For the last 30 years, manned research stations (Russian Mir and Salute, American Skylab) have played an important role in space exploration. The astronauts working on them conducted various experiments. These studies provided valuable information about life in space The Mir station, launched into orbit in 1986, has completed its service life. With the completion of the construction of the international space station, which is being created by the joint efforts of America, Russia, the European Space Agency, Japan, Canada and Italy, the era of new-generation spacecraft will begin. The construction will last 5 years and will be completed by 2003. American, Russian and European spacecraft will orbit part of the station. For this purpose, they will need to fly into space 44 times! It is planned to conduct further experiments to study the possibilities of life and work in space, as well as a variety of medical and technical studies at the station. For this purpose the crew of 6 people will be there constantly, every 3-5 months astronauts will change. The station will consist of two large departments - American and Russian - with their living quarters and life support systems. There will be European and Japanese laboratories there. One of the sections will be occupied by engines to change the orbit of the station. Huge solar batteries will become a source of energy. The international space station will serve different purposes. It can serve as a "quarantine" for samples obtained on Mars. It can also be used as a transshipment base for expeditions deep into the solar system, such as Mars.
- The spacecraft of the future
NASA (National Aeronautics Administration of the United States) plans to create a fundamentally new spacecraft, which will not, like a shuttle, drop fuel tanks at the start. It can be used to deliver astronauts to space stations and in operation will be much cheaper than the shuttle. Tests of the first version of the new spacecraft with the working name X-33 were conducted in 1999.
- SEARCH FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL INTELLIGENCE
Observations in the galaxy reveal three-star systems that have suitable ecospheres and are good candidates for the role of luminaries in planetary systems where life is possible. Even such a tiny part of our galaxy"s stars may have a planet similar to the one we live on. This does not mean that such a planet should serve as a shelter for a reasonable civilization, nor does it even mean that life should arise on its surface. But this suggests that the Earth is almost certainly not unique. To discover extraterrestrial life, we must begin a more thorough search, perhaps within the limits of many parsecs from our solar system.
- Methods of contact
The main search method used so far has been to listen to space in the radio band. With the help of radio telescopes, scientists hope to find either a radio transmission aimed at us, or an omnidirectional signal sent blindly in the hope that someone will intercept it, or radio conversations of some civilizations, or some artificial radio emission, appearing, for example, in the work of numerous radio and television stations of civilization. The search time has been measured for tens of years, and there are no positive results. But the works continue and are planned for the future. In 1974, a radio message with coded information about the Earth and its inhabitants was sent in the direction of a huge ball star cluster numbering hundreds of thousands of stars, and all of them are older than the Sun. Given the distance, the answer should be expected, if given, only after 48, 000 years. In 1977, in the table of automatic printing device of the computer connected to the radio astronomical complex, there was information indicating the reception of a strong signal with all signs of extraterrestrial beacon during the whole minute. Space callsigns were 30 times higher than the general background level and were intermittent like an earthly moraine. The area where the signal came from was carefully studied; it is located near the galactic plane, near the center of the Galaxy. There are no solar stars in the existing catalog. The repeated "combing" of the sky with a radio telescope antenna was not successful. Space - again! - set a riddle, but it remained unanswered. Another method of search is a thorough analysis of all available data about celestial objects, as well as space flights. However, scientific analysis of the problem shows that the best means of interstellar contact is radio communication, not space flight. Thus, it can be assumed that the first contact with other civilizations will be an exchange of television programs rather than direct communication in space.