Human presence in space

The United States has been using the term "human presence" to identify one of the long-term goals of its space program and its international cooperation.

[6] Human presence in outer space began with the first launches of artificial object in the mid 20th century, and has increased to the point where Earth is orbited by a vast number of artificial objects and the far reaches of the Solar System have been visited and explored by a range of space probes.

First a realized project of the Soviet Union and followed in competition by the United States, human presence in space is now an increasingly international and commercial field.

Nuclear explosions, especially high-altitude ones have since at times, starting with 1958, just a year after the first satellite Sputnik was launched, introduced strong and broad radiation from humans into space, producing electromagnetic pulses and orbital radiation belts, adding to the explosion's destructive potential on ground and in orbit.

Having reached considerable amounts around Earth, policies have been put into place to prevent space debris and hazards, such as international regulation to prevent nuclear hazards in Earth's orbit and the Registration Convention as part of space traffic management.

Human presence in space has been strongly based on the many robotic spacecraft, particularly as the many artificial satellites in orbit around Earth.

Followed by a rich number of robotic space probes achieving human presence and exploration throughout the Solar system for the first time.

[34] The 1958 Vanguard 1 is the fourth artificial satellite and the oldest spacecraft still in space and orbit around Earth, though inactive.

Prior to crewed spaceflight non-human animals had been subjects of space research, specifically bioastronautics and astrobiology, being exposed to ever higher testflights.

In 2019 Chang'e 4 landed fruit flies on the Moon, the first extraterrestrial stay of non-human animals.

[40] Visits of organisms to extraterrestrial bodies have been a significant issue of planetary protection, as with the crash of tardigrades on the Moon in 2019.

While direct human presence in open space, by exiting a spacecraft in a spacesuit, a so-called extravehicular activity, has been achieved since the first person to do so, Alexei Leonov, in 1965.

Consecutive direct human presence in space has been achieved since the Salyut successor Mir starting with 1987.

This was continued until the operational transition from the Mir to the ISS, giving rise with its first occupation to an uninterrupted direct human presence in space since 2000.

First simple interplanetary infrastructures have been created by space probes particularly when employing a system which combines a lander and a relaying orbiter.

The planned Artemis program includes the Lunar Gateway a future space station around the Moon as a multimission waystation.

Apollo 15 Mission Commander David Scott left for example a Bible on their Lunar Roving Vehicle during an extravehicular activity on the Moon.

Some interplanetary missions, particularly the Ulysses solar polar probe and considerably Voyager 1 and 2, as well as others like Pioneer 10 and 11, have entered trajectories taking them out of the ecliptic plane.

Space probes have been establishing and mediating human presence interplanetarily since their first visits to Venus.

Beside having reached some planetary-mass objects (that is planets, dwarf planets or the largest, so-called planetary-mass moons), humans have also reached, landed and in some cases even returned robotic probes from some small Solar System bodies, like asteroids and comets, with a range of space probes.

The latter being the closest to reach the Sun, breaking speed records with its very low solar altitudes at perihelion apsis.

Future direct human presence beyond Earth's orbit is possibly going to be re-introduced if current plans for crewed research stations to be established on Mars and on the Moon are continued to be developed.

Human presence in the outer Solar System has been established by the first visit to Jupiter in 1973 by Pioneer 10.

The Saturn moon Titan, with its special lunar atmosphere, has so far been the only body in the outer Solar System to be landed on by the Cassini–Huygens lander Huygens in 2005.

Several probes have reached Solar escape velocity, with Voyager 1 being the first to cross after 36 years of flight the heliopause and enter interstellar space on August 25, 2012, at distance of 121 AU from the Sun.

Mundane needs such as for air, pressure, temperature and light have to be accommodated completely by life support systems.

Social sciences have been studying such works of people from pre-history to the contemporary with the fields of archaeoastronomy to cultural astronomy.

The location of human presence has been studied throughout history by astronomy and was significant in order to relate to the heavens, that is to outer space and its bodies.

[68][69] Considerations about the ecological integrity[70] and independence of celestial bodies, counter exploitive understandings of space as dead, particularly in the sense of terra nullius, have raised issues such as rights of nature.

Since human activity and presence in space has been producing spin-off benefits, other than for the above purposes, such as Earth observation and communication satellites for civilian use, international cooperation to advance such benefits of human presence in space grew with time.

A computer-generated image mapping the prevalence of artificial satellites and space debris around Earth in geosynchronous and low Earth orbit
All active Solar System space probes in 2024 (and a list of upcoming ones)
333 seconds-exposure image of the night sky containing 19 or more streaks due to Starlink satellite's satellite flare light pollution
Objects in Earth orbit including fragmentation debris. November 2020 NASA:ODPO
Objects in Earth orbit including fragmentation debris. November 2020 NASA:ODPO
Remains of human activity, Apollo 17's Lunar Surface Experiments Package
Laika was sent into space in 1957, without plans for survival on return, becoming the first animal (including humans) to reach orbit. [ 36 ] Here in her flight harness on a Romanian stamp from 1959.
International Space Station crewmember Tracy Caldwell Dyson views the Earth, 2010.
STS-131 and Expedition 23 crew members gather for a group portrait of 13 in 2010, which set the record of four women at the same time in space. [ 49 ]
Fallen Astronaut sculpture by Paul Van Hoeydonck, placed on the Moon by David Scott of Apollo 15
Concept art of the planned Lunar Gateway , serving as a communication hub, science laboratory, short-term habitation for crewed missions and holding area for rovers in Lunar orbit [ 56 ]
The updated Family Portrait collage of the most recent pictures of the Solar System taken by Voyager 1 (12 February 2020)
Expedition 43 crew celebrate a birthday in Zvezda the ISS service module, 2015.
Kalpana Chawla (foreground), the first Indian woman in space, and Laurel Clark on STS-107 before the crew's fatal return flight, 2003
Overview of key space sustainability issues under consideration
The Nebra sky disc ( c. 1800–1600 BCE ), one of the oldest astronomical artifacts, displaying the Sun, possibly the Pleiades and the Moon as a crescent, and gold strips on the side of the disc marking the summer and winter solstices, [ 63 ] [ 64 ] and the top representing the horizon [ 65 ] and north
Earth and Moon from Mars, imaged by Mars Global Surveyor on May 8, 2003, 13:00 UTC . South America is visible.
Earth observation , like with this famous image of Earth called Blue Marble , has been one of the most basic uses of outer space, having enabled a critical awareness of the global dimension of humanity's impact on Earth.