a HISTÓRIA da EXPLORAÇÃO ESPACIAL em 1 HORA

What you're seeing now is the first photo taken from space, from the year 1946. Over 70 years have passed, and this is a photo taken by the James Webb Telescope in 2022. Since its inception, human beings have looked to the sky and tried to understand it, but much has changed since then. As early as 1600 BC, the Babylonians were already recording the discovery of Mercury and Venus. Shortly thereafter, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn were also discovered. The philosophers of Ancient Greece believed in a geocentric universe, meaning that the Earth was the center of the universe. Aristotle

wrote: "In the center, there is fire, and the Earth is one of the stars, creating night and day through its circular motion around the center." By 100 AD, Ptolemy had already developed this idea, stating that seven planets orbited the Earth. They were the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter. Nicolaus Copernicus, a Polish astronomer considered one of the greatest geniuses of the Renaissance, was the first to reject these ideas. Thus, he developed the theory of a heliocentric universe, where everything revolved around the Sun. And the Moon was not a planet, but a natural

satellite, the only one that doesn't orbit the Sun. Thus, Copernicus removed the Earth from the center of the universe. Galileo Galilei, a defender of heliocentrism, began to observe the discovered planets more and more, thus finding several moons around Jupiter. He was a strong supporter and promoter of Copernicus' ideas but also one of the most hunted by the Holy Inquisition, which was a church system trying to combat and control blasphemy, heresy, and witchcraft. And, of course, the scientists of that time were extremely persecuted. Galileo Galilei was one of them, even being condemned by the Church. On

April 26, 1781, Herschel reported the discovery of a new planet: Uranus and its moons. On November 13, 1846, Neptune was discovered. On January 23, 1930, Pluto was discovered and considered the last of the nine planets in the Solar System. Before it was completely excluded, poor Pluto, I consider Pluto. We know how much we had to go through to reach the knowledge we have today. How many theories have been created about the universe we live in? How many times have we believed in something: that the Earth is the center of the universe?! That the Sun is

the center of the universe?! Today, we have the technology to see galaxies billions of kilometers away, but it wasn't always like that. How did human beings go from small theories without any meaning to space explorers? How did we achieve the technology we have today? What were the factors that led us to space? Wars, political fights, tragedies. All of this is part of our history. And today I'm going to tell every detail of the history of space exploration. Hi, I'm Tinôco, and hey, grab your popcorn, sit comfortably in your chair because today is science day. It's

space day and time to tell a little more about the history of humanity. This topic was suggested in the comments of a video I made a long time ago. So if you want to leave your comment down here, I'm very grateful for your support. Take advantage of the fact that you're already scrolling down to comment, give it a like, subscribe to the channel, follow me on social media @tinocandotv, and that's it, let's go to the video. Before we had the technology to send a car into space, colonize Mars, or take billionaires out of Earth, we

were already curious beings, and the sky was one of our greatest passions. For tribes long ago, the Sun and the Moon were already considered gods who ruled and took care of our planet. But we looked at the vastness of the sky and didn't understand it. For a long time, everything we knew was what reached us, like Halley's Comet, for example. We have records of this comet since 200 BC. But it came to Earth, it entered our field of vision. We had no idea what it was. A long time passed, and the theory that the Earth

was the center of the universe was almost unshakable. This was because the Church leaned in that direction, and even Psalm 93 was interpreted as "evidence." It says: "The Earth is firmly established, it cannot be moved." It was only in 1543 that Nicolaus Copernicus defended a contrary theory, heliocentrism. In that year, he wrote the book "On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres," defending this theory. He even dedicated the book to Pope Paul III, which was quite bold. Years later, the Church banned Copernicus' work, citing it as a curse. This setback delayed our progress on the subject

because many scientists were afraid to publish on the topic. It wasn't until 1608 that we started discussing this subject again when we were able to look into space for the first time. Thanks to Hans Lippershey, a Dutch lens maker and the inventor of the first telescope. At the time, it wasn't even used to look at space, it was more like a spyglass. During that time, the Netherlands was at war with Spain, so the Prince of the Netherlands used this object to see his enemies from afar. News of this object spread and reached the ears of

Galileo Galilei. In 1609, he began creating variations of this spyglass, polishing the glass and more. With that, he soon had an idea: why not point this object towards the night sky? As a result, Galileo Galilei became the first man to make astronomical observations. ~ documentary With his improved lenses, he increased its power tenfold, but his lenses did more than just magnify. By reshaping those pieces of glass, Galileo would end up reshaping our view of the world. He received a lot of help for that from another well-known scientist at the time, Johannes Kepler, who formulated Kepler's

