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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So I moved into my new house a while back. It's relatively old as fuck and built with wood. And jesus it gets cold in here. Like, I knew it'd be colder on average than a concrete house, but god damn. It was just below freezing outside yesterday, and the inside temp dropped to like 14°C in one of the rooms. Tossed a few logs on the fire (extremely cozy, an impeccable vibe) and turned on a space heater in the bedroom, so it was alright by bedtime. I was hoping I wouldn't have to use the space heaters at all before we get an AC heating thing machine installed, but the process is taking forever. Once we get that installed I'm gonna make a bunch of temperature/humidity sensors with whatever microcontroller is the cheapest and place them around the house and make a bunch of scripts to adjust the temperature automagically. It's gonna be sick. It's a lot of effort compared to living in an apartment building, but one million percent worth it to never have to deal with landlords again.
Wood insulates heat a lot better than concrete. Sounds like your house might leak. Have you considered adding a layer of insulation before implementing technical solutions?
Oh yes, it is indeed extremely god damn leaky, especially on the top floor where the bedrooms are. There no doors between any of the rooms either for some reason (previous owner not a fan of privacy???), so I think the draft goes right through the whole floor. The previous owner had a guy come over with a heat-sensing camera and identify the leakiest spots, so we're gonna plug them up with some bullshit when we have time. We're gonna have to redo the insulation there anyway at some point in the near future (some earlier owner has fucked up the insulation between the outer roof and the inner ceiling, it's not ventilated properly so the condensation water could/will soak into the insulation), so we'll deal with it "properly" then.
Sounds like you're not looking forward to a boring time. Good luck.