OPENSPACE 24: The Future of Space Exploration | Page 19

THE FUTURE OF SPACE EXPLORATION
01. Astronaut Buzz Aldrin walking on the moon. Credit: NASA.
02. Three years after the first satellite broadcast, a child watched the first televised pictures of the moon in 1965.
Credit: Bettmann/CORBIS.
03. In 1971, Mariner 9 blasted off from Cape Kennedy on a journey to Mars. Credit: NASA.
Credit: ESA
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Space at the Service of the Citizen
In the 1980s, satellite communications expanded to carry
television programs, and people were able to pick up satellite
signals on their home dish antennas. Satellites discovered an
ozone hole over Antarctica, pinpointed forest fires, and even sent
photographs of the nuclear power plant disaster at Chernobyl in
1986. This progress set the path for current Earth observation and
navigation technology, with ambitious programs such as European
flagship programs Galileo and Copernicus being instigated.
A Breakthrough for Astronomy
The Hubble Space Telescope, the most powerful ever created,
was launched in 1990, marking the most significant advance
in astronomy since Galileo’s telescope. Since then, the orbiting
telescope has taken over a million observations and provided
data that astronomers have used to write more than 14,000 peer-
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reviewed scientific publications on a broad range of topics, from
planet formation to gigantic black holes.
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