Lesson Essential Questions
1) How can you calculate the altitude of a rocket using a right triangle?
2) How did the political climate of the mid 1900’s give rise to the space race?
3) What were the major space exploration milestones for the U.S. and Russia through 1975?
As we have continued our study of rocketry, cadets have become quite intrigued by the Cold War and the role the space race played in this global struggle. After discussing the different political goals that the United States and the Soviet Union promoted immediately following the Second World War, cadets begin to understand how the political tension, espionage, propaganda, stockpiling of weapons, and threat of nuclear war led to a political climate that was extremely tense, fearful, and distrustful. Against this backdrop, the space race became a crucial arena for these two super powers to compete.
October 4th, 1957 was a day that would forever change the world, as the Soviet Union launched the first manmade object, Sputnik 1, into space. This achievement was closely followed by the launch of Sputnik 2, which carried aboard a dog named Laika. These Russian accomplishments greatly worried the American public who was unsure of the satellites capabilities and felt as if the United States was falling behind Russia in technological advances. These worries and feelings of embarrassment were heightened when the first attempt of the U.S. to launch a satellite, Vanguard TV3, ended in a spectacular explosion and taunts of “Flopnik” from the Russian media. However, on January 31, 1958 the United States officially entered the space race with the successful launch of Explorer 1, and shortly thereafter, The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was established. From this point until the mid 1970’s, Russia and the United States were in a race to see which country could accomplish various “firsts” in space.
As we studied this space race, GSRA cadets enjoyed learning about America’s Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and Skylab programs and the coinciding Vostok, Voskhod, Soyuz, and Salyut programs of the U.S.S.R. They particularly enjoyed exploring some of the lesser known facts associated with the missions and the astronauts who flew them. Students were excited about each milestone but were saddened to learn about some of the tragedies that occurred: the Apollo 1 fire that killed Roger Chaffe, Gus Grissom, and Ed White, the death of Vladimir Komarov from a malfunctioning parachute, and the deadly depressurization accident that claimed the lives of Georgi Dobrovoldky, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev. Students were thrilled to learn of the Apollo 11 moon landing and were very impressed by the dedication and determination that led to this success. They were also very intrigued by the Apollo 13 mission and saw firsthand how perseverance, problem solving, and “thinking outside the box” allowed NASA to safely return the crew home. Altogether, cadets learned a great deal from studying the history of the space race, and they are eagerly awaiting our study of the space shuttle, International Space Station, and future of space exploration.
In addition to our historical look at space travel, we also spent some time learning how to calculate the apex of a rockets trajectory using some basic trigonometry. After learning about right triangles and the trigonometric functions of sine, cosine, and tangent, students discovered that the height of an object could be easily calculated. Students learned how to measure their distance from an object and then determine the angle from that point to the top of the object. At that point, a simple tangent calculation and multiplication problem allowed students to calculate the objects height. This skill will come in handy when we build and launch Estes model rockets this spring.
