1.
Soviet space dogs
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During the 1950s and 1960s the USSR used dogs for sub-orbital and orbital space flights to determine whether human spaceflight was feasible. In this period, the Soviet Union launched missions with passenger slots for at least 57 dogs, the number of dogs in space is smaller, as some dogs flew more than once. Most survived, the few that died were lost mostly through technical failures, a notable exception is Laika, the first dog to be sent into orbit, whose death was expected from the outset. Dogs were the animal for the experiments because scientists felt dogs were well suited to endure long periods of inactivity. As part of their training, they were confined in small boxes for 15–20 days at a time. Female dogs were used because of their temperament and because the suit the dogs wore in order to collect urine and feces was equipped with a special device, Dogs that flew in orbit were fed a nutritious jelly-like protein. This was highly fibrous, and assisted the dogs to excrete during long periods of time while in their small space module, more than 60% of dogs to enter space were reportedly suffering from constipation and gallstones on arrival back to base. Dogs were flown to an altitude of 100 km on board 15 scientific flights on R-1 rockets from 1951 to 1956, the dogs wore pressure suits with acrylic glass bubble helmets. From 1957 to 1960,11 flights with dogs were made on the R-2A series, three flights were made to an altitude of about 450 km on R-5A rockets in 1958. In the R-2 and R-5 rockets, the dogs were contained in a pressured cabin, Dezik and Tsygan were the first dogs to make a sub-orbital flight on 22 July 1951. Both dogs were recovered unharmed after travelling to an altitude of 110 km. Dezik made another flight in July 29,1951 with a dog named Lisa. After the death of Dezik, Tsygan was adopted as a pet by Soviet physicist Anatoli Blagonravov, Lisa and Ryzhik flew to an altitude of 100 km on 2 June 1954. Smelaya was due to make a flight in September but ran away the day before the launch and she was found the next day and went on to make a successful flight with a dog named Malyshka. Bolik ran away just days before his flight in September 1951, a replacement named ZIB, who was an untrained street dog found running around the barracks, was quickly located and made a successful flight. Otvazhnaya made a flight on 2 July 1959 along with a rabbit named Marfusha and she went on to make 5 other flights between 1959 and 1960. Albina and Tsyganka were both ejected out of their capsule at an altitude of 85 km and landed safely, albina was one of the dogs shortlisted for Sputnik 2, but never flew in orbit. Damka and Krasavka were to make a flight on 22 December 1960 as a part of the Vostok programme which also included mice
2.
Energia (corporation)
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Viridian Group plc is a Northern Ireland-based energy business with interests in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Viridian organises its business in two groups, Power NI and Viridian Power & Energy. Viridians strategy is focused on Irish energy markets. Its businesses are organised in two groups, Power NI and Viridian Power & Energy. Power NI supplies nearly 800,000 homes and businesses in Northern Ireland with electricity, Power NI Power Procurement Business manages the groups power purchase agreements. Power NI was the former supply business of Northern Ireland Electricity, known originally as NIE Supply and then after its separation from the rest of NIE. In 2010 Viridian sold Northern Ireland Electricity, including the NIE name, as a result, NIE Energy was no longer allowed to use the NIE name, and it rebranded as Power NI on 25 July 2011. Viridian Power & Energy generates electricity through Huntstown power plant and Eco Wind Power, while Energia provides gas and electricity to commercial customers. Viridian was formed in 1998 as a company for Northern Ireland Electricity plc. NIE was a utility which was privatised in 1993. Formerly a vertically integrated monopoly, NIEs power stations were demerged, on 6 October 2006 Viridians board agreed the acquisition of the group by ElectricInvest, a company owned by the international investment firm Arcapita. The acquisition, which valued Viridian at £1.62 billion, was completed on 8 December 2006, on 6 July 2010, Viridian agreed to sell Northern Ireland Electricity - including NIE Powerteam, but excluding NIE Energy - to the Electricity Supply Board in the Republic of Ireland. The acquisition was completed in December 2010, Energy policy of the United Kingdom Energy use and conservation in the United Kingdom Green electricity in the United Kingdom Electricity sector in Ireland
3.
