Air & Space Flashcards
Astronomy, aviation, weather & climate
American astronaut
Commander of Apollo 13 during its unexpected snags (1970)
Also part of Gemini & Apollo 8 (1968)
JAMES “JIM” LOVELL
First woman to pilot Space Shuttle (1995) & later, to command it (1999)
EILEEN COLLINS
American astronaut
Died in Apollo 1 test fire
Buried at Arlington next to Gus Grissom
ROGER CHAFFEE
1st American to spacewalk during Gemini 4 mission (1965)
Died in Apollo 1 test fire
ED WHITE
“Third Man” of Apollo 11 (first moon landing)
Remained inside the COLUMBIA command module while the EAGLE landing module took Aldrin & Armstrong to the lunar surface
MICHAEL COLLINS
1st human to walk on the Moon (Apollo 11, 1969)
1st American civilian in space
“Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.”
“That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant step for mankind.”
Died 2012
Played by Ryan Gosling in “First Man” (2018)
NEIL ARMSTRONG
2nd human to set foot on the Moon (Apollo 11, 1969)
Described it as “Magnificent desolation”
MIT grad
Legally changed name from “Edwin” in 1988
Mother’s maiden name, coincidentally, was Moon
BUZZ ALDRIN
4th American in space, 2nd to orbit
Mercury module Aurora 7, May 1962
Replaced Deke Slayton, who was grounded prior to mission
Landed 250 miles off course, held in part responsible
His only spaceflight
SCOTT CARPENTER
1st American in orbit (3 times, about 1 hour) in 1962
3rd American in space
Mercury module Friendship 7
Marine corps aviator
Ohio senator (1974-99)
Returned to space 1998 (age 77)
First transcontinental LA-NY flight at supersonic speed (1957)
Played by Ed Harris in “The Right Stuff” (1983)
JOHN GLENN (JR.)
2nd American in space (3rd human)
Mercury module Liberty Bell 7 in 1961
After splashdown, hatch popped & capsule sank
Also on the first manned Gemini (“Molly Brown”) with John Young
Died in Apollo 1 test fire, with Ed White & Roger Chaffee
VIRGIL “GUS” GRISSOM
1st American in space (2nd human)
Aboard Mercury module Freedom 7
Sub-orbital (only about 15 minutes) in May 1961
During Apollo 14, walked (& golfed) on the Moon
U.S. Naval Academy grad & naval aviator
ALAN SHEPARD
1st woman in space
Vostok 6 (Russian, “East”), final Vostok mission
Orbited 48 times (about 3 days)
Member of Communist party
Previously a parachutist with no pilot experience
VALENTINA TERESHKOVA
1st human in space
Vostok 1 (Russian, “East”) on April 12 1961
Orbited once (about 2 hours)
Died in a MiG jet crash in 1968
YURI GAGARIN
Collective term for Shepard, Glenn, Grissom, Carpenter, Schirra, Cooper, & Slayton
MERCURY 7
American astronaut
Only one to fly Mercury, Apollo, & Gemini missions
Decongestant spokesman
WALTER “WALLY” SCHIRRA
Flew the final Mercury mission in 1963
Also on Gemini 5
First person to make 2 different orbital flights
GORDON COOPER
Grounded for atrial fibrillation
Replaced on Mercury 7 mission by Scott Carpenter
Flew in the final Apollo flight (1975)
DONALD KENT “DEKE” SLAYTON
German noble
Inventor of a rigid airship, which was used in WWI bombings
The “Graf” kind made the first transatlantic flights & first flights around the world
COUNT FERDINAND VON ZEPPELIN
Rigid hydrogen airship
In 1937, left Frankfurt, Germany for Lakehurst, New Jersey
“Oh, the humanity!”
