Do you ever wonder what’s beyond the stars you can see at night? Or what is the Moon hiding? The human race has been thinking and thinking about these same questions since it learned that the sky wasn’t just Earth’s bell jar. The infinity of the Universe has always prodded our curiosity and even our fear of the unknown. That is why we must discover and explore, a desire that led humanity to the development of advanced technology that allows us, today, to travel back and forth between our planet and the near space.
This cool infographic will show you exactly how we evolved and became so scientifically advanced that we can currently dream of something like space tourism. Along this list you will find revolutionary technology, brave humans and even some space entrepreneurs that are now betting everything in commercial space travel. However, manned missions weren’t only made by men or women, sometimes animals had to replace trained astronauts.
That is probably why Iran is now sending a Persian cat in a new space mission. The country put its first satellite into orbit in 2009 and plans to evolve into missions manned by humans by 2020. However, for now, they are sticking with animals, more specifically with a furry cat that will be certainly ready to honor the courage of past space adventurers like rats, turtles or worms. Iran has strange “astronauts”…
The Persian cat will travel aboard the satellite Kavoshgar in March 2014, but the announcement is not pleasing pro-animal rights movements, who call it an “archaic experience” and “a throwback to the primitive techniques of the 1950s”. Maybe in half a century Iran can organize its own space tourism trips, for now they are betting on the investigative powers of a cat. In the meantime, entrepreneurs like Richard Branson are getting the engines ready to deliver Virgin’s first space rides.
