Man has conquered the forces of nature with his scientific knowledge and mental powers. Journey to the moon is no more a dream. Man's long cherished dream was to see how grows in the planets like Moon, Venus and Mars. Space travel became a reality when in 1957 the Russians sent artificial satellite into the outer space. The satellite was fired into space by a three - stage rocket which gave to it the initial velocity of about 8000 meters per second. The satellite was named Spuntik. It travelled around the earth above hundreds of miles above it.
The second Spuntik carried a dog, named Laika. The third satellite was fired into space on May 15, 1959. It was bigger in size, weight and speed. It was equipped with solar batteries, radio transmitters and other equipment. Again the Russians were the first to travel through space around the earth. A Russian travelled in his space ship around the earth many mikes above it.
The American didn't lag behind in this field. Their scientists, engineers and administrators worked day and night for the designing, building and testing of space rockets and ships. David R. Scott was the first American who landed on the moon and stayed their for sixty seven hours. On 21st July, 1969, he alongwith two other astronauts landed on the moon. The name of spaceship he piloted was Endeavour. They had twelve revolutions of the orbit of the moon before they entered into it. They took two hours to move round the orbit of the moon by means of a Lunar Module. They spent 87 hours on the moon. They came to the surface of the moon by means of ladder. They experienced the following new things there:
1. They were on a barren and wild land. They felt that they were the only living souls on the moon.
2. They felt that each blazing day and each cold night stretched through 355 earthly hours.
3. When they landed on the moon, they felt a sense of freedom. They experienced weightlessness.
4. The moon was surrounded by ridges and gorges all around. There was no wind, no rain and as a result, there was no tree on the surface of the moon.
Space travels has opened vast possibilities about conquest of nature by man. It has shown to us that man can know much about the conditions of life on other planets like Venus, Mars and the Sun. We can control the season and forecast the weather. Space travel can also improve knowledge of mass communication. It has opened possibility of improving the radar, the T.V. and other such inventions. It has enriched our vocabulary also.
But the utility of space travel has been questioned by great thinkers. They consider it a wastage of money and time. They have pointed out that an adventure to space has given nothing to man. Moon has a barren land. It has no atmosphere, no wind and no vegetation. It is no fit for human living. Moreover, the aim of space travel is no research. It is motivated by political designs. Both the big super powers, Russia and America, are trying to have military supermacy over each other. Moreover, travelling moon cannot give happiness and wisdom to mankind. The money spent on such programmes can be utilized, judiciously to eradicate poverty, diseases and ignorance from the world.
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