Laws, which describe celestial mechanics, essentially the movements celestial bodies make. Kepler's First Law talks about elliptical orbits, where he states the following: "A planet orbiting the Sun describes an ellipse in which the Sun occupies one of the foci." What he means by that is that a planet doesn't orbit the Sun in a circular shape but rather in an elliptical shape. The Second Law of Kepler talks about areas, where it says: "The line connecting the planet to the Sun sweeps out equal areas in equal times." This is where it determines what the perihelion is, which is

the point where the planet is closest to the Sun, and at this moment, it moves faster. And also the aphelion, which is the point where the planet is farthest from the Sun and consequently moves slower. The Third Law talks about periods: "The squares of the periods of revolution of the planets are proportional to the cubes of the major semi-axes of their orbits." Now it's starting to get a little more complicated. There's even a formula, a formula! But basically, this law states that there is a relationship between the distance of the planet and the period of

revolution. I only mentioned all of this because these laws inspired another little-known scientist, the one named Sir Isaac Newton, who in 1687 published the book "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy." Opening doors to the understanding of physics and the laws of nature. Basically talking about gravitation and the effect of the planets' orbits. Thus creating Newton's three laws and the Universal Law of Gravitation, which I will explain later, for now, I will only explain the First Law, which states that anything in motion tends to stay in motion, and anything at rest tends to stay at rest. It

is important because it will help us understand how rockets work in space. In 1865, Jules Verne writes the book "From the Earth to the Moon." In it, he describes what a manned mission to our natural satellite would be like. This work, surprisingly, has an incredible resemblance to the Apollo 11 mission, which we will talk about later. In 1889, Vincent van Gogh paints one of the most beautiful works in history: "The Starry Night," symbolizing man's love and admiration for the sky. At that time, before the 20th century, we only knew the Solar System and some of

its peculiarities. Everything was merely observational. We did not have the slightest ability to go into space. At least, not until now. At the beginning of the 20th century, it became clear to humanity that we didn't just need to observe space; we could go to it. But this achievement did not come overnight. The idea of a means of transportation that would fly as high as possible dates back to the 3rd century B.C. When the Chinese discovered gunpowder, it was used to conduct tests to determine how high an object could reach. Even Leonardo da Vinci conducted some

tests and drew objects that could make humans fly. Some of these ideas resemble the airplanes we have today. Leonardo da Vinci lived long before the creation of the first airplane, but until then, we had never come close to leaving the Earth. However, at the beginning of the 20th century, three men were determined to change the course of humanity: the American Robert Goddard, the Russian Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, and the German Hermann Oberth. They were the ones who began developing the technology used in rockets to this day. They didn't work together on any project, but separately developed technologies

that led us to where we are today. Let's first talk about the Russian, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. In 1903, he published a book titled "Exploring Cosmic Space by Means of Reaction Devices", where he proposed that the universe could indeed be explored by humans and that humans could travel beyond the planet. To support his ideas, he calculated the speed we would need to reach to escape Earth's atmosphere and advocated for hydrogen and oxygen as the best rocket propellants. Using this idea, Robert Goddard took that book, the calculations, and the concept of using hydrogen and oxygen, and launched the

first liquid-fueled rocket. The idea of one helped the work of the other. This rocket consists of six main parts: at the top is the rocket's fuel, below it is the oxidizer, then come the pumps that transport the fuel and oxidizer, below that is the combustion chamber, which mixes and burns the two liquids, and releases them through the hot exhaust, generating thrust and ending with the release of the flame from the rocket. Thus, on March 16, 1926, in Auburn, Massachusetts, Professor Goddard launched the first rocket in history. It flew for... 2.5 seconds and landed in a

cabbage field, but it became part of history! During this time, a theory of a new physicist began to be speculated in the scientific community. His name is Albert Einstein. In 1915, Albert published the Theory of General Relativity, which shook the foundations of science. This theory is basically a compilation of suggestions that unifies another theory he published in 1905, along with Newton's Universal Law of Gravitation. Let's take a brief moment to understand this in a simple way, I promise it will be quick and easy. The theory he had previously published was about the physics of motion

and the absence of gravitational field. And that's when he started theorizing about spacetime. On the other hand, Newton's Universal Law of Gravitation states that if two bodies have mass, both are subjected to a force of mutual attraction, proportional to their masses. What he means by this is that two objects, regardless of their mass, will attract each other, but the magnitude of this attraction depends directly on the size of the mass. Let's compare the Earth to a human, for example. It's not just the Earth attracting the human, the human is also attracting the Earth, but in

their respective proportions. Since the Earth is vastly larger than the human, its attraction on the human will also be vastly greater. So Einstein takes these two theories and unifies them, stating that gravity is a part of spacetime, and with that, he also talks about the curvature of spacetime. And these theories by Einstein are essential for our understanding of space as we have it today. This theory directly points to the existence of black holes, which is still a great mystery for science today. This theory also predicts the existence of gravitational waves, which he was able to

indirectly measure. Only in 2015 did they manage to prove what Einstein had said. I told you, it was quick, space physics is easy, anyone can understand it. Anyway, during this time, people start to lose their minds a bit, resort to violence, and that's how World War II breaks out. Where the German Hermann Oberth works on the development of increasingly technological missiles and rockets, such as the V-2, the first long-range guided ballistic missile in history. It's basically a rocket that stays within the Earth, at least until 1944. During the war, there was a boom in technologies

because countries were almost forced to develop themselves. And since Germany had been developing this V-2 for a long time, it already had an idea of the power that this missile possessed. So, on June 20, 1944, a V-2 becomes the first man-made object to reach space. The United States also became interested in this technology and developed its own V-2 as well. And from the White Sands base in New Mexico, United States, on October 24, 1946, another V-2 reached space. But this time, it had a camera attached, thus producing the first photographs in the history of space.

