Sputnik 1 (/ˈspʌtnɪk, ˈspʊtnɪk/, ‹See Tfd›Russian: Спутник-1, Satellite 1) was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space program. It sent a radio signal back to Earth for three weeks before its three silver-zinc batteries became depleted. Aerodynamic drag caused it to fall back into the atmosphere on 4 January 1958. The world’s first observation was made at the school observatory in Rodewisch (Saxony).

It was a polished metal sphere 58 cm (23 in) in diameter with four external radio antennas to broadcast radio pulses. Its radio signal was easily detectable by amateur radio operators, and the 65° orbital inclination made its flight path cover virtually the entire inhabited Earth.

The satellite’s success was unanticipated by the United States. This precipitated the American Sputnik crisis and triggered the Space Race, part of the Cold War. The launch was the beginning of a new era of political, military, technological, and scientific developments. The word sputnik is Russian for satellite when interpreted in an astronomical context; its other meanings are spouse or traveling companion.

Tracking and studying Sputnik 1 from Earth provided scientists with valuable information. The density of the upper atmosphere could be deduced from its drag on the orbit, and the propagation of its radio signals gave data about the ionosphere.

Sputnik 1 was launched during the International Geophysical Year from Site No.1/5, at the 5th Tyuratam range, in Kazakh SSR (now known as the Baikonur Cosmodrome). The satellite traveled at a peak speed of about 8 km/s (18,000 mph), taking 96.20 minutes to complete each orbit. It transmitted on 20.005 and 40.002 MHz, which were monitored by radio operators throughout the world. The signals continued for 22 days until the transmitter batteries depleted on 26 October 1957. On 4 January 1958, after three months in orbit, Sputnik 1 burned up while reentering Earth’s atmosphere, having completed 1,440 orbits of the Earth, and travelling a distance of approximately 70,000,000 km (43,000,000 mi).

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    • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      8·
      11 days ago

      Depends. It gets really awkward when someone starts talking about their spiritual beliefs and due to being steeped in knowledge of the occult you know exactly which Harper Collins mass market paperback they cribbed their entire belief system from.

      On the other hand, not many people have actually read The Secret History of the Mongols so you can be a vital asset in rounding out a bar trivia team.

      • GalaxyBrain [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
        2·
        11 days ago

        Former Discordian reporting in and yeah. It’s just bullshit either made up in the 19th century or the 20s. These people are fools and it’s essential to a functioning future they be corrected of their bullshit. Nothing good comes of this crap aside from a couple pretty funny books

        • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
          2·
          11 days ago

          Right? It’s like are you a Crowley magician, a 1970s radfem lillith magician, or a neo-nazi with the serial numbers filed off viking magician? Cause if you’re not part of a closed traditional practice it’s almost always one of those three. Well, then there’s all the white “shamans” and “druids”, too. The grift is so obvious there Idk what to even call them, it’s like a caricature of cultural appropriation.

    • LocalOaf [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      8·
      12 days ago

      I advise you acquire a mysterious cloak

      Possibly a cape, maybe a cane with a crystal ball or some other type of orb on the end, possibly polished onyx or something

      • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
        6·
        11 days ago

        Sigils are bullshit, though. You can just graffiti runs on to anything but sigils are all like “you have go out on midnight when the north star is high then dance around naked a bunch before carving this sign in to a copper sheet that has never seen the light of day blah blah blah” and then what do you have? A magical sigil that lets you command, like… Brad the Demon, junior provisional mail clerk of the armies of hell. Not worth it.

        • GalaxyBrain [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
          2·
          11 days ago

          We need to do a co-effort post regarding mideval and pre-mideval history and really clear up some Victorian era still in pop culture bullshit. Also, I’m about to hit some Tolkien soon, and if you’ve got a copy of children of hurin around I’d love to book club about it.

          • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
            2·
            11 days ago

            Yeah, that’d be cool. idk if I’m up to actually doing the research but it’d feel good to lay out how much modern magic is either crowley, victorian sex cosplay, or that neo-nazi guy who invented norse paganism from prison in the 60s. Maybe push back against “The burning years” and lay out how witch burnings were mostly a secular protestant thing rather than a catholic thing, and that there never were any actual witches the way modern magicians think of them.

            Actually, now that I think about it, it’s extremely weird how post-protestant witches in the US still believe anti-Catholic black-propaganda and put witch burnings on catholics instead of their protestant ideological forebears. Like do people think that Salem was a papist stronghold?

        • Commiejones [comrade/them, he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
          3·
          11 days ago

          Its like the language from “Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra” The cards are depictions of Archetypes and common situations and ideas. When you lay them out they tell a vague story that can be interpreted in many ways but you see the story that relates to your life.

          The cards that relate to the future are ways that the current situation could play out and they can tease out ideas that you had not consciously considered.

          Essentially the cards allow you to shuffle your thoughts to look at a situation from a perspective you hadn’t considered.

            • Commiejones [comrade/them, he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
              2·
              11 days ago

              Honestly if therapists started using them they’d save their patients dozens of billable hours. A reasonable card reader can pick up the cues from the person they are reading (usually without even know that is what they are doing) So they spit out all the meanings of each card as they lay them out and then after all the cards are out they tell the person the part of each card they reacted to. the person being read says “oh my god how did you know?” and the reader says “I just read the cards.” I don’t like the person I read to tell me what they are asking about so that my own ideas don’t get mixed in. Usually I don’t have a clue what they are asking about but if things aren’t clear to the person I will ask them to tell me a bit so I can work out what the cards are saying.