Voskhod (rocket)
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The Voskhod rocket was a derivative of the Soviet R-7 ICBM designed for the human spaceflight programme but later used for launching Zenit reconnaissance satellites. It consisted of the Molniya 8K78M third stage minus the Blok L, in 1966, all R-7 variants were equipped with the uprated core stage and strap-ons of the Soyuz 11A511. The Blok I stage in the Voskhod booster used the RD-107 engine rather than the RD-110 in the Soyuz, the sole exception to this were the two manned Voskhod launches, which had RD-108 engines, a man-rated RD-107 but with the same performance. All 11A57s launched after 1965 were functionally an 11A511 without the Soyuzs payload shroud, around 300 were flown from Baikonur and Plesetsk through 1976. The newer 11A511U core had been introduced in 1973, but the stock of 11A57s took another three years to use up. Stage Number,0 - Strap-on boosters,4 x Voskhod 11A57-0 Gross Mass,43,400 kg Empty Mass,3,800 kg
4.
Baikonur Cosmodrome
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Baikonur Cosmodrome is a spaceport located in southern Kazakhstan. It is the worlds first and largest operational space launch facility, the spaceport is located in the desert steppe of Baikonur, about 200 kilometres east of the Aral Sea and north of the river Syr Darya. It is near the Tyuratam railway station and is about 90 metres above sea level, currently leased by the Kazakh Government to Russia until 2050, the spaceport is managed jointly by the Roscosmos State Corporation and the Russian Aerospace Forces. The shape of the area leased is an ellipse, measuring 90 kilometres east–west by 85 kilometres north–south, with the cosmodrome at the centre and it was originally built by the Soviet Union in the late 1950s as the base of operations for the Soviet space program. Under the current Russian space program, Baikonur remains a busy spaceport, with commercial, military. All manned Russian spaceflights are launched from Baikonur, both Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, and Vostok 1, the first manned spaceflight, were launched from Baikonur. The launch pad used for missions was renamed Gagarins Start in honor of Russian Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, pilot of Vostok 1. The Soviet government issued the decree for Scientific Research Test Range No.5 on 12 February 1955 and it was actually founded on 2 June 1955, originally a test center for the worlds first intercontinental ballistic missile, the R-7 Semyorka. NIIP-5 was soon expanded to include facilities for space flights. The site was selected by a led by Gen. Vasily Voznyuk, influenced by Sergey Korolyov, the Chief Designer of the R-7 ICBM. It had to be surrounded by plains, as the control system of the rocket required receiving uninterrupted signals from ground stations hundreds of kilometres away. Additionally, the trajectory had to be away from populated areas. Also, it is an advantage to place a space launch site closer to the equator, taking these constraints into consideration, the commission chose Tyuratam, a village in the heart of the Kazakh Steppe. A supporting town was built around the facility to provide housing, schools and it was raised to city status in 1966 and named Leninsk. The American U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance plane found and photographed the Tyuratam missile test range for the first time on 5 August 1957, there are conflicting sources about origins of the name Baikonur. Other sources state that Baikonur was name of the Tyuratam region even before the cosmodrome existed, the main cosmodrome-supporting town Leninsk was renamed to Baikonur on 20 December 1995 by Boris Yeltsin. In 1997, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation changed the path and removed the ejected rocket stages near Nyurbinsky District. Scientific literature collected enough data that confirmed adverse effects of rockets on environment, heptyl, or UDMH, a fuel used in Russian rocket engines, is considered to be highly toxic
5.
Baikonur Cosmodrome Site 31
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Site 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan, is a launch site used by derivatives of the R-7 Semyorka missile. However, Site 1/5 has undergone modifications that allow the manned ISS missions to be launched from it, only few manned missions to the International Space Station are launched from Site 31/6, when Site 1/5 is unavailable. It was first used on 14 January 1961, for an R-7A ICBM test mission and it is currently used for commercial Soyuz-FG/Fregat missions, and Soyuz-2 launches. In the 1970s and early 1980s, several manned missions were launched from the site. «Korolev, Facts and myths» - J. K. Golovanov, M, Nauka,1994, - ISBN 5-02-000822-2, Rockets and people – B. E. Chertok, M, kuznetsk, Voronezh, IPF Voronezh,1997, ISBN 5-89981-117-X, Look back and look ahead. Notes of a military engineer - Rjazhsky A. A.2004, SC. first, rocket and space feat Baikonur - Vladimir Порошков, the Patriot publishers 2007. ISBN 5-7030-0969-3 Unknown Baikonur - edited by B. I
6.
