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Ham The Chimp

Ham the Chimp

Ham, also known as Ham the Chimp and Ham the Astrochimp was the first higher primate launched into outer space by the United States. In December 1960 the 44-month old chimpanzee was trained to do simple tasks in response to electric lights and sounds, with response being timed. On January 31, 1961, Ham was secured in a Project Mercury capsule labeled MR-2 and launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida into outer space. The capsule suffered a partial loss of pressure during the flight, but Ham's space suit prevented him from suffering any harm. During the flight Ham had to push a lever within five seconds of seeing a flashing blue light; as per pre-flight training, failure would result in an electric shock to the soles of his feet. Ham's performance in space was only a fraction of a second slower than on Earth, demonstrating that tasks could be performed in space. Ham's capsule splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean and was recovered by a rescue ship later that day. After the flight Ham lived for 17 years in the National Zoo in Washington D.C., then in a zoo in North Carolina before dying at the age of 27 on January 19, 1983. Ham appeared repeatedly on television, and even on film with Evel Knievel. Ham the Chimp is buried at the International Space Hall of Fame in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Ham's backup, Minnie was the only female chimp trained for the Mercury program. After her role in the Mercury program ended, Minnie became part of an Air Force chimp-breeding program, producing nine offspring and helping raise the offspring of several other members of the chimp colony. She was the last surviving astro-chimp. She died at age 41 on March 14, 1998. Minnie is buried next to Ham at the International Space Hall of Fame in Alamogordo, New Mexico.

See also


- Monkeys in space

External links


- [http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4201/ch10-3.htm NASA Description of mission]
- [http://www.who2.com/hamthechimp.html Ham the Chimp] Category:Animals in space Category:Famous apes Category:1957 births Category:1983 deaths

Outer space

Outer space (also called just space) as a name for a region, refers to the relatively empty parts of the Universe, outside the atmospheres of celestial bodies. The term outer space is used to distinguish it from airspace and terrestrial locations. Although outer space is certainly spacious, it is now known to be far from empty, and filled with a tenuous plasma. As the Earth's atmosphere has no abrupt cut-off, but rather thins gradually with increasing altitude, there is no definite boundary between the atmosphere and space. The Federation Aeronautique Internationale has established the Kármán line at an altitude of 100 km (62 miles) as the working definition for the boundary between atmosphere and space. In the United States, persons who travel above an altitude of 50 miles (80 kilometers) are designated as astronauts. 400,000 feet (75 miles or 120 kilometers) marks the boundary where atmospheric effects become noticeable during re-entry.

Milestones on the way to space


- Sea level - 1 bar of atmospheric pressure
- 4.6 km (15,000 ft) - FAA requires supplemental oxygen for aircraft pilots and passengers
- 5.0 km (16,000 ft) - 0.5 bar of atmospheric pressure
- 5.3 km (17,400 ft) - Half of the Earth's atmosphere is below this altitude
- 8.8 km (29,035 ft) - Summit of Mount Everest, the highest mountain on Earth
- 16 km (52,500 ft) - Pressurized cabin or pressure suit required
- 18 km (59,000 ft) - Boundary between troposphere and stratosphere
- 20 km (65,600 ft) - Water at room temperature boils without a pressurized container (the popular notion that bodily fluids would start to boil at this point is false because the confines of the body generate enough pressure to prevent actual boiling)
- 24 km (78,700 ft) - Regular aircraft pressurization systems no longer function
- 24.7 km - Altitude record for manned balloon flight
- 32 km (105,000 ft) - Turbojets no longer function
- 45 km (148,000 ft) - Ramjets no longer function
- 50 km (164,000 ft) - Boundary between stratosphere and mesosphere
- 80 km (262,000 ft) - Boundary between mesosphere and thermosphere
- 100 km (328,084 ft) - Kármán line, defining the limit of outer space according to the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. Aerodynamic surfaces no longer function due to lack of atmospheric pressure
- 120 km (400,000 ft) - First noticeable atmospheric effects during reentry from orbit
- 200 km - Lowest possible orbit with short-term stability (stable for a few days)
- 350 km - Lowest possible orbit with long-term stability (stable for many years)
- 690 km - Boundary between thermosphere and exosphere

Types of space


- Cislunar space
- Interplanetary space
- Interstellar space
- Intergalactic space

Space does not equal orbit

A common misunderstanding about the boundary to space is that orbit occurs by reaching this altitude. There is a major difference between sub-orbital and orbital spaceflights, however. Achieving orbit requires orbital speed, and this can theoretically occur at any altitude. Atmospheric drag precludes an orbit that is too low. Minimal altitudes for a stable orbit around the Earth begin at around 350 km (220 miles) above mean sea level, so to actually perform an orbital spaceflight, a spacecraft would need to go higher and (more importantly) faster than what would be required for a sub-orbital spaceflight. Reaching orbit requires tremendous speed. A craft has not reached orbit until it is circling Earth so quickly that the upward centrifugal "force" cancels the downward gravitational force on the craft. Having climbed up out of the atmosphere, a craft entering orbit must then turn sideways and continue firing its rockets to reach the necessary speed; for low Earth orbit, the speed is about 7.9 km/s (18,000 mph). Thus, achieving the necessary altitude is only the first step in reaching orbit. The energy required to reach velocity for low earth orbit (32 MJ/kg) is about twenty times the energy to reach the corresponding altitude (10 kJ/km/kg).

See also


- Outer Space Treaty
- Astronaut wings
- space and survival
- space colonization
- space exploration
- space science
- space technology Category:Vacuum Category:Environments th:อวกาศ

United States

:For alternative meanings, see the disambiguation page for US, USA, United States, or American. The United States of America is a federal democratic republic situated primarily in central North America. It comprises 50 states and one federal district, and has several territories. It is also referred to, with varying formality, as the United States, the U.S., the U.S.A., the States, or simply and most commonly, America. The official founding date of the United States is July 4, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress—representing thirteen British colonies—adopted the Declaration of Independence. However, the structure of the government was profoundly changed in 1788, when the states replaced the Articles of Confederation with the United States Constitution. The date on which each of the fifty states adopted the Constitution is typically regarded as the date that state "entered the Union" (became part of the United States). Since the mid-20th century, following World War II, the United States has emerged as a dominant global influence in economic, political, military, scientific, technological, and cultural affairs.