See that little dot over there in the background? That's the Moon. But let's go back in time a little and talk a bit more about World War II, and I'm not going to tell the whole story here, right? Because otherwise, it would take six hours of your life. But if you want to know everything that led to World War II, click on this video here, and you'll enjoy it. But getting back to the topic, what you need to know is that during this conflict, the United States and the Soviet Union were on the same side,

the side of the Allies. And with the defeat of the Axis, these two countries gained a lot of strength and, above all, influence over the other countries in the world. And now, with the end of World War II, they are no longer on the same side and begin a geopolitical power struggle, basically. On one side, the United States representing capitalism, on the other, the Soviet Union representing socialism. The problem is that all the other countries in the world were kind of forced to choose which side they were on, thus giving rise to the concept of

a bipolar world. So, with the escalation of this rivalry in the 1940s, in 1949, the Soviet Union creates its own nuclear bombs. Almost as a response to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But the Soviet Union might not have succeeded if it weren't for the help of two Americans: the Rosenberg couple, who were accused, found guilty, and executed for espionage. They transmitted information about the development of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States, which favored the development of the Soviet Union's bomb, and this case became known as the "Rosenberg Case". ~ documentary So, in

this scenario, things start getting crazy, and the whole world thinks that the Third World War is coming. It was almost that, very close, but it didn't happen. With this intense tension between the two countries, the Cold War was born. And that's what I want to talk about. This Cold War made the two countries strive to prove that they were better than each other. They wanted to be more influential in politics, have a better army, more technology, a stronger economy, times of "balance" through fear. So, they started doing everything, including launching more rockets. But it wasn't

overnight that humans were in space, quite the opposite. They knew that space had many dangers, such as space radiation, because outside the Earth, we don't have an atmosphere to shield us from this problem. So, on February 20, 1947, just two years after the end of World War II, the United States launched the first animal into space, fruit flies, it's part of it. Aboard another V-2 rocket, the capsule filled with flies reached an altitude of 109 km (357,000 ft), enough to be in space. Then, the capsule parachuted down, and surprisingly, the flies survived. But they needed

something more similar to a human for testing. So, on June 14, 1949, Albert II, a rhesus monkey, became the first primate to reach space, but there was no way back. The parachute failed, and Albert's capsule hit the ground at high speed. F Albert, F Albert. Unfortunately, this is not uncommon among primates that went into space, two out of every three monkeys sent on missions between 1940 and 1950 died either at the moment or shortly thereafter. This was a bad sign for two reasons: first, because monkeys are similar to human beings, and if monkeys are dying,

brother, something went wrong! The second problem was retrieving the rockets. The capsules that went into space were rarely recovered, and this was a problem for a long time. But this scenario was about to change. The Soviet Union, which had undergone a long period of reconstruction after World War II, saw that the United States had started to take the lead in space exploration, so they had to speed things up. By the beginning of the 1950s, the V-2 missile was the cutting-edge technology in terms of rockets, but the Soviets began to distance themselves from German technologies. This

was especially true when Sergei Koroliov developed the R-7, the first intercontinental ballistic missile in history. And this rocket was essential for the development of a program that changed human history, the Sputnik program. ~ documentary The development of the Sputnik program was a milestone in the beginning of the space race, and that's when things started to get serious. Because it was at this moment that the two major powers of the time turned their eyes to space and began space exploration. While the first satellite of the Sputnik program was not ready, they continued to test the R-7

more and more. The Soviet Union tried, failed, analyzed their mistakes, redesigned, fixed, and tried again until they found a model suitable for launching Sputnik-1 into space. The first Sputnik was developed by Mikhail Khomiakov, and it didn't really have a specific objective. It was a sphere measuring 58 cm (22.83 in) in diameter, weighing almost 84 kg (185 pounds), and it was going into space to transmit a signal that could be synchronized by any amateur radio operator. It would simply emit a beep, and that's it. So, on October 4, 1957, at 7:28, the Sputnik rocket was launched

at a speed of 28,000 km/h (17,400 mph), the fastest speed ever achieved by a man-made object up to that point. Sixteen seconds after the launch, the fuel regulator failed, but the flight continued. And after 324.5 seconds, the compressed air mechanism separates a small payload from the rocket. Thus, the former Soviet Union had just placed the first man-made object in Earth's orbit. With Sputnik-1, space exploration began. After three months, 1,440 Earth orbits, and over 70 million kilometers (43 million miles) traveled, the satellite disintegrated upon entering Earth's atmosphere on January 4, 1958. The progress of the Soviet

