Conspiracy theorists have long been claiming that a civilization-threatening asteroid could be on a collision course with the planet. Now, a team of famed scientists is progressing to raise issues concerning these doubtless dangerous space rocks at a global conference in Vienna.

NASA scientists discovered last week that a meteor explosion over the Bering Sea in December 2018 unleashed 10 times the energy as the Hiroshima atom bomb.

The space rock, many meters in size, exploded concerning sixteen miles on top of the earth’s surface. NASA on Friday conjointly revealed satellite photos of the meteor that appeared on December eighteen however went neglected till months later.

This meteor strike at the Bering Sea may be a reminder that, despite efforts to spot and track space rocks that might create a threat to Earth, sizeable meteors will still arrive all of sudden.

These asteroids, known as Near Earth Objects or NEOs will cause the extinction of whole species. it absolutely was an asteroid that hit the planet a lot of years past that has been goddam for the dinosaurs being drained, together with seventy-five percent of all life forms on the world, at that time.

To counter this threat, scientists need to handle the problem – wanting space agencies like NASA and therefore the ESA to accentuate efforts to discover and track NEOs and devise ways that to deflect them. These considerations are set to be raised at the primary meeting of the govt of Asgardia.

Asgardia may be a ‘space nation,’ conjointly called the space Kingdom of Asgardia and “Asgardia the space Nation”, maybe a micronation fashioned by a gaggle of individuals who have launched a satellite into Earth orbit. They consult with themselves as “Asgardians” and that they have given their satellite the name “Asgardia-1.” The space nation conjointly has 20,000 voters and 1,000,000 followers worldwide.

Jay Tate, a number one Asgardian scientist from Knighton, UK and director of the privately-funded Space-guard Centre in Wales, to The categorical, said: “NEOs create a heavy, even cataclysmal, threat to human civilization and action should be taken currently to spot levels of risk and develop the technology to safeguard this and future generations.”

In the shadow of the atomic bomb, science and politics became entwined. And as World War II progressed, countries began to capitalize on the power of technology. This shift in wartime strategy gave way to rapid advancements in weaponry like the development of the world’s first long-range, self-guided ballistic missile.

And unlike those before it, this rocket had the potential to go to space and its creation would ultimately lead to a man on the moon. In the final years of the war, Nazi scientists successfully tested the V-2 rocket, the world’s most sophisticated missile and the first man-made object to cross the Karman line which is commonly represented as the start of space.

When the war ended in 1945, the new world powers were dead set on acquiring the Nazi’s V-2 technology. This man, Wernher von Braun, was known as the brains behind the rocket.

He, along with other Nazi scientists, surrendered to the Americans and were transported to the US under a top secret project known as “Operation Paperclip”. The Germans were put to work, helping American scientists design and build military missiles that would ultimately be used in the beginnings of the space program.

Meanwhile, Soviet scientists were repurposing the remains of Nazi rockets, and they were working much faster than the Americans. By the mid-1950s, the USSR developed an intercontinental ballistic missile equipped with a multi-stage design and multi-engine propulsion system making it capable of reaching orbit.

On October 4th, 1957, the Soviet Union used its new missile to launch the first artificial satellite into space. The satellite known as Sputnik sent a wave of paranoia over the United States. Its Cold War enemy now had a vantage point from space, increasing the fear of a nuclear attack.

 The Space Race had officially begun. The US quickly tried to match the Soviet’s success by launching the Vanguard satellite. But the rocket only made it about a meter off the ground before its embarrassing explosion, earning the nickname, “flopnik”. Now in full Sputnik crisis mode, the government shifted its priority to the space race. President Dwight D. Eisenhower accelerated the 1958 launch of Explorer 1 – the first US satellite to reach space and established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Within eleven days, NASA launched its first spacecraft and within six months it announced the United States’ first man-in-space program.

Also Read: International Space Station: How was it built?

Project Mercury had three objectives:

1. orbit a manned spacecraft around Earth
2. Investigate man’s ability to function in space

3. recover both man and spacecraft safely.

In the late 1950s, these were seemingly improbable tasks considering this was all happening around the same time the first computer hard disk was used, the electric printer was invented. Needless to say, technology had a long way to go. On top of that, NASA’s first astronauts had never actually been to space. They did, however, meet all the other necessary qualifications for a job that hadn’t been done before. The candidates were all military pilots, were highly educated and physically fit and they were the right height and weight to squeeze into the one-man Mercury spacecraft. The seven astronauts chosen for Project Mercury were painted as American heroes. And for a country inundated with a fear of nuclear attack, they provided much-needed hope and distraction. After a series of errors, tests and a brave chimp named HAM, in May 1961 astronaut Alan Shepard became the second human in space. The US came up short… again. Less than one month earlier, Russian Astronaut, Yuri Gagarin became the first man to complete an orbital mission. But the trajectory of the Space Race was about to change.

NASA President said, “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieve the goal before this decade is out of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” Under pressure to catch up to the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War, President John F. Kennedy set an ambitious deadline. And from that moment forward, NASA’s human spaceflight efforts were guided by a single goal. NASA’s second man in space program acted as a bridge to the moon.

Project Gemini had four main objectives:

1. test an astronaut’s ability to fly long-duration missions

2. understand how spacecraft could rendezvous and dock in orbit

3. perfect re-entry and landing methods

4. further understand the effects of long space flight on astronauts.

All the while, Project Mercury was achieving major milestones. And on February 20, 1962, astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth. By 1965, the first crewed Gemini mission took flight. The missions to follow set a series of firsts not just for the United States but for the world.
A new race was on for the United States. But now it was a race against time. In under five years, NASA needed to land a man on the moon. The Apollo Program would become one of the country’s biggest challenges, costing billions of dollars and risking dozens of lives. But if the decades of war and innovation leading up to this moment proved anything, it was that some of the biggest breakthroughs unfold when pressure is at its highest. And, just like challenges before it, Apollo would redefine the boundaries of possibility, taking humanity on a ride to an entirely new world.

This was how the Apollo program started. Stay tuned to know about the Apollo 11. Turn on the notification to get reminded.

Source: Seeker