History of Space Travel

This was a good course with a unique theme with Matt and Lotus as cartoon characters hosting the History of Space Travel which takes us closer to the beginning of A.D. with the journey to space travel starting with the first attempts to study the stars as celestial bodies through astrology later going farther to include mathematics with the primary tool geometry being the first form of mathematics to be used to this study holding properties both mystical and philosophical with the famous astronomers during these developmental times being Hipparchus, Ptolemy and Constantinople moving into the 1500's when Constantinople influenced society with New Star and SuperNova in 1572 where it was proposed that the sun is the center of the solar system. Galileo defended this theory and was at times under a house arrest of sorts. In the 1600's Isaac Newton developed the laws of Motion and in his writings defined many architures of the mathematics of motion, measurement and vision related to the discovery of stars and planets and the ideas upon with which we could one day reach them with a focus on calculus as a major mathematics tool in this time to fulfill his theory that through mathematics we could know the world.
Onward to the French Revolution where the French were developing the use of balloons and the observational balloon to get to the air as a form of air propulsion and here they were used to observe and spot artillary related to the revolution. The congreve rocket used by British to defeat or delay Napolean at Copenhagan was a part of some of the first rocketry only traveling a small distance.
The next mention of space travel is in the 1900's. The US under pressure to compete with Red Star where the space race is recognized and Solviets come into the race with 200 air force candidates for space rocket travel. As President Kennedy enters the scene we look to the stars with the memory of landing on the moon on July 20, 1969 and the sentiments given by President Kennedy as "We chose to go to the moon not because it was easy but because it was hard (difficult)."
In 2001 the first test for the International Space Station to orbit the planet and today still in orbit (almost done) as a successful multinational project leading to better and more peaceful communication among nations in the area of space, science and discovery paving the way for more successful flights, space travel and goals like visiting (landing) on Mars by 2030 and developing lunar bases for study and discovery on the moon. Our overall goal to sustain life in foreign lands.
Today using solar cells to propel space craft and ion thrusters, nuclear power and also satellites and telescopes sent to areas of the system and the universe to further study the stars and dream about traveling and eventually colonizing other worlds not to mention or to mention the possibility of mining for resources like gold, cobalt, nickle and tungston on asteroids and mining compatible planets.
Matt and Lotus were interesting hosts delivering the course in a fun and somewhat humorous way using cartoon graphics to illustrate the information. Thank you the course was valuable.

Thank you,

Tina Lombard O
Class Central