Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • Like the Industrial or the Einsteinian Revolution, the Space Race is a trope, or way of organizing

  • historical events into a story that makes sense.

  • In this story, the two great powers that emerged after World War Twothe United States and

  • Soviet Unioncompeted to send communications satellites, dogs, and people into outer space

  • And also to intimidate the other side with the prospect of nuclear war.

  • But before humans could send anything into space, first they had to get into earth's atmosphere.

  • [Intro Music Plays]

  • Folks dreamed about flying up into the heavens for centuries. You might have seen Leonardo

  • Da Vinci's sketches for personal flying machines, for example. But these didn't

  • work. Starting around CE 220 in China, people have

  • used unmanned sky lanternshot air balloonsto help messages escape the ground for everything

  • from military signaling to festivals.

  • And human hot air balloons became popular in Europe in the late 1700s, starting in France.

  • But these devices didn't travel fast; they couldn't handle strong winds; and they weren't

  • very safe. So historians tend to start the history of

  • air travel with two dudes from a large family, Orville and Wilbur Wright.

  • These bros ran a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio. Actually, let's be clear, their sister Katherine

  • ran the household and handled their business finances.

  • But the brothers wanted to build a flying machine. And at the end of the Second Industrial

  • Revolutionthey did! Orville and Wilbur made lots of gliders, and

  • eventually a powered plane. They used wood and fabric, with a petrol-powered internal

  • combustion engine and some bicycle parts. And keep in mind, the bicycle itself was only

  • twenty-five years old! But first, they collected tons of data about

  • wing shapes and air flow using a small homemade wind tunnel.

  • People had tried to build flying machines, sure. But the Wrights used physical data to

  • design one. And then the brothers took off on the first

  • heavier-than-air flight on December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk in the Outer Banks of North

  • Carolina. They made four flights on that first day. None was very long or high by modern

  • standards, but all were extraordinary in 1903. The Wrights wanted to commercialize their

  • fliers. But it took a while before peopleother than the aviation-obsessed Frenchto believe

  • that they had actually flown. Eventually, however, the Wrights conducted

  • more demonstrations and convinced the U.S. military to invest. Aviation took off for

  • war, but also for mail and passenger services. With a more advanced engine, Charles Lindbergh

  • flew across the Atlantic in 1927. And by the early 1930s, well-off passengers could ride

  • commercial airlines. This revolutionized the whole tourism and cargo industries. And global

  • culture: it made the world feel smaller.

  • In terms of technical effects, air travel spawned whole industries. Think about the

  • many integrated technologies that allow you to fly: fuel refining, baggage processing,

  • ticketing, air traffic control, and so on. And, despite our angry tweets, commercial

  • air travel is one big, highly functioning, and safe system today.

  • But air IS NOT space. Flying using a jet engine in a plane with

  • fixed wings can get you highinto the cold, oxygen-low strata of the atmosphere. But to

  • escape the pull of earth's gravity, you need more power.

  • The solution? A really big chemical reaction. Basically: an explosion. The inspiration for

  • the solution? Science fiction. In 1865, French adventure writer Jules Verne

  • wrote a book called From the Earth to the Moon. In it, members of a gun club decide

  • to go the moon by creatingwait for it—a giant gun!

  • Verne saw American settler-colonization as a great adventure. Why not head to the moon

  • and exploit the Mooninites!? So science fiction matters! It influences

  • how we, including real-life scientists and engineers, think about what the future can

  • be. In this case, Verne was notable for trying to imagine a pretty dang realistic plan for

  • space exploration, given nineteenth-century technology.

  • Still, real-life giant gun-making, AKA rocket science, didn't take off immediately. Between

  • Verne and World War Two, the discipline of chemistry took off, especially in Germany.

  • Scientists had access to new materials that had simply never existed before.

  • So leading up to the warand directly inspired by Verne's novelNazi physicist Doctor

  • Wernher von Braun developed chemical reactions that could propel a weapon far, far away.