Geocentric orbit
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A geocentric orbit or Earth orbit involves any object orbiting the Earth, such as the Moon or artificial satellites. In 1997 NASA estimated there were approximately 2,465 artificial satellite orbiting the Earth and 6,216 pieces of space debris as tracked by the Goddard Space Flight Center. Over 16,291 previously launched objects have decayed into the Earths atmosphere, altitude as used here, the height of an object above the average surface of the Earths oceans. Analemma a term in astronomy used to describe the plot of the positions of the Sun on the celestial sphere throughout one year, apogee is the farthest point that a satellite or celestial body can go from Earth, at which the orbital velocity will be at its minimum. Eccentricity a measure of how much an orbit deviates from a perfect circle, eccentricity is strictly defined for all circular and elliptical orbits, and parabolic and hyperbolic trajectories. Equatorial plane as used here, an imaginary plane extending from the equator on the Earth to the celestial sphere, escape velocity as used here, the minimum velocity an object without propulsion needs to have to move away indefinitely from the Earth. An object at this velocity will enter a parabolic trajectory, above this velocity it will enter a hyperbolic trajectory, impulse the integral of a force over the time during which it acts. Inclination the angle between a plane and another plane or axis. In the sense discussed here the reference plane is the Earths equatorial plane, orbital characteristics the six parameters of the Keplerian elements needed to specify that orbit uniquely. Orbital period as defined here, time it takes a satellite to make one orbit around the Earth. Perigee is the nearest approach point of a satellite or celestial body from Earth, sidereal day the time it takes for a celestial object to rotate 360°. For the Earth this is,23 hours,56 minutes,4.091 seconds, solar time as used here, the local time as measured by a sundial. Velocity an objects speed in a particular direction, since velocity is defined as a vector, both speed and direction are required to define it. The following is a list of different geocentric orbit classifications, Low Earth orbit - Geocentric orbits ranging in altitude from 160 kilometers to 2,000 kilometres above mean sea level. At 160 km, one revolution takes approximately 90 minutes, medium Earth orbit - Geocentric orbits with altitudes at apogee ranging between 2,000 kilometres and that of the geosynchronous orbit at 35,786 kilometres. Geosynchronous orbit - Geocentric circular orbit with an altitude of 35,786 kilometres, the period of the orbit equals one sidereal day, coinciding with the rotation period of the Earth. The speed is approximately 3,000 metres per second, high Earth orbit - Geocentric orbits with altitudes at apogee higher than that of the geosynchronous orbit. A special case of high Earth orbit is the elliptical orbit
7.
Low Earth orbit
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A low Earth orbit is an orbit around Earth with an altitude between 160 kilometers, and 2,000 kilometers. Objects below approximately 160 kilometers will experience very rapid orbital decay, with the exception of the 24 human beings who flew lunar flights in the Apollo program during the four-year period spanning 1968 through 1972, all human spaceflights have taken place in LEO or below. The International Space Station conducts operations in LEO, the altitude record for a human spaceflight in LEO was Gemini 11 with an apogee of 1,374.1 kilometers. All crewed space stations to date, as well as the majority of satellites, have been in LEO, objects in LEO encounter atmospheric drag from gases in the thermosphere or exosphere, depending on orbit height. Due to atmospheric drag, satellites do not usually orbit below 300 km, objects in LEO orbit Earth between the denser part of the atmosphere and below the inner Van Allen radiation belt. The mean orbital velocity needed to maintain a stable low Earth orbit is about 7.8 km/s, calculated for circular orbit of 200 km it is 7.79 km/s and for 1500 km it is 7.12 km/s. The delta-v needed to achieve low Earth orbit starts around 9.4 km/s, atmospheric and gravity drag associated with launch typically adds 1. 