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9.9 Option – Space science: 5. Space stations and probes can tell us more about space

Syllabus reference (October 2002 version)
5. Space stations and probes provide information about our solar system, galaxy and deep space.	Students learn to: discuss requirements that would be necessary to sustain human life for months or even years on a space station identify the space stations already used in space outline how information is transmitted between Earth and the space stations describe and account for the advantages of building optical telescopes on high mountains identify the type of information gathered about the night sky and space by - Hubble Telescope - Very long Baseline Array (VLBA) - Highly Advanced Laboratory for Communications and Astronomy (HALCA) satellite working with ground-based satellites (GBS) discuss the value of Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and Optical Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (OSETI) projects to identify life and advanced civilisations in the universe	Students: gather and analyse information from secondary sources to present an overview of the roles of the Voyager 1 and 2 space probes and how our understanding of the solar system and universe was furthered by these space missions gather, process and present information from secondary sources to trace the developments in technology that have enabled us to identify the different components in the night sky gather and process information from secondary sources to identify the methods employed over time to collect information about our solar system and beyond gather and process information from secondary sources to trace Australia’s involvement in space exploration gather and process information from secondary sources to describe precautions necessary to protect against radiation in space

Extract from Senior Science Syllabus (Amended October 2002) © Board of Studies, NSW.
[Edit: 19 Sept 08]

Prior learning: Science Stages 4–5 syllabus: Outcome 4.9 (content 4.9.2a).
Background: As technology improves people develop better ways to study the solar system and beyond to the rest of the universe. Earlier space probes give today’s scientists a base to work from.

gather and analyse information from secondary sources to present an overview of the roles of the Voyager 1 and 2 space probes and how our understanding of the solar system and universe was furthered by these space missions

• To gather information look in books, CD ROMs and Internet sites under Voyager 1 and 2. An excellent internet source is the NASA site.

This site is very informative, providing you with all the information you need. Look in older textbooks to compare our understanding of the solar system from earlier times compared to understandings gained from the Voyager probes. You could set out the information in a table with the headings, Voyager 1, Voyager 2 and Previous discoveries.

• Consider the types of new information: is it just adding new data such as the number of moons around a planet or is it enabling people to have a better understanding about the planets and maybe how they were formed? Is more information being gained about the universe,(i.e. space beyond the solar system)? To present your report you could put the information under the headings of

Sources	Information gathered	Our understandings

You would then need to summarise how our understandings have been furthered.

discuss requirements that would be necessary to sustain human life for months or even years on a space station

• Discuss the conditions necessary to sustain human life on Earth and list them. You could include fresh air, especially oxygen, food to sustain the astronauts and the removal of wastes.

• The following actions were considered essential for the International Space Station to keep conditions suitable for the people:
  • Recycle wastewater (including urine) to produce drinking (potable) water
  • Store and distribute potable water
  • Use recycled water to produce oxygen for the crew
  • Remove carbon dioxide from the cabin air
  • Filter the cabin air for particulates and microorganisms
  • Remove volatile organic trace gases from the cabin air
  • Monitor and control cabin air partial pressures of nitrogen, oxygen,carbon dioxide, methane, hydrogen and water vapor
  • Maintain total cabin pressure
  • Detect and suppress fire
  • Maintain cabin temperature and humidity levels
  • Distribute cabin air between ISS modules (ventilation).

How is the International Space Station different from previous space vehicles?

identify the space stations already used in space

• Russia's Mir Space Station was in orbit for 15 years. The first element of the station was launched on February 20, 1986 and it was only intended to work for five years.

• Russia has now returned Mir to Earth Space.com, by re-entering it over the Pacific Ocean, north of New Zealand so that the parts that didn’t burn up would just land harmlessly.