  • And late in World War Two, the Nazis launched his V-2 rocketsthe first long-range, guided

  • ballistic missileagainst England, killing civilians.

  • But after the war, guess who forgave this Nazi's crimes to make use of his engineering

  • genius? Yup: the U S of A. Von Braun became Director of the Marshall Space Flight Center

  • at NASA. Like airplanes, rockets changed warfare forever.

  • Missiles replaced long-range bombers for delivering nuclear weapons. And thus the Cold War began:

  • Russians and Americans could now strike anywhere in the world. Apocalypse was only a button

  • away.

  • (By the waythis is still the case!) It's good to think about how we tell the

  • history of the invention of weapons. For example, one curator at the Smithsonian argued that

  • rockets on display there should be pointed down, so that visitors would be confronted

  • with destructionrather than pointed up and away, which implies victory without consequences.

  • With new German-designed rockets, Soviet and American engineers competed to fly farther.

  • Much of the Cold War relates to this Space Race.

  • It began when the USSR launched the first satellite, Sputnik, on October 4, 1957. This

  • shocked the world and terrified many in the United States.

  • Only a few years later, in 1961, the Soviet Union sent the first human into space. Yuri

  • Gagarin made one whole orbit of earth in a Vostok spacecraft, becoming the first cosmonautor

  • space sailor.” Like Sputnik's launch, Gagarin's flight

  • was utterly mind-blowing. It symbolized just how far the Soviet physical sciences had come,

  • very quickly. Out of an empire of serfs, the USSR had evolved into a scientific leader

  • capable of breaking new groundincluding cultural ones.

  • In 1963, cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova piloted Vostok 6, bringing womankind to space.

  • She's still alive, by the wayand has offered to take a one-way trip to Mars!

  • So how did the Americans respond to all this? In 1961, U.S. President John Kennedy publicly

  • threw down a major scientific challenge: “to land a man on the moon before the decade is

  • out.” Bam! Verne strikes again! The Mercury program of the early 1960s put

  • Americans into space. But the Apollo program successfully landed humans on the moon.

  • ThoughtBubble, show us the wonder of moon travel:

  • This program was complex, but it boiled down to a few components: Using advanced computers

  • to chart a course to get to the moon, crossing thousands and thousands of miles.

  • Training pilots to be astronautsorstar sailors.”

  • Designing a command module that could land on the moon and then take off again.

  • And building a rocket to leave the earth with enough force to carry not a small satellite,

  • but astronauts, in a module. The launch vehicle that got humans to the

  • moon was the Saturn series, designed by Wernher von Braun's team. Like other giant liquid-fuel

  • rockets, it worked by mixing chemicals that would react violently, creating tremendous

  • force that was directed straight down, sending the vehicle up in the opposite direction.

  • In this case, the chemicals were liquid oxygen, liquid hydrogen, androcket propellant

  • one,” or RP-1. Which is basically kerosene that has a bunch of dangerous chemicals added

  • to make it super explosive. After several missions, and a few disasters,

  • NASA felt they could safely send humans to the moon and back in 1969.

  • So on July 16, astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins took off

  • from Merritt Island, Florida, on the eleventh Apollo mission.

  • On July 20, their Eagle lander touched down in the moon's Sea of Tranquility. Neil Armstrong

  • became the first human to set foot on a planetary body other than earth. He was joined by Buzz

  • Aldrin. As young men on vacation will do, Buzz and

  • Neil planted the flag of the United States, took some moon-selfies, called President Nixon,

  • and stole some moon-rocks. Total hooligans! And then they returned to earth, four days

  • after landing on the moon. Thanks ThoughtBubble. There are lots of movies

  • about the Apollo program's numerous successes and even one of its terrifying failures, Apollo

  • Thirteen. Which was arguably the most successful mission, by the way, because NASA was able

  • to correct the disaster! And the Apollo program was as much a managerial

  • success as it is a technical one. It's a great example of big scienceresearch projects

  • so big that no individual lab can do everything from beginning to end, so work is broken off

  • into chunks. Like the Manhattan Project. But not all big space science has been about

  • winning wars. Take the Hubble Space Telescope, Mars rover, or Cassini-Huygens satellite.

