Exploration of Space--Module 4

The destructive "Tunguska Event" that happened in Siberia in 1908 seems to have been due to:

A small stony asteroid that exploded in the atmosphere-- damaged hundreds of square miles

Crops grown in space do not have the need for:

Gravity-- they only need sunlight, CO2, and H2O

The lakes of Titan contain which element:

Methane--a poor solvent

Interstellar flights to distant galaxies are:

4.5 light years away-- 315,000 AU

The "Drake Equation":

A probabilistic argument used to arrive at an estimate of the number of active, communicative extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy.

The movement of loose items on the spacecraft are influenced by:

Air currents in the cabin atmosphere--a zero-gravity habitat

The stated goal of the B612 foundation is to:

Alter the orbit of an asteroid by 2015-- provides planetary defense

The following manned spacecraft is/was NOT capable of returning to Earth on dry land:

Apollo-- All of the early American manned spacecraft (Mercury, Gemini, Apollo) made ocean splashdowns, which are easier to arrange but much more difficult and expensive to recover astronauts from

The purpose of the 10 day long silent chamber is to:

Assess cosmonauts for their psychological fitness for long-duration missions

The following methods has not been proposed as a way to prevent an asteroid from hitting the Earth:

Building a laser-based system in LEO to "zap" threatening incoming objects

The Moon lacks this element:

Carbon--it's rich in Iron, Aluminum, Silicon, and Oxygen

The way NOT used to protect astronauts from ultraviolet radiation:

Carrying a supply of the ozone shield

The maximum amount of artificial gravity in a rotating sphere is located at its:

Equator-- an O'Neill cylinder is the artificial gravity the same everywhere on the perimeter

Mar's climate is:

Erratic because its axis of rotation is unstable-- it lacks a moon

NOT a reason why aliens are carbon-based like humans:

Excess carbon found on a large number of exoplanets--we don't know about their carbon content

The Bussard ramjet may be able to travel at the speed of light because it can:

Gets its fuel from the gas in interstellar space, and so its top speed is not limited by how much fuel it can carry

Traveling from Earth's surface to L5 would require:

Greater energy than traveling from the Moon to the Earth

More than 500 of the exoplanets discovered are:

Jovian planets (gas giants)--like Jupiter or Neptune

Making a space colony at L5 would be for:

Manufacturing huge solar panels to provide energy for the Earth

The primary law of nature that explains how rockets work is:

Newton's 3rd Law (the law of recoil)

When the Space Shuttle retires, it will be replaced by:

Orion-- a part of the cancelled Project Constellation

The Bernal sphere-design ceiling would look like:

Other people living "upside-down" over your head-- no ceiling, only floor (like the O'Neill Cylinder)

A strong indicator that a planet is inhabited by living organisms:

Oxygen--because there would need to be photosynthesis

The greatest danger faced by inhabitants at L5 would be:

Radiation from cosmic rays and solar flares-- no natural protection from the sun

More than 90 percent of the total mass of a space colony will most likely need to be in the form of:

Radiation shielding-- thick enough to keep out dangerous forms of radiation

The propellant used in the "Mars Direct" mission came from:

Raw materials found on Mars

The only time you will actually notice a Galactic Cosmic Ray (GCR) striking your body is if it hits your:

Retina

The expansion of the atmosphere should definitely cause:

Satellite orbits to decay more rapidly due to atmospheric drag-- will become a bigger issue in Low Earth Orbit

The purpose of the Kepler spacecraft (2009) is to:

Search for transiting Earth-like planets orbiting other stars

For most of the duration of a trip through interplanetary space, the primary radiation danger would be from:

Solar particle events (SPEs) and galactic cosmic rays (GCRs)

A Space colony design with a ceiling:

Stanford Torus

A space colony at L5 would have effectively an unlimited supply of:

Sunlight

The object sent in an unmanned trip to mars:

The Earth Return Vehicle (ERV)--to be used for the trip home

NOT a factor in life development on Earth:

The Earth's magnetic field--caused organisms to complicate themselves

The short-period comets in our solar system (like Halley's comet) seem to originate:

The Kupiers belt-- the majority of known dangerous objects in the inner solar system are Near-Earth Asteroids (NEA)

Raw materials for space colony construction would come from:

The Moon--can be mined and it has low gravity

In a Project Constellation mission to the Moon what would happen:

The Orion crew capsule and the Altair lunar lander will be launched separately and joined together in Earth orbit

Space adaptation syndrome (space sickness) in zero gravity is caused by:

The conflicting messages sent to the brain by the body's sensors of balance and orientation in space--reason why space colonies need to rotate

John Blaha's depression on the Space Station was caused by:

The duration of the time spent in space-- isolation

To accelerate a three-person crew up to 99% of the speed of light would require as much energy as:

The entire U.S. consumes in one year-- only the Bussard ramjet would ever have even a slim chance of reaching 99% of light speed

NOt a potential hazard posed by dust on Mars:

The fact that lunar dust is radioactive, NOT true-- it's not radioactive

The Russians determine which groups of cosmonauts would get along with one another as members of a space station crew by:

The homeostat test, in which three cosmonauts try to cooperate to get their volt meters to read zero-- tests the ability of small groups of cosmonauts to work together easily

A "solar sail"-driven spacecraft would be accelerated by:

The pressure of sunlight-- can get acceleration from the sun

A star's "habitable zone" refers to:

The range of distances from the star over which planets can support liquid water-- habitable means large bodies of water

A "mass driver" space craft is propelled by:

The recoil due to bits of solid material shot out of the spacecraft-- an electromagnetic rail gun

Building radiation shielding into a spacesuit would be impractical because:

The shielding would need to be thick, making the spacesuit too heavy and inflexible

The Earth-Moon Lagrange points L1, L2, and L3 are not considered ideal locations for a space colony because:

They are "unstable"-- an object placed there would drift away

Space colonies need to be at least a kilometer in radius because:

They must rotate slowly enough to produce 1-g without causing motion sickness-- Artificial Gravity = Radius x (Rotation Rate)

The purpose of protective panels on a space station is:

To radiate heat into space--the habitat would overheat without it

A round trip from Earth to Mars takes two years because:

You'd have to wait for the launch window to return to Earth