Planets, People, and Satellites Flashcards
a deep dive on specific satellites and the climates of planets
What year did a man first step foot on the moon?
1969
What is the earth’s atmosphere mostly made of?
78% Nitrogen and 21% Oxygen
How many years of Day and Night does Uranus have?
42 years of day and 42 years of night?
Why does Uranus have ___ years of day and ___ years of night?
Because Uranus is tilted 60° on its axis
What does Newton’s third law of motion state?
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction
What term is defined as the amount of push used to get a rocket traveling upwards?
Thrust
Airspeed is commonly described in what unit of measurement?
Knots
What is the name of the scale that presents the five categories of hurricanes?
Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Damage Potential Scale
What senses changes in air pressure and gives the pilot a rate of climb?
Vertical Velocity Indicator (VVI)
What percentage of all of the atmosphere’s air is located below 18,000 feet above sea level?
50%
What propellants were used in the first liquid-propellant rocket?
Liquid Oxygen and Gasoline
Who was the world’s first man to walk on the Moon?
Neil Armstrong
The longest spacewalk occurred in 2001 with astronauts Susan Helms and Jim Voss. About how many hours did their spacewalk last?
9 hours
Which of the following would NOT happen if an unprotected human were exposed to the “vacuum” of space?
The skin and body will shrivel up
Which of the following gives pictures of the Earth’s surface, pictures of clouds and provides information that helps with weather forecasting?
Geostationary Operational Environmental (GOES)
Which of the following is true of the International Space Station (ISS)?
All the answers are correct
Who launched the world’s first liquid-propellant rocket?
Robert Goddard
What term simply refers to a chamber enclosing a gas under pressure?
A rocket
In 1232 AD, the Chinese attached gunpowder-filled tubes to arrows and used these arrows of flying fire as weapons against whom?
The Mongols
In what year was the Ansari X-Prize awarded?
2004
What is the dominant force affecting the motion of a satellite in an Earth orbit?
The Earths Gravity
What is the dominant force affecting the motion of a satellite in an Earth orbit?
Radiation, charged particles, and solar flares
What was the name of America’s first manned spaceflight program?
Mercury
How can Newton’s second law of motion be written correctly as an equation?
Force = Mass x Acceleration (F= MA)
What does NASA stand for?
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
What kind of fuel does a star burn in its core when it is in the main sequence phase of its life?
Hydrogen
Which planet is the windiest planet?
Neptune
What term is defined as a grouping of stars named after mythical figures and animals?
Constellation
“Satellites as a system” refers to which of the following?
All of the above
What type of star is a pulsating star that flashes electromagnetic emissions in a set pattern?
Pulsar
What country launched the world’s first artificial satellite in 1957?
Soviet Union (Russia)
After World War II, who headed up the US rocket program?
Werner Von Braun
Larger launch vehicles were needed for the Apollo program. As a result, what series of launch vehicles were created?
Saturn V
What part of the rocket is considered the “brain”?
The guidance system
What is the first and oldest US satellite series?
Explorer
One knot is equivalent to how many miles per hour?
1.151 mph
How does the Moon’s diameter compare to the Earth’s diameter?
its about 1/4 its size
Finding out if a human could survive space travel was part of the mission for which US manned spaceflight program?
Mercury
What is the name of the tallest mountain in our solar system?
Olympus Mons
Which of the following terms indicates space that is located between the Earth and Moon?
Cislunar Space
What color are the coolest stars in terms of surface temperature?
Red
What color are the hottest stars in terms of surface temperature?
blue
What is used to set the heading indicator in the airplane panel?
A precision compass usually mounted above the instrument panel
The four cycles of a four cycle engine are intake, _______, ignition/power, and exhaust.
Compression
Changes can be made, if necessary, to an unmanned rocket’s trajectory provided that the guidance system includes a radio link between the rocket’s guidance system and what/who?
Its mission controllers
What is most commonly used to control the temperature of a satellite?
Insulation and heaters
The lowest point an orbiting object reaches is the definition for which of the following words?
Perigree
What is one way stars differ from planets and moons?
They do not have their own light
What rocket was developed solely to send humans to the Moon?
Saturn V
What is the name of the first US space station?
Skylab
Thunderstorms, tornadoes, and hurricanes can all be associated with what type of clouds?
Cumulonimbus clouds
Which of the following did Guiseppe Piazi first discover in 1801?
Ceres, an asteriod
When an engine starts moving, what pulls air into the engine?
Compression
Saturn has a ring system that extends about how far from the planet itself?
250,000 miles
The average pressure drop for every 1000 feet of altitude gain is _____.
