of someone going into new and unknown places, exploring and learning. What “voyagers” do you know? The world is pretty big with lots of places to explore, but the biggest place to explore the unknown is Outer Space. It’s only been a little over 50 years since the first human, Neil Armstrong, walked on the Moon. There’s still so much we don’t know! In the late 1970s two space probes (kind of like a spaceship without people on it) were launched with the idea that they could explore more and go further than ever before. They are called Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. They have been on an incredible journey for decades and still have so much more to do!

As you may know, our solar system’s planets revolve around the sun. Every 175 years a very special event happens when the planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune line up. The Voyager Program started in 1964 when a scientist named Gary Flandro discovered that this would be happening several years in the future and just one spacecraft would be able to fly by all of them! If they could send a spacecraft to see them all in one voyage this would save a lot of time and money. The project idea was called “The Grand Tour”. Sadly, it ended up being canceled in 1971 because it was going to cost $1 billion dollars.

Fortunately, the idea of a grand tour was reborn a few years later. The opportunity of the planets lining up for NASA was just too good to resist. The new project was estimated to cost $250 million dollars, much less than The Grand Tour project. This time, NASA was going to make two probes, and they were going to visit Jupiter, Saturn and one of Saturn’s moons, Titan. They made two probes so in case something happened to one, the other would be able to finish the mission and visit the two planets. But what everyone at NASA was really hoping for was that Voyager 1 would be successful and they would have Voyager 2 go and do the Grand Tour.

One of the most important parts of the Voyagers were their cameras. The purpose of the spacecraft would be to take pictures of the planets as they passed by. They also had to be able to send pictures back to earth using radio transmission. So the Voyagers were designed with very powerful cameras and radio devices for sending the images to Earth, so scientists could study the images and other data and learn more about the other planets in our solar system. 

Imagine you met someone who didn’t know anything about life on Earth.  What things would you want to teach them? What are the most important things about life on Earth that you’d want them to know? Scientists at NASA knew that the Voyagers had the potential to go very, very far. Even beyond our solar system. What if the Voyagers were discovered by alien life way out in the galaxy? They decided to put a message on each Voyager just in case it was ever discovered by intelligent life. They named the device the Golden Record. A record was a way to store information and listen to music back when your grandparents were younger. If you know what a CD or compact disc is, it’s like a very big CD. 

Scientist Carl Sagan was asked to decide what would be sent on the Voyagers. He and other scientists at NASA put 115 different pictures on the record, of what people look like at different ages, pictures of nature and animals. There were pictures of architecture from around the world and different people from around the world. The team put math equations, chemistry formulas, and pictures of the planets to show our understanding of science. Sagan also put a lot of different sounds on the record! Sounds like the ocean and birds, music from different cultures and time periods. They also included the spoken greetings of 55 languages. Finally instructions, and the equipment needed, were included to play the record and get all of the information off of it.

Here’s a question for you: what do the Voyagers and leftovers in your fridge have in common? They both use kitchen foil to protect them! A lot of design ideas for Voyager were taken from an earlier project named Pioneer 10. Space has very intense radiation and it is especially strong around Jupiter. Voyager had to be able to handle the intense radiation. Right before Voyager was launched, kitchen grade aluminum foil was wrapped around certain cables to give them even more protection! Another cool thing about Voyager is it weighs 1,704 pounds and 231 pounds of it are scientific instruments for gathering different types of data. There are cameras on board that took pictures when it was closer to earth and it has very special antennas that it still uses to communicate with NASA and tell us where it is.

After all of the preparations, Voyager 2 was finally launched in August 1977. Voyager 1 was launched the next month. Even though Voyager 1 was launched later, it was faster and got to Jupiter two years later! That gives you an idea of how big our solar system is. Voyager 2 got there 4 months later. Voyager 2 then reached Uranus at the beginning of 1986. The mission was a huge success! Both Voyagers were able to take pictures of the planets as they passed by and sent images back to Earth. Scientists were able to study these images and other data and learn more about these planets.

Finally, in 1990 when Voyager 1 was 6 billion miles from Earth, (that is very, very far) – it was turned around to take a picture of our solar system. That picture is now known as “Family Portrait”. In it you can see Jupiter, Earth, Venus, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and the Sun. In the picture the Earth is a small blue dot. Scientist Carl Sagan later wrote a book about how seeing the Earth so small in the solar system made him see life in a whole new way. The book was called “Pale Blue Dot.” It’s kind of crazy to think that in the solar system we are so very small! This picture of our solar system is the last one that the Voyagers took. 

Remember the first question I asked? What is the furthest you have ever been from home? Can you imagine what the Voyagers answer would be!? As of now, they are very, very far from earth. So we have a sun, which is the center of our solar system, with planets orbiting around it. But what’s past that? While studying about the Voyagers I learned about the heliopause. The heliopause is the outer layer of the heliosphere, which is almost like a giant bubble that surrounds our sun and solar system and everything that orbits it. Once you pass through the heliosphere, you are in Deep Space! Outside of the solar system! Believe it or not, that is where both Voyagers are today! Deep space, out of the Solar System! It blows my mind to think about it. They’ve gone further than any man-made device before them. Voyager 1 crossed the heliopause in 2012 and Voyager 2 crossed in 2018. 

How far will the Voyagers continue to go? We aren’t completely sure. Being able to track them depends on how long their power is able to last. The electrical power of Voyager is from plutonium, the same material used to make nuclear weapons. Over time the plutonium decays and doesn’t put out as much energy. In October 2011, their power had dropped to almost half. As the power drops, Voyager won’t be able to take as many pictures or communicate back to earth. Scientists think that by 2032 there won’t be enough power for them to communicate. But for now, both are in contact with NASA through the Deep Space Network and we still get to enjoy seeing where they are! Voyager 1 is currently over 14 billion miles from Earth, and Voyager 2 isn’t far behind. Amazing, right?

As you think about how far Voyager has gone and all that it has done and seen, think about your own voyage (or journey) in life. What places do you want to see? Where do you want to go? It doesn’t have to be the solar system and deep space to be rewarding. But it’s great to make plans and work toward them just as the scientists at NASA did with the Voyagers.