Union was visible even to the Americans. The President of the United States at the time, Eisenhower, said that the country was going through the "Sputnik crisis," making it clear his dissatisfaction with the United States' early steps in the space race. ~ documentary In the same year as the launch of Sputnik, the United States also attempted to launch, but the rocket exploded, further exacerbating the Sputnik crisis. ~ documentary As a way to try to combat this crisis, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics decided to take a bold step. They decided that within this National Committee, there

needed to be a specialized area for space. Thus, on July 29, 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Act was created, internationally known as NASA. On November 3, 1957, Sputnik-2 was launched, this time with a little stray dog from the streets of Moscow, Laika. Once again, the R-7 rocket was launched, but due to overheating hours after its launch, Laika died in Earth's orbit. Nonetheless, she became the first animal to enter orbit. At the time, the Soviet Union lied and propagated that she had survived for six days because admitting such a mistake would have greatly damaged their

image. The truth was only discovered over 10 years after the end of the Soviet Union in 2002. After Laika went to space, over 12 dogs were sent, but only five returned alive. In 1958, the United States launched its first satellite, Explorer 1, into orbit. ~ documentary However, the Soviet Union was not satisfied with that, they wanted more. So it launches another space program known as Vostok, with the goal of conducting the first manned missions to space. Between May 1958 and March 1961, they launch several rockets to prepare for what was to come. Sputnik 3, 4,

5, and a variant between Sputnik and Vostok are launched. In April 1961, a new rocket was ready, and Iuri Gagarin was chosen as the cosmonaut to become the first man in space. At 5:30 a.m. on April 12, 1961, Gagarin and Titov wake up, have coffee, put on their suits, and are transported to the launch pad. At 6:07, Vostok is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. At 6:09, the fuel is depleted, and the session detaches from the core. At 6:10, the casing covering the spacecraft is released, and they can finally see the windows. At 6:12, the intermediate

stage begins, and at 6:13, Vostok is pushed into orbit. At 6:14, the final stage is initiated, and at 6:15, they reach the final stage. At 6:17, they are in orbit, and Gagarin sends a message saying, "I see the Earth, it is blue." After that, they continue in orbit, following this trajectory with the goal of returning to Earth in Russian territory. At 7:35, reentry into Earth occurs, and as he descended, Gagarin experienced the famous 8g force, but he remained conscious. At 7:55, Iuri Gagarin ejects from the spacecraft at a height of 7 km (23,000 ft). He

free falls for 5 km (16,400 ft) and opens the parachute at 8:05, safely landing on the ground. A farmer and his daughter reported seeing a guy falling from a parachute wearing an orange jumpsuit and a helmet out of nowhere! Gagarin turns to them and says: Thus, he became a global idol, and the Soviet Union even prohibited him from returning to space, fearing that something might go wrong and he would be a goner. After that, he became somewhat of a spokesperson for the space program and the Soviet Union. He even came to Brazil and was received

by the president at the time, Jânio Quadros. Seeing that the Soviet Union was starting to pull ahead in the space race, the United States also launched its first man into space, Alan Shepard, on May 5, 1961. But they wanted more. So in that year, John Kennedy, President of the United States, issues a challenge: to send men to the Moon and bring them back safely. All of this, before the decade is over. ~ documentary From then on, both countries were fully committed to the race. The Soviets launched 12 satellites, and the Americans 54. The United States

needed this project to succeed, there was no other way, so they launched the Mercury Project, which was a capsule with capacity for 1 astronaut. Later, they launched the Gemini Project, with capacity for 2 astronauts, and later the Apollo Project was created, with capacity for 3 astronauts. The Mercury Project managed to put a man in orbit around the Moon, without landing. The Gemini Project took the first photo of Mars, which is very different from the photos we take today. And the Apollo project, you know about it. In 1967, after several unmanned launches, the first manned launch

of the Apollo mission was attempted. And on January 27, 1967, during a launch rehearsal, the cabin caught fire and killed the three crew members. If you were to research what happened in Apollo 2 and 3, you might not find anything, because the name was no longer the same. Apollo 1 was called AS-204, but after this accident, they decided to change the name, and thus the name Apollo was born. From Apollo 2 to 6, there were no more manned flights, out of fear that this tragedy would happen again. Only with Apollo 7, they resumed manned flights,

this time making the first live broadcast from space. ~ documentary Apollo 8 was the first mission to take astronauts to orbit the Moon. 9 and 10 did the same, so we arrived at Apollo 11. The year is 1969 and the big moment had arrived. John Kennedy's promise was about to be fulfilled. On July 16, 1969, everything was ready for the launch of Apollo 11. The launch was televised in 33 countries, and over 25 million people watched this event in the United States alone. There's even a scene in Forrest Gump that shows everyone watching him play