Named for German leader Paul von
HINDENBURG
Jet speed record setter made by Lockheed
SR-71 “BLACKBIRD”
Experimental American aircraft
Set 1960s altitude records (about 50-60 miles up)
X-15
Early “stacked-wing” aircraft
Wright Flyer, Sopwith Camel, & “inverted Jenny” stamp are all examples
Obsolete by WWII
BIPLANE
“Resourceful” NASA Mars helicopter
Launched 2021 for first powered controlled extraterrestrial aircraft flight
INGENUITY
Boeing “Superfortress” bomber
Make of Enola Gay & Bockscar
B-29
Despite name, usually orange
Contains FDR (flight data recorder) & CVR (cockpit voice recorder)
BLACK BOX
The 4 forces of flight
LIFT
GRAVITY
THRUST
DRAG
Term coined in 1930s
Smallest, densest stars
Result from a supernova
Pulsar is one type
NEUTRON STAR
Discovered in 1967, termed “LGM-1” (“little green men”) due to its bizarre signal
Actually a rapidly spinning neutron star
PULSAR
Discovered in the 1960s
Black hole’s accretion disc spins, friction emits radio waves
Thousands of times brighter than a galaxy
“Quasi-stellar radio source”
QUASAR
Comet discovered by Carolyn, Eugene, & David
Collided with Jupiter in 1994
SHOEMAKER-LEVY 9
Comet discovered by Lubos in 1973
Expected to be “comet of the century” but disappointed all
Studied from Skylab
Won’t return for 75,000 years
KOHOUTEK
Named for its amateur discoverers Alan & Thomas in 1995
Seen most clearly in 1997, with 3 tails
Will return in 2000 years
Members of Heaven’s Gate thought it was aliens
HALE-BOPP
American aviator
First round-world solo flight, 1933
Died in a takeoff crash in Alaska with humorist Will Rogers, 1935
WILEY POST
Director of WASPs (Women Air Force Service Pilots) 1943-44
1st woman to exceed Mach 1, in 1953
JACQUELINE COCHRAN
1st person to successfully use machine gun between propeller blades, 1915
Namesake of Paris’ tennis stadium which hosts the French Open
ROLAND GARROS
Scorpio’s brightest star
Aka α-Scorpii
Red supergiant
“Rival of the war god”
ANTARES
Mythological name for an asteroid between Mercury and the Sun as well as (ironically) the furthest observed star from our sun
ICARUS
Aka α-Carinae
2nd brightest night sky star
Yellow-white giant
CANOPUS
Brightest star in Taurus
Red giant
Eye that follows the Pleiades
ALDEBARAN
“Little fox” constellation
Last alphabetically of the 88
VULPECULA
“Ox-driver” constellation
Brightest star is Arcturus
Also includes Quadrantid meteors & 3 binary stars
BOÖTES
Brightest star in Bootes
Red giant
4th brightest star in the night sky
Called “Bear guard”, son of Callisto, because it follows Ursa Major
Big dipper handle “arcs to…” it
ARCTURUS
Brightest star in Cygnus
From Arabic for “tail”
DENEB
“The Swan” constellation
Includes the Northern Cross
Also includes the Veil Nebula and the CX-1 system, which has a blue supergiant and a black hole (discovered in 1964)
CYGNUS
Soviet cosmonaut
Flew in Sputnik 2 in 1957
1st animal in orbit
LAIKA
Red dwarf star
Closest to our sun outside of alpha Centauri
BARNARD’S STAR
Orbit with a period matching Earth’s rotation (1 orbit a day)
GEOSYNCHRONOUS ORBIT
Geosynchronous orbit that remains in a fixed position over the equator
GEOSTATIONARY ORBIT
Unit equal to about 3.26 lightyears
PARSEC
(PARALLAX SECOND)
symbol: pc
Apparent displacement after moving your point of view
e.g. 2 measurements of a star, 6 months apart
PARALLAX
Lowest layer of atmosphere
Where most weather occurs
Where Jetstream is located
Goes up to about 6-10 miles
TROPOSPHERE
Dry, cold wind of France
