106 учебный взвод
УЮИ МВД РФ
On
October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union placed the Earth’s first artificial satellite
in orbit, an event that paved the way to the space race which to date has
reached an unprecedented scale. At its initial stage that proceeded in the era
of the “cold” war, the driving forces of this marathon race were political and
military. The prestige and security of the nation (in a broad sense of the
terms) were the principal considerations that drove the leaders in space
research and development to spend money generously and without hesitation. By
the mid 1960s the intensity of launches reached a record figure. For example,
in 1966 foreign countries launched 101 spacecraft. The transition from
sporadically launched separate spacecraft to the spaced-based permanently operating
systems occurred very quickly and in an avalanche fashion.
The
decline in intensity of spacecraft launches in the early 1970s is explained by
the fact that the baseline space systems (reconnaissance and surveillance,
communications, meteorology, missile assault warning) had been by that time
deployed and began to be used as standard systems on a permanent basis, receiving
evolutionary improvements. [1]. The reduction in numbers of spacecraft put in
orbit was also due to achievements in science and technology, which
considerably extended their operating service life. The activity in space
exploration never flagged for a day. New countries kept joining the space
research effort which trend was particularly pronounced in the most promising
field of space exploration, the satellite communications. Nowadays, all the
world’s leading powers and many developing nations are somehow or other
involved in space research. It should be noted however that the involvement
varies greatly from the use of separate communications channels to a full-scale
and comprehensive use of space facilities for fulfilling a wide range of
civilian and military tasks. Interestingly, the individual tasks (e.g.
communications) are tackled by quite a number of countries (up to 170-180) whereas
versatile space exploration that covers military, civilian, economic,
scientific, social and other aspects of human life are the affordable domain of
just a handful of states. Nineteen countries have production capacities and
scientific potential enabling them to develop and produce their own spacecraft.
It
should be noted however that most of them are capable of creating only small
spacecraft for experimental use. For instance, out of 23 countries having space
communication facilities, 17 use spacecraft developed by foreign companies.
Most of those countries use their space equipment to tackle civilian tasks.
Many of them have ways and means of using their space facilities to satisfy
their defense related needs. This is true in particular of the data obtained
from spacecraft employed to research the Earth’s natural resources. Scores of
countries have now recourse to such information and the level of their
information support keeps growing. Space communication facilities and
meteorological observation systems are also easily available to scores of
countries and can be put to military uses. [2]. However, as noted above, it is
only the USA, France, China, Japan and India that have a developed
infrastructure enabling them to tackle the complex tasks of exploration and
utilization of space. Therefore, any talk about the wide use of space both in
practical and potential terms makes sense only with reference to those
countries. In addition, Great Britain and Germany look to the military uses of
space. Israel, too, which is now in the possession of homemade orbital
injection facilities and spacecraft, can be nominally placed among such
countries. The study of the processes that are underway in different countries
engaged in such a new effort as space research and development revealed certain
trends and regularities specific to those processes and interesting in terms of
space marketing.
1. The number of states involved in
research and applied programs with the use of space facilities keeps growing.
Many industrialized and industrializing countries strive to become “space
powers” for reasons either of prestige or economy. This urges them to develop
and maintain the level of technologies required by the space market.
2. The independent development of space by
the countries proceeds as a rule gradually, from the low near-earth orbits up
to the higher and then interplanetary ones to the extent permitted by their
space rocket technologies.
3. It is becoming ever more common
practice to join the efforts of countries, organizations and individual firms
for doing major research and implementing applied programs. Such cooperation
assumes the form of international associations and consortiums. The instance of
the European Space Agency (ESA) comprised of 14 countries is in this respect
very telling.
4. The transition from research and
experiments to practical use of the unique capabilities afforded by space for
satisfaction of human demands is the ultimate goal of all nations involved in
space exploration. Under such circumstances it is characteristic of the
industrializing countries to usually deploy applied space facilities, for
example communication equipment designed and manufactured to their orders by
industrialized countries.
5. The practical use of space is becoming
ever more complementary in nature. One the one hand, the civilian space
equipment (including commercial types) is being used on ever growing scale for
military purposes. On the other, military space hardware is receiving ever-wider
acceptance as civil use commodities.
6. At the initial stages of space
exploration and utilization, all space programs in all countries are financed
by national budgets.
7. The commercial use of space and
provision of services in its exploration and utilization on a commercial basis
are continuously expanding. The share of private capital in funding space
exploration is also growing. Nowadays, business in space is becoming more and
more of a private enterprise. Cuts of federal spending on space exploration are
offset by investments in commercial projects, especially in the creation of the
satellite communications network. The space related revenues increase annually
by 20%.
8. The sphere and scale of commercial
services in space are growing. This is especially noticeable in the area of
satellite communications where initially Intelsat system’s services were used
by just a few states that had large land-based stations. As time went by, the
commercial satellite communications system came to serve hundreds and thousands
of private firms, banks, communication and telecasting networks, thousands of
mobile transport means, millions of individual satellite TV and radio
receivers.
9. The steady advancement of personal
satellite communication systems provides for high quality transmission of
voice, high-speed data flow, and multimedia. Also, it enables conferencing,
interactive communication, and access to the Internet.
10. The space commercial infrastructure is
now in the making. Designed to meet the demand for services and materials
manufacture, it is progressing steadily. Most of commercial systems of
satellite communication deployed to date have their own land-based spacecraft
control stations. A variety of commercial launch vehicles have been created. In
production now are commercial multi-mission all-purpose space platforms.[3].
Thus, space exploration as a new type of
economically very promising human activity generates problems similar to those
which mankind faced during the emergence and evolution of various new sciences
and technologies (e.g. aeronautics, radio communication, and others). The
trends peculiar to exploration and utilization of space are in many ways
similar to those encountered in many fields of human research work. The main
difference of space exploration from other activities apparently lies in the
unmatched rate at which countries and their organizations intensify their
efforts in space research and development.
References:
1.
Бонк,
Н. А. Учебник английского языка : [в 2 ч.]. / Н. А. Бонк, Г. А. Котий, Н. А.
Лукьянова. – М. : ДЕКОНТ+ : ГИС, 2012.
2.
Дроздова,
Т. Ю. English grammar : reference & practice : with a
separate key vol. : учеб. пособие для учащихся кл. с углубл. изучением англ.
яз. и студентов неяз. вузов / Т. Ю. Дроздова, А. И. Берестова, В. Г. Маилова. –
Изд. 11-е, испр. – СПб. : Антология, 2012. – 464 с.
3.
Кожарская,
Е. Э. Английский язык для
студентов естественно-научных факультетов = English for sciences : учеб. для
студентов учреждений высш. проф. образования / Е. Э. Кожарская, Ю. А. Даурова ;
под ред. Л. В. Полубиченко. – М. : Академия, 2012. – 175 с.