Geography and climate

The United States shares land borders with Canada (to the north) and Mexico (to the south), and territorial water boundaries with Canada, Russia, the Bahamas, and numerous smaller nations. It is otherwise bounded by the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea, in the west; the Arctic Ocean, in the northernmost areas; and the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea, in the eastern and southeastern areas. Forty-eight of the states are in the single region between Canada and Mexico; this group is referred to, with varying precision and formality, as the continental or contiguous United States, sometimes abbreviated CONUS, and as the Lower 48. Alaska, which is not included in the term contiguous United States, is at the northwestern end of North America, separated from the Lower 48 by Canada. The archipelago of Hawaii is in the Pacific Ocean. The capital city, Washington, District of Columbia is a federal district located on land donated by the state of Maryland. (Virginia also donated land, but it was returned in 1847.) The United States also has overseas territories with varying levels of independence and organization. When inland water is included in the total area, only Russia and Canada are larger than the United States; if inland water is excluded, China ranks third and the U.S. ranks fourth. The United States' total area is 3,718,711 square miles (9,631,418 km²), of which land makes up 3,537,438 square miles (9,161,923 km²) and water makes up 181,273 square miles (469,495 km²). The United States' landscape is one of the most varied among those of the world's nations: among its many features are temperate forestland and rolling hills, on the east coast; mangrove, in Florida; the Great Plains, in the center of the country; the Mississippi–Missouri river system; the Great Lakes, four of the five of which are shared with Canada; the Rocky Mountains, west of the Great Plains; deserts and temperate coastal zones, west of the Rocky Mountains; and temperate rain forests, in the Pacific northwest. Alaska's tundra, and the volcanic, tropical islands of Hawaii add to the geographic diversity. Hawaii The climate varies along with the landscape, from tropical in Hawaii and southern Florida to tundra in Alaska and atop some of the highest mountains. Most of the North and East experience a temperate continental climate, with warm summers and cold winters. Most of the South experiences a subtropical humid climate with mild winters and long, hot, humid summers. Rainfall decreases markedly from the humid forests of the Eastern Great Plains to the semi-arid shortgrass prairies on the high plains abutting the Rocky Mountains. Arid deserts, including the Mojave, extend through the lowlands and valleys of the southwest, from westernmost Texas to California and northward throughout much of Nevada. Some parts of California have a Mediterranean climate. Rainforests line the windward mountains of the Pacific Northwest from Oregon to Alaska.

History

American history started with the migration of people from Asia across the Bering land bridge approximately 12,000 years ago following large animals that they hunted into the Americas. These Native Americans left evidence of their presence in petroglyphs, burial mounds, and other artifacts. It is estimated that 2-9 million people lived in the territory now occupied by the U.S. before European contact, and the subsequent introduction of foreign diseases such as small pox that greatly diminished the native populations. Some advanced societies were the Anasazi of the southwest, who inhabited Chaco Canyon, and the Woodland Indians, who built Cahokia, located near present-day St Louis, a city with a population of 40,000 at its peak in AD 1200. Vikings first visited North America around 1000, but did not settle permanently. Following the discovery voyages of Christopher Columbus around 1492, other Europeans began to explore and settle there. During the 1500s and 1600s, the Spanish settled parts of the present-day Southwest and Florida, founding St. Augustine, Florida in 1565 and Santa Fe (in what is now New Mexico) in 1607. The first successful English settlement was at Jamestown, Virginia, also in 1607. Within the next two decades, several Dutch settlements, including New Amsterdam (the predecessor to New York City), were established in what are now the states of New York and New Jersey. In 1637, Sweden established a colony at Fort Christina (in what is now Delaware), but lost the settlement to the Dutch in 1655. This was followed by extensive British settlement of the east coast. The British colonists remained relatively undisturbed by their home country until after the French and Indian War, when France ceded Canada and the Great Lakes region to Britain. Britain then imposed taxes on the 13 colonies, widely regarded by the colonists as unfair because they were denied representation in the British Parliament. Tensions between Britain and the colonists increased, and the thirteen colonies eventually rebelled against British rule. British Parliament, George Washington (1789-1797).]] In 1776, the 13 colonies split from Great Britain and formed the United States, the world's first constitutional and democratic federal republic, after their Declaration of Independence of that year, and the Revolutionary War (1775 to 1783). The original political structure was a confederation in 1777, ratified in 1781 as the Articles of Confederation. After long debate, this was supplanted by the Constitution in 1789, forming a more centralized federal government. Prior to all these was the Albany Congress in 1754, in which a union was first seriously proposed. From early colonial times, there was a shortage of labor, which encouraged unfree labor, particularly indentured servitude and slavery. In the mid-19th century, a major division occurred in the United States over the issue of states' rights and the expansion of slavery. The northern states had become opposed to slavery, while the southern states saw it as necessary for the continued success of southern agriculture and wanted it expanded to the territories. Several federal laws were passed in an attempt to settle the dispute, including the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850. The dispute reached a crisis in 1861, when seven southern states seceded1 from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America, leading to the Civil War. Soon after the war began, four more southern states seceded. During the war, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, mandating the freedom of all slaves in states in rebellion, though full emancipation did not take place until after the end of the war in 1865, the dissolution of the Confederacy, and the Thirteenth Amendment took effect. The Civil War effectively ended the question of a state's right to secede, and is widely accepted as a major turning point after which the federal government became more powerful than state governments. Thirteenth Amendment). The title of the painting, from a 1726 poem by Bishop Berkeley, was a phrase often quoted in the era of Manifest Destiny, expressing a widely held belief that civilization had steadily moved westward throughout history. [http://americanart.si.edu/t2go/1lw/1931.6.1.html (more)] ]] During the 19th century, many new states were added to the original 13 as the nation expanded across the continent. Manifest Destiny was a philosophy that encouraged westward expansion in the United States. As the population of the Eastern states grew and as a steady increase of immigrants entered the country, settlers moved steadily westward across North America. In the process, the U.S. displaced most American Indian nations. This displacement of American Indians continues to be a matter of contention in the U.S. with many tribes attempting to assert their original claims to various lands. In some areas American Indian populations were reduced by foreign diseases contracted through contact with European settlers, and US settlers acquired those emptied lands. In other instances American Indians were removed from their traditional lands by force. Though some would say the U.S. was not a colonial power until the Spanish-American War when it acquired Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines, the dominion exercised over land in North America the United States claimed is essentially colonial. The Philippines became independent in 1946. During this period, the nation also became an industrial power. This continued into the 20th century, which has been termed "the American Century" because of the nation's overriding influence on the world. The US became a center for innovation and technological development; major technologies that America either developed or was greatly involved in improving include the telephone, television, computer, the Internet, nuclear weapons, nuclear power, aviation, and aeronautics. In addition to the Civil War, another major traumatic experience for the nation was the Great Depression (1929 to 1939). The nation has also taken part in several major foreign wars, including World War I and World War II (in both of which the US later joined the Allies). During the Cold War, the US was a major player in the Korean War and Vietnam War, and, along with the Soviet Union, was considered one of the world's two "superpowers". With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US emerged as the world's leading economic and military power. Beginning in the 1990s, the United States became very involved in police actions and peacekeeping, including actions in Kosovo, Haiti, Somalia and Liberia, and the first Persian Gulf War driving Iraq out of Kuwait. After attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, the United States and other allied nations found themselves involved in what has come to be called the "War on Terrorism," which has primarily encompassed military actions in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Government

Iraq of the United States.]]

