The population of space: 55 years of movement to the stars
The idea of this small but interesting undertaking came to me immediately when I saw the site howmanypeopleareinspacerightnow.com (literally: how many people-in-space-now-dot-com). In general, there is no particular information on this site except for this number. And when I see a changing number, I definitely need a schedule.
So, under the cut, you can clearly see how people populated space, how various projects and events influenced the space population, how records were set. In addition, there is a graph that shows how many people were in space each day, starting in 1961. One day - one pixel. Yes, this is a very long schedule.
Before starting to look at the graphs below, I suggest that you present the history of our planet from the side and remember that nobody has left its 45,400,000,000 years. Therefore, about 1.66 trillion pixels with a value of 0 can be added to our graphics on the left. And the first two years, when this pattern was interrupted, looked like this:
Of course, any reader can distinguish the flight of the first astronaut on Earth from this graphic. Many people will recognize the August flight of German Titov, which lasted 24 hours and therefore seized two days already. In addition, another bold step by Soviet engineers was immediately struck: the first double flight in history, when two Vostok spacecraft launched from Baikonur with a difference of one day and were in orbit together for three days.
In the next segment, which we consider, is also a lot of interesting:
Here we first see another double flight, but already difficult: on June 16, Valentine Tereshkova was sent into space, who spent three days there and, I must say, did not show the reliability and performance that other women showed later. Nevertheless, she received worldwide fame, and the USSR recorded another championship at its own expense, after which all humans remained on their home planet for more than a year: they were all busy with their work. Namely, the creation of new, more capacious means of leaving the Earth .
In October of the 64th, the Voskhod, re-converted from Vostok, flew. This flight, as we see, set the third record of the population in space, and at the same time became the first when Soviet cosmonauts landed inside the ship, and not ejected using their own parachute. Less than six months later, another historic flight followed: Alexey Leonov came out of the Voskhod-2 spacecraft.
A few days later, the Americans arrived with their Gemini ships, which could accommodate two astronauts. On these ships, the fourth record of the space population was set: on December 16, 1965, NASA worked out docking in orbit, launching two manned spacecraft for this. Despite the fact that they did not have docking mechanisms, they approached each other at a distance of 30 cm and could dock.
And now let us skip the column of Komarov’s tragic flight, which caused a long lull in the USSR space program, and move forward three years ahead:
On this graph you can clearly see the vigorous start of the Apollo program with the first manned flights first in orbit and then landing on the Moon, and so does Soviet astronauts repeat the American record: 4 people in space at the same time. Moreover, in this flight of the two Unions, there was also a docking, only this time the real one. Moreover, the astronauts almost changed the spacecraft in orbit: Soyuz-4 carried one person into space, and returned three of them. "Soyuz-5" - on the contrary.
And in October 1969, a kind of Burj Khalifa flaunts on the graph: this is a new record set during the joint flight of the now three Unions, one of which was to shoot the docking of the other two. True, the docking did not succeed then, but the record - 7 people outside the home planet at the same time - will last more than ten years.
Skip the 1970 year:
On April 19, 1971, the Proton launched the first orbital station in the world, the Salyut-1, and on the 22nd, people flew into it. True, due to problems with the docking station, the station was almost lost, therefore, as we see, the flight did not last long. But the next attempt in June ended with a record of a new type: the flight duration was more than 23 days. True, the names of those astronauts remained forever in history, including for a much sadder reason: when they returned to Earth, they died, presumably due to the incorrect location of the ventilation valve, which opened in space instead of a height of a couple of kilometers, releasing all the air. For Dobrovolsky, Volkov and Patsayev, the cosmos became the last place of residence.
So, since 1971, people began to live in space. In the 73rd year, Americans with the Skylab station arrived in time, significantly expanding the steps on our schedule - first 28 days, then 59, and then 84. And after a few years, all these records were broken several times:
These records are in 96, 139 , 175, and then 185 days — all were delivered by the next-generation orbital station Salyut-6, which worked in orbit for almost 5 years, of which approximately 40% of the time people lived on it. This station was a great technical success, and its platform was used in subsequent Soviet stations, including the Mir station. It is also the basis of the Russian module of the ISS "Star".
And then the schedule becomes quite high:
And this is not surprising, because in April 1981, a new era of manned cosmonautics began, when the Americans made the first flight of their new, most capacious, means of leaving the Earth - Space Shuttle. And in November 1982, the first record was set on "Columbia" - 4 people flew away from this planet at the same time. Then in June of the 83rd, 5 people flew on Challenger at once, and in November at Columbia - 6. And the next Challenger flight coincided with the Soviet expedition to the Salyut-7 station, which, by the way, was the longest at that time - 237 days . As a result, a record of the space population of 14 years ago was broken.