  • The epistemic value of these missions is incalculable. Their practical utility, almost zero.

  • Alas, space exploration is super expensive, and Congress has to choose how to spend taxpayers'

  • money. On the same day that they cancelled funding for the revolutionary physics experiment,

  • the Supercollider Superconductor, in 1993, they approved funding the space shuttle. This

  • was a big loss to particle physics, but a win for astronauts.

  • The shuttle program itself was retired in 2011. One response to this lack of public

  • funding has been an explosion of private space agencies, developing space tourism.

  • Another solution has been international collaboration: despite persisting political tensions, Russia

  • and the United States collaborate on space science today!

  • Perhaps most notably, since 1998, Americans, Russians, Japanese, Europeans, and Canadians

  • have worked together to run experiments on the International Space Station.

  • It's above us right nowhumanity's only outpost beyond the safety of the atmosphere,

  • and a physical symbol of how the quest to understand our universe can bring us together.

  • All this space travel has given us new epistēmē—such as better understandings of the age of the

  • universe AKA everything. And new technē—including solar cells, freeze drying, digital cameras,

  • GPS, and better weather prediction. It's also given us modern communications technologies.

  • And, oh yeah, spy satellites.

  • But space science has also filled space with tons of junk, including rocket parts, dead

  • satellites, and human waste. Which raises the question of whose job is

  • it to clean up? That is, who owns space!? Well, space law generally says that no one

  • gets to own space. But that becomes problematic for geosynchronous

  • orbits, or circular paths, 35,786 kilometers above sea level, that follow the rotation

  • of the planet and so are fixed above specific points on earth. You can only have so many

  • satellites at useful geosynchronous points. The US, Russia, China, and EU already have

  • many of the best spots. This is another way that equatorial countries face an unequal

  • landscape in science. So space science raises tough questions about

  • power and knowledge, shared resources and competitions between nations. But there's

  • only one earth, and space science also provides some good models on how to share.

  • After all, the Apollo project was named after the Greek god of music, truth, and healingnot

  • war. As President Kennedy said in 1962: “…We

  • shall not see space filled with weapons of mass destruction, but with instruments of

  • knowledge and understanding.” Next timewe're coming back to solid ground,

  • with a new perspective on earth's place in a vast universe. It's the birth of ecology

  • and earth systems science!

  • Crash Course History of Science is filmed in the Dr. Cheryl C. Kinney studio in Missoula, MT and it's made

  • with the help of all these nice people. And our animation team is Thought Cafe.

  • Crash Course is a Complexly production. If you want to keep imagining the world complexly

  • with us, check out some of our other channels like Sexplanations, Health Care Triage, and

  • Mental Floss.

  • If you'd like to keep Crash Course free for everyone, forever, you can support the series

  • at Patreon, a crowdfunding platform that allows you to support the content you love.

  • Thank you to all of our patrons for making Crash Course possible with their continued support.

Like the Industrial or the Einsteinian Revolution, the Space Race is a trope, or way of organizing

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it

B1 CrashCourse space moon war apollo earth

Air Travel and The Space Race: Crash Course History of Science #37

  • 19 1
    林宜悉 posted on 2020/03/30
Video vocabulary

Keywords

physical

US /ˈfɪzɪkəl/

UK /ˈfɪzɪkl/

  • adjective
  • Relating to the body as opposed to the mind.
  • Relating to things that can be seen or touched.
  • Concerning the body of a person
  • Concerning things that can be seen or touched
  • Involving bodily contact or the use of force.
  • Relating to things you can see or touch.
  • Relating to physics.
  • noun
  • Health check at the doctors' or hospital
  • A medical examination to check a person's overall health.
  • other
  • Education in sports and exercise.
atmosphere