• The International Space Station (ISS) NASA is the largest and most complex international scientific project in history. The station represents a project of unprecedented scale. Led by the United States, the International Space Station draws upon the scientific and technological resources of 16 nations: Canada, Japan, Russia, 11 nations of the European Space Agency and Brazil. It is four times bigger than Mir was.

outline how information is transmitted between Earth and the space stations

• The communication used by NASA from the Earth to orbiting space stations is by the L-3 Communication Systems - East (CS-E). This company was responsible for the design, development, fabrication, integration and test of the International Space Station Communication and Tracking System. This system provides real-time, space-based communications and external video from the Space Station to earth through the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS). The Communication and Tracking hardware and software provide for the transmission, reception, signal processing and distribution of audio, telemetry, command, payload, video, text and graphics data. Signal processing functions include timing, synchronization, error detection/correction and multiplexing/de-multiplexing and privacy protection.

• The Station Communication and Tracking system is comprised of three subsystems: The Ku-band subsystem for transmission of video and high speed data to earth, the S-band subsystem for transmission of two-way voice commands to the space station and telemetry from the space station and External Video Subsystem General Dynamics C4 Systems, Scottsdale, Arizona, USA.

There are also solid-state recorders and memory units for data capture, storage, transfer and retrieval for space applications. The standard NASA tape recorder has completed over five million hours of service without a mission failure. AM spacecraft and Landsat-7 Earth-monitoring spacecraft.

The International Space Station is being navigated in space and beaming down its audio and video communications with L-3 products.

gather, process and present information from secondary sources to trace the developments in technology that have enabled us to identify the different components in the night sky

• To gather your information look in books on space, encyclopaedias and the Internet. A good starting point is A very short history of the telescope . Omni-Optical.com, USA, gives examples of early technologies that were used to search the skies. Some other technologies were quadrants and sextants designed and built by Brahe before telescopes were invented, as well as optical telescopes and mathematical formulas to find repeated patterns.

• Look in books and on the Internet to find about more recent technology. Include different types of light telescopes and different arrangements of them as well as radio telescopes. Quite detailed information can be found at CfA Facilities , Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Click on Ground- Based Telescopes, then click on whichever telescope you want to read about. Then go back and click on Space based Telescopes and choose one or two of these such as Hinode (Solar B), and Spitzer Space Telescope.. Also include space probes such as Voyager 1 and 2.

• Find out about the European Space Agency’s Infra-red Space Observatory (ESA, Madrid, Spain) that functioned from 1995 to 1998.

• To present your information you could arrange coloured photographs on cardboard sheets or you might prefer to do a powerpoint presentation. Either way you would explain the visual presentations.

gather and process information from secondary sources to identify the methods employed over time to collect information about our solar system and beyond

• Look in Astronomy books as well as school science textbooks to find early methods used to find out about space. You could include the Babylonians, the Greeks and the Renaissance astronomers such as Copernicus, Brahe, Kepler and Galileo as well as Newton.
• For more recent methods of collecting information you will need to go to the Internet. Some of the instruments you could mention are listed in the next dot point so do this activity with the other points in mind. Some sites that would be useful are: Slide show Voyager: The Interplanetary Mission, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA, California.
  Hubblesite Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach.
  VLBI (Very long Baseline Interferometry), Wikipedia.
  Astronomers Make First Images With Space Radio Telescope, National Radio Astronomy Observatory , New Mexico, USA.
  Bringing Images from Space to Earth Deep Space Network, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA

• Make a timeline of the various methods employed. You could include in it, the countries the people came from who developed the methods and what particular things the tools were good at doing.

describe and account for the advantages of building optical telescopes on high mountains

• It is essential for optical telescopes to have minimal light in the surroundings and a clear atmosphere, otherwise there is interference that affects their viewing.

• To achieve this, telescopes are built on mountains away from cities. A good example of this is the Anglo-Australian Observatory at Siding Spring Observatory near Coonabarabran, in the Warrumbungle Mountains.Click on Information for the General Public to read about why the site was chosen.

• In this way the astronomers can have the best viewing conditions and get the best view of the stars, galaxies etc that they are looking at.

