Sputnik

By Simon Ganeles

Introduction
1950 International Council of Scientific Unions decided that July 1, 1957 to December 31, 1958 would be the International Geophysical Year (IGY), because of the elevated levels of solar activity during this time 1954 The International Council of Scientific Unions decided that artificial satellites should be launched into space during the IGY 1955 The US decided it would launch an artificial satellite, and developed a plan October 4, 1957 The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 and caught the US off guard The Launch of Sputnik 1 Started the International/Intercontinental Space Race Again, before the US could send a satellite into space, the Soviet Union sent another artificial satellite into space, carrying a dog and a heavier payload, called Sputnik 2 In total, there were 42 sputnik missions, most by the Soviet Union, and some by Russia The first three sputnik missions were launched during the IGY

US Reaction to Sputnik
Sputnik missions took place after cold war era when there was much tension between the US and the Soviet Union The US put more funding into their space program and created another satellite project When Sputnik 1 was launched, the US was scared because it realized that the Soviet Union could create intercontinental rockets carrying nuclear weapons, which after the cold war, could start an international nuclear war Shortly after Sputnik 2 was launched, the US launched Explorer 1 on January 31, 1958

Object D
Originally, the Soviet Union was going to create satellite named Object D It would be 1000 to 1400 kg, and carry 200 to 300 kg of scientific equipment A large part of the Soviet Union government split up work on the Sputnik satellite By July 1956, the Soviet Union had planned all the necessary functions and measurement devices the satellite must have A ground observation base was set up to monitor the systems and atmospheric measures from the satellite An upgraded version of the R-7 rocket was used to launch sputnik into orbit

New Construction Plans for Sputnik 1

By the end of 1956, the Soviet Union realized it wouldnt be able to complete the project by the deadline, so they decided to make a much lighter, smaller, simpler satellite which could be launched by the deadline Object D ended up becoming Sputnik 3 The R-7 rocket was not actually fully tested and working right for military purposes by the time the Soviet Union wanted to launch Sputnik 1, so the scientists working on the satellite convinced the government to let them use the R-7 rocket to launch Sputnik 1 When Sputnik 1 ended up being launched, only some of the tracking systems in the ground observation base were set up

Sputnik 1 Satellite
Sputnik launched on October 4, 1957 at 7:12 PM The Launch of Sputnik 1 Started the International/Intercontinental Space Race The Sputnik 1 satellite was a 58 cm diameter aluminum sphere with four protruding antennae 2.5 to 3 meters long It weighed 84 kg It carried instruments to survey the surrounding atmosphere and chemical batteries The orbit of Sputnik 1 lasted little over an hour and a half, going around 18,000 miles/hour Sputnik 1 operated for 3 weeks until the onboard batteries failed on October 26th The satellite was visible from earth through a telescope after this Sputnik burned up on January 4, 1958 and fell from orbit, returning to earths atmosphere Sputnik 1 traveled in total around 60 million km or 37 million miles, orbiting earth 1440 times

Important Data Collected from Sputnik 1

Not much important unknown data was collected, because sputnik 1 was mainly a way the Soviet Union could enter the space race as soon as possible It did, however, have a large political effect

Political Effects of Sputnik 1

Sputnik 1 made the US scared because the US realized that the Soviet Union could create intercontinental rockets carrying nuclear weapons, which after the cold war, could start an international nuclear war This also forced the US to try to join the space race faster, meaning more spending in technological, engineering, and military areas relevant to space, astronomy, and rockets Originally, the Soviet Union kept quiet about their accomplishments, so not to publicize their original failures, and was more focused on their scientific discoveries and the space race Soon after, when the world found out about Sputnik, the soviets made the Sputnik launch more public and used Sputnik as their propaganda showing their superiority over the west President Eisenhower actually wanted the Soviet Union to test out sending satellites into space Eisenhower knew about the Soviet Unions accomplishments as they were building Sputnik because of spy planes and satellite signals Eisenhower underestimated the reaction of the public, though, because when the US saw Sputnik 1 being launched, and the USs failed first launch attempt at the Vanguard satellite, they thought they were far behind the Soviet Union