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Imagine you are floating in a spacecraft…

You are weightless! It feels so strange, yet amazing at the same time. You push off the wall and float down a long room. You feel like Superman flying across empty space. You duck your head and do a quick flip before landing against the other wall, then push off it to soar in the opposite direction. At the end of the next room, you grab a handle and stop to look out the round bubble window. Far below you see a glittering blue ocean, clouds, and brown land. You are 200 miles above earth on board the International Space Station.

Speed and Orbit

Have you ever heard of the International Space Station? Right now it’s circling the earth above you at 17,000 miles per hour (28,000 kilometers per hour). It is going so fast that it orbits the earth every 90 minutes — that means 15 ½ times a day! That’s incredibly fast! Some people think the Space Station is floating in space, but it’s actually falling around the earth in what is known as an orbit. 

The International Space Station, also known as the ISS, is special because it’s not owned by a single country, but by many countries who worked together to build it. It started off as a single module and has grown piece-by-piece into the larger station it is now. In 1998 Russia launched the module Zarya into low earth orbit as the first piece. Low-earth orbit means it is still within the earth’s orbit, not far off in space beyond the earth’s strong gravitational pull. 

Construction

Two weeks after Zarya was launched, the United States launched its own space shuttle with the Unity module and its astronauts onboard. The next step was connecting the first two modules. The astronauts did this by floating out into space and attaching them. And that is how the International Space Station began!  After that other pieces were slowly added to the ISS until it grew and grew. In 2000 came the Russian module Zvezda, then NASA’s Destiny module. Canada’s space program contributed a robotic arm for spacewalks and to make remote controller repairs. The Harmony module came in 2007, then the European Space Agency sent up the Columbus module. Japan sent up its own module in 2008. Next came NASA’s Tranquility module, then Europe’s Leonardo module and finally the Bigelow module sent up by a private company. One reason ISS is amazing is that it is a team effort!

Space Station Activities

Usually, around 3 to 6 astronauts live and work on the ISS at a time. It was made for many reasons, but one of them was to do research. Since humans plan to go to Mars someday, they are using the ISS to see how space will affect the astronauts during their journey to Mars. For example, what will space flight do to their bodies? What kind of foods will they need to eat? What kind of exercise will they need? Will they be able to grow plants? They’ve also tried out the different devices they’ll need in space such as 3D printers and coffee makers.

On the ISS the crew’s days are very busy and besides doing experiments, they spend a lot of time doing maintenance — which means keeping the station running smoothly. Each astronaut has different responsibilities, sort of like you might have doing chores at home. Only by working together will the ISS continue to work properly. Often the astronauts climb into their space suits and space walk — which means going outside of the ISS and floating around to make repairs. This can be dangerous work, so they always attach themselves to the ISS for safety. The astronauts have also been testing a robot that they can use to fly around the ISS and make repairs for them.

The other important part of an astronaut’s day is taking care of themselves, making sure they eat the right foods, showering, brushing their teeth, and getting exercise. They also do things like video chat with schoolchildren and talk about what they’re doing with people around the world. They do this to get others excited about the space station and space research. 

Eating in zero gravity can be very tricky! Their food has to be strapped down to a table and utensils and water bottles have magnets on them to keep them from floating away. If you look on the internet you can find some funny videos of the crew doing flips, floating around and dancing, and playing with water. In zero gravity water floats around in blobs!

Space Station Crew

People from 19 different countries have visited the ISS. These include the United States, Russia, Japan, Canada, Italy, France, Germany, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom. Now you see why they call it the International Space Station. International means “many countries.” At the ISS it’s exciting to see people from many different countries working together. It’s a perfect example of how working together with people across the world can accomplish amazing things! 

Space Tourism

Many people dream of visiting space someday and some companies promise that someday anyone who can pay for it will be able to do it. Right now it can be very expensive (and at times not even possible) to visit places like the ISS, but someday space vacations may be available to everyone. Can you imagine visiting a place like the ISS or a far-off hotel on the moon? This is called space tourism and a few very wealthy people have been able to visit the ISS by paying for it. It costs them many millions of dollars! 

Anousheh Ansari

One of these people was Anousheh Ansari. Anousheh was born in Iran and moved to the United States when she was little. She was interested in engineering and graduated from college to become an engineer. She and her husband later started a company that grew and grew until they were very wealthy. She’d always dreamed of going to space and became interested in visiting the space station. When she found out they were allowing some to visit the ISS if they paid, she jumped on the chance. First Anousheh trained for the journey, then took a Russian rocket up to the ISS and lived and worked there for a short while. There Anousheh helped do experiments and later wrote a book about her amazing journey. 

Chris Hadfield

One of the most well-known astronauts to live on the ISS is Chris Hadfield. Chris was born in Ontario, Canada. He grew up on a farm with his family where they grew corn. When Chris was little he became interested in flying and later saw the Apollo 11 moon mission, which made him want to be an astronaut like Neil Armstrong. Later, he went to college, then joined the Canadian Air Force. This eventually led to training as an astronaut for the Canadian Space Agency and working on the International Space Station. On the ISS Chris shared his day-to-day activities on Twitter and Facebook and later made a music video on YouTube while playing the guitar in space! This brought even more attention to the important work they were doing on the ISS. 

Records

Many records have been set by the crew of the ISS — such as most consecutive days in space by an American, which was 340 days by astronaut Scott Kelly. The other cool thing about Scott’s trip to the ISS is he is a twin, so they were able to study how space affected Scott versus his twin brother who stayed on Earth. 

Another record was the longest spaceflight by a woman at 289 days by Peggy Whitson. 

The ISS also holds the record for most people in space at once, which was a crew of 13 in 2009.

How do you see the space station?

Did you know you can see the space station from earth? With the help of your parents, if you go to spotthestation.nasa.gov you can sign up to receive text messages or emails whenever the space station is visible above you. Recently, my kids and I did this and it was amazing to see it float across the night sky like a star. 

It Takes Teamwork!

One of the best lessons we can learn from the International Space Station is that by working together people all over the world can do amazing things. Isn’t this so much better than focusing on our differences and fighting? One problem in the world is when people look at those who are different and think there is something wrong with them because they aren’t the same. But differences are what keep the world interesting and there is so much we can learn from each other, from our different experiences and customs, and beliefs. The space station shows that even though we have differences we have common goals, like visiting space and learning about space and the Earth. As we focus on what is common, we can work together to do great things. 