Republic and suffrage

The United States is an example of a constitutional republic, with a government composed of and operating through a set of limited powers imposed by its design and enumerated in the United States Constitution. Specifically, the nation operates as a presidential democracy. There are three levels of government: federal, state, and local. Officials of each of these levels are either elected by eligible voters via secret ballot or appointed by other elected officials. Americans enjoy almost universal suffrage from the age of 18 regardless of race, sex, or wealth. There are some limits, however: felons are disenfranchised and in some states former felons are likewise. Furthermore, the national representation of territories and the federal district of Washington, DC in Congress is limited: residents of the District of Columbia are subject to federal laws and federal taxes but their only Congressional representative is a non-voting delegate.

Federal government

The federal government is the national government, comprising the Legislative Branch (led by Congress), the Executive Branch (led by the President), and the Judicial Branch (led by the Supreme Court). These three branches were designed to apply checks and balances on each other. The Constitution limits the powers of the federal government to defense, foreign affairs, the issuing and management of currency, the management of trade and relations between the states, and the protection of human rights. In addition to these explicitly stated powers, the federal government—with the assistance of the Supreme Court—has gradually extended these powers into such areas as welfare and education, on the basis of the "necessary and proper" clause of the Constitution.

The Congress

necessary and proper The Congress of the United States is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, comprising the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House of Representatives consists of 435 members, each of whom represents a congressional district and serves for a two-year term. House seats are apportioned among the states by population; in contrast, each state has two Senators, regardless of population. There are a total of 100 senators, who serve six-year terms. The powers of Congress are limited to those enumerated in the Constitution; all other powers are reserved to the states and the people. The Constitution also includes the necessary-and-proper clause, which grants Congress the power to "make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers."

The President

necessary-and-proper clause At the top level of the executive branch is the President of the United States. The President and Vice-President are elected as 'running mates' for four-year terms by the Electoral College, for which each state, as well as the District of Columbia, is allocated a number of seats based on its representation (or ostensible representation, in the case of D. C.) in both houses of Congress (see U.S. Electoral College). The relationship between the President and the Congress reflects that between the English monarchy and parliament at the time of the framing of the United States Constitution. Congress can legislate to constrain the President's executive power, even with respect to his or her command of the armed forces; however, this power is used only very rarely—a notable example was the constraint placed on President Richard Nixon's strategy of bombing Cambodia during the Vietnam War. The President cannot directly propose legislation, and must rely on supporters in Congress to promote his or her legislative agenda. The President's signature is required to turn congressional bills into law; in this respect, the President has the power—only occasionally used—to veto congressional legislation. Congress can override a presidential veto with a two-thirds majority vote in both houses. The ultimate power of Congress over the President is that of impeachment or removal of the elected President through a House vote, a Senate trial, and a Senate vote. The threat of using this power has had major political ramifications in the cases of Presidents Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton. The President makes around 2,000 executive appointments, including members of the Cabinet and ambassadors, which must be approved by the Senate; the President can also issue executive orders and pardons, and has other Constitutional duties, among them the requirement to give a State of the Union address to Congress once a year. Although the President's constitutional role may appear to be constrained, in practice, the office carries enormous prestige that typically eclipses the power of Congress: the Presidency has justifiably been referred to as 'the most powerful office in the world'. The Vice President is first in the line of succession, and is the President of the Senate ex officio, with the ability to cast a tie-breaking vote. The members of the President's Cabinet are responsible for administering the various departments of state, including the Department of Defense, the Justice Department, and the State Department. These departments and department heads have considerable regulatory and political power, and it is they who are responsible for executing federal laws and regulations. George W. Bush is the 43rd President, currently serving his second term.

The Courts

George W. Bush The highest court is the Supreme Court, which consists of nine justices. The court deals with federal and constitutional matters, and can declare legislation made at any level of the government as unconstitutional, nullifying the law and creating precedent for future law and decisions. Below the Supreme Court are the courts of appeals, and below them in turn are the district courts, which are the general trial courts for federal law. Separate from, but not entirely independent of, this federal court system are the individual court systems of each state, each dealing with its own laws and having its own judicial rules and procedures. A case may be appealed from a state court to a federal court only if there is a federal question; the supreme court of each state is the final authority on the interpretation of that state's laws and constitution.

State and local governments

supreme court of each state. Note that Alaska and Hawaii are shown at different scales, and that the Aleutian Islands and the uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are omitted from this map.]] The state governments have the greatest influence over people's daily lives. Each state has its own written constitution and has different laws. There are sometimes great differences in law and procedure between the different states, concerning issues such as property, crime, health, and education. The highest elected official of each state is the Governor. Each state also has an elected legislature (bicameral in every state except Nebraska), whose members represent the different parts of the state. Of note is the New Hampshire legislature, which is the third-largest legislative body in the English-speaking world, and has one representative for every 3,000 people. Each state maintains its own judiciary, with the lowest level typically being county courts, and culminating in each state supreme court, though sometimes named differently. In some states, supreme and lower court justices are elected by the people; in others, they are appointed, as they are in the federal system. The institutions that are responsible for local government are typically town, city, or county boards, making laws that affect their particular area. These laws concern issues such as traffic, the sale of alcohol, and keeping animals. The highest elected official of a town or city is usually the mayor. In New England, towns operate directly democratically, and in some states, such as Rhode Island and Connecticut, counties have little or no power, existing only as geographic distinctions. In other areas, county governments have more power, such as to collect taxes and maintain law enforcement agencies.