US /ˈætməˌsfɪr/

UK /'ætməsfɪə(r)/

  • noun
  • Air around us
  • Feeling or mood of a place
commercial

US /kəˈmɚʃəl/

UK /kəˈmə:ʃəl/

  • noun
  • Radio or television advertisement
  • A television or radio advertisement.
  • A television or radio advertisement.
  • adjective
  • Relating to or characteristic of commerce.
  • Concerned with or engaged in commerce.
  • Relating to an industry that produces goods or services for sale.
  • Of or relating to the media, especially television and radio.
  • Designed for or primarily concerned with financial success.
  • Designed for or primarily concerned with financial success.
  • Used for or intended for commerce.
  • Having value in terms of potential profit.
fuel

US /ˈfjuəl/

UK /'fju:əl/

  • verb
  • To give power to (a mob, anger, etc.); incite
  • To provide gas or petrol for something
  • To supply with fuel; to stimulate or intensify.
  • noun
  • A substance that is burned to produce heat or power.
  • Material used to produce heat or power when burned
military

US /ˈmɪlɪˌtɛri/

UK /'mɪlətrɪ/

  • adjective
  • Concerning the army or navy
  • Relating to or characteristic of soldiers or armed forces.
  • noun
  • Army or armed forces
  • The armed forces of a nation.
escape

US /ɪˈskep/

UK /ɪ'skeɪp/

  • noun
  • An act of leaving a place or dangerous situation.
  • Act to briefly ignoring boring or bad things
  • A way of avoiding something unpleasant.
  • The 'esc key' on a keyboard
  • Act of getting away from where you are being kept
  • An act of leaving a place or dangerous situation.
  • A way of avoiding something dangerous or unpleasant.
  • Something that provides a temporary distraction from reality.
  • A way of temporarily forgetting about your problems.
  • verb
  • To avoid something undesirable, dangerous or bad
  • To get away from a place where you are being kept
  • (Gas, water) to come out from a pipe, container
  • To not to be noticed or remembered by someone
  • other
  • To get away from a place (such as a prison) where you are being held or kept
  • To (of a liquid or gas) leak or be discharged unintentionally
  • To leave somewhere quickly, especially because of danger
  • other
  • To succeed in avoiding (something undesirable)
universe

US /ˈjunəˌvɚs/

UK /ˈju:nɪvɜ:s/

  • noun
  • A particular sphere of activity, interest, or experience.
  • A virtual or simulated environment, especially in computing.
  • All of space that contains planets and stars
  • Things surrounding a person, affecting their life
  • other
  • A particular sphere of activity, interest, or experience.
  • All existing matter and space considered as a whole; the cosmos.
  • other
  • All existing matter and space considered as a whole; the cosmos.
adventure

US /ædˈvɛntʃɚ/

UK /əd'ventʃə(r)/

  • noun
  • An exciting and often dangerous experience
  • A business enterprise involving considerable risk.
  • An unusual and exciting, typically hazardous, experience or activity.
  • A genre of literature dealing with exciting or unusual events.
  • verb
  • To have an exciting or dangerous experience
  • other
  • To engage in daring or risky activities.
  • other
  • An eagerness to try new and daring things.
launch

US /lɔntʃ, lɑntʃ/

UK /lɔ:ntʃ/

  • other
  • To begin or initiate (something such as an attack or a military operation).
  • To put a boat or ship into the water.
  • To introduce (a new product or publication) to the public.
  • To send off with force.
  • To send (a rocket, satellite, or spacecraft) into the air or space.
  • To start or set in motion.
  • noun
  • A large motorboat.
  • Starting a new project; introducing new product
  • The act of sending off with force.
  • Act of firing rockets into the air
  • The act or process of launching something.
  • verb
  • To start a new project; start selling a product
  • To put a rocket into the air
  • To put a ship into the water for the first time
scientific

US /ˌsaɪənˈtɪfɪk/

UK /ˌsaɪənˈtɪfɪk/

  • adjective
  • Concerning academic study of the physical world
  • Systematic and precise, following a methodology.
  • Based on or characterized by the methods and principles of science.
  • noun
  • Relating to or used in science.
  • other
  • Knowledge gained through systematic study and experimentation.