Ping Pong instead of watching the rocket launch. So at 13:32, the rocket is launched with three crew members: The lunar module pilot, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, the command module pilot, Michael Collins, and the commander, Neil Armstrong. ~ documentary Three days later, the astronauts reach the far side of the Moon and enter lunar orbit. The plan was as follows: a small spacecraft, almost like another rocket called Eagle, would detach from Apollo 11 and make the landing on the Moon with only two of the three crew members: Buzz and Armstrong. Meanwhile, Collins would stay in the spacecraft, ensuring

everything was in order and more. At 17:44, the descent begins, which already had some problems. First, the spacecraft was faster than they expected, which could have been a major issue, but it turned out to be nothing. Landing was very, very complex and dangerous. Firstly, because the Moon's surface is all uneven, and any small miscalculation could be fatal. So Armstrong had to find a spot on the Moon that was clean and flat enough for the landing. The lunar landing occurs at 20:17 on a Sunday, July 20, 1969. At that moment, they had only 25 seconds of

fuel remaining. ~ documentary The first man stepped on the Moon, Neil Armstrong. The spectacle was even broadcast live on television to 1.2 billion people. Then, the preparations to exit the spacecraft began and took three and a half hours. At 23:43, they were ready, and the hatch was opened at 2:39 in the morning. At 2:51, Neil Armstrong set foot on lunar soil, becoming the first man to step on the Moon. The most incredible thing about all of this is that it is all documented; they filmed this process. Armstrong takes a plaque containing a drawing of the

two hemispheres of the Earth, with the signatures of the three astronauts and President Nixon. On it, there was a phrase that said: "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon, July 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind." Armstrong describes the lunar soil as almost like powder, and at 2:56, Armstrong says: "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." And the footprint he left in that leap is still there today. After 8 days in space, on July 24, 1969, they safely return to Earth. After that, they

would still send other missions with men to the Moon, but they realized it wasn't really worth it because, well, there's not much to do there. So they figured it's better to send rockets and be safe. In fact, one of these missions was Apollo 13, where one of the most famous lines in history occurs: ~ documentary This line happened in 1970 when the astronauts communicated to NASA's Mission Control Center that there had been an explosion. But it was with this great achievement by the United States, with the arrival of Apollo 11 on the Moon, that it's

sort of declared that they won the space race, even though they were behind for most of the race. The truth is there's no winner; both the United States and the Soviet Union did important things that propelled humanity forward. So let's not get caught up in this little rivalry, especially since even these two countries weren't caught up in it. Years later, the Apollo 18 spacecraft and the Soyuz MS-19 made a docking in space. This was the first joint mission between NASA and the Soviet Space Agency. ~ documentary At this moment, humanity realized that space was no

joke and that there was a lot to explore out there. And humanity could evolve with these new technologies emerging, so on April 19, 1971, the Soviet Union launched the first space station, Salyut 1. But have you ever wondered what a space station is for? It's a place where astronauts stop to have coffee, eat a McDonald's... The space station is almost like a spaceship, except without the propulsion system because its purpose is to stay there, nice and still. It is built with the goal of sustaining human presence in space. For example, this Salyut 1 was of

the monolithic type, with only one module, if it had two or more modules, it would be a modular station. This first station had four compartments, the transfer compartment which would be for a manned spacecraft to dock, align itself there, and then everyone can enter the station. Next is the main compartment, which is the working area with space for up to 8 people. Here comes the auxiliary compartment, where communication and control equipment, first aid kits, that kind of thing, are kept. And the compartment called Orion 1 Observatory, which had a telescope and a spectroscope, which is

the instrument that disperses the wavelength of light to analyze each one separately, it's that triangle that's on the cover of Pink Floyd. It was also at this moment that humans realized they could dream of exploring other planets. Not just going to space and enjoying the view. So in 1970, the first little robot arrived on the Moon, which is much better than sending humans. In 1973, the Pioneer 10 probe reached Jupiter, with the goal of us gaining a better understanding of the planet. And it was used to measure the thermal structure there, the temperature of the

atmosphere, to measure the magnetic field there. In 1974, another probe arrived alongside it, the Mariner 10, which aimed to visit two planets: Venus and Mercury at once. It was the first probe to use a new technology known as the Gravitational Assist Technique from a Celestial Body for Navigation Aid. That's literally the name. It basically takes the momentum from another planet and whoosh, comes back. This probe allowed us to capture good images of the two planets, Venus and Mercury. In 1975, another little robot was roaming in space, this time on Venus. The Venera 9 mission landed

on the planet. Once again, it aimed to study the atmosphere, magnetic field, and so on. That's where the first photos of Venus from the planet's surface came from. A year later, guess what, another robot, this time on Mars. The Viking 1 mission was one of the longest-duration missions in history. It spent 2307 days on Mars, taking a little stroll around there. And thus, we received a photo taken from the surface of Mars for the first time. ~ documentary And at this moment, a new scientist was starting to stand out at NASA; he had already participated

in several space exploration missions. He had even been involved in the launch of Pioneer 10, which I mentioned earlier. And during this time, he continued to develop and improve his work until 1977. And of course, I could only be talking about him, Carl Sagan. At this point in the game, the gang was already starting to understand that the universe is gigantic, and nobody ruled out, and still doesn't rule out, the possibility of there being life somewhere out there. So the question that lingered in Carl Sagan's mind was: What if we encountered aliens, how would we

communicate with them? And that's how the Voyager probe was born. ~ documentary The initial goal was very simple, to explore all the planets of the Solar System. They wanted to visit Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and even make a stop at Pluto, despite those who say Pluto isn't a planet. But what matters is not the probe itself, but what's inside it, which are golden phonograph records. It contains various sounds and images of life on Earth, with the social and cultural diversity we have here, so that if an alien finds it, they can understand how life works