Conclusion

A couple of years ago I worked with a man from India. I’d never met someone from India, so it was very interesting listening to his homeland, what it was like to grow up in India, and his different beliefs. He celebrated different holidays and had different ideas about the world, but it fascinated me to try and see the world through his eyes. As we got to know each other we became friends and I look back on our talks with fondness.

Take a moment to think of someone you know who is different than you. They might be from a different country, look different, talk differently or act in a different way. Take the leap and ask them a few questions and try to get to know them better — because chances are you’ll learn something interesting and possibly make a new friend in the process!

Recommended Books

The post History of The International Space Station for Kids appeared first on Bedtime History: Podcast and Videos For Kids.

Everyone spends time learning what they like, and what they’re capable of. Sometimes, they learn that what they are capable of isn’t what they like, and something else is calling them. That happened to Sally Ride.

Early Years of Sally Ride

Before we can get to what happened though, let’s go back to Southern California in the year 1951. This was the year Sally was born to Dale and Carol Ride. As a child, Sally’s dream job was to play baseball for the Los Angeles Dodgers. She was athletic, and was often chosen first for baseball teams. Of course, no women played major league baseball at the time, but this didn’t matter to Sally. Dale and Carol raised her and her sister, who was nicknamed Bear, to explore and try anything that interested them. To Sally, this meant playing sports and stargazing through a telescope with her father. Her favorite constellation was Orion. Many people in the 1950s thought of these as “boy” things, but Sally knew they were also girl things.

Sally Ride and Tennis

When she was nine, Sally’s family traveled to Europe. Between seeing the amazing sites, Sally played tennis for the first time on the trip. Just like that, Sally was hooked. Tennis became the center of her life. When they got back to the United States, Dale and Carol got Sally a tennis coach and she began competing. Before long, she was ranked in the top 20 players under 12 in Southern California! 

Tennis also opened doors for Sally. A private high school gave her a scholarship to play for their team. In high school, Sally rediscovered her love of science. One teacher, Dr. Elizabeth Mommaerts, helped her see that there were opportunities for her in science. At the time, there weren’t many women who got advanced degrees in science, but Dr. Mommaerts had a PhD in human physiology. Sally was amazed by how smart and curious her teacher was, and how she approached every problem carefully and methodically, like a puzzle. 

After high school, tennis again helped Sally find a place at school. She headed to Swarthmore College to study physics and play on the tennis team. Soon after arriving though, Sally’s mind began to wander to new possibilities. She was excelling at tennis: she won all her college matches, and even became the Eastern Intercollegiate Women’s Singles champion! Sally decided she wanted to try to become a professional tennis player. She packed up her bags and left Pennsylvania to return to Southern California. 

Back in sunny California, Sally practiced every day for hours, year-round. But soon, she realized that she’d need to train even more in order to make it as a pro. Her body ached. She was tired. Playing tennis wasn’t as fun when she had to do it eight hours a day in order to compete. Sally decided to return to college full time. 

Collegiate Life of Sally Ride

Sally headed to Stanford University, about a six hour drive from Los Angeles. There, she reacquainted herself with her other childhood passion: science. She studied physics: how stars and planets work, and even lasers! 

This time, Sally was sure she’d made the right choice about her future. In fact, she stayed at Stanford an extra five years to earn her PhD in physics. 

But even as Sally focused more on physics, she was still open to new opportunities. One morning in 1977, shortly before she finished her PhD, a huge opportunity stared her in the face when she opened her morning paper. It was the kind of opportunity that made all her past hobbies and interests fall into place. Even though she never could have known this opportunity would come along, it was perfect for Sally’s background as a sports-loving physicist. 

It was an ad. NASA was recruiting new astronauts to fly in the space shuttle program. And for the first time, they were accepting applications from women. Sally had expected to get a job as a college teacher. But the chance to be an astronaut doesn’t come along every day, and Sally was excited by the possibility of actually visiting space, after studying the stars and planets and gazing up at Orion on so many nights. And, astronauts need to be in great physical shape too. All her years of playing tennis would be an advantage too. 

NASA was a bit overdue in sending women to space. In fact, all the astronauts until this time had been white men, mostly Air Force pilots. Russia had sent a woman to space in 1963! Now, in addition to recruiting pilots, NASA was opening the astronaut program to anyone with training in science or engineering.  They got thousands of applications! Out of all those applicants, Sally and five other women were chosen to train as astronauts! Not only were the first women chosen to be part of the space shuttle program, the class of 35 men and women included the first Asian American and African American astronauts.

Sally at NASA

Sally began her training in 1979. NASA was impressed by Sally. She was athletic and strong, committed and smart. Years of playing competitive tennis had taught her how to keep cool under pressure. 

But even though Sally had the right stuff to be an astronaut, there was a lot to learn! She had to know space shuttle systems inside and out. She learned about geology, oceanography, and computer science, since she would need to perform all sorts of experiments in space. The astronaut candidates learned to fly supersonic jets, though most of them wouldn’t actually need to fly the shuttle–NASA still used professional pilots for that–it was important to know how it worked in case there was ever an emergency. 

Off to Space for Sally Ride!

Finally, in 1982, after years of training and working on projects and shuttle missions from the ground, Sally got the call that all astronauts are eager for. NASA had assigned her to a mission. She would go to space in 1983 as a mission specialist on the space shuttle Challenger. 

Sally would have a whole year to prepare for the mission. As part of her work on the ground for NASA, Sally had helped design a robotic arm that would move things like satellites in and out of the space shuttle’s cargo bay. On her mission, Sally would use the arm to place a satellite outside in space. It would fly alongside the shuttle for a few hours, taking pictures and doing experiments. Then, Sally would use the robotic arm to grab the satellite and pull it back into the shuttle.

It was an exciting project for Sally, but she was disappointed to find that news reporters weren’t very interested in it. Instead, they always asked her questions about what it would be like for a woman in space. Would she wear makeup in space? Would she be able to have children after going into space? Would she cry if she made a mistake? Understandably, Sally found these questions annoying at best, even insulting. Why couldn’t reporters ask her about the actual mission–the science she’d be doing, or the amazing robotic arm she’d designed–instead of obsessing over her gender? 