Political divisions

With the Declaration of Independence, the thirteen colonies proclaimed themselves to be nation states modeled after the European states of the time. Although considered as sovereigns initially, under the Articles of Confederation of 1781 they entered into a "Perpetual Union" and created a fully sovereign federal state, delegating certain powers to the national Congress, including the right to engage in diplomatic relations and to levy war, while each retaining their individual sovereignty, freedom and independence. But the national government proved too ineffective, so the administrative structure of the government was vastly reorganized with the United States Constitution of 1789. Under this new union, the continued status of the individual states as sovereign nation states fell into dispute in 1861, as several states attempted to secede from the union; in response, then-President Abraham Lincoln claimed that such secession was illegal, and the result was the American Civil War. Since the Union victory in 1865, the independent status of the individual states has not been broached again by any state, and the status of each state within the union has been deemed by mainstream officials and academics to be settled as being subordinate to the union as a whole. In subsequent years, the number of states grew steadily due to western expansion, the purchase of lands by the national government from other nation states, and the subdivision of existing states, resulting in the current total of 50. The states are generally divided into smaller administrative regions, including counties, cities and townships. The United States–Canadian border is the longest undefended political boundary in the world. The U.S. is divided into three distinct sections:
- the "continental United States," also known as "the Lower 48" and more accurately termed the conterminous, coterminous or contiguous United States
- Alaska, which is physically connected only to Canada
- the archipelago of Hawaii, in the central Pacific Ocean. The United States also holds several other territories, districts, and possessions, notably the federal district of the District of Columbia, which is the nation's capital, and several overseas insular areas, the most significant of which are American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands. The Palmyra Atoll is the United States' only incorporated territory; it is unorganized and uninhabited. The United States Navy has held a base at a portion of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 1898. The United States government possesses a lease to this land, which only mutual agreement or United States abandonment of the area can terminate. The present Cuban government of Fidel Castro disputes this arrangement, claiming Cuba was not truly sovereign at the time of the signing. The United States argues this point moot because Cuba apparently ratified the lease post-revolution, and with full sovereignty, when it cashed one rent check in accordance with the disputed treaty.

Foreign relations and military

sovereign] The immense military and economic dominance of the United States has made foreign relations an especially important topic in its politics, with considerable concern about the image of the United States throughout the world. Reactions towards the United States by other nationalities are often strong, ranging from uninhibited admiration and mimicking of all things American to anti-Americanism. US foreign policy has swung about several times over the course of its history between the poles of strict isolationism and imperialism and everywhere in between. Three of the nation's four military branches are administered by the Department of Defense: the Army, the Navy (including the Marine Corps), and the Air Force. The Coast Guard falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime, but is placed under the Department of the Navy in time of war. The combined United States armed forces consist of 1.4 million active duty personnel, along with several hundred thousand each in the Reserves and the National Guard. Military conscription ended in 1973. The United States Armed forces are considered to be the most powerful military (of any sort) on Earth and their force projection capabilities are unrivaled by any other nation. The 2005 defense budget amounted to $401.7 billion, which is an increase of 4% over 2004 and of 35% since 2001. Over 50% of that number is spent in research & development. (For comparison, in 2004 the European Union (considered as the second-largest military force) had a combined total of 1.6 million troops, and a defense budget of €160 billion, with less than 10% of that being spent on R&D.)

Largest cities

The United States has dozens of major cities, including 11 of the 55 global cities of all types — with three "alpha" global cities: New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. The figures expressed below are for populations within city limits. A different ranking is evident when considering U.S. metro area populations, although the top three would be unchanged. Note that some cities not listed (such as Atlanta, Boston, Las Vegas, Miami, Nashville, New Orleans, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.) are still considered important on the basis of other factors and issues, including culture, economics, heritage, and politics. The twenty largest cities, based on the United States Census Bureau's 2004 estimates, are as follows:

Economy

The United States has the largest single-country economy in the world, with a per-capita gross domestic product of $40,100. In this market-oriented economy, private individuals and business firms make most of the decisions, and the federal and state governments buy needed goods and services predominantly in the private marketplace. gross domestic product The largest industry of the U.S. is now service, which employs roughly three quarters of the U.S. work force. The United States has many natural resources, including oil and gas, metals, and such minerals as gold, soda ash, and zinc. In agriculture, the U.S. is a top producer of, among other crops, corn, soy beans, and wheat; the United States is a net exporter of food. The U.S. manufacturing sector produces goods such as, cars, airplanes, steel, and electronics, among many others. Economic activity varies greatly from one part of the country to another, with many industries being largely dependent on a certain city or region; New York City is the center of the American financial, publishing, broadcasting, and advertising industries; Silicon Valley is the country’s primary location for high-technology companies, while Los Angeles is the most important center for film production. The Midwest is known for its reliance on manufacturing and heavy industry, with Detroit, Michigan, serving as the center of the American automotive industry; the Great Plains are known as the "breadbasket" of America for their tremendous agricultural output; the intermountain region serves as a mining hub and natural gas resource; the Pacific Northwest for fish and timber, while Texas is largely associated with the oil industry; the Southeast is a major hub for both medical research and the textiles industry. Several countries continue to link their currency to the dollar or even use it as a currency (such as Ecuador), although this practice has subsided since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system. Many markets are also quoted in dollars, such as those of oil and gold. The dollar is also the predominant reserve currency in the world, and more than half of global reserves are in dollars. The largest trading partner of the United States is Canada (19%), followed by China (12%), Mexico (11%), and Japan (8%). More than 50% of total trade is with these four countries. In 2003, the United States was ranked as the third most visited tourist destination in the world; its 40,400,000 visitors ranked behind France's 75,000,000 and Spain's 52,500,000. Labor unions have existed since the 19th century, and grew large and powerful from the 1930s to the 1950s. See Labor history of the United States. Since 1970 they have shrunk in the private sector and now cover fewer than 8% of the workers. However union membership has grown rapidly in the public sector, especially among teachers, nurses, police, postal workers, and municipal clerks. There have been few strikes in recent years. The United States' imports exceed exports by 80%, leading to an annual trade deficit of $700,000,000,000, or 6% of gross domestic product. It is the largest debtor nation in the world, with total gross foreign debt of over $13,000,000,000,000 (2005 estimate); and it absorbs more than 50% of global savings annually. Since the 1980s, the U.S. has increased the use of neoliberal economic policies that reduce government intervention and reduce the size of the welfare state, backing away from the more interventionist Keynsian economic policies that had been in favor since the Great Depression. As a result, the United States provides fewer government-delivered social welfare services than most industrialized nations, choosing instead to keep its tax burden lower and relying more heavily on the free market and private charities. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have minimum wages higher than the national level ($5.15 per-hour), including the highest, Washington State at $7.35. Twenty-six states are the same as the federal level; two--Ohio and Kansas--are below; and six do not have state laws. America's wealth is relatively highly concentrated. The average C.E.O. earns 500 times the typical amount a worker grosses, this is up from 25 times in the late 1970s. In terms of wealth the top 1% of Americans own 40% of all assets and 50.1% of the country's income goes to the top twenty percent of households. Average wages for the majority of employees have been largely stagnating since the 1970s. America's poverty line defined as a family of four earning less than $19,157 is at 12.7% of the general population. Approximately one out of every five children in the United States grows up below the official poverty line. Among racial groups; African Americans have the lowest median income while Asians had the highest. Regionally, the southern states had the lowest median incomes while the West Coast and New England had the highest. The current Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan remarked that the U.S.’s growing income inequality since the 1970s is, "not the type of thing which a democratic society - a capitalist democratic society - can really accept without addressing."[http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0614/p01s03-usec.html?s=itm] However, Greenspan also noted, "...you can look at the system and say it's got a lot of problems to it, and sure it does. It always has. But you can't get around the fact that this is the most extraordinarily successful economy in history."