on Earth. There are greetings in 55 different languages, including Portuguese, oh, oh: "Peace and happiness to all." Uh, I'm telling you. There are sounds of nature and society, like thunder, cars, animals, and there are also songs. Some classical music by Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart, even pop songs by Chuck Berry. Carl Sagan's plan was to include the song "Here Comes The Sun" by The Beatles... but their record label didn't authorize it, unbelievable, right? There are over 120 images, with photos of the planet, its colors, DNA, explaining basic math, chemistry, physics, biology, human reproduction, what a family

is, the fauna, the flora, the entire biodiversity of the planet. It even includes aspects of human life, like a supermarket, people eating, school, books, and most importantly, it has the location of Earth in case someone finds it. In 1990, it passed by Pluto and left the Solar System in 2004. In 2020, Voyager 1 was 22 billion kilometers (13.67 billion miles) away from Earth, and Voyager 2 was 18 billion kilometers (11.18 billion miles) away. This is the farthest object created by humanity in the universe. In the end, this was just one of Carl Sagan's contributions to

science. On September 26, 1983, the Soviet Union learned a lesson. The Soyuz T-10-1 rocket began its countdown, but it never reached zero. A fire broke out on the platform, and the escape system was activated 6 seconds before the rocket exploded, saving the crew. This was the first time this escape system was used. In 1984, one of the photos that made history, the one of astronaut Bruce McCandless, emerged, whom you might not recognize the face, but that's because he's in a rather unusual situation. This was the third time a space shuttle, the Challenger, was used. And

this astronaut took part in a new experiment. He was the first astronaut to walk completely free in space. You see the photo and think: "Ah, the guy went there, took the photo, and came back." Brother, for him to take that photo, he spent 6 hours and 17 minutes wandering in absolute nothingness! Two years later, in 1986, this space shuttle Challenger would make history, but not in a good way. It's January 28th, and the space shuttle takes off, but after only 73 seconds of flight, it breaks apart, and the spacecraft explodes in the air, killing all

7 crew members on board. ~ documentary It was the worst accident since the beginning of space exploration 25 years ago. The Challenger turned into a fireball seconds after being launched. The entire crew is dead, and NASA still doesn't have an explanation for the accident. This was the first fatal accident involving an American spacecraft during flight. ~ documentary In the same year, 1986, humanity encounters an old friend who passes by here from time to time, Halley's Comet. I made a short video explaining a little more about this comet, if you want to see it, it's So

far, humanity has learned this about the universe: A lot, really, but we want more. So, humanity develops an artificial satellite that will contribute with great information about the universe up to this day. And I'm talking about the Hubble telescope. ~ documentary Imagine the leap of knowledge humanity made about space when Galileo Galilei looked at the sky with a telescope for the first time. Proportionally speaking, the launch of the Hubble telescope was almost like that moment. It all begins with NASA and the idea of launching a series of large space observatories. This series consisted of four

major observatories that would look into space with different wavelengths: visible light, gamma rays, X-rays, and infrared. The Hubble telescope observes the universe in both visible light and infrared. The project to build the spacecraft was a huge challenge for NASA. And for engineering itself, because for the first time, they would have to build an object that could withstand different temperatures in the universe, different environments. It has to withstand both the direct sunlight it receives and the darkness behind the Earth, for example. The project was full of problems and was very expensive. So they had to reschedule

the launch of this telescope many times. Because they realized that if they launched it the way it was, the thing would explode within 1 second of flight. And when it was ready to be launched, there was the accident I mentioned earlier with the Challenger, which put a freeze on space exploration. Initially, the expectation was that the construction of this telescope would cost around 400 million dollars. But in reality, the entire project cost 2.5 billion. But anyway, on April 24, 1990, the STS-31 mission of the Discovery successfully launched the Hubble telescope. ~ documentary Maybe you don't

realize the impact of this new technology, but only with it, we were able to access photos of the universe never seen before. This enabled humanity to study the universe better, which would not be possible if we had to go there to see it. Perhaps the classic Hubble photo is this one: "The Pillars of Creation." This photo was taken in April 1995. They are a large conglomerate of dust and gas and are over 6,500 light-years away from Earth. Just to give you an idea, one light-year is equivalent to 9.46 trillion kilometers (5.88 trillion miles). The point

is that if it weren't for the Hubble telescope, photos like this one, this one, or this one would never have been taken. The following year, in 1991, something happened that would change the course of human history once and for all. The end of the Soviet Union and consequently its space programs. I already have a scheduled video to explain the entire history of the Soviet Union, so I won't dwell too much on this subject. Ironically, the announcement of the end of the Soviet Union is transmitted via satellite, and President Gorbachov announces the end of the country

after 69 years of existence. ~ documentary What I say here has nothing to do with politics. The point is to understand the importance of the country for the development of space exploration. And the importance that the Soviet Union had is undeniable. During the years 1994 and 1995, a historic record was set, and no one has been able to surpass it to this day. On board the Mir Space Station, cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov spent 437 days and 18 hours in space, thus holding the record for the longest continuous stay in space by a human. This experience helped