1 inch
What causes the Earth to experience seasons?
The tilt of the earths axis
Moving an airplane’s elevator up or down creates/affects which of the following movements?
Pitch
Which of the following is not an example of a UAV?
White Knight
What is the Schweizer TG-4A?
A basic training Sailplane
Which of the following best describes our Sun?
Medium sized and expected to live for billions of years
What was the name of the rocket-powered car that set the land speed record of 622.407 miles per hour on October 28, 1970?
Blue Flame
What records the difference between still air and air that is being rammed into the system?
Airspeed Indicator
Which of the following terms refers to the distance from one solar system to another?
Interstellar Space
Which of the following shows the layers of the atmosphere in the correct order starting from the surface of the Earth and extending toward the outer layer of the atmosphere?
Troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere.
In 1958, who became responsible for research and development in the area of military aerospace activities?
Department of Defense (DoD)
Which of the following best describes the shape of an airfoil?
Tear-drop
What is a star?
a large body of burning hot gases
Which of the following used to be considered our ninth planet but was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006?
Pluto
After World War II, Wernher von Braun and 120 of his scientists signed contracts to work with which branch of the US military?
Air Force
Who developed the heliocentric theory?
Copernicus
Who was the first female in space?
Valentina Tershkova
What are the most common kinds of stars in the Universe?
Red Dwarf Stars
Who was the first American woman in space?
Sally Ride
What term is described as a giant dirty snowball composed of frozen gases, water, dust, and icy lumps that sheds itself as it moves, leaving a long tail?
Comet
The idea of launching rockets through tubes became the forerunner for which of the following?
Bazooka
Which major rocket system consists of everything directly associated with propelling the rocket?
Propulsion
A hot air balloon operates on which of the following principles?
Buoyancy
What is the most prominent Gas on Jupiter?
Hydrogen
Which astronomer first used the term “satellites” to describe the moons of Jupiter that he could see?
Kepler
The Gemini IV mission was the first American mission in which a spacewalk occurred. Who was the astronaut who performed this spacewalk during the Gemini IV mission in 1965?
Ed White
About how many Jupiters could fit inside the Sun?
1,000
Which control surface creates/affects the yaw motion of an airplane?
rudder
Who was the first private pilot to earn NASA’s highly-coveted astronaut wings?
Mike Melville
What kind of star has the longest life?
a cooler low mass star
Which country launched the first space station
Russia
What was the name of the first space station?
Salyut 1
Which of the following is NOT true regarding air that is heated?
The density of warm air is greater than the density of cooler air. (ie. warm air rises)
What reusable launch system was used after the Skylab missions?
Space Transportation System
Which planet could float in water if there were a glass big enough to hold it?
Saturn
What is one problem of operating an engine using a fuel mixture that is too lean?
The engine runs too hot
Which of the following are short-lived, high energy discharges that are potentially dangerous?
Solar flares
Which of the following laws is part of Kepler’s laws?
The orbit of each planet is an ellipse with the Sun at the focus.
Which of the following is NOT true regarding microbursts?
Microbursts usually occur gradually, thus allowing a pilot time to react. (ie. the pilot does not have much time to react)
Most airplanes are equipped with a __________ volt electrical system and power is supplied by an engine-driven alternator.
14-28 Volt
Who was the US President in the 1960s that announced the objective of putting a man on the Moon by the end of the decade?
John F. Kennedy
Which space probes were the first to take pictures of the Moon in preparation to land men on the moon?
Luna 9
How does an increase in the angle of attack (that would not result in a stall) affect lift?
An increase in the angle of attack increases lift.
Who is known as the Father of the Soviet Space Program?
Sergei Korolev
Who was the world’s first person to “walk in space” (perform and EVA)?
Alexei Leonov
In France, whose idea of launching rockets through tubes became the forerunner of the bazooka?
Jean Froissart
What rocket did Germany develop and use against London during World War II?
V-2
Which kind of star might result in becoming a black hole?
A very hot high mass star
How long does it take for Neptune to complete an orbit?
165 years
What does COMSAT mean?
Communications Satellite
Which spacecraft below is becoming America’s military space plane that can be used for space-based surveillance and reconnaissance?
X-37
What is the approximate temperature of outer space?
near absolute zero
When a fluid, like air, is accelerated, what happens to the pressure?
the pressure goes down
How many manned flights were there in the Gemini Program?
10
What two planets are so similar that they are called the twin planets?
Neptune and Uranus
Which way does a jet stream travel?
west to east
The highest point an orbiting object reaches is the definition for which of the following words?
Apogee