But Sally kept her focus on training and ignored the rude questions. She made sure she knew every step of every task she needed to do during launch, in space, and on landing. On June 18th, 1983, Sally was ready to lift off! 

The mission was a success: the crew performed experiments, and the robotic arm worked beautifully. But besides conducting experiments and gaining experience in space, Sally realized something far more profound. As she looked out the space shuttle window for the first time, she noticed something that astonished her: 

“…it looked as if someone had taken a royal blue crayon and just traced along the Earth’s horizon. And then I realized that that blue line, that really thin royal blue line, was Earth’s atmosphere, and that was all there was of it. And it’s so clear from that perspective how fragile our existence is.” 

Challenger Mission

Sally flew on another mission two years later, again on Challenger. Sally hoped she’d be able to fly again after her second mission, but in 1986 a terrible tragedy threw her hopes, and the whole shuttle program, into doubt. The space shuttle Challenger, which Sally had flown on twice, exploded a few minutes after lift-off. Seven astronauts were killed, including some Sally had trained with. Sally was devastated, but she was also one of the best people to help figure out what went wrong. NASA canceled all its space shuttle missions for years while Sally and a committee of other experts investigated the accident. They found that cold weather that morning in Florida caused a part to break during the flight. 

By this time, Sally realized she would probably never fly on another mission. She stayed at NASA another year after the investigation, helping them plan for the future. But in 1987, she realized it was time to leave. 

Sally went back to Stanford University to work as a physics professor. She also reconnected with a childhood friend, Tam O’Shaugnessy. The two fell in love, and would spend the next 27 years together. Tam was also a scientist–a biologist–and she loved sports and exercise too. Sally and Tam also shared a passion for encouraging children, especially girls, to explore science and technology. They wrote books and started a foundation together that offered science summer camps and science festivals. Sally even started a program that let kids in middle school control a satellite launched into space on the shuttle, taking pictures of earth from hundreds of miles above the ground. 

Sally’s Death

In 2011, Sally learned she had pancreatic cancer. After battling the disease for over a year, she passed away at home in California. A year later, President Obama awarded Sally a Presidential Medal of Honor for her accomplishments. Tam accepted the award on her behalf.

People change their minds sometimes about what they want to do. New dreams take hold. But the most important thing to do if you want to make a dream come true is to act. Find out what you need to do to actually make that dream a reality and do it! You may find that you don’t like the doing as much as the dream, just like Sally Ride did with pro tennis. But, like Sally, if you try enough things, eventually you’ll find the right thing for you. And you never know when an opportunity will come along that requires your unique combination of talents, skills, and knowledge. So keep exploring!

Sources

https://rvsallyride.ucsd.edu/legacy/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Ride

Abawi, Atia (2021) She Persisted: Sally Ride. Philomel Books, New York.

Macy, Sue (2014) Sally Ride: Life on a Mission. Aladdin, New York.

The post History of Sally Ride for Kids appeared first on Bedtime History: Podcast and Videos For Kids.

Today we’re going to learn about a place that has been a mystery to people all over the world. Places like this one become mysterious because not much is known about what goes on there, so people start to imagine what might happen there and share their ideas until the place becomes more and more intriguing to those who don’t know about it. This particular place is called Area 51. Area 51 is one section in a large territory of land located in the deserts of Nevada in the United States, which is now officially called the Nevada National Security Site. Area 51 is owned by the government and only the people who work there are allowed to know what happens on the base. For a very long time, no one outside of the base knew what was going on there, but in recent years more of its history has become known. So in this episode we’re going to talk about some of the histories we do know about Area 51 and also the things we don’t know and for that reason have become mysterious.

After World War 2 ended, the Cold War began. The Cold War was a conflict between the United States and its allies and the Soviet Union (not Russia). It was called a Cold War because there was very little fighting and instead lots of spying. Both countries were worried the other country would use nuclear bombs, which were invented during World War 2, on each other. The United States needed an area for testing nuclear bombs that were far from humans, so they used the land in Nevada and called it the Nevada Testing Site. Some of these bombs were tested above ground but many of them were tested below ground. They drilled holes deep into the earth and dug tunnels to place the bombs into before detonating them. They did this because the fallout from nuclear bombs above ground can be very harmful when it moves through the air. I did a little research using Google Maps and today you can still see the craters created by the testing of these bombs at the Nevada Testing Site.

So to keep an eye on each other’s nuclear bombs, the United States and Russia trained spies to live in each other’s countries, trying to figure out what their enemy would do next. Another word for spying is espionage. The agency in the United States for gathering intelligence was called the Central Intelligence Agency or CIA. Intelligence is information about other countries, such as Russia at the time. Besides just sending out agents, the CIA had the idea to use jets to photograph possible nuclear weapons in Russia. These jets would need to fly VERY high to avoid enemy radar and have very powerful cameras to take photos of the land below. And the program to develop the spy plane would have to be TOP SECRET. This means no one could know about it besides the people working on the spy plane. 

The new spy plane was called the U-2 and once the work started on it, the designers needed a place to test it out. The chief designer of the U-2, named Kelly Johnson, was flying over Nevada one day when he saw the flat desert and mountains of Area 51 and thought it would be perfect for testing out his new spy plane. Soon, work started on the airfield and runways around Groom Lake at the section of the Nevada Test Site named Area 51. Airplane hangers to keep the spy plane out of view. Fences were added all around Area 51 so no one but those working on the U-2 spy plane could see what was being done. Guards were posted at all of the entrances to make sure no one entered the base. Anyone who worked at Area 51 had to swear an oath of secrecy to promise that they’d never speak about the work they were doing. Houses were built for the people who would live there. Soon, the area around Groom Lake was a small city where engineers and pilots could live and work and test the spy plane. A gym, movie theater, and baseball diamond were even built to make life more enjoyable at Area 51. Kelly Johnson even called it “Paradise Ranch” to attract people to work on the top secret projects.