us understand a little better the impact of spending such a long time in space, if it causes any kind of harm to our bodies, that kind of thing. So let's go through a list of things that happen to the human body when it spends a long time in space: First, the body reduces the production of muscle cells because you don't exert as much physical effort when you are under Earth's gravity. Muscles that are constantly active, such as those in the calf and back, can lose 25% of their muscle mass. The same thing happens to bone

mass. Another terrible problem is that astronauts who spend a long time in space... grow?! Earth's gravity keeps the vertebrae together, and without that pressure, they separate. And this can make a person grow up to 3%. The problem arises when they return to Earth, resulting in compressed vertebrae. The skin loses a lot of sensitivity, and the sense of smell and taste become less powerful. And finally, one of the most serious problems it can cause is depression. Being trapped alone in a cabin for 6 months may not be very good for your mental state. Some astronauts report

internal conflicts and a "Willingness to open the space station door and become one nothing." In 1997, a robot arrives on the Martian surface. Everyone must have seen some of these photos, which showed humanity the surface of Mars. The launch was in 1996, it arrived there in 1997, and landed in a region of Mars known as Chryse Planitia, which is a flatter region of the planet. And so the little robot started walking on the surface and took a bunch of instruments to calculate the atmosphere, climate, geography, soil composition, all that kind of stuff. And after a

long time, at least as everything indicates, the planet was at peace. The huge wars between countries had ended, and the Cold War as well. This provided an international alliance of space programs, without everyone having to compete with each other to prove who is the best. And this moment led to the launch of the International Space Station, with more than 15 countries helping in its construction. They were: The United States, Russia, Canada, Japan, the European Space Agency, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. So answering the question that

might be in your mind, no, Brazil did not participate. At least not until 2006 when it signed an agreement directly with NASA for hardware production in exchange for access to American equipment and also for the opportunity to send the first Brazilian astronaut to space: Marco César Pontes. But not only Brazilian. He was also the first South American and lusophone astronaut, which means among all the countries colonized by Portugal, including Portugal itself. ~ documentary That moment when you stop there, it's a... it's a moment of... this is my place. The neck has to be very straight,

tongue inside, because... to avoid biting your tongue, right? So, closed teeth, tongue inside, fitting in, and as rigid as you can be, it's going to be quite a jolt. During the ascent, I pointed to the flag and pointed upward. It means: we are all together going up, together. Then when I arrived at the station, there was the correct order, right? According to the protocol, Commander Pavel would go first, then Jeff, who was the first officer, and then me, the second officer, to enter the Space Station. But I took the Brazilian flag and waited for my

turn. Then Pavel looked at me, and this is an interesting thing to talk about in terms of respect, right? In terms of other cultures, etc. He looked at me and said: Go ahead. But you're going to have a problem because everyone is watching, and I knew that the whole world was watching, and the protocol says that you are the first. He said: No, don't worry about that because it's not actually you, Marcos, who's going first. It's this flag here, and this flag represents a country, a nation, and neither I, Pavel, nor Jeff have the right

to go ahead of a nation. And after 10 years of participation, we were done with the project. According to John Logsdon, who was the director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University: "It's too late for Brazil to do anything except be a user of the station." So, we finally reached the 21st century, and in 2002, a company was founded that would make a lot of noise in the years to come: Elon Musk's SpaceX. And it all started with this crazy idea of taking people to Mars. To give you an idea of the craziness,

in the beginning, he tried to buy old and cheap rockets from Russia to start his new project, but obviously they didn't sell. In that same year, Musk stated that the goal of SpaceX is: "To decrease the cost and improve the reliability of access to space." On February 1, 2003, another event stopped the world. 16 days earlier, on January 16, the STS-107 mission was launched, and the space shuttle Columbia went into space, as usual. The mission was going well, and all 80 planned experiments were a success, at least until the return to Earth. On February 1,

16 minutes before landing, during reentry into the Earth's atmosphere, a piece of the external fuel tank's insulation came off, which affected the components of the thermal protection system at the tip of the left wing. As a result, the excess heat slowly overheated the wing, which, without protection, broke. Without this wing, the space shuttle loses control and causes the total destruction of the vehicle. All seven astronauts who comprised the crew of the vehicle lost their lives. Planets in sight. On March 7, 2009, a new space telescope is launched. The Kepler Telescope. And the mission of this

telescope is one of the coolest of all. NASA's goal with the Kepler Telescope was to search for planets outside the Solar System that had characteristics similar to Earth's, basically potentially habitable planets. But they also wanted to collect all kinds of exoplanets, which are any planets outside the Solar System. For 9 years and 6 months, the probe observed over 100,000 stars that could have planets in their orbit. During this process, 2,720 exoplanets were discovered. Two years later, the first rocky planet was found. It was called Kepler-10b. It measured 1.4 times the size of Earth, making it

the smallest planet discovered outside the Solar System. And around 2015, the discovery of the most Earth-like planet of all was announced, Kepler-425b. It resembles Earth in many ways, except for its size, as it is about 5 times larger than Earth. But it is nearly the same age as our planet, around 6 billion years, while Earth is almost 5 billion. And it is in what is called the Habitable Zone, where liquid water can exist. By the year 2013, these were all the multi-planet systems discovered by the Kepler mission. And do you remember when I mentioned that