Transportation

Alan Greenspan ]] Because the United States is a relatively young nation, most of the development of U.S. cities has taken place since the invention of the automobile. To link its vast territory, the United States built a network of high-capacity, high-speed highways, of which the most important element is the Interstate Highway system, commissioned in the 1950s by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and modeled after the German Autobahn. The United States also has a transcontinental rail system, which is used for moving freight across the lower forty-eight states. Passenger rail service is provided by Amtrak, which serves forty-six of the lower forty-eight states. Many cities in the United States have extensive mass-transit systems. New York City operates one of the world's largest and most heavily used subway systems. The regional rail and bus networks that extend into Long Island, New Jersey, Upstate New York, and Connecticut are among the most heavily used in the world. Air travel is often preferred for destinations over 300 miles (500 kilometers) away. In terms of passengers, seventeen of the world's thirty busiest airports in 2004 were in the U.S., including the world's busiest, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport; in terms of cargo, in the same year, twelve of the world's thirty busiest airports were in the U.S., including the world's busiest, Memphis International Airport. There are several major seaports in the United States; the three busiest are the Port of Los Angeles, California; the Port of Long Beach, California; and the Port of New York and New Jersey. Others include Houston, Texas; Charleston, South Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; Miami, Florida; Portland, Oregon; San Francisco, California; Boston, Massachusetts; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Seattle, Washington; plus, outside the contiguous forty-eight states, Anchorage, Alaska, and Honolulu, Hawaii.

Society

Demographics

Hawaii The mean center of the U.S. population continues to drift farther west and south. The fastest growing region is the western United States followed by the southern portion. According to Census 2000, the states that saw the greatest increases from 1990 were: Nevada (66.3%), Arizona (40%), Colorado (30.6%), Utah (29.6%), Idaho (28.5%), Georgia (26.4%), Florida (23.5%), Texas (22.8%), North Carolina (21.4%), and Washington (21.1%). [http://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/phc-t2/tab03.pdf]

Ethnicity and race

:Main article: Racial demographics of the United States The United States is a very racially diverse country. According to the 2000 census, it has 31 ethnic groups with at least one million members each, and numerous others represented in smaller amounts. The majority of Americans descend from white European immigrants who arrived at the establishment of the first colonies (most after Reconstruction). This majority--69.1% in 2000--decreases each year, and is expected to become a plurality within a few decades. The most frequently stated European ancestries are German (15.2%), Irish (10.8%), English (8.7%), Italian (5.6%) and Scandinavian (3.7%). Many immigrants also hail from Slavic countries such as Poland and Russia. Other significant immigrant populations came from eastern and southern Europe and French Canada. Russia Hispanics from Mexico and South and Central America are the largest minority group in the country, comprising 12.5% of the population (2000 census). People of Mexican descent made up 7.3% of the population in the 2000 census, and this proportion is expected to increase significantly in the coming decades. About 12.3% (2000 census) of the American people are African Americans (Blacks). African Americans are spread throughout the country, but their presence is largest in the South. Asian Americans--including Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders--are a third significant minority (3.7% of the population in 2000). Most Asian Americans are concentrated on the West Coast and Hawaii. The largest groups are immigrants or descendants of emigrants from the Philippines, China, India, Vietnam, South Korea, and Japan. Indigenous peoples in the United States, such as American Indians and Inuit, make up 0.9% of the population (2000 census). About 35% live on Indian reservations.

Religion

Polls estimate that just under 80 percent of Americans are Christians of various denominations. The other 20 percent comprises other religions such as Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism, other various faiths, and those without a specific religion. The United States is noteworthy among developed nations for its relatively high level of religiosity. According to a 2004 Gallup poll, about 44% of Americans attend a religious service at least once a week. However, this rate is not uniform across the country; attendance is more common in the Bible Belt—composed largely of Southern and Midwestern states—than in the Northeast and West Coast. In the Southern states, Baptists are the largest group, followed by Methodists; Roman Catholics are dominant in the Northeast and in large parts of the Midwest due to their being settled by descendants of Catholic immigrants from Europe (such as Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Poland) or other parts of North America (mainly Quebec and Puerto Rico). The rest of the country for the most part has a complex mixture of various Christian groups.

Education

West Coast's home at Monticello and the University of Virginia (library building shown above, and designed by Jefferson), the only collegiate campus on the list. Both sites are located in Charlottesville, Virginia.]] In the United States, education is a state, not federal, responsibility, and the laws and standards vary considerably. However, the federal government, through the Department of Education, is involved with funding of some programs and exerts some influence through its ability to control funding. In most states, all students must attend mandatory schooling starting with kindergarten, which children normally enter at age 5, and following through 12th grade, which is normally completed at age 18

Chimpanzee


Pan troglodytes
Pan paniscus Chimpanzee, often abbreviated to chimp, is the common name for two species in the genus Pan. The better known chimpanzee is Pan troglodytes, the Common Chimpanzee, living in West and Central Africa. Its cousin, the Bonobo or Pygmy Chimpanzee (Pan paniscus), is found in the forests of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The boundary between the two species is formed by the Congo River.

Lifespan

Chimpanzees rarely live past the age of 50 in the wild, but have been known to reach the age of 60 in captivity.

Chimpanzee differences

Anatomical differences between Common and Pygmy Chimpanzees are slight, but in sexual and social behaviour there are marked differences. Common Chimpanzees have an omnivorous diet, a troop hunting culture based on beta males led by a relatively weak alpha, and highly complex social relationships; Bonobos, on the other hand, have a mostly herbivorous diet and an egalitarian, matriarchal, sexually promiscuous culture.

