Ancient civilisations carefully observed the movements of celestial objects across the skies. They grouped the stars into constellations and divided the sky into degrees to establish the earliest zodiac system. This enabled scholars to track the relative paths of Sun and Moon more precisely across the zodiac, which in turn helped predict eclipses.

By 3000 BC, the ancient Egyptians started to mark the time using a calendar. They divided a year into 365 days and a day into 24 parts. The calendar system helped them organise farming, religious festivals and daily activities.

Ancient people firmly believed that the stars controlled human fates, so they developed astronomy to calculate the movements of celestial objects. At that time, however, astronomy was seen merely as a servant of astrology, offering rulers a sense of control. The superior position of astrology remained until the seventeenth century.

The Polish scholar Nicolaus Copernicus proposed the heliocentric model, which placed the Sun, rather than the Earth, at the centre of the Universe, laying the foundation for the subsequent development of astronomy.

Kepler’s laws are the core of spaceflight, enabling us to calculate the orbits of spacecraft and control thousands of artificial satellites.

Mars has long captivated us. Despite the challenges of travelling hundreds of millions of kilometres through space and enduring harmful radiation, the efforts of past generations of scientists have enabled us to take great leaps towards this dream.

Scientists apply Kepler’s laws and Hohmann transfer to allow the spacecraft to follow the most fuel-efficient orbit. Precise calculations and manoeuvres allow the spacecraft to dock with the space station, which is travelling at over 20 times the speed of sound.

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