This is a brief summary of the best 5 space mission that I think have happened so far.

1. THE BOLDEST
SPACE MISSIONS
A BRIEF INSIGHT BY DEVASHISH NEGI

2. INTRODUCTION
Living in India, most of us have watched the movie “MOM” and we know how fascinating it
looks. But I have wondered for many years, what would the beginning of all this look like?
How many failed attempts would have led to a successful one and what that successful
mission would have looked like? The emotions of the people during the completion of that
minute phase would have been so critical for the mission. The tears of cry and joy and so
on.
I have also wondered how far away can we humans go? We have got the Moon, Mars and
most of the planets in our Solar System. We have marked millions and millions of stars, and
galaxies. Even our life span would not be enough to see even a few percentages of them.
If someone asks me,” What is the one thing that is bad about dying?”, I would have surely
replied, "The bad thing is that I won’t be able to see the future reach of humankind in the
outer space, I won’t be able to see all the new planets and I don’t know what else that the
next generation would see. And that for me is, SAD!”

3. INTRODUCTION
These are the 4 Space Missions which I have included
1) Parker Solar Probe Mission
2) SpaceX Missions
3) Voyager Missions
4) The Apollo Missions

4. PARKER SOLAR PROBE MISSION
• This is personally my favourite mission!
• I have always wondered what is Sun actually? Well we know it is a Star but what
possibilities lie within?
• What if we can harness all of its power?
• What if it sends a huge wave towards the earth and it is gone?
• I had thought that the main focus of Scientists should be the study of the Sun. If not that
we are just living an unpredictable life. One Flare from Sun and we are gone.
• And then I heard about this mission.
• Let us see some of the key details.

5. PARKER SOLAR PROBE MISSION
This mission was named after Dr Eugene Parker, who first predicted Solar Winds.
This mission has 3 main goals
1. To trace the flow of energy that heats the Sun’s outer atmosphere
2. To find and understand the source of Solar Winds
3. To explore how highly energetic solar particles accelerate to make up to the Earth

6. MORE KEY POINTS
 First mission named after a living person
 Carries HEAT SHIELD , “SMARTS” to keep
the spacecraft facing the Sun, COOLING
SYSTEM
 Closest human-made object to the Sun
 The fastest human-made object
 Made the first measurements from within
the atmosphere of a star.
 Showed how the Alfvén critical surface was
not smooth but has wrinkles
 Confirmed the presence and gave a rough
estimate about the dust free zone around
the Sun
 Saw cosmic dust scattered all around the
Solar System
 Found SWITCHBACKS: rapid flips in the
Sun’s magnetic field that reversed direction
like a zig-zagging mountain road
 Confirmed that SEPs ( Solar Ejected
Particles) are much more common than
expected

10. SPACE X MISSIONS
 We all are witnessing the rise of SpaceX missions and they are really pushing hard
 The Falcon mission which we all have witnessed was so great.
 I was also in confusion that where all the rocket parts go after the launches and it
felt so bad to hear that they just get burned in mid-air. That was a huge loss of
time, resources and effort.
 I also thought that what if we can somehow put the payload into the orbit and
then just bring the rest of the parts back, and, they did it.
 Some of the key features are discussed in the coming pages

11. FALCON MISSION
 First orbital class rocket capable of re-
flight
 Partially reusable, two-stage-to-orbit,
medium-stage launch vehicle
 Can transfer people as well as payload to
Earth Orbit and beyond
 Powered by SpaceX’s Merlin Engine
 NASA also partially funded Falcon 9

14. DRAGON
 Capable of carrying crew and cargo to Earth’s orbit and beyond
 Max. crew capacity = 7
 Is capable of making a return journey
 TRUNK (the bottom part) has solar panels to power the craft
 CAPSULE (the upper part) is where crew and cargo are held
 Thrusters named DRACO and SUPERDRACO are used
 2 drogue and 4 main parachutes are used for safer landing of the capsule

18. STARSHIP
 SpaceX’s Spacecraft + Super Heavy Rocket = Starship
 A fully reusable transport system which can take and bring
huge cargo and crew to Earth’s orbit, Moon. Mars and maybe
other planets
 Powered by 3 Raptor Engine
 The booster (bottom part) is capable of returning back to the
launch site on its 6 legs
 Payload is 9m in diameter and 18m in height

21. VOYAGER MISSION
 This mission is so fascinating. It opens the possibilities of the vast unknown.
 Two twin spacecraft were launched in 1977 and are still on their journey
 They communicate via DSN (Deep Space Network, NASA's international array of
giant radio antennas that supports interplanetary spacecraft missions)
 The primary mission was to conduct close studies of Jupiter, Saturn, Saturn Ring’s
and the larger moons of the two planet
 The spacecraft was build for a period of 5 years but it succeed to operate and
capture Neptune and Uranus too.
 In the 1970s and 80’s there was a special geometrical arrangement of planets
which lead to this journey with minimum propellant and trip time