History of human interaction

Although Africans have had contact with chimpanzees for millennia, the first recorded (Western) contact of humans with chimps was made by Europeans scouting Angola at some point during the 1600s. The first use of the name "chimpanzee", however, did not occur until 1738. The name is derived from an Angolan Bantu language term "Tshiluba kivili-chimpenze", which is the local name for the animal and translates loosely as "mockman" or possibly just "ape". The colloquialism "chimp" was most likely coined some time in the late 1870s. Science would eventually take the 'pan' occurring in 'chimpanzee' and attribute it to Pan, a rural ancient Greek god of nature. Biologists would apply Pan as the genus name of the animal. Chimps as well as other apes had also been purported to have existed in ancient times, but did so mainly as myths and legends on the edge of Euro-Arabic societal consciousness, mainly through fragmented and sketchy accounts of European adventurers. Apes are mentioned variously by Aristotle, as well as the Bible. European scientists were bemused when chimpanzees first began arriving on the European continent as a result of these ancient descriptions, which often falsely purported that chimpanzees had horns and hooves. The first of these early trans-continental chimpanzees came from Angola and was presented as a gift to the Prince of Orange in 1640 and was followed by a few of its brethren over the next several years. Scientists who examined these rare specimens were baffled and described these first chimpanzees as "pygmies" of some kind or another, but did manage to note the animals' distinct similarities to humans. The next two decades would see a number of the creatures imported into Europe, mainly acquired by various zoological gardens as entertainment for visitors. Darwin's theory of evolution (published in 1860), as it did in most life science fields, would spur scientific interest in chimpanzees and led to numerous studies of the animals in the wild and captivity. The observers of chimpanzees at the time were mainly interested in the behaviour as it related to that of humans. However, this was not as strictly and benignly scientific as it sounds, with much attention being focused on whether or not the animals had traits that could be considered 'good' and the intelligence of chimpanzees was often significantly exaggerated. At one point there was even a scheme drawn up to domesticate chimpanzees in order to have them work at various menial tasks (i.e. factory work). By the end of the 1800s there was still very little factual scientific information regarding chimpanzees established. The creatures were still very much a mystery to humans. The 20th century would see a new age of scientific research into chimpanzee behaviour, generally free from the human egotism and patronizing attitude that had marred the previous era of studies. The most progressive studies that emerged were spearheaded primarily by Wolfgang Köhler and Robert Yerkes, both of whom were renowned psychologists. Both men and their colleagues established laboratory studies of chimpanzees focused specifically on learning about the intellectual, particularly the problem-solving abilities, of chimpanzees. This typically involved basic, practical tests where laboratory chimpanzees were required to demonstrate problem-solving abilities in order to solve basic tests which required a fairly high intellectual capacity (such as how to solve the problem of reaching an out of reach banana). Notably, Yerkes also made extensive observations of chimpanzees in the wild which also added tremendously to the scientific understanding of chimpanzees and their behaviour. Yerkes studied chimpanzees until World War II, while Köhler concluded five years of study and published his famous Mentality of Apes in 1925 (which is coincidentally when Yerkes began his analyses), eventually concluding that "chimpanzees manifest intelligent behavior of the general kind familiar in human beings... a type of behaviour which counts as specifically human" (1925).

Taxonomic relationships

The genus Pan is now considered to be part of the subfamily Homininae to which humans also belong. Biologists believe that the two species of chimpanzees are the closest living evolutionary relatives to humans. Their common ancestor branched off from its latest common ancestor with us as recently as four to seven million years ago, and they have about 95 to 98 percent of their DNA in common with humans. It has even been proposed that chimpanzees should be recategorized in the genus Homo as well. The argument for this is that other species have been reclassified to belong to the same genus on the basis of less genetic similarity than that between humans and chimpanzees. However, it is very important where the differences in the genome appear. The study published by Clark and Nielsen of the Cornell University in the Science in December 2003 highlights differences related to one of humankind's defining qualities — the ability to understand language and to communicate through speech, also in the genes for smell, in genes that enable humans and chimps to metabolize amino acids and in genes that may affect the ability to digest various protein. The fact that many chimpanzees have been taught to use hundreds of sign language words, and have sometimes passed on this knowledge to their offspring, indicates that "language" may not be such a major divider between humans and other hominids. See the history of hominoid taxonomy for more about the history of the classification of chimpanzees.

Fossils

Many human fossils have been found, but chimpanzee fossils had not been described until 2005. Existing chimpanzee populations in West and Central Africa do not overlap with the major human fossil sites in East Africa. However, chimpanzee fossils have now been reported in Kenya. This result indicates that both humans and members of the Pan clade were present in the East African Rift Valley during the Middle Pleistocene.

References


- "First fossil chimpanzee." by S. McBrearty and N. G. Jablonski in Nature (2005) Sep 1, Volume 437 pages 105-108. .
- Goodall, Jane. (1986) The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior.
- Pickrell, John. (September 24, 2002). [http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/09/0924_020924_dnachimp.html Humans, Chimps Not as Closely Related as Thought?]. National Geographic.

See also


- Great ape personhood
- List of famous apes
- Great Ape research ban

External link


- [http://chimp.st-and.ac.uk/cultures/intro.htm Chimpanzee Cultures Online] Category:Apes Category:Wildlife of Africa ja:チンパンジー属

January 31

January 31 is the 31st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 334 days remaining, (335 in leap years). January 31 is also the last day of January.

