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THE SPACE RACE1957-1969

A TURNING POINT IN HISTORY

QUINN HUCKABA, KARTHIK MACHERLA, AASHISH PUTCHA JUNIOR DIVISION

Process Paper The topic we chose this year was the Space Race, which we decided after a great deal of argument. We met every lunch with a list of options, each of which we had a degree of knowledge on, and each of which would have been rewarding to research. Aashish suggested having a topic that was not too old, so there were enough sources to research. We knew that the Space Race was the biggest single event of the 60's, and Quinn and Karthik had a vast knowledge of the Space race. We knew that space exploration was a huge topic, so we narrowed it down to 1957 (Sputnik 1) to 1969 (Neil Armstrong).

We conducted our research through meetings from November to winter break in December. In our meetings, we had two computers to work with (since we chose a website); the working computer and the research computer. Quinn was the one who suggested telling the story of the Space Race from the perspective of the U.S.S.R and America. Karthik and Aashish searched through the internet for documents and pictures using specific government generated websites such as NASA.gov and newspaper articles to achieve first hand documents of peoples thoughts and ideas of the Space Race. Conducting research for a topic we enjoyed shortened History Fair.

Like most people, we wanted to take history fair competitively so we chose a website. The thing judges care most about, aside from information, is how it is presented. No one wants to look a boring stack of papers and charts on a board. We wanted to make ours interactive, through slideshows and pictures. We wanted our audience to remember all of it so we included videos illustrating the man on the moon. A website gave us the organization we needed to

present our topic. Karthiks capability of HTML made website designing easier and more like we imagined a website. A website was the perfect choice for the space race.

The NHD theme this year was, A Turning Point in History, so the Space Race was the perfect choice. The space race turned the world on its head, changing life as we know it. What would a car drive be like without rubber tires? How much paper would we have without the cordless chainsaw to cut trees easier? Even more unimaginable, what would are world be like without satellite TV? None of these inventions essential to modern day life would ever have come about without that famous competition. Also, the space race blew open the door for spacecraft exploration. Of course, money and politicians dictated that the door be slammed shut not long after that, but not before tons of explorer satellites were sent out to explore the wonders of the solar system. As a result, we now understand more about the universe than we could have imagined possible in the fifties. So you see, the space race is about as much of a turning point in history as any single event could possibly be.

Annotated List of Works Consulted Primary Sources

"Buzz Aldrin walking near Lunar Module." American History: The Space Race. Voice Of America, 28 Sept. 2011. Web. 19 Jan. 2013. <http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/america-history-the-space-race130722153/116232.html>. This photo gave us the insight and the visualization young Americans' saw when Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong were on the moon, from their very

television. We used this to put on our title page since Buzz Aldrin himself was a big impact in history because he piloted the first module to the moon. Webb, James E. Interview by T. H. Baker. 21 Nov. 1961. This source helped our group understand that the Space Race was very tied into the Cold War which indeed made it more political seen as a race between the superpowers. This interview was used in our website in the interview category so everyone could ask the same questions we asked ourselves when we read part of it, such as if James was only hired for the head of N.A.S.A due to the space race by Kennedy.

Chalkin, Andrew. A Man on the Moon. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print. We considered this book to be primary since the man who wrote lived and self-experienced this time throughout its events. It helped us learn about how ordinary people like Chalkin thought about the space race. Even though we couldn't incorporate this source, this gave us the inspiration to even choose the Space Race for a yearlong project.

First Moon Landing 1969. Youtube.com. N.p., 10 Feb. 2006. Web. 31 Nov. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMINSD7MmT4>. The source inscribed shown us the original video of Neil Armstrong on the moon without restoration. It helped us learn a little bit more about the famous phrase 'one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind' and how exactly it took place. We used this source in the America's space race, since America took the final victorious step to the moon.

How Apollo 11 Got to the Moon. Time. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Jan. 2013.

<http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,29590627001_1910628,00.html>. This video gave us a brief documentary of how N.A.S.A trained to get to that very moment of July 20, 1969 which helped us understand the effort into space. We used this to understand how long they worked for a minimal four hours on the moon which was nine years, enlightening us on the dedication of the Mercury seven project.

Secondary Sources

airandspace.edu. N.p., 2002. Web. 1 Dec. 2012. <http://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/gal114.html>. This helped us out a lot because it gave us foreknowledge about why the space race started. It also gave us more insight about why the U.S. needed to get involved in the space race. We used this source in the cause of the Space Race section to explain our new founded knowledge.

airandspace.si.edu. Smithsonian and Air and Space Museum, n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2013. <http://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/gal100/exp1.html>. This website helped us a lot because it gave us the information of what early American spacecraft would look like. We used this source to apply information on our spacecrafts page.

History.com. History Channel, 28 July 2009. Web. 3 Dec. 2012. <http://www.history.com/videos/the-space-race>. This helped us because it gave us a large variety of videos ranging from the Apollo 11 Moon landing videos. We used this source to our benefit by adding some of insight and knowledge into the home page and America's space race.

history.nasa.gov. N.p., 10 Oct. 2007. Web. 1 Dec. 2012. <http://history.nasa.gov/sputnik>. This really helped us out because it gave N.A.S.A view of the space race as well as the Soviet's view of the space race. It also gave the date of when the space race started. We used this source into each perspective of the U.S.S.R's space race and the American space race.

"Photos by Armstrong and Aldrin." Time. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2013. <http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1910918_1910394,00.html>. These images gave us the scope of how long they were on the moon, and how long they spent training to go to the moon. The advantage of having this source gave us more understanding of the space race and more information for the home page.

Rousseau, Laura. "The Space Race: Soviet Endeavors." Reading. This helped us because it gave the soviet's side of the Space Race and why the Soviets fell behind in the Space Race. It also gave insight on the Soviet's aeronautic missions. We could use this source with the U.S.S.R space race tab to show how the accomplished their goals and achievements.

russianspaceweb.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Dec. 2012. <http://www.russianspaceweb.com/chronology_moon_race.html>. This helped us because it gave us a timeline of all the events in the space race. The website had pictures on the timeline of all of the spacecrafts. We could this in the timeline section and the space centers and spacecrafts section.

Techradar.com. Rob Mead, 20 July 2009. Web. 19 Jan. 2013. <http://www.techradar.com/news/world-of-tech/10-tech-breakthroughs-to-thank-the-space-racefor-617847/2#articleContent>. This website helped us create the slide show that shows what inventions were created because of the space race. It showed that 3-d graphics and non reflective displays were created because of the space race, and many others. Most of the pictures of our slide show were copied from this website.

TheSpaceRace.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Dec. 2012. <http://www.thespacerace.com>. This website helped us because it gave us a timeline of all the major points in the space race. It also gave us all the astronauts who were in a space program and the presidents who had great involvement in the space race. We used this in our history portion of the website not just to show the impact and relation to the theme.

www.pbs.org. N.p., 6 Oct. 2005. Web. 3 Dec. 2012. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/moon/timeline//index.html>. This helped us because it gave the Soviet's firsts and the United States' firsts. It didn't only give the human space firsts but also the animals' firsts. We used this to build our timeline in a more structure way by color-coding it by nation.

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