SPACE
IS
HARD
The past nine months have been difficult
ones for rocketry. Multiple failures of Russian
launch vehicles, the loss of SpaceShipOne
during a test flight, the Antares rocket with
the Orb-3 mission falling back to the launch
pad in a fireball, and most recently, the disintegration of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a resupply mission to the International
Space Station.
There is no getting around it. Even after
five decades of launching satellites and
humans into space, the truth remains that as
we strive to become a space-faring species,
we are pushing against the extreme edges of
our technological prowess. We are creating
machines to be able to perform at a level
previously undreamt, while making demands
of metals and other materials to be thinner
and lighter, yet also stronger than ever before
achieved. We push our machines just to this
side of impossibility, and occasionally even
beyond.
Humanity has always been an inquisitive
species with an innate desire to explore the
unknown. With that comes failure and disaster from time to time. But what defines us is
our ability to look past our flaws, to overcome
our mistakes, and to keep pushing those
boundaries just a little bit further with each
new attempt.
In this issue of RocketSTEM we bring you
both success and failure. The success of the
previously untested Lunar Rover sent to the
Moon that carried the Apollo 15 astronauts
further than any moonwalker before. And, of
course, the failures of the above mentioned
rocket launches.
But rather than tell you how hard it is to
build and launch a spacecraft, we invite you
to try for yourself. Kerbal Space Program is
a game that is simple enough for a kid, yet
advanced enough for engineers at NASA,
JPL, and SpaceX to enjoy playing it too.
Download the game and run your own
space agency. Just don’t be discouraged
when your first rocket explodes upon launch.
A Falcon 9 first stage approaches the barge, Just Read the Instructions, in the
Atlantic Ocean after successfully launching CRS-6 to the International Space Station
in April. SpaceX is striving to successfully land the first stage of their rockets in order
to be able to refurbish them for future launches. Credit: SpaceX