Events


- 1504 - France cedes Naples to Aragon.
- 1606 - Gunpowder Plot: Guy Fawkes is executed for his plotting against Parliament and James I of England.
- 1747 - The first venereal diseases clinic opens at London Dock Hospital.
- 1814 - Gervasio Antonio de Posadas becomes Supreme Director of Argentina.
- 1849 - Corn Laws abolished in the United Kingdom.
- 1865 - American Civil War: Confederate General Robert E. Lee becomes general-in-chief.
- 1867 - Maronite nationalist leader Karam leaves Lebanon on board of a French ship for Algeria
- 1876 - The United States orders all Native Americans to move into reservations.
- 1915 - World War I: Germany uses poison gas against Russians.
- 1917 - World War I: Germany announces its U-boats will engage in unrestricted submarine warfare.
- 1918 - A series of accidental collisions on a misty Scottish night leads to the loss of two Royal Navy submarines with over a hundred lives, and damage to another five British warships.
- 1929 - The Soviet Union exiles Leon Trotsky.
- 1930 - 3M markets Scotch Tape.
- 1936 - The Green Hornet radio show debuts.
- 1944 - World War II: American forces land on Kwajalein Atoll and other islands in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.
- 1945 - US Army private Eddie Slovik is executed, the first American soldier since the Civil War to be executed for desertion.
- 1946 - Yugoslavia's new constitution, modeling the Soviet Union, establishes six constituent republics (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia).
- 1950 - President Harry S. Truman announces a program to develop the hydrogen bomb.
- 1953 - A flood causes over 1,800 deaths in the Netherlands.
- 1956 - Guy Mollet becomes Prime Minister of France.
- 1958 - The first successful American satellite, Explorer I, is launched into orbit.
- 1958 - James Van Allen discovers the Van Allen radiation belt.
- 1961 - Ham the Chimp travels into outer space.
- 1968 - Viet Cong attack the United States embassy in Saigon.
- 1968 - Nauru declares independence from Australia.
- 1971 - Apollo program: Astronauts aboard Apollo 14 lift off for a mission to the moon.
- 1971 - The Winter Soldier Investigation, organized by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War to publicize war crimes and atrocities by Americans and allies in Vietnam, begin in Detroit, Michigan.
- 1988 - Super Bowl XXII: The Washington Redskins win their second championship of the 1980s, 42-10.
- 1990 - The first McDonald's opens in Moscow, Russia.
- 1993 - Super Bowl XXVII: The Dallas Cowboys defeat the Buffalo Bills, 52-17.
- 1995 - President Bill Clinton authorizes a $20 billion loan to Mexico to stabilize its economy.
- 1996 - An explosives-filled truck rams into the gates of the Central Bank in Colombo, Sri Lanka killing at least 86 and injuring 1,400.
  - Dragonball Z ends in Japan.
- 1999 - Super Bowl XXXIII: The Denver Broncos defeat the Atlanta Falcons, 34-19. After the game, the TV show Family Guy airs its pilot episode.
- 2000 - An Alaska Airlines MD-83 crashes in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Malibu, California killing all 88 aboard.
- 2001 - In the Netherlands a Scottish court convicts a Libyan and acquits another for their part in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 which crashed into Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988.
- 2004 - Mystery Science Theater 3000 ends its run on the Sci-Fi Channel.

Births


- 1338 - King Charles V of France (d. 1380)
- 1512 - King Henry of Portugal (d. 1580)
- 1550 - Henry I, Duke of Guise, French Catholic leader (d. 1588)
- 1597 - John Regis, French saint (d. 1640)
- 1624 - Arnold Geulincx, Flemish philosopher (d. 1669)
- 1686 - Hans Egede, Norwegian Lutheran missionary (d. 1758)
- 1752 - Gouverneur Morris, American lawmaker and diplomat (d. 1816)
- 1759 - François Devienne, French composer (d. 1803)
- 1797 - Franz Schubert, Austrian composer (d. 1828)
- 1866 - Lev Shestov, Russian philosopher (d. 1938)
- 1868 - Theodore William Richards, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1928)
- 1872 - Zane Grey, American Western writer (d. 1939)
- 1881 - Irving Langmuir, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1957)
- 1884 - Theodor Heuss, German politician and publicist (d. 1963)
- 1889 - Frank Foster, English cricketer (d. 1958)
- 1892 - Eddie Cantor, American actor and singer (d. 1964)
- 1894 - Isham Jones, American musician (d. 1956)
- 1902 - Tallulah Bankhead, American actress (d. 1968)
- 1902 - Alva Myrdal, Swedish politician, diplomat, and writer, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1986)
- 1905 - John O'Hara, American writer (d. 1970)
- 1914 - Sri Daya Mata, Hindu religious figure
- 1914 - Jersey Joe Walcott, American boxer (d. 1994)
- 1915 - Alan Lomax, American singer and musicologist (d. 2002)
- 1915 - Thomas Merton, American monk and author (d. 1968)
- 1915 - Garry Moore, American comedian and game show host (d. 1993)
- 1919 - Jackie Robinson, baseball player (d. 1972)
- 1921 - John Agar, American actor (d. 2002)
- 1921 - Carol Channing, American actress
- 1921 - E. Fay Jones, American architect
- 1921 - Mario Lanza, American singer and actor (d. 1959)
- 1922 - Joanne Dru, American actress (d. 1996)
- 1923 - Norman Mailer, American writer and journalist
- 1925 - Benjamin Hooks, American head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
- 1929 - Rudolf Mössbauer, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1929 - Jean Simmons, English actress
- 1931 - Ernie Banks, baseball player
- 1935 - Kenzaburo Oe, Japanese writer, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1937 - Philip Glass, American composer
- 1937 - Suzanne Pleshette, American actress
- 1938 - Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands
- 1938 - James G. Watt, American politician
- 1940 - Jessica Walter, American actress
- 1941 - Richard A. "Dick" Gephardt, American politician
- 1942 - Daniela Bianchi, Italian actress
- 1942 - Derek Jarman, American director and writer (d. 1994)
- 1944 - Charlie Musselwhite, American musician
- 1946 - Terry Kath, American musician (d. 1978)
- 1947 - Jonathan Banks, American actor
- 1947 - Nolan Ryan, baseball player
- 1948 - Muneo Suzuki, Japanese politician
- 1949 - Ken Wilber, American philosopher
- 1951 - Dave Benton, Aruban-born singer
- 1952 - Nadya Rusheva, Russian painter (d. 1969)
- 1956 - Johnny Rotten, British singer (Sex Pistols)
- 1959 - Anthony LaPaglia, Australian actor
- 1959 - Kelly Lynch, American actress
- 1961 - Lloyd Cole, British singer and songwriter
- 1964 - Jeff Hanneman, American guitarist (Slayer)
- 1964 - Billey Shamrock, Swedish singer and songwriter
- 1970 - Minnie Driver, British actress
- 1971 - Patrick Kielty, Irish comedian
- 1973 - Portia de Rossi, Australian actress
- 1976 - Buddy Rice, American race car driver
- 1980 - Tiffany Limos, American actress
- 1981 - Justin Timberlake, American singer
- 1982 - Helena Paparizou, Swedish singer