• identify the type of information gathered about the night sky and space by
  - Hubble Telescope
  - Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA)
  - Highly Advanced Laboratory for Communications and Astronomy (HALCA) satellite working with ground-based satellites (GBS)

• NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is the first major infrared-optical-ultraviolet telescope to be placed into orbit around the Earth. Located high above Earth's obscuring atmosphere, the telescope has provided the clearest views of the universe yet obtained in optical astronomy . Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach, Baltimore, USA
  

• The Japanese first launched a radio telescope in 1997 to begin the VLBI project. VLBI requires the simultaneous use of many ground radio telescopes in different parts of the world, including Coonabarabran (Mopra), Narrabri, Hobart, Ceduna and Tidbinbilla in Australia and Puerto Rico, Italy, South Africa, Japan, China, Canada, USA and Russia as well as one radio telescope in space, linked together electronically to create an earth-sized interferometer. It allows us to observe astronomical objects in greater detailthan other astronomical observing techniques currently in use. This is due to the fact that, in general, the bigger the telescope, the better the detail. Very Long Baseline Interferometry Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

• The radio-astronomy satellite Halca was launched into an elliptical Earth orbit in February 1997 by Japan’s Institute of Space and Astronautical Science . Electromagnetic radiation permeates the universe, including visible light, infrared, radio and X-ray radiation. Halca comprises a space observatory in geostationary orbit with a maximum distance of 21,000 km from the Earth's surface, and is capable of longer wavelength microwave imaging compared with ground-based observation using the giant optical-infrared telescope "Subaru" which focuses on visible light and infrared radiation. Halca observations are carried out in concert with 10 ground-based radio telescopes in the United States to achieve VLBI (Very Long Baseline Interferometry). This enables imaging of such phenomena as the active galaxies Centaurus A and Virgo M87, believed to contain black holes, as well as the quasar in the Ophiuchus or "Serpent Holder" constellation 10 billion light years from Earth, which exhibits particularly violent radio emissions.

discuss the value of Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and Optical Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (OSETI) projects to identify life and advanced civilisations in the universe

• Read some literature about the project in books and on the Internet SETI Institute,Mountain View, California, USA.Some factors to consider are the cost, any spin-offs of the search, the chances of success and the consequences of finding ETI.

• The US government stopped funding SETI in 1993 due to the large cost and the lack of results.

gather and process information from secondary sources to trace Australia’s involvement in space exploration

• One of the best sources for gathering information on the story of space exploration in Australia is Space Australia, the story of Australia’s involvement in space, by Dougherty, K and James, M, Powerhouse Publishing, Sydney, 1993.

• You could contact the Parkes Radio Telescope facility or watch the movie “The Dish” to learn about Australia’s involvement in NASA’s landing on the moon in 1969.

• For information after 1993 look in the appendix of this section. A paper, “Forty Years of NASA-Australia Cooperation” was presented in Melbourne at a conference in 1998 and extracts of this paper have been reproduced with the permission of the authors.

• Use search engines to see if there is any more recent information available. Enter FEDSAT as this is an Australian designed science and engineering research satellite that was launched on 14 December 2002. FedSat was launched from Tanegashima Space Centre in Japan and is the first satellite built in Australia in over thirty years. FedSat has travelled about 230 000 000 km since then, and has circled the Earth over 5 000 times. Further information. (This website last accessed September 2007)

• Another way of gathering recent information could be to contact Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex , (Wikipedia) which is currently managed by Raytheon on behalf of the CSIRO and NASA. (This website last accessed September 2007)

gather and process information from secondary sources to describe precautions necessary to protect against radiation in space

• Use search engines to gather information from the world wide web. A good site The Encyclopedia of Astrobiology, Astronomy and Space flight , David Darling, USA. If you want other sources you could try the words ‘spacecraft shielding radiation space’. Avoid scientific papers as the language is usually too difficult, and avoid book reviews as they don’t usually have enough information. If you have no luck click here Space.com,Imaginova, USA

• Process the information you have obtained. You might use the headings, Forms of Radiation and Precautions Necessary. You could also compare the dangers while the astronaut is EVA, on a body such as the Moon or Mars and in a space vehicle.