50 years: Sputnik, the space race, and what next?

However, the Apollo moon landings and their spin-off technologies were not the only direct consequence of Sputnik. Concerned about falling behind in military technology, in February 1958 the United States created the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). This agency was charged with the responsibility of developing new technologies for military use. Later this government agency became DARPA (adding the word ‘Defence’ to the name).

ARPA is credited as being the birthplace of the internet. In 1969, eleven years after it came into existence, ARPA technologists connected the first two nodes of a computer network between the University of California and the Stanford Research Institute. In 1973 the first connection to a computer outside of the United States was made to NORSAR in Norway. By 1981, over 200 machines were on the network. Today, it’s obvious how important the internet has become for personal communication, entertainment, business and education - it’s strange to see it’s birth framed in the cradle of the cold war.

Returning to the topic of space technology, other related innovations can be found in the form of communications satellites which now relay voice, data and entertainment content around the globe. Providing information about Earth from space are weather and Global Positioning System (GPS) Satellites, as well as a number of others which perform a range of functions including radar mapping of the Earth, studies of our planet’s magnetic field, and tracking long term changes in global climate.

Of course, satellites have been sent to other planets within our solar system. Landings have taken place on Venus and Mars – as well as probes into the atmosphere of both Jupiter and Saturn.

In January of 2005 the Huygens probe (a joint NASA and European Space Agency project) landed on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. Images and other data sent back indicated the presence of an mostly nitrogen atmosphere laced with methane and a surface comprised of tiny grains of ice. Most astonishingly, images showed a surface that appeared eroded by weather. Drainage ditches ran down the sides of highlands and into ‘river-like’ systems and finally into what appeared to be lakebeds. It’s thought that this could be caused by liquid methane raining in Titan’s -170 degrees Celsius atmosphere and flowing down the rocky slopes. Over a billion kilometres from Earth - more than 9 times the distance from the sun to our planet – we can recognise something which occurs on our planet daily, weather.

There are robotic travellers which we have sent from Earth which have ventured still much farther than Saturn’s moon Titan. Launched in 1977 Voyager 1 and 2 have now left the area of the solar system which contain planets. Voyager 1 is over 15 billion km distant from the sun – more than 90 times the distance from the sun to Earth. The probe is thought to be approaching what scientists call the ‘heliopause’ - a region of space in which the bubble produced by high energy particles from the sun is slowed down by the gas and dust floating between the stars. Once Voyager 1 passes through the heliopause it will truly be ‘outside’ the solar system.

Back on Earth and luckily for all of us, despite some hot moments, the cold war remained relatively cold – and over the last 50 years the superpowers have not exchanged volleys of nuclear tipped ICBM’s. Some historians say that the Space Race ended in 1975 when Soviet and U.S spacecraft docked together in Earth orbit and astronauts from both countries conducted experiments together. However, as more countries gain the ability to launch both robotic and human crewed missions into Earth orbit and beyond, no doubt national pride, the potential for corporate profit and the often misguided need for maintaining a military edge will result in a new competition towards these aims. Most likely, the period between 1957 and 1975 will become known as ‘The First Space Race’.

What may be in store during the next 50 years?