What is a heat shield and why is it necessary for any space vehicle to return to Earth?

Astronomy by Geoffrey

 

  1. What is a heat shield and why is it necessary for any space vehicle to return to Earth?
  2. What animals were launched into space and by what countries? Do you agree withthe ethics of those decisions? (There’s no right answer to this part!)
  3. What is a launch escape system and how does it function?
  4. Describe the significance of the following missions:(a) Mercury-Redstone 3 (b) Gemini 4(c) Gemini 6/7 (d) Gemini 8(e) Apollo 8 (f) Apollo 11
  5. Describe what happened to Apollo 1 and how it occurred.
  6. Identify the function of the following components of the Apollo spacecraft:(a) The lunar module (LM)
    (b) The command service module (CSM)(c) The command module (CM)
  7. What happened to Apollo 13 and how did it return to Earth?