3–1.8 km/s to the launch vehicle delta-v required to reach normal LEO orbital velocity of around 7.8 km/s. Equatorial low Earth orbits are a subset of LEO and these orbits, with low inclination to the Equator, allow rapid revisit times and have the lowest delta-v requirement of any orbit. Orbits with an inclination angle to the equator are usually called polar orbits. Higher orbits include medium Earth orbit, sometimes called intermediate circular orbit, orbits higher than low orbit can lead to early failure of electronic components due to intense radiation and charge accumulation. Although the Earths pull due to gravity in LEO is not much less than on the surface of the Earth, people, a low Earth orbit is simplest and cheapest for satellite placement. It provides high bandwidth and low communication time lag, but satellites in LEO will not be visible from any point on the Earth at all times. Earth observation satellites and spy satellites use LEO as they are able to see the surface of the Earth more clearly as they are not so far away and they are also able to traverse the surface of the Earth. A majority of satellites are placed in LEO, making one complete revolution around the Earth in about 90 minutes. The International Space Station is in a LEO about 400 km above the Earths surface, since it requires less energy to place a satellite into a LEO and the LEO satellite needs less powerful amplifiers for successful transmission, LEO is used for many communication applications. Because these LEO orbits are not geostationary, a network of satellites is required to provide continuous coverage, lower orbits also aid remote sensing satellites because of the added detail that can be gained. Remote sensing satellites can also take advantage of sun-synchronous LEO orbits at an altitude of about 800 km, envisat is one example of an Earth observation satellite that makes use of this particular type of LEO. The LEO environment is becoming congested with space debris due to the frequency of object launches and this has caused growing concern in recent years, since collisions at orbital velocities can easily be dangerous, and even deadly
8.
Orbital eccentricity
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The orbital eccentricity of an astronomical object is a parameter that determines the amount by which its orbit around another body deviates from a perfect circle. A value of 0 is an orbit, values between 0 and 1 form an elliptical orbit,1 is a parabolic escape orbit. The term derives its name from the parameters of conic sections and it is normally used for the isolated two-body problem, but extensions exist for objects following a rosette orbit through the galaxy. In a two-body problem with inverse-square-law force, every orbit is a Kepler orbit, the eccentricity of this Kepler orbit is a non-negative number that defines its shape. The limit case between an ellipse and a hyperbola, when e equals 1, is parabola, radial trajectories are classified as elliptic, parabolic, or hyperbolic based on the energy of the orbit, not the eccentricity. Radial orbits have zero angular momentum and hence eccentricity equal to one, keeping the energy constant and reducing the angular momentum, elliptic, parabolic, and hyperbolic orbits each tend to the corresponding type of radial trajectory while e tends to 1. For a repulsive force only the trajectory, including the radial version, is applicable. For elliptical orbits, a simple proof shows that arcsin yields the projection angle of a circle to an ellipse of eccentricity e. For example, to view the eccentricity of the planet Mercury, next, tilt any circular object by that angle and the apparent ellipse projected to your eye will be of that same eccentricity. From Medieval Latin eccentricus, derived from Greek ἔκκεντρος ekkentros out of the center, from ἐκ- ek-, eccentric first appeared in English in 1551, with the definition a circle in which the earth, sun. Five years later, in 1556, a form of the word was added. The eccentricity of an orbit can be calculated from the state vectors as the magnitude of the eccentricity vector, e = | e | where. For elliptical orbits it can also be calculated from the periapsis and apoapsis since rp = a and ra = a, where a is the semimajor axis. E = r a − r p r a + r p =1 −2 r a r p +1 where, rp is the radius at periapsis. For Earths annual orbit path, ra/rp ratio = longest_radius / shortest_radius ≈1.034 relative to center point of path, the eccentricity of the Earths orbit is currently about 0.0167, the Earths orbit is nearly circular. Venus and Neptune have even lower eccentricity, over hundreds of thousands of years, the eccentricity of the Earths orbit varies from nearly 0.0034 to almost 0.058 as a result of gravitational attractions among the planets. The table lists the values for all planets and dwarf planets, Mercury has the greatest orbital eccentricity of any planet in the Solar System. Such eccentricity is sufficient for Mercury to receive twice as much solar irradiation at perihelion compared to aphelion, before its demotion from planet status in 2006, Pluto was considered to be the planet with the most eccentric orbit