During the day, engineers worked on the aircraft. Then at night, highly trained pilots flew the advanced aircraft high around the Nevada desert to test them and make sure they were working well. The U-2 spy plane was black, had long slender wings and could fly up to 70,000 feet, which was extremely high for a jet at the time. Testing the U-2 was very dangerous and the pilots who flew it had to be very skilled and brave to take it up again and again until it was ready to use. Many talented engineers also had to work long hours to make sure the U-2 could fly high, take photos, and not be detected by enemy radar.

Before the U-2 was put into service, the next top-secret project began on a new spy plane that would be designed to fly even higher and faster than the U-2. It was called the A-12 Oxcart. It was long, black, sleek, and eventually able to fly Mach 3, which is 2,000 miles per hour and faster than the speed of sound. It still holds the record of flying at 85,000 feet, which is incredibly high for a jet. The A-12 was also the precursor to the SR-71 Blackbird, which looked very similar.

So as you can imagine, when jets like the U-2, the A-12, and other top-secret aircraft flew at night, they moved at incredible speeds; and when their fuel burned it created bright streaks across the sky. This made people living nearby Area 51 very suspicious about what was going on. They saw objects that were moving higher and faster than anything they’d ever seen. Also, when passenger jet pilots flew nearby, they saw objects moving high above them and very fast. Stories started to emerge from people on the ground and in the air who saw these objects. Science Fiction was becoming popular in comic books, movies, and TV. Could the objects people were seeing be spacecraft from another world? They started calling these “Unidentified Flying Objects” or UFOs. Another word they used to describe beings from other planets was “extraterrestrials.” They wondered if Area 51 had UFOs.

Of course, it didn’t help that Area 51 was so top secret. Everything was classified, which means not public knowledge, and everyone working there was flown in by plane and had to receive top-secret clearance. You can imagine what kind of rumors started!

All the while, new projects continued at Area 51 and the surrounding test site in the deserts of Nevada which included the D-21 Tagboard, one of the first aircraft flown without a human pilot. You might know these as drones but officially called UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles). Later, UAVs like the Predator, Sentinel, and Reaper drones were tested at Area 51. These are now in use by the military today and used in places like the Middle East. A pilot on a base in Nevada flies these drones remotely in place all over the world using satellite communication. There has also been debate about whether aircraft like this should be used in other countries and when they should be used.

Over time, the history of the aircraft tested at Area 51 and nearby became public knowledge. In 2013, the CIA even shared documents about the work done there. The documents about the U-2, the A-12, and F-117 became declassified. Later, it became known that astronauts like Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin who completed the first Apollo Moon mission trained there. They put on their spacesuits and walked around the desert as if they were on the moon.

Of course, today whatever is being tested and created at Area 51 is once again top secret, so we can only guess what is happening there. Because it’s unknown it becomes mysterious to those who don’t know and people like to use their imaginations to think about what might be going on there. Like we said before, the base is guarded by fences and soldiers on patrol so currently only people with top-secret permission can go in. It’s likely that the most advanced aircraft is being tested there and things we won’t know about until they are revealed at a future date.  That said, you can look at Area 51 on Google Maps, and my kids and I had fun looking at the different airfields, mountains, roads, and testing sites. And we do admit it’s fun to guess at what might be going on there today.

So, back to UFOs and extraterrestrials since it can be such an intriguing topic. Many people wonder with our universe being so big, there should be other life out there in the galaxy. And if so, why haven’t we made contact with this other intelligent life yet. There are a lot of questions here which are fun to explore. The SETI Institute is one organization with the goal to find extraterrestrial life in the universe. SETI stands for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. They use powerful radio telescopes to observe faraway places in the galaxy that might contain intelligent life. They search for planets that might be habitable, which means be the right temperature and have water. 

At times, the government and military have also done studies on UFOs and intelligent life that may have visited earth. Project Blue Book was the name of one of these studies. They interviewed witnesses and researched what might explain what people were seeing. In most cases, what people saw corresponded to aircraft flying in the area or other explainable things. 

One of the most famous UFO stories in the United States happened in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947 when something crashed in the desert there. With all of the talk of UFOs familiar with Science Fiction, the newspaper was quick to report it was a UFO. Did they do this just to get people to buy their newspapers? Or did someone see something that made them think it was a spacecraft from another planet? The military quickly came to the scene to clean up the crashed aircraft and this led to people speculating that whatever did crash in Roswell was top secret. Stories about what happened at Roswell then began to spread and ever since it has been a topic of much debate. Later, the military said it was in fact a top-secret project, a high-flying weather balloon used to spy on enemies far below. During World War 2 they hoped to use it to listen for bombs exploding to know where the enemy might be testing nuclear bombs. But as you can imagine the rumors still abound about what happened at Roswell, New Mexico. Later, people wondered if what was being tested at Area 51 was connected to the crash at Roswell. Did the government know something about UFOs that the general public didn’t? Were they testing their own UFOs? We do know they were testing top-secret aircraft like the U-2 and A-12. It can be fun to speculate and wonder but the fact remains that there is still much that we don’t know about Area 51 and the surrounding Nevada Test Site. 

What is being tested at Area 51 today? The best guess is the same work of advanced aircraft that can fly fast and is stealthy, which means avoiding being detected by enemy radar. There may also be advanced weapons systems being tested which the military is always developing. If you try and visit Area 51 today you’ll only see lots of “No Trespassing” signs and surveillance cameras, but interestingly, people interested in UFOs like to drive down the road now called the Extraterrestrial Highway and all of the shops, hotels, and other businesses which are UFO and Extraterrestrial themed and which sell t-shirts, books, and other souvenirs.

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Have you ever sat outside on a dark night and stared up at the stars, wondering what’s out there? It’s not always possible in the city, but if you get away from the lights, on a very dark and clear night, you can see thousands of stars. People have watched the stars and wondered about them for as long as there have been people. What are they made of? How many are there? How far away are they? Why do they seem to move to different parts of the sky? Why do they twinkle? 

As other people have looked up at the stars like you, they have dreamed about visiting these far away places. As a child, Mae Jemison was one of them. Mae lived in a city, but during the summers as a child she went to camp. There, outside the city, it was dark enough to see the stars, and like you she wondered about other planets and stars and space. Then, she began to dream about what it would be like to go there.  And as Mae grew older she didn’t stop dreaming of going to space. 

