Astronaut and 8 truths make you

How much weight do you think a spaceship weighs? And how long will it take to get through the solar system?

Moreover, space travel is an interesting concept, but relatively macro. Therefore, not many people can understand deeply, and accompanying mistakes about it.

So below is a summary of the facts that few people expected of this extremely interesting field.

1. Satellite not only floats in the universe. They are falling on our heads

When launching satellites into orbit, satellites will not rotate forever, but under the influence of gravity.

The truth is that when you launch a satellite into orbit, the satellite will not be able to rotate forever, but will be affected by gravity, pulling it away towards our planet. And in fact, at high altitudes satellites operate, gravity is almost no different than on the ground.

Therefore when launching the satellite, experts will have to calculate so that the speed must be enough to orbit. If the speed is too slow, it will quickly fall to Earth and explode; if too fast, the satellite is out of orbit, going into the universe.

This fact is true for large-sized ships, such as the ISS International Space Station. According to calculations, ISS will cease operation in 2028, enjoying a positive age of 44 years. Scientists will calculate the right time to destroy the ISS before that, so that the 500-ton space station will fall between the Pacific Ocean.

2. Space missiles are not as heavy as you think

Want to push a rocket into Earth's orbit, it must reach a speed of at least 10km / s.

And to do this, we need a lot of fuel. This is why a rocket can weigh up to 2,000 tons like the Saturn V (used to launch the Moon), but 85% of it is fuel.

3. Each time a meteorite passes by, Earth will slow down a bit

When flying close to a planet, celestial bodies will "steal" some of the planet's energy to increase their speed.

This phenomenon is like dropping a ball in the head of a running car. The ball will come out very strong, while the speed of the car will decrease a little, though not significantly.

An example is the Voyager 1 probe when flying through Jupiter. Thanks to gravity, Voyager accelerated by 16,000m / s, while Jupiter lost about . 0.0000 trillion trillion m / s rotation speed.

4. If the Earth shrinks with a ball?

Since humans set foot on the Moon, no one has left the ground more than 2cm. Because in fact, the space travels later only reached the Earth's low orbit (Low Earth Orbit) - not more than 1,000 km.

Also, if the Earth is as small as a ball, the Sun will turn into a sphere of 25m diameter.

5. This is actually an era of machinery travel. There are 2 cheats on Mars

So far, people have only really traveled to a single object in the universe, that is the Moon. All other areas, we leave spacecraft, self-propelled robots exploit.

Curiosity - NASA's new self-propelled robot on Mars.

As on Mars, there are currently two self-propelled robots: Opportunity - approaching about 12 years ago, and newer Curiosity since 2011.
In the near future, NASA plans to launch another Super Curiosity in 2020, aiming to find traces of life on Mars.

6. There is also a human satellite on Saturn

That is Cassini satellite . However, by 2017, Cassini will officially stop working, and Saturn is its final resting place.

Saturn images taken by Cassini in 2015.

7. Jupiter also has a satellite in early July 2016

In early July, Juno satellite officially approached Jupiter's orbit, expecting to discover the deepest secrets of Jupiter in general and the solar system in particular.

Previously, human exploration ships had approached Venus, Mercury, Mars .

8. People have the ambition to explore the planet outside the solar system, but it is far away

By Voyager 1. the ship itself is determined to . pierce through, towards the star systems next to our solar system. Voyager 1's speed is about 17,000m / s - the speed that allows you to travel from New York (USA) to London (UK) in just 5 minutes.

Voyager 1 - cruise ship expresses an ambition to explore deep places in the universe.

However, after 37 years of operation, it only touched the edge of the solar system. It is about 20 billion km long, but not enough.

And at such a rate, estimated at . 75,000 more years, Voyager 1 will approach the nearest star from Earth.