But, as we can see, he lasted only a couple of months, because as early as April 1984, the fifth flight of the Challenger coincided with a visit to the same station: the astronauts brought the Soyuz T-11 ship to it, and after a week they flew away to the Soyuz T -10 ”, which delivered the crew to the station two months earlier. For five days a whole football team lived in space.
And on this graph there is already a trend that will continue further: high, narrow steps every few months. This of course, shuttles, which will become more and more. For example, the peak at the end of August 1984 is the first flight of Discovery.
Let's move forward a few years and consider in more detail, probably, the last segment of our graph:
The most important thing on this graph is that it starts, as you can see, not from scratch anymore. During this period, the space population has not dropped below two years already, because in February 1987 the full-fledged operation of the famous Mir station began. She spent 15 years in orbit and more than 83% of this time was home to extraterrestrial people.
In addition, among the new bizarre forms, we see several high peaks, including a record that holds to this day, for 21 years already - 13 people in space at the same time. All these races of the schedule were caused by the flights of the shuttles, which coincided with the shift change at the Mir station. And this is a whole football team with a coach and a judge. True, there is no one to play with.
The last graph we consider is the average space population by year ( Updated 04/30/2016! ):
On this graph, I will complete a brief historical excursion and try to analyze a little. On the one hand, the general trend, of course, is positive, and it pleases, but on the other hand, there is not much point in measuring it, if only because the numbers are too small. Since 1994, almost 3 people (up to this 2) have almost always lived at the Mir station, however, the average in those years fluctuates around 4.5 (up to 3-3.5) thanks to the space shuttles that were carried into space seven for up to two weeks. This helped add an average of 1.5 people to the space population. Exactly the same effect is observed at the beginning of the two thousandth, when the ISS could accommodate 3 permanent crew members. Unfortunately, almost immediately after this number increased to 6, the shuttles stopped flying, so our schedule did not rise above six people in a year. Besides,
Be that as it may, one thing is obvious: in order to maintain and increase the number of people who have left this planet, habitable stations are needed. In this regard, in the next few years, hope is only for the Chinese station Tyangun-2, which, according to the latest data, is planned to be launched at the end of this year. It will be generally similar to the "Salute-6", and its operation will begin with a 30-day flight of two taikonauts. In the 20s, the Chinese are planning to build a slightly reduced analogue of the “World”, which, I hope, will also affect our schedule.
And in the western world, the only items on the agenda today are inflatable stations Bigelow Aerospace 330, which are planned to be commissioned in the early 2020s, but with this project there are still a lot of unknowns. It is also unclear and what will happen to the ISS after 2024. Perhaps its term will be extended, but Russia, in any case, intends to leave its segment in orbit, and it pleases. In addition, the lunar expeditions have been postponed for the time being a ghostly period “after 2025”, and not long ago even NASA, so targeting Mars, expressed interest in building an international habitable base on the moon. But so far everything indicates that such lunar outposts are a matter of at least the 2030s for both Russia and the West, and for the Chinese.
Of course, some hope for the growth of the space population gives an abundance of new ships being developed now. The very fact of their presence will have to oblige space agencies to somehow think about where to go, especially if the ISS is decommissioned in 2024. And the ships are now being developed, let's say, 4.5. This is the Russian ship "Federation", the American ships "Dragon V2", "Orion" and "Starliner", as well as the Indian manned ship, about which very little is known except that it is planned to launch it around 2021 and according to its characteristics it will resemble ships "Gemini".
So overall, the future looks pretty positive, despite the fact that in the next couple of years the schedule will remain just below 6 people.
Updated 04/30/2016!
And finally, the very samefull schedule of the space population by day.
Picture with a width of 20290 pixels: tossha.com/space/plot_1961_01_01_2016_04_30.png
Some methodological information: The
graph is based on this page: astronaut.ru/register/spaceflights.htm
Here is the data from this graph ( Updated 04/30/2016 ! ): Tossha.com/space/people_in_space.csv
Scale graphics - one day in one pixel. The maximum number of people who were in space during the day is considered. Therefore, for example, on April 12, 1961, there was one person in space, despite the fact that he was there for less than two hours. For the same reason, the flight of German Titov on the schedule takes two days, although it lasted 24 hours: he captured on August 6 and 7. For those days on the chart in which the line goes vertically, you should look at the value at which this line came. On April 12, the line goes up - 1 person. April 13 line goes down - 0 people.