Mae Jemison was born in 1956 in Alabama. At this time, Alabama still had many laws that were unfair to African Americans like Mae’s family. So, when she was three years old, her parents moved the family to the South Side of Chicago, Illinois. They thought they would be able to find better work for Mae’s mother and give their children a better education there. Her father was a roofer and carpenter, and her mother was a school teacher. 

The 1960s were an exciting time for space exploration. These years began with the first humans being launched into space! Yuri Gagarin, a Russian astronaut, was first and then Alan Shepherd, an American, was also launched into space. These years ended with humans landing on the moon for the first time: Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969. 

But, as Mae watched all of these exciting events unfold, what she didn’t see in the space programs were people like herself or her family: African Americans and women. She followed every detail of the Apollo missions that brought humans to the moon. She enjoyed stargazing and imagining what it would be like to be in space. She went to the library and read everything she could find about space and science. But Mae wanted to see women a part of these programs, too. Still, Mae didn’t stop thinking and dreaming about space. On TV she found inspiration in the sci-fi show Star Trek, where one of the crew was a black woman doing important work as part of a starship crew.  And, her parents encouraged her to explore her interests. She studied earth history, chemistry, dance, and theater all in addition to space.

Growing up, Mae once told her teacher that she wanted to be a scientist. The teacher responded by asking if she meant to say “nurse.” Although being a nurse is a very important job, Mae stood firm and corrected her teacher, saying she really did want to be a scientist. She wasn’t about to have someone tell her what she should be. 

Later, other grown-ups encouraged Mae, such as a middle school teacher who helped her research different space and science related jobs. Different people in your life may encourage or discourage you, but you should never be afraid to say what you think or pursue a subject that interests you! Be sure to pay the most attention to people who care about you and encourage you and build you up! 

In college, Mae studied chemical engineering, but was also involved in dance and theater productions. In fact, she even considered trying to become a dancer! But Mae decided to continue studying science and went to medical school. From there, she studied in Cuba and Kenya, and also worked in a refugee camp in Thailand. A refugee camp is where people fleeing a war go to be safe, and Cambodia had just ended a long civil war. After medical school, Mae went on to work for the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone and Liberia. She speaks Swahili, Japanese, Russian, and, of course, English.

But through all this, Mae never stopped thinking about her dream to go to space. In 1985 she applied to the space program led by NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Association. To her joy, they accepted her, making Mae the first African American woman to enter the astronaut training program! During her training, Mae had to learn astronomy, engineering, space shuttle systems and many other subjects that help astronauts do their jobs. She trained physically, which can be very hard on the body. Astronauts must be very strong and healthy, because being in zero gravity puts a lot of stress on the human body. Zero gravity means you are floating because there is little to no gravity in space. One of Mae’s obstacles was also a fear of heights! Do you have a fear of heights? If so, Mae can relate to you. We all have fears but this was Mae’s. She had t o overcome her fear of heights to complete parachute training, but later said there was no question that it was worth it. She either had to face her fears, or not go to space. 

After training, Mae spent a few years helping with space shuttle launches at Kennedy Space Center. Then in September 1992, Mae joined six other astronauts on the space shuttle named Endeavor. Her job was a mission specialist, in some ways like her hero from the Star Trek TV show! She spent eight days in space. There, she performed experiments such as the effects of weightlessness and motion sickness on the crew. 

Not only did her childhood dream come true, Mae became the first African American woman in space. She took with her reminders of people who had been excluded in the past: a portrait of Judith Jamison, a famous African American dancer with the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater; a west African statue; and a photo of Bessie Coleman, the first African American woman to earn a pilot’s license. If you remember, we learned about Bessie Coleman in a past episode! 

Mae left NASA in 1993, but is alive today and has continued to work on space-related projects. She started a camp for youth who are interested in space, and wrote a book for young people about her life. She often talks to young people who are interested in careers in space and science. She tells them to find a career they really enjoy and are good at, but also learn about lots of different subjects. Mae certainly followed her own advice by studying dance, medicine, and engineering, and then learning all about space science and shuttle systems in her astronaut training. 

Mae hasn’t stopped working on big, ambitious goals for space travel either. She leads a project called 100 Year Starship. The goal of this project is to make travel to other star systems possible within the next 100 years! Isn’t that amazing! This is a huge challenge! So far we’ve only sent people as far as Earth’s moon, and unmanned probes to the other planets in our solar system.  Going to another solar system would take thousands of times longer. That’s because distances in space are vast. At current rocket speeds, travel to the closest star outside our solar system would take 70 thousand years! It would be nice not to have to wait so long for something that exciting, don’t you think? 

The 100 Year Starship project is exploring new technologies that could speed things up. They are also looking at ways to solve other problems that interstellar travellers would face on their trip, such as having enough food and energy, keeping people healthy, tools to fix things that break, and making sure everyone is happy and entertained!

The vastness of space has inspired us to dream about the stars since the first humans looked up at the night sky. They wondered what was out there, made up stories and watched closely to try to explain it. The unknown can be scary, but it’s also the thing that motivates us to learn and challenge ourselves to do bigger and better things. We want to know what’s out there, to make discoveries. We don’t know what we’ll find, but as Mae Jemison learned after her mission to space, we’re already a part of it. We are part of the universe, just like the stars and moon, the planets and asteroids. So it’s only natural that we want to explore it. 

Many people didn’t believe Americans could get a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s, a project that President John F. Kennedy proposed in 1962. But as the young Mae Jemison watched and tracked those missions from the South Side of Chicago, she and the world saw that enormous, seemingly impossible goals can be reached. They are reached by many people working together with a common purpose and vision. Mae Jemison helped show that race and gender do not matter when it comes to achieving these big goals. What matters is having passion, purpose, and determination. These are the kind of people like you who will build a better future for our world and beyond it in the stars. 

Sources

https://100yss.org/mission/challenges

https://www.biography.com/astronaut/mae-c-jemison

https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/mae-jemison

https://www.today.com/video/dr-mae-c-jemison-on-breaking-barriers-as-first-black-woman-in-space-101574725699

http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/545.html 

https://www.startrek.com/database_article/jemison

Jemison, Mae. 2001. Find Where the Wind Goes: Moments from my life. Scholastic Press. New York.