Deaths


- 743 - Muhammad al-Baqir, Shia Imam (b. 676)
- 1398 - Emperor Suko of Japan (b. 1334)
- 1435 - Xuande, Emperor of China (b. 1398)
- 1561 - Menno Simons, Dutch Mennonite leader (b. 1496)
- 1580 - King Henry of Portugal (b. 1512)
- 1606 - Gunpowder Plot conspirators executed:
  - Guy Fawkes (b. 1570)
  - Ambrose Rokewood
  - Thomas Wintour (b. 1571)
- 1615 - Claudio Aquaviva, Italian Jesuit (b. 1543)
- 1632 - Joost Bürgi, Swiss clockmaker and mathematician (b. 1552)
- 1665 - Johannes Clauberg, German theologian and philsopher (b. 1622)
- 1686 - Jean Mairet, French dramatist (b. 1604)
- 1720 - Thomas Grey, 2nd Earl of Stamford, English privy councilor
- 1729 - Jakob Roggeveen, Dutch explorer (b. 1659)
- 1736 - Filippo Juvara, Italian architect (b. 1678)
- 1788 - Charles Edward Stuart, pretender to the British throne (b. 1720)
- 1790 - Thomas Lewis, Irish-born Virginia settler (b. 1718)
- 1794 - Marriott Arbuthnot, British admiral (b. 1711)
- 1851 - David Spangler Kaufman, American politician (b. 1813)
- 1892 - Charles Spurgeon, English preacher and evangelist (b. 1834)
- 1907 - Timothy Eaton, Canadian department store founder (b. 1834)
- 1933 - John Galsworthy, English writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1867)
- 1944 - Jean Giraudoux, French writer (b. 1882)
- 1945 - Eddie Slovik, American soldier (b. 1920)
- 1955 - John Mott, American YMCA leader, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1865)
- 1956 - A. A. Milne, English author (b. 1882)
- 1967 - Eddie Tolan, American athlete (b. 1908)
- 1970 - Slim Harpo, American singer (b. 1924)
- 1973 - Ragnar Anton Kittil Frisch, Norwegian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1895)
- 1974 - Samuel Goldwyn, American film studio executive (b. 1882)
- 1976 - Ernesto Miranda, American litigant (b. 1941)
- 1990 - Rashad Khalifa, Egyptian-born imam (stabbed) (b. 1935)
- 1992 - Willie Dixon, American musician (b. 1915)
- 1995 - George Abbott, American stage director and producer (b. 1887)
- 1997 - John Joseph Scanlan, Irish Catholic prelate (b. 1930)
- 1999 - Norm Zauchin, baseball player (b. 1929)
- 2000 - Gil Kane, Latvian-born comic book writer (b. 1926)
- 2001 - Gordon R. Dickson, Canadian writer (b. 1923)
- 2004 - Eleanor Holm, American swimmer (b. 1913)

Holidays and observances


- Catholicism - Feast day of St. John Bosco.

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/31 BBC: On This Day] ---- January 30 - February 1 - December 31 - February 28 (February 29) — listing of all days ko:1월 31일 ja:1月31日 simple:January 31 th:31 มกราคม

Project Mercury

Project Mercury was the United States first successful manned spaceflight program. It ran from 1959 through 1963 with the goal of putting a man in orbit around the Earth. Early planning and research was carried out by NACA, while the program was officially carried out by the newly created NASA. The name Mercury comes from the Roman god (it is also the name of the innermost planet of the solar system). The Mercury program cost $1.5 billion in 1994 dollars. See NASA Budget.

Spacecraft

__NOTOC__ Mercury spacecraft (also called a capsule or space capsule) were very small one-man vehicles; it was said that the Mercury spacecraft were not ridden, they were worn. Only 1.7 cubic meters in volume, the Mercury capsule was barely big enough to include its pilot. Inside were 120 controls: 55 electrical switches, 30 fuses and 35 mechanical levers. The spacecraft was designed by Max Faget and NASA's Space Task Group. During the launch phase of the mission, the Mercury spacecraft and astronaut were protected from launch vehicle failures by the Launch Escape System. The LES consisted of a solid fuel, 52,000 lbf (231 kN) thrust rocket mounted on a tower above the spacecraft. In the event of a launch abort, the LES fired for 1 second, pulling the Mercury spacecraft away from a defective launch vehicle. The spacecraft would then descend on its parachute recovery system. After booster engine cutoff (BECO), the LES was no longer needed and was separated from the spacecraft by a solid fuel, 800 lbf (3.6 kN) thrust jettison rocket, that fired for 1.5 seconds. To separate the Mercury spacecraft from the launch vehicle, the spacecraft fired three small solid fuel, 400 lbf (1.8 kN) thrust rockets for 1 second. These rockets are called the Posigrade rockets. The spacecraft had only attitude control thrusters. After orbit insertion and before retrofire they could not change their orbit. The spacecraft had three sets of control jets for each axis (yaw, pitch and roll), supplied from two separate fuel tanks. An automatic set of high and low powered jets and a set of manual jets, fueled from either the automatic tank or the manual tank. The pilot could use any one of the three thruster systems and fuel them from either of the two fuel tanks to provide spacecraft attitude control. The Mercury spacecraft were designed to be totally controllable from the ground in the event that the space environment impaired the pilot's ability to function. The spacecraft had three solid fuel, 1000 lbf (4.5 kN) thrust retrorockets that fired for 10 seconds each. One was sufficient to return the spacecraft to earth if the other two failed. The first retro was fired, five seconds later the second was fired (while the first was still firing). Five seconds after that, the third retro fires (while the second retro is still firing). This is called ripple firing. There was a small metal flap at the nose of the spacecraft called the "spoiler". If the spacecraft started to reenter nose first (another stable reentry attitude for the capsule), airflow over the "spoiler" would flip the spacecraft around to the proper, heatshield first reentry attitude. Suborbital Mercury capsules encountered lower reentry temperatures and used beryllium heat-sink heat shields. Orbital missions encountered much higher atmospheric friction and temperatures during reentry and used ablative shields. NASA ordered 20 production spacecraft, numbered 1 through 20, from McDonnell Aircraft Company, St. Louis, Missouri. Five of the twenty spacecraft were not flown. They were, Spacecraft #10, 12, 15, 17, and 19. Two unmanned spacecraft were destroyed during flights. They were Spacecraft #3 and #4. Spacecraft #11 sank and was recovered from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean after 38 years. Some spacecraft were modified after initial production (refurbished after launch abort, modified for longer missions, etc) and received a letter designation after their number, examples 2B, 15B. Some spacecraft were modified twice, example, spacecraft 15 became 15A and then 15B. A number of boilerplate spacecraft (mockup/prototype/replica spacecraft, made from non-flight materials or lacking production spacecraft systems and/or hardware) were also made by NASA and McDonnell Aircraft and used in numerous tests, including launches.

Boosters

ablative The Mercury program used three boosters: Little Joe, Redstone, and Atlas. Little Joe was used to test the escape tower and abort procedures. Redstone was used for suborbital flights, and Atlas for orbital ones. Starting in October, 1958, Jupiter missiles were also considered as suborbital launch vehicles for the Mercury program, but were cut from the program in July, 1959 due to budget constraints. The Atlas boosters required extra strengthening in order to handle the increased weight of the Mercury capsules beyond that of the nuclear warheads they were designed to carry. Little Joe was a solid-propellant booster designed specially for the Mercury