I must say that from this page you can still extract a lot of interesting data for such analytics, and, perhaps, I will do it again when time permits. You can look at the success of individual countries, count astronauts, the duration of their flights, and so on. And in this work I wanted to focus on all of humanity as a whole, not dividing it into red and blue.
So, under the cut, you can clearly see how people populated space, how various projects and events influenced the space population, how records were set. In addition, there is a graph that shows how many people were in space each day, starting in 1961. One day - one pixel. Yes, this is a very long schedule.
Before starting to look at the graphs below, I suggest that you present the history of our planet from the side and remember that nobody has left its 45,400,000,000 years. Therefore, about 1.66 trillion pixels with a value of 0 can be added to our graphics on the left. And the first two years, when this pattern was interrupted, looked like this:
Of course, any reader can distinguish the flight of the first astronaut on Earth from this graphic. Many people will recognize the August flight of German Titov, which lasted 24 hours and therefore seized two days already. In addition, another bold step by Soviet engineers was immediately struck: the first double flight in history, when two Vostok spacecraft launched from Baikonur with a difference of one day and were in orbit together for three days.
In the next segment, which we consider, is also a lot of interesting:
Here we first see another double flight, but already difficult: on June 16, Valentine Tereshkova was sent into space, who spent three days there and, I must say, did not show the reliability and performance that other women showed later. Nevertheless, she received worldwide fame, and the USSR recorded another championship at its own expense, after which all humans remained on their home planet for more than a year: they were all busy with their work. Namely, the creation of new, more capacious means of leaving the Earth .
In October of the 64th, the Voskhod, re-converted from Vostok, flew. This flight, as we see, set the third record of the population in space, and at the same time became the first when Soviet cosmonauts landed inside the ship, and not ejected using their own parachute. Less than six months later, another historic flight followed: Alexey Leonov came out of the Voskhod-2 spacecraft.
A few days later, the Americans arrived with their Gemini ships, which could accommodate two astronauts. On these ships, the fourth record of the space population was set: on December 16, 1965, NASA worked out docking in orbit, launching two manned spacecraft for this. Despite the fact that they did not have docking mechanisms, they approached each other at a distance of 30 cm and could dock.
And now let us skip the column of Komarov’s tragic flight, which caused a long lull in the USSR space program, and move forward three years ahead:
On this graph you can clearly see the vigorous start of the Apollo program with the first manned flights first in orbit and then landing on the Moon, and so does Soviet astronauts repeat the American record: 4 people in space at the same time. Moreover, in this flight of the two Unions, there was also a docking, only this time the real one. Moreover, the astronauts almost changed the spacecraft in orbit: Soyuz-4 carried one person into space, and returned three of them. "Soyuz-5" - on the contrary.
And in October 1969, a kind of Burj Khalifa flaunts on the graph: this is a new record set during the joint flight of the now three Unions, one of which was to shoot the docking of the other two. True, the docking did not succeed then, but the record - 7 people outside the home planet at the same time - will last more than ten years.
Skip the 1970 year:
On April 19, 1971, the Proton launched the first orbital station in the world, the Salyut-1, and on the 22nd, people flew into it. True, due to problems with the docking station, the station was almost lost, therefore, as we see, the flight did not last long. But the next attempt in June ended with a record of a new type: the flight duration was more than 23 days. True, the names of those astronauts remained forever in history, including for a much sadder reason: when they returned to Earth, they died, presumably due to the incorrect location of the ventilation valve, which opened in space instead of a height of a couple of kilometers, releasing all the air. For Dobrovolsky, Volkov and Patsayev, the cosmos became the last place of residence.
So, since 1971, people began to live in space. In the 73rd year, Americans with the Skylab station arrived in time, significantly expanding the steps on our schedule - first 28 days, then 59, and then 84. And after a few years, all these records were broken several times:
These records are in 96, 139 , 175, and then 185 days — all were delivered by the next-generation orbital station Salyut-6, which worked in orbit for almost 5 years, of which approximately 40% of the time people lived on it. This station was a great technical success, and its platform was used in subsequent Soviet stations, including the Mir station. It is also the basis of the Russian module of the ISS "Star".
And then the schedule becomes quite high:
And this is not surprising, because in April 1981, a new era of manned cosmonautics began, when the Americans made the first flight of their new, most capacious, means of leaving the Earth - Space Shuttle. And in November 1982, the first record was set on "Columbia" - 4 people flew away from this planet at the same time. Then in June of the 83rd, 5 people flew on Challenger at once, and in November at Columbia - 6. And the next Challenger flight coincided with the Soviet expedition to the Salyut-7 station, which, by the way, was the longest at that time - 237 days . As a result, a record of the space population of 14 years ago was broken.
