SPACE EXPLORATION

For eons Man had been awed and envious of the ability of Birds and Insects to fly. Our ancestors despite the fact that nature did not endowed them with the necessary tools to achieve flight like some animals, desperately began the quest to conquer space by imitating various modes of artificial wings. Several unsuccessful attempts  by various peoples from different cultures ended, in most cases, tragically. Relentlessly, the pursuit of this dream continues and refuse to die for centuries. But why? Simply because Man is aware that nature (God) had designed his brain to achieve whatever he really wants to achieve and the quest goes on. God in the Quran declares

Q55:33" O Ye assembly of Jinns and Men! If it be that you can pass beyond the zones of the Heavens and Earth, pass ye! Not without authority shall ye be able to pass" 

Abbas Ibn Firnas, the first person recorded to have achieved flight, was a very creative engineer and inventor who successfully constructed the first successful flying machine in the 9th Century. His flying machine was a controlled one and he also demonstrated its flight, many centuries before designs of Leonardo Da Vinci. Nine centuries after the Quranic declaration, the great Italian thinker, Leonardo Da Vinci, made some rudimentary sketches of heavier-than-air machine which for the first time Man departed from the imitation formula to conquer air. The giant stride of Leonardo was in the cooler for another 4 centuries before the Wilbur brothers made the first successful flight in 1903.

The ability of man to create machines that explore and conquer space was not as a result of his sheer ingenuity alone. The external forces that determine and made possible flight operations are the laws that Guide flying machines, namely the four forces of Aerodynamics: Thrust, Drag, Weight and lift which are what God in the above verse called his authority. It is only when balance of the four is achieved that aircraft can fly and of them none is achieved solely by engine performance. God knowing that Man will one day conquer space he use the term "Shall" but Man "must" also be humble enough to now that it is only through God's authority that he can conquer space. Among the authority God is referring here are

i. Gravity - The longitudinal stability of aircraft's depends on the position of its center of gravity which avoids it's pitching up or down.

ii. Pressure: - The barometric pressure in relations to sea level and in relation to the airfield determines the movement and landings of aircrafts.

iii. Winds: - The direction of the winds also determines the takes off and landings of the aircraft because they always take off or landed against the wind. It also affected the Horizontal movements of aircrafts.

iv. Temperature:- It affects air operations because it determines the density of the air. The lighter the air the more difficult the lift and the heavier the air the easier the lift.

v. Clouds: - They affect me routes taken by aircrafts.

vi. Visibity- Determines what sort of instrument an aircraft use in flight, the visual or instrumental and is affected by the particles in the air e.g. Mist, Fog, water vapor, smoke, sand etc.

vii. Altitude- by using the altimeter pilots get the position of his height in the air, which depends on the pressure.

viii. Longitude & Lattitude: - The lines running north to south and east to west on the earth which determine direction and time difference on the points on the earth.

ix. Degrees- The earth is divided into 360 degrees by which time difference on the earth surface is calculated.

x. Magnetic North- This guided the movement of aircraft in space because the magnetic field of the earth concentrated at the poles help the compass to always point North.

xi. Co-ordinates- they are unique points of intersection of latitude and longitudes at every point of the earth. Every city on earth has its own unique combination

xii. Frequency- Air operations cannot be possible without radio and radar which are based on the frequency. The basic instruments that guide and control aircrafts like, instrument landing system (ELS), Non directional beam (NDB), Distance measuring equipment (DME) Automatic Direction Finder (ADF), Radio telephone, wireless baker beacon etc. are all functional in frequencies and bands

All of the above twelve are inevitable in flight operations and are all products of nature, made and controlled by God. Even the aircraft engine that was made by Man will be absolutely useless without God created air. The basic Aircraft engine functions like this: as the engine is running, powerful propellers sucks in air rapidly, once inside the air is compressed and fuel sprayed on it. The air will burn and expands as it is exhausted. This is basically how aircraft engine functioned.

From the dream to achieve flight, with the availability of heavier-than-air machines, Man's ambition graduated to exploration. In the exploration arena too, several unsuccessful attempts were made but in 1961 this dream began to materialize as the first human went to space and the Apollo series land man on the moon. This giant leap for mankind (as Neil Armstrong said when his feet touched the moon surface) became the last so far, even though robotic explorers had traveled where Human's could go yet. They have visited nooks and corners of our solar system, in fact inter-galactic exploration is now on their menu. The robotic machines were designed to last a decade or more and can withstand such hazards as radiation belt surrounding Jupiter, particles orbiting the rings of Saturn, extreme temperatures not experienced within the vicinity of earth etc.

The most ambitious space exploration was launched within days of each other between 20th August 1977 and 5th September 1979 (Voyager 1 and 11). Voyager 1 reaches Jupiter on the 5th of March 1979 after travelling 778 Million Kilometres in 18 months of Non-Stop high speed. By 12th November 1980 it flew past Saturn and by the end of the last Millennium its signal was lost after traveling for about 12 Billion Milometers. From the short stride of a few Kilometres achieved by the Wilbur brothers at the beginning of the last millennium, less than a hundred years later man-made machines had traverse Billions of kilometres of space. Billions of Dollars are poured into space research to discover better materials that can withstand the scorge of space, achieve higher speeds and use less energy. The above verse says 

"If it be ye can pass beyond the zones of the heavens and EARTH. pass ye"

Therefore future exploration, according to this verse, will not be limited to space alone but deep within the bowels of the earth.

Well! go ahead Mankind, sky is not the limit but ..........beyond.