Sputnik 1 Overview

Sputnik 2
Sputnik 2 launched on November 3, 1957 at 7:12 PM, with a modified version of the R-7 rocket It was a 4 meter high cone with a 2 meter diameter base Inside were two compartments one for scientific equipment and one for a dog, named Laika The scientific equipment inside Sputnik 2 measured solar radiation and cosmic waves, and a camera was mounted inside to see Laika Sputnik had an orbit time of 103.7 minutes It weighed 508.3 kilograms Sputnik 2 reentered Earth's atmosphere on April 14, 1958, after 162 days in orbit Sputnik 2 detected the Van Allen radiation belt, but the signals were intercepted and the code was kept with the Soviet Union, so they only confirmed this after the US satellites had found this out

Laika
Sputnik 2 was the first satellite to be launched into space carrying a living passenger a dog named Laika The cabin for Laika was pressurized and oxygenized and big enough for her to lie down and move around a little Laika was fed food and water through a dispenser, in the form of a gelatinized gel She was fitted with a bag to collect waste and electrodes to monitor body systems Some of the insulation became loose, and there was a malfunction when the satellite was released from the rocket so the cabin temperature raised to 40 degrees Celsius Laika was supposed to survive for 10 days but only survived for 1 or 2, possibly because of the temperature

Sputnik 3
The original plans for sputnik 1, named Object D, were completed and used for sputnik 3 It was cone shaped, around 4 meters tall with a base of about 1.75 meters It weighed 1,327 kilograms Sputnik 3 was launched on May 15, 1958 at 7:12 AM, also with a modified version of the R-7 rocket It took 105.9 minutes to orbit Earth Sputnik 3 was used to explore the upper atmosphere, and expand research on the radiation belts discovered by sputnik 2 Sputnik 3 reentered the atmosphere on April 6, 1960, lasting 692 days in orbit

Sputnik 3 Overview

Sputnik 4 (Korabl Sputnik 1)

Sputnik 4 was also named Korabl Sputnik 1 It launched on May 15, 1960, at midnight Sputnik 4 weighed 1477 kilograms Sputnik 4 was made to study the stresses of space on humans and human life support modules Inside Sputnik 4 was a test dummy of a human After 4 days, rockets were fired to reenter the main cabin into the atmosphere, but because of misalignment and wrong altitude, it went higher into the atmosphere It eventually reentered the atmosphere on September 5, 1952

Sputnik 4 Overview

Sputnik 5 (Korabl Sputnik 2)

Sputnik 5 was launched on August 19, 1960 at 8:44 AM It paved the way for the first human orbital spaceflight less than 8 months after Sputnik 5 weighed 4,600 kilograms This flight was the second attempt to launch this capsule with 2 dogs on board The first attempt had failed and the two dogs died when the rocket exploded during ascent The second attempt which worked launched using a different rocket Sputnik 2 also had many mice, rats, and plants on board It took Sputnik 5 around 91 minutes to orbit earth It returned to earth the day after it launched, on august 20th at 6:00 AM, after orbiting earth four times One of the dogs had a seizure during the fourth orbit, so the Soviet Union decided to limit the first human manned spaceflight to 3 orbits
One of the dogs children was sent to the US first lady as a goodwill present

Sputnik 6 (Korabl Sputnik 3)

Sputnik 6 launched on December 1, 1960, at 7:30 AM It was a test flight for the first human manned spaceflight, Vostok 1 Sputnik 6 also had two dogs on board, along with scientific instruments and a camera It also weighed around 4,600 kilograms Sputnik 6 successfully went into low orbit, but upon reentering the atmosphere, it burned to depletion, killing both dogs

Bibliography
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_Sputnik _missions_were_launched http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_3 http://history.nasa.gov/sputnik/ http://burro.cwru.edu/stu/advanced/20th_sovie t_sputnik.html http://www.russianspaceweb.com/sputnik.html