Most of us will remember 2020 primarily as the year of the great pandemic, but let us not forget how space exploration and astronomy have had good years given the circumstances. NASA astronauts shot into space in May as part of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule. New research revealed that there may be more water on the moon than previously believed. Scientists have been talking about whether Venus cherishes life in its clouds or not after discovering phosphine. Betelgeuse continued to fade, raising the suspicion that it could soon become nova. Researchers have noticed an exciting strange series of radio signals.
While 2021 will not magically restore our reality, there is much to look forward to next year, especially in the area of space news. Even if you are not a space enthusiast, it’s amazing what a little wonder and awe can mean to your mindset. It helps to put our place in the world in perspective and reminds us that we are part of something bigger; learning about our universe is a great way to harness it. If you feel like there is nothing next year, consider adding one of these missions to your list.
NASA to launch Q-PACE
The CubeSat Particle Aggregation and Collision Experiment (Q-PACE), originally launched earlier this month, is originally scheduled to take off from the Mojave Air and Space Port from January 15, 2021. Q-PACE is a 3U CubeSat, a type of small, modular spacecraft designed to study the collision and aggregation of small particles in a room as part of a three-year microgravity experiment. The goal of the mission is to develop a database of small-particle interactions in low-velocity microgravity. This information will help researchers better understand the process of early solidification, which led to planetary formations.
“The Q-PACE mission will last up to three years, providing an opportunity to study adhesion and fragmentation events that occur only rarely, such as near-simultaneous collision of three or more particles,” NASA explain about the mission. “The mission will continue across different phases with the introduction of different types of particles in the ETC, starting with large solid spherical particles, and finishing with aggregates of micron-sized dust and chondrules.”
Mars2020 will finally start work
2021 will be the beginning of a new chapter in the field of Mars discoveries. Over the summer, the mission Mars2020 launched into space. But come February 18, 2021, the Perseverance will eventually land on the Jezero crater of Mars. The mission is expected to last 687 Earth days, or one Earth year.
According to NASA, the primary scientific objectives of Mars 2020 ‘are to identify past environments capable of supporting microbial life, to look for signs of possible microbial life in the past, to collect nuclear rocks and regolith samples and to hold the surface for future missions and test oxygen production from the Martian atmosphere. ‘
One of the most exciting parts of the mission is that the collected monsters will be returned to earth. Sample visits are very unusual due to their expense; noting that there has never been an example of another planet.
“The return of samples from Mars to Earth has been a goal of planetary scientists since the early days of the space age, and the successful completion of this MSR [Mars Sample Return] important decision point is an important next step to turn this goal into reality, ” said Thomas Zurbuchen, co-administrator of science at NASA headquarters. “MSR is a complex campaign and contains the core of groundbreaking spatial exploration – pushing the boundaries of what is capable and thus promoting our understanding of our place in the universe.”
As part of the Mars2020 mission, NASA will also launch the Ingenuity helicopter from the Rover to study the Martian atmosphere. This will help NASA study how oxygen can be produced from Mars’ carbon dioxide atmosphere, an important step for the future of human exploration on Mars.
The Parker Solar Probe Makes Two More Venus Flying Aircraft
The car-sized probe, launched in 2018, will make its fourth and fifth Venus aircraft in February and October 2021, respectively. The two flying planes are part of a longer journey to reach the closest to the sun in 2025.
Like Salon before explain, these flying planes are unique in that they take advantage of the seriousness of Venus to delay sin for its arrival in a close orbit around the sun. The probe will do seven flying planes over seven years.
“Although it sounds bizarre, the laws of physics allow two objects with mass to exchange their momentum in a way that accelerates one while the other slows down,” Salon’s Keith Spencer explained earlier. “This method is often used to steer spacecraft to distant parts of the solar system without using as much fuel to accelerate as they would otherwise.”
James Webb Space Telescope Launch
As of October 31, 2021, the nearly $ 9 billion James Webb Space Telescope – the successor to the Hubble Telescope – starts from a port near Kourou, French Guiana. Its mission is to observe the first galaxies that formed in the early universe, and to see stars form planetary systems. According to NASA, it will be the leading observatory of the 2020s and help thousands of astronomers worldwide.
“[James Webb] will study how the first stars today were very different from the stars around us, because there were no metals that make up the stars of today, ” said Massimo Stiavelli, Mission Head, Space Telescope Science Institute, in an interview with NasaSpaceflight.com. Stars had to make it. [James Webb] is the only telescope designed to study those early periods. ‘
The Lunar Polar Hydrogen Mapper will map water on the moon
Scientists previously suspected that water existed in the shady, cold parts of the moon – such as its poles, where it would remain frozen – but some studies published in 2020 confirmed that there is also a large amount of water in its sunlight areas. The Lunar Polar Hydrogen Mapper (LunaH-Map) will advance our knowledge of water on the moon by orbiting the moon with the goal of determining how much water ice exists in the permanent shadow of the lunar craters. This will be done by using a miniaturized neutron spectrometer to count epithermal neutrons. The shoebox spacecraft will be launched no later than November 2021.