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Meet Mars Perseverance Rover

Watch NASA engineers prepare Perseverance for launch

Learn more about the SpaceX Starship for it’s 2022 Mars Mission

On certain nights, if you go outside and look up into the sky you may see a very bright light. It may look like a star, but if you’re looking at the right place and at the right time, you can see the planet Mars. Mars is special because it’s one of the closest planets to Earth. It’s also more similar to Earth than any of the other planets in our Solar System. It has a surface you can walk on. And with the right tools, people could someday live on Mars. Humans have always been interested in Mars and have explored in more than any other planet. 

Because of its color Mars is often called the “Red Planet.” It’s the fourth planet from the Sun and Earth is the third. Because it’s further from the Sun than Earth, it’s very cold on Mars. Like most planets, Mars is very big, but it’s about six times smaller than Earth. It has two small moons named Phobos and Deimos. The surface of Mars is rocky and covered in red-brown colored dust. It’s extremely cold and dry. There is no flowing water on the surface of Mars and no plants or animals live there. However, there is evidence that millions of years ago water flowed on Mars, but over time it froze or evaporated.

Even though there is no life on Mars, it has some amazing geographical features, which include a mountain and volcano called Olympus Mons, which is more than twice the height of Mount Everest and the second-largest known mountain in the Solar System. The Red Planet also has a gigantic canyon called Vallis Marineris, which is 10 times longer than the Grand Canyon and 6 times deeper. If it was on earth Vallis Marineris would stretch all the way across the United States.    

For thousands of years, humans have been interested in Mars. Ancient astronomers such as the Sumerians, Babylonians, Egyptians and Chinese watched Mars in the sky with wonder. The Romans named it “Mars” after the god of war, because it was red, the color of blood. In 1877 when Mars was closest to Earth, the Italian Astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli used a telescope to draw a detailed map of Mars. As telescopes improved humans learned more and more about the Red Planet. They wondered if it had planets and animals like earth and they dreamed of visiting it someday. Science fiction authors such as Edgar Rice Burroughs imagined it having people and wrote adventures about what happened there in his book A Princess of Mars.     

The first attempts to explore Mars were made by the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s. The Soviet Union was the name of Russia and other nearby countries at that time. They launched 9 different unmanned rockets in hopes of reaching Mars. Unmanned means no humans are on the rocket. Most of the first spacecraft never made it to the Red Planet, but the Mars 3 lander did land on the surface of Mars, and the Mars 5 lander landed and was able to send back some information before it stopped working. 

In 1964 NASA, the United State’s National Air and Space Administration launched Mariner 4 and Mariner 5 to learn more about Mars. The first spacecraft failed, but the second one made the 7 month trip to the Red Planet. When it arrived it took pictures from space and sent them back to Earth. It was the first time humans saw the surface of another planet! It was amazing! They saw craters and learned that living on Mars would be harder than they expected. More spacecraft were sent and took new pictures of Mars. With each visit, they learned more about our neighboring planet.

The next goal was to land a vehicle on Mars so it could take close up pictures and samples of the Martian air and dirt. Remember, that all of these spacecraft and landers were unmanned, they were robots and didn’t have people on them. They were all controlled by people on Earth. Sending a human to Mars would be much more challenging and dangerous. 

In 1975 NASA sent two more landers to Mars and called them Viking 1 and Viking 2. They landed successfully and sent back color pictures of the surface of Mars. They showed red, rocky land. The Viking landers also learned more about what life would be like on Mars.

Next came the Mars Pathfinder mission, which landed again and this time included a rover. A rover is a robot with wheels and arms that drives around the surface of the Red Planet. It can take pictures and samples of the dirt and air. Then it uses radio communication to send all of this information across space and back to Earth.

Other missions sent more probes to fly over Mars and take pictures. Then in 2012 the Curiosity Rover landed on Mars and took even better pictures and samples to prepare for future missions. 

While researching this episode, I learned that this month, July 2020, NASA plans to launch its new and improved rover called Perseverance . If it launches this month it would land on Mars in February and send back whatever it learns. One of the coolest things about the Perseverance rover is it will also have a small helicopter on it that will detach and fly around and explore and take pictures from the sky. 

Also, just this last week China launched its first spacecraft and lander to explore Mars. Mars exploration is really exciting lately! I’m look forward to hear what they find out next. 

The next big step with Mars will be sending humans to live and do research there. Elon Musk is a tech billionaire and visionary who has made sending humans to live on Mars the mission of his company, SpaceX. His goal is to send humans there by 2022. This is called colonization. It’s a big goal, but he and his engineers have accomplished amazing things in the past. He also started Tesla, which makes the famous electric cars.

In 2020 if SpaceX is ready, their mission to Mars would begin by launching their Starship spacecraft attached to their Super Heavy rocket. It would probably take 6 months to get from Earth to Mars, but the engineers at SpaceX are working to make it faster. Two more Starships would launch the same year. If SpaceX reaches the Red Planet they’ll have to be prepared to live there. First, humans will need oxygen, because Mars’s air does not have oxygen like Earth’s. They will bring some of their own oxygen and also use special machines to pull other elements like Carbon Dioxide out of the air and convert it into oxygen. They’ll also need water. One way to do this is to dig up the soil and extract water from deep in the ground or from frozen ice caps. They will also need to wear special suits because its air doesn’t protect them from the Sun’s radiation — and radiation is very dangerous to the body. The Red Planet is also extremely cold. Their homes and suits will need to keep them warm. These habitats will also have the oxygen and air pressure the body needs to survive. And  of course humans need to eat, so they will bring some of their own food at first, but if they want to live there for a long time they’ll need to figure out how to grow plants in Martian soil, so they can eat them. 

Many teams are already preparing for life on Mars by living in habitats in the desert on Earth. Living alone will be a challenge and all of the astronauts will have to work as a team and find ways to get along with each other. The goal to send people to Mars is a big one, but humans have done amazing things in the past as they think big and work together.

Would you like to visit a faraway place like the space station or the Moon or Mars someday? What kind of skills would you need to survive in a place like that? If so, what can you do now to prepare to explore like an astronaut or create new devices like the engineers at NASA and SpaceX? 