But, as we can see, he lasted only a couple of months, because as early as April 1984, the fifth flight of the Challenger coincided with a visit to the same station: the astronauts brought the Soyuz T-11 ship to it, and after a week they flew away to the Soyuz T -10 ”, which delivered the crew to the station two months earlier. For five days a whole football team lived in space.
And on this graph there is already a trend that will continue further: high, narrow steps every few months. This of course, shuttles, which will become more and more. For example, the peak at the end of August 1984 is the first flight of Discovery.
Let's move forward a few years and consider in more detail, probably, the last segment of our graph:
The most important thing on this graph is that it starts, as you can see, not from scratch anymore. During this period, the space population has not dropped below two years already, because in February 1987 the full-fledged operation of the famous Mir station began. She spent 15 years in orbit and more than 83% of this time was home to extraterrestrial people.
In addition, among the new bizarre forms, we see several high peaks, including a record that holds to this day, for 21 years already - 13 people in space at the same time. All these races of the schedule were caused by the flights of the shuttles, which coincided with the shift change at the Mir station. And this is a whole football team with a coach and a judge. True, there is no one to play with.
The last graph we consider is the average space population by year ( Updated 04/30/2016! ):
On this graph, I will complete a brief historical excursion and try to analyze a little. On the one hand, the general trend, of course, is positive, and it pleases, but on the other hand, there is not much point in measuring it, if only because the numbers are too small. Since 1994, almost 3 people (up to this 2) have almost always lived at the Mir station, however, the average in those years fluctuates around 4.5 (up to 3-3.5) thanks to the space shuttles that were carried into space seven for up to two weeks. This helped add an average of 1.5 people to the space population. Exactly the same effect is observed at the beginning of the two thousandth, when the ISS could accommodate 3 permanent crew members. Unfortunately, almost immediately after this number increased to 6, the shuttles stopped flying, so our schedule did not rise above six people in a year. Besides,
Be that as it may, one thing is obvious: in order to maintain and increase the number of people who have left this planet, habitable stations are needed. In this regard, in the next few years, hope is only for the Chinese station Tyangun-2, which, according to the latest data, is planned to be launched at the end of this year. It will be generally similar to the "Salute-6", and its operation will begin with a 30-day flight of two taikonauts. In the 20s, the Chinese are planning to build a slightly reduced analogue of the “World”, which, I hope, will also affect our schedule.
And in the western world, the only items on the agenda today are inflatable stations Bigelow Aerospace 330, which are planned to be commissioned in the early 2020s, but with this project there are still a lot of unknowns. It is also unclear and what will happen to the ISS after 2024. Perhaps its term will be extended, but Russia, in any case, intends to leave its segment in orbit, and it pleases. In addition, the lunar expeditions have been postponed for the time being a ghostly period “after 2025”, and not long ago even NASA, so targeting Mars, expressed interest in building an international habitable base on the moon. But so far everything indicates that such lunar outposts are a matter of at least the 2030s for both Russia and the West, and for the Chinese.
Of course, some hope for the growth of the space population gives an abundance of new ships being developed now. The very fact of their presence will have to oblige space agencies to somehow think about where to go, especially if the ISS is decommissioned in 2024. And the ships are now being developed, let's say, 4.5. This is the Russian ship "Federation", the American ships "Dragon V2", "Orion" and "Starliner", as well as the Indian manned ship, about which very little is known except that it is planned to launch it around 2021 and according to its characteristics it will resemble ships "Gemini".
So overall, the future looks pretty positive, despite the fact that in the next couple of years the schedule will remain just below 6 people.
Updated 04/30/2016!
And finally, the very samefull schedule of the space population by day.
Picture with a width of 20290 pixels: tossha.com/space/plot_1961_01_01_2016_04_30.png
Some methodological information: The
graph is based on this page: astronaut.ru/register/spaceflights.htm
Here is the data from this graph ( Updated 04/30/2016 ! ): Tossha.com/space/people_in_space.csv
Scale graphics - one day in one pixel. The maximum number of people who were in space during the day is considered. Therefore, for example, on April 12, 1961, there was one person in space, despite the fact that he was there for less than two hours. For the same reason, the flight of German Titov on the schedule takes two days, although it lasted 24 hours: he captured on August 6 and 7. For those days on the chart in which the line goes vertically, you should look at the value at which this line came. On April 12, the line goes up - 1 person. April 13 line goes down - 0 people.
I must say that from this page you can still extract a lot of interesting data for such analytics, and, perhaps, I will do it again when time permits. You can look at the success of individual countries, count astronauts, the duration of their flights, and so on. And in this work I wanted to focus on all of humanity as a whole, not dividing it into red and blue.