Blows through the Rhone Valley to the Mediterranean
MISTRAL
Weather event where an upper layer is warmer
Temperatures rise as you go higher, which is unusual
This traps pollution near the ground
(THERMAL) INVERSION LAYER
Protective UV barrier around Earth
In the Stratosphere
Damaged by CFCs
Has an annual hole discovered in the 1980s
OZONE LAYER
Outermost layer of atmosphere
EXOSPHERE
“Warm” second-outermost layer of atmosphere
Where the Karman line (100km up) defines the beginning of “space”
Where the Aurorae occur
THERMOSPHERE
“Middle” layer of atmosphere
Where meteors start burning up
Starts about 30 miles up
MESOSPHERE
Second lowest layer of atmosphere
Where jets cruise
Contains Ozone Layer
Starts about 6-10 miles up
Also a Vegas hotel
STRATOSPHERE
Portion of the upper troposphere
Flows west to east
Can be “polar” or “subtropical”
Discovered by WWII pilots
JETSTREAM
Dry, dusty Sahara wind
Blows North across Mediterranean to Europe
Also a VW model & a Noel Coward play
SIROCCO
Atmospheric occurrence
Named for patron saint of sailors, St. Erasmus
Corona discharge around tall objects like trees or ship masts
ST. ELMO’S FIRE
4-letter term meaning “sheltered from” or “away from the wind”
ALEE
Roman mathematician, geographer, & astronomer (100-170 CE)
Lived in Alexandria
Wrote “Almagest”, which posited a geocentric universe
Established 47 of our modern 88 constellations
CLAUDIUS PTOLEMY
Unseen mass
Existence is inferred by gravitational effect
Thought to be ~85% of all matter
DARK MATTER
Coined in 1998 to refer to a “repulsive force” making the universe expand faster
DARK ENERGY
Discovered 1801
Only dwarf planet located in the asteroid belt
Dwarf planet of diameter ~600 miles
Approached by craft Dawn in 2015
~25% ice by mass
CERES
Pluto’s biggest moon (~half its size)
Discovered 1978
CHARON
British-American jump jet capable of V/STOL
Also the name of a hawk & a dog breed
HARRIER
WWII B-17 Flying Fortress bomber
Named for Captain Robert K. Morgan’s Tennessee girlfriend
Subject of a 1944 documentary & a 1990 film
MEMPHIS BELLE
Outermost of 8 planets
165-year orbit
Discovered 1846 due to aberrations in Uranus’ orbit
Too faint for the naked eye
Voyager 2 flyby in 1989
NEPTUNE
Ice giant
Smallest and densest of giants, 3rd most massive planet
Windiest planet
Has a sporadic “Great Dark Spot” anticyclone
NEPTUNE
At least 13 satellites including Triton (largest, retrograde), Proteus, Nereid, Naiad, Galatea, & Hippocamp
NEPTUNE
American astronomer (1855-1916)
Founded eponymous observatory in Flagstaff, AZ
Argued for existence of “canals” on Mars & “Spokes” on Venus - possibly just his own eye veins in the telescope
Predicted a “9th planet” but died before Pluto’s discovery
Member of a well-known Boston family
PERCIVAL LOWELL
Constellation
Contains a “W” of 5 stars
Mother of Andromeda
Tycho Brahe observed a supernova within it, 1572
CASSIOPEIA
Line on a weather map
Connects points of equal temperature
ISOTHERM(IC)
Line on a weather map
Connects points of equal pressure
ISOBAR(IC)
Warm & wet Hawai’ian winds indicative of a cyclone
KONA
Owned & funded by NASA
Managed by CalTech
Aerospace research since 1930s
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
(JPL)
WWII Boeing bombers
Named for belief it wouldn’t need fighters
Examples include the Memphis Belle
B-17 “FLYING FORTRESS”
1950s bomber
Boeing’s longest serving bomber
Namesake of a band
B-52 “STRATO FORTRESS”
Greek letter usually designating 2nd-brightest star in a constellation
BETA