Elon Musk's objective was to reduce costs and increase reliability? Well, on December 9, 2010, that was put to the test with the launch of the Falcon 9. But what is the big difference with this rocket? It is a reusable rocket, with over 200 launches! So, how is it made? The first part of the rocket consists of nine engines and a fuel tank. The second stage is where the payload is carried, basically what you want to put into space. And then there is the interstage, which basically connects the first and second stages and allows them to

separate. With that, you don't lose the entire rocket during launch; the part that contains the engines returns safely to Earth. However, this was only achieved later on. In 2010, Japan joins the game. This is because they developed Hayabusa, a spacecraft whose goal was to collect debris from an asteroid, the asteroid 162173 Ryugu. It was the first time in history that we were able to do this. In 2011, after numerous disasters caused by space shuttles, the last mission of this type took place, the STS-135 on July 8, 2011. In November 2012, the Voyager 1 probe, launched

by Carl Sagan, detected something quite curious. It had just passed through the heliopause, which is basically the boundary between the Solar System and the rest of space. Its instruments detected a strange hum, which was called a plasma wave, this sound here: It is believed that this sound is interstellar gas. On August 6, 2012, another robot, the Curiosity, arrives on Mars. It is basically an improved version of the robot that was already there. In 2013, Voyager 1 crosses the heliopause and becomes the first human-made object to leave the Solar System. This gives you an idea of

the magnitude of the universe. Until 2013, we had never left the Solar System, and everything I mentioned earlier was limited to this small part of the universe. In 2014, for the first time in history, we landed a spacecraft on a comet, the 67P, which travels between the orbits of Earth and Jupiter. This allows us to study these celestial bodies or even asteroids a little more, and many people have this question: What is the difference between a comet and an asteroid? A comet is composed of ice and dust and has that large tail of gases. On

the other hand, an asteroid is composed of rocks or metals and minerals. Studying a comet can help us understand the origin of a planet, for example, in the formation of water somewhere. And an asteroid can make us a lot of money! Because there are extremely valuable asteroids, such as asteroid 16 Psyche. It was discovered in 1852, and the Hubble Telescope helped us get a better view of it. It is the most valuable asteroid of all. NASA and SpaceX are already keeping an eye on it, but why? What makes it so special? Well, this asteroid is

mainly composed of metals, such as iron and nickel, and even platinum and gold. And the total value of 16 Psyche could exceed ten thousand quadrillion dollars. Just to give you an idea, the entire economy of planet Earth in 2019 was nearly $142 trillion. In 2015, the first spacecraft arrived to fly over Pluto. I'm telling you, I trust Pluto's ability to become a planet again. People keep saying it's not a planet, but they keep sending things there to keep an eye on it. Also in that year, for the first time in history, the first stage of

the Falcon 9 reenters Earth's atmosphere and lands vertically after separating from the second stage. This literally revolutionizes the rocket industry and generates enormous savings. All of this made it possible to produce the largest and most powerful rocket in the world, On February 6, something unusual happened. In order to test all this capacity, all this power, an unusual payload was placed inside. It was none other than Elon Musk's own Tesla Roadster, and that's not all. Inside it was a mannequin of Elon Musk, and the song "Space Oddity" by David Bowie was playing. The guy is unbelievable.

And it was done, the car is still up there today, and you can see it on this website. At this moment, the car is here: This feat by Elon Musk almost sparked a new space race, but this time it wasn't between countries, but between companies. More precisely between Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, the owner of Amazon and Blue Origin. In fact, he went to space using his own company in 2021, and when he returned, he said that it was only possible thanks to the people who shop on Amazon. With this, these billionaires manage to increase

their prestige and consequently the investments and earnings from their own companies. And if everything we knew so far was insane, it just got even more so! Because on December 25, 2021, the newest space telescope was launched, the James Webb Telescope. ~ documentary What can I say about this little guy that I barely know and already consider awesome? The James Webb can capture infrared radiation and observe the formation of the first galaxies! And even stars that formed shortly after the Big Bang! This serves to conduct a much more elaborate study on the evolution of stars, galaxies,

and planets. Its name refers back to the Apollo space program, which was managed by James Edwin Webb. And it serves to replace some functions of the Hubble telescope itself. The James Webb telescope absorbs much more light, has better equipment to capture infrared radiation, and also operates farther from Earth. And as a result of the first successful missions, on July 11, 2022, NASA presented the first photos taken by it, which are simply incredible. And after the James Webb telescope, this is the universe we know today: Well, that was the documentary about space exploration, and I sincerely

hope you liked it. If you enjoyed it, leave a like, subscribe to this channel, as there are many more documentaries like this coming up. Remember to follow me on social media @tinocandotv, on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. And if this content has somehow helped you and contributed something, you can send a "thank you so much!" down below. Anyway, it was a lot of work to produce this content, but as I said, the idea came from you. So, comment down below with another suggestion for a topic you have, any idea, something for your access, and see you

in the next video. Thanks, take care, a big hug from Tinôco, and remember: existence is fleeting.