22. VOYAGER MISSION
 This layout of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, which occurs about every 175
years, allows a spacecraft on a particular flight path to swing from one planet to
the next without the need for large onboard propulsion systems
 From the NASA Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral, Florida, Voyager 2 was
launched first, on August 20, 1977
 Voyager 1 was launched on a faster, shorter trajectory on September 5, 1977
 On August 25, 1989, Voyager has the closest approach to Neptune and then it fly
away towards the interstellar plane.
 Now it has also left the HELIOSHEATH (region up to which sun’s pull is observed)
 The probe is well into the fourth decade of its mission, and it hasn't come near a
planet since it flew past Saturn in 1980

27. THE GOLDEN RECORD
 The Voyagers’ scientific mission will end when their plutonium-238 thermoelectric
power generators fail, around the year 2030
 After that, the two craft will drift endlessly among the stars of our galaxy unless
someone or something encounters them someday
 Having this in mind, a golden record containing sounds of Earth and many photos
of what humans have accomplished is also attached
 It is etched in copper, plated with gold, and sealed in the aluminium case
 The records are expected to remain intelligible for more than a billion years
(longest-lasting objects ever crafted by human hands)

29. The Apollo Missions
 Almost 90% of people know that human has been on Moon, thanks to this
great mission
 conducted by NASA in the 1960s and 1970s, this mission landed humans
on Moon
 different methods were purposed but finally, Saturn V was used (explained
in upcoming slides)
 In the first test flight, 3 astronauts died due to a tragic accident - Virgil
Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee, use of pure Oxygen was
discontinued

30. STEPS INVOLVED IN THE MISSION
 Saturn V placed 50-ton spacecraft on the lunar trajectory, spacecraft has 3
parts
1. COMMAND MODULE – carried three astronauts
2. SERVICE MODULE – carried fuel and power
3. LUNAR MODULE – which took 2 astronaut to the Moon
 The lunar module has 2 stages – ascent and descent. The astronaut came
back in the ascent module while the descent remained on the Moon.
 When the astronaut returned, the CSM, a combination of the first 2, was
left in the Lunar Orbit
 Before entering the Earth, SM was jettisoned to burn up and the CM
landed in the oceans.

31. SERIES OF MISSION THAT TOOK PLACE
1. 11 October 1968 - Apollo 7 made a 163-orbit flight carrying a full crew of
three astronauts
2. 21 December 1968 – Apollo 8 with the crew made a complete lunar orbit
and returned
3. 3 March 1969 – Apollo 9 carried prolonged mission in Earth’s orbit to
check Lunar Module
4. 18 May 1969 – Apollo 10, in lunar orbit, tested Lunar Module to reach
within 15.2 km of the Moon’s surface
5. 16 July 1969 – Apollo 11 completed the step-by-step process of the Lunar
Landing
6. 20 July 1969 – “that's one small step for mankind, one giant leap for
mankind”, Neil Armstrong

32. SERIES OF MISSION THAT TOOK PLACE
1. 14 November 1969 – Apollo 12 launched, struck by lightning twice, but
still managed
2. 24 November 1969 – Apollo 12 Landed, “That may have been a small one
for Neil, but that’s a long one for me”, Pete Conrad
 collected lunar samples
 retrieved parts of Surveyor 3 to study long-term radiation exposure
 deployed Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package(ALSEP) to study –
Moon Quakes, Solar Wind and Lunar Dust
3. 11 April 1969 – Apollo 13 launched, suffered an accident caused by an
explosion in an oxygen tank but returned safely to Earth

33. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Centre engineers readied the first stage of the Saturn I rocket for checkout in Building
4705

34. Dr George Carruthers, right, and William Conway, a
project manager at the Naval Research Institute,
examine the gold-plated ultraviolet
camera/spectrograph, the first Moon-based
observatory that Carruthers developed for the
Apollo 16 mission. Apollo 16 astronauts placed the
observatory on the moon in April 1972.

35. October 1961, NASA launched
the first test flight of the Saturn
I rocket.
Sept 18 1964, SA-7 launched
from NASA’s Kennedy Space
Centre
Apollo 12 Launches –
Nov. 14, 1969

36. Apollo 17 Lands on Lunar Surface –
Dec. 11, 1972
First Use of the Lunar Roving Vehicle –
July 31, 1971

37. Apollo 8 Captures “Earthrise” –
Dec. 24, 1968
Astronaut David Scott on Slope of Hadley Delta
During Apollo 15

38. During the second spacewalk on December
12, 1972, Apollo 17 Mission Commander
Eugene A. Cernan is standing near the
lunar rover designed by Marshall Space
This view of the crescent Earth over
the Moon's horizon was taken during the
Apollo 15 lunar landing mission.

39. Apollo 1 Crew
Virgil Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee

40. Apollo 7 – 11 October, 1968 Apollo 8 Crew – 21 December, 1968

41. Footage of landing

42. Apollo 12 crew
Peter Conrad, Richard Gordon, Alan Bean
Apollo 12 Landed

43. FINAL VERDICT
There have been controversies regarding the Lunar Mission, but a
Knowledgeable/Scientific person knows that it has happened. Enough
evidence is there!
It feels so good to learn about these missions. I can’t even imagine the time
and efforts of the people, the failure, the mental pressure and all that stuff.
Slowly and steadily we are making bigger changes, I don’t know how will I
contribute, but for sure I will.
Thanks for staying this long.
Keep learning! Keep Growing!