1. Space exploration

2. Telescopes • Optic Telescopes use light to let you see far away objects. There are two kinds: reflecting and refracting • Non-Optic telescopes, such as radio telescopes, pick up things the human eye can’t see (X rays, gamma rays and radio waves) • However, any earth based telescope can only look at the universe through our atmosphere and all of its debris. To get a clearer picture we need to get off the planet.

3. Satellites • A satellite is just an object that orbits around something. An artificial satellite is made by humans and is put in orbit for a purpose • Satellites can be used to track things on our planet, like forest fires, salmon migration and even people. Satellites also can send signals for television, cell phones, radio and the internet • A satellite in a geosynchronous orbit appears to not be moving because it orbits the earth at the same speed of the earth’s rotation. This is necessary for satellites used in communication

4. RADARSAT 1 • One of Canadian space agency’s first remote sensing satellites • It has been used for mining, exploration, urban planning and even hurricane tracking

5. Probes • There are space vehicles sent out to explore other celestial bodies (no humans on board!) • They find out information by either landing on, flying past or orbiting the object (they send the info back, but do not come back themselves) • New Horizons: sent in 2006 to look at Pluto is set to arrive there in 2015 • Venera: probes sent to Venus by the Soviet Union • Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were launched in the 1970’s to get info about our solar system

6. Rovers • A robot explorer that lands on, rolls around and explores a planet (safe than sending a human) • They send back signals back to earth, and can be controlled from earth as well. (because it takes awhile for a signal to get there they have to be programmed to solve some problems for themselves though!) • Spirit and Opportunity were two rovers sent to Mars

7. Rockets • Rockets can carry things into space, but need a lot of thrust to make it up there against the forces of gravity and the atmosphere. • This takes a lot of fuel, but as the fuel gets used up the rocket gets lighter, so it gets easier for it to launch into space  • Most of the material needed to launch the rocket falls off as it launches, burning up in the atmosphere. Only the “payload” survives

8. Space Shuttle • A space shuttle is a reusable space craft that can both leave the planet, and come back and land on it. • A rocket will be used to launch the shuttle, but will fall off of the shuttle once it is high enough. The shuttle can then be flown around space and eventually returned to earth

9. Space Station • In 1993, the International Space Station was built piece by piece up in space. • Sixteen countries, including Canada, helped in this project • It now orbits the earth at a height of 350 km above the surface, going at more than 27000 km/hr. (It takes 90 minutes to orbit earth)