Building things requires a knowledge of math and science. It also requires creativity. There are a few ways you can develop these skills on your own and at school. Remember that even though subjects like math don’t always seem interesting at first, understanding them can give you the ability to do amazing things.

Also, teamwork is important to achieve big goals. All of the space missions require huge teams of engineers and scientists, mission control operators, and astronauts to get the job done. No one achieves these feats alone. Learning to be patient and get along with your friends and family members prepares to work well with others and on a team. This will be important for the rest of your life.     

And be sure to mark your calendar for July 30th as NASA prepares to send its next rover, The Perseverance, to Mars. 

Thanks for listening! Be sure to check out our website BedtimeHistoryStories.com to see our favorite books and movies about Mars exploration and a really cool video of NASA preparing its next Mars mission and SpaceX’s 2020 Mars mission. That’s BedtimeHistoryStories.com 

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For a long time, humans have seen comets in the sky and wondered what they are. Some very smart scientists decided they wanted to learn more about comets, so they decided to create a spaceship that would find a comet and land on it. This had never been done before, but they knew if they build the spaceship right and worked out all of the math correctly they could make it happen.

Many different countries in Europe designed and started working on the spacecraft they would call Rosetta. It took many different engineers and scientists studying space and spaceships to know how Rosetta should work.

Astronomers, scientists who know a lot about space, also had to follow the comet Rosetta would land on. They had to use math to figure out how fast Rosetta should go and where it should go to land on the large rocky comet flying around space.

Rosetta goes to space

When Rosetta was ready they blasted the ship into outer space and someone gave it directions to fly. No one was actually on Rosetta because it would be gone for a very long time and might be a very dangerous mission. They flew it sort of like you might fly a remote-controlled helicopter or car.

For 10 years Rosetta flew through outer space. It had many adventures there such as passing planets like Mars and asteroids, other rocks in space, and many places a spacecraft had never been. After 10 years, it finally was close enough to the icy comet speeding through space. All of the engineers and scientists at mission control were very nervous. They had worked very hard for this day and had been very patient waiting 10 years until they could land their ship. When the day finally came they watched in anticipation as Rosetta came into the orbit of the gigantic comet. This comet was as big as a mountain.

Philae lands on the comet

Attached to Rosetta was a robot that would land on the comet and do experiments to learn more about the comet. When the time was right the lander shot out of Rosetta and raced toward the massive comet below. For a moment it seemed as though it wouldn’t work. The lander was off track. Then, suddenly, it shot spears out of its side and stuck into the comet’s ground. It used these hooks and ropes to pull itself down to the ground. When it hit the ground it tumbled and was broken in some places but eventually came to rest. Everyone at mission control cheered. The robot had landed! Rosetta had completed its mission. This was the first time a robot had ever landed on a comet flying through space! The mission was a success!

Once the lander, which they had called Philae, had time to recharge its batteries, it was able to do a few experiments and send the data back to earth. They learned about the water on comets and some of its metals.

You can be just like the scientists

Like the scientists and engineers who designed and built Rosetta, you can learn all you can about science and other subjects. They had to listen closely and study and do their homework to become skilled at what they do.

Astronomers also helped by learning about the stars. You can go out at night and look at the stars and watch shows and read about all of the amazing things happening in the sky above you.

Waiting for Rosetta to finally reach the comment also took patience. They had to wait many years until it arrived. Over 2000 people worked on this project. This shows that teamwork is important to make great things happen. What would you like to do when you grow up? Think about it tonight. Use your imagination and make a list of the things you can do now to improve yourself. Then, pick one of them and start right away.

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Neil was born in Ohio and was the oldest brother in his family. When he was little his father took him to a show where airplanes flew and raced across the sky. From the moment he saw airplanes he loved them. He wanted to fly airplanes himself. He wanted to become a pilot. Not long after he saw his first airplane, Neil got to fly in an airplane. After this he knew for sure he wanted to be a pilot. When Neil was 14 he took his first flying lessons. By the time he was 16, he had a pilot’s license — which meant he could fly a plane all by himself.

Neil loved to fly planes, but he also loved to learn about them. He built his own small model planes and also did experiments on them to see which designs flew the best. He designed a wind tunnel in his house. A wind tunnel is a tunnel that forces wind through it so he could test his model airplanes.

Neil loved airplanes but he also enjoyed learning about space. Often he would look up in the sky and wonder what was out among the stars and if people would ever go there. His neighbor had a big telescope that Neil often used to look at the planets and stars.

In school, Neil listened to his teachers and did his homework, because he knew he would need to learn all he could in order to become a great pilot. When he got older Neil went to college and worked hard to learn about planes and engineering. Engineering is the science of building things, which for Neil was building airplanes.

Neil joins the war

While Neil was in college, a war started and he was called to be a fighter pilot. His job was to fly airplanes off huge ships called aircraft carriers. He flew 78 missions during the war. One time his airplane was shot and he had to eject from the seat and parachute down to the ground. Fortunately, he was rescued and was safe.

After the war and after finishing college Neil became a test pilot. A test pilot tries out new planes to make sure they are safe for others to fly and to help make them better. Sometimes it was a dangerous job, but Neil had courage and tested over 20 new planes. He even set a record for flying one of the fastest planes in the world.

Neil became an astronaut

Neil loved airplanes and space so he decided to become an astronaut, a pilot who flies to space! He had to work hard to become an astronaut because only a few pilots get to become astronauts. While Neil was an astronaut America was planning its first space flight to the moon. Neil was picked to fly the spaceship that flew to the moon. While the ship was landing something bad happened and Neil had to fly it down to the ground himself. It was scary but Neil kept his cool and landed the spaceship safely. After they landed, Neil was the first person to step onto the moon. People all over the world watches as Neil stepped onto the moon and put an American flag there. Neil’s footprint is still on the moon today because there is no wind on the moon to blow it away.

Like Neil, you can be curious about the world around you. Neil was curious about airplanes and space and learned all he could about both of them so he could become an astronaut. He also listened closely in school and did his homework so he could become an airplane builder. He was brave during the war when he was a fighter pilot. He was also brave when testing new airplanes. Before going to the moon he had to practice day after day in order to pilot the first spacecraft. Like Neil, you can do great things when you are curious, and brave, learn new things, and practice, practice, practice!

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