“If you have accomplished all that you have planned for yourself, you have not planned enough.”
~ Edward Everett Hale
Many people do not remember or know about the actual 1998 physical construction of the International Space Station, which was approximately nine years ago. And with so many changes going on with the space agencies and international agencies of today, a person has a tendency to get lost in it all. A short history recap for some is not unnecessary, with the Harmony paving the way for international laboratories coming in for future high-tech space research above us.
But space science did not actually begin in 1998, but in the year 1869 with the work of Edward Everett Hale, grandnephew of Nathan Hale and an American Revolutionary War spy. Marrying the daughter of Harriet Beecher Stowe, Emily Baldwin Perkins, he wrote the famous “A Man Without a Country” in order to gather weight in the Ohio electorate for Union support. But as part of his original writings in 1869, the Atlantic Monthly accepted his article, “Brick Moon,” which became important as it is recognized as the first known proposal for Earth-orbiting satellites. According to Edward Hale, “the satellite could be used for mariners for a navigational aid, while believing that the satellite could be used as a longitudinal companion to the latitudinal North Star.” Over the years, the “Brick Moon” became associated with the first space station concept along with its technologiesa 60-meter diameter satellite used to navigate ships at sea, operated by a crew of 37 individuals.
What many do not realize is that NASA actually began their conceptual design of the ISS in 1982, through a task force called the Space Station Task Force. Through this task force, the International Space Station had been planned as a manned space project, which was to follow their Space Shuttle program. With that in mind, the United States approached many countries for key elements in the construction of the ISS, with the United States carrying the heaviest financial load. Other than the fact it was to be a manned mission, a few other goals were involved in this decision:
* It was to utilize future space environment.
* It was to serve as an intermediate base for moon exploration and that of other planets.
* The project would be implemented through international cooperation.
Our current Space Age would not have been possible without existing technology regarding the previous concepts regarding space stations, such as Edward Everett Hale; a theoretical work by Hermann Oberth, “The Rocket to Planetary Space”; the Russian, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, whose ideas on future spaceflight included that of the space station; and in 1929, that of Potocni, who wrote under the pseudo name of H. Noordung, “The Problems of Navigating the World.”
