Several missions to explore Mars and other space news in 2021

Several missions to explore Mars and other space news in 2021

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Although 2020 may have derailed and delayed some scientific plans due to the pandemic, 2021 still promises to be a year of science, ‘as we have rarely seen’, according to Thomas Zurbuchen, co-administrator of NASA’s Directorate of Science Mission.

Several missions will explore Mars, new telescopes will start with observations and there are plans to return people to the moon by 2024.

While the pandemic is likely to delay the launch and progress of some missions, others remain afloat, especially those already in space. Here’s what we can expect in 2021.

Explore Mars in new ways

It is true that 2020 was the year of several missions launched to Mars – China’s Tianwen-1, the United Arab Emirates’ Hope Probe and NASA’s Perseverance Rover – and 2021 is likely to be the year of new discoveries on Mars.
The three missions used an alignment between Mars and Earth that takes place every 26 months, enabling faster and more efficient travel when the two planets are on the same side of the sun.

All three must arrive at Mars in February.

The Hope Probe will orbit Mars, which is the first time the UAE has orbited the red planet. The probe will remain in orbit for a Martian year – about 687 days on Earth – to collect data on Mars’ atmosphere.

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Tianwen-1, whose name means ‘Quest for Heavenly Truth’, is China’s first mission to Mars. The probe will orbit the planet before landing a rover on the surface, hoping it can gather important information about the Martian soil, geological structure, environment, atmosphere and signs of water.

Tianwen-1 includes an orbit, portable camera, lander and a rover. Once the lander hits Mars, it will expand a ramp that can cause the rover to roll to the surface. The orbit can be used to transmit signals from the rover to the earth, and the rover can send messages to the earth itself.

Perseverance will land on Mars on February 18th. The rover is equipped with multiple cameras, including video, as well as microphones, which can hear and record the landing live. NASA expects the audio, video and video to be back on Earth within weeks of landing.
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Ingenuity is the first helicopter to fly on another planet if it succeeds.

Once the rover has landed, Perseverance’s two-year mission begins.

The car will also find a nice, flat surface to drop the Ingenuity helicopter so it can use a spot as a helicopter for its potential five test flights over a 30-day period. This will take place within the first 50 to 90 sols, or Mars days, of the mission.

Once Ingenuity is established on the surface, Perseverance will drive a distance to a safe place and use the cameras to see and record Ingenuity’s flight.

This official artwork for the Perseverance mission shows the rover sitting on Mars.

After these flights, Perseverance will begin to search for evidence of ancient life, study Mars’ climate and geology, and collect monsters that will eventually return to Earth via the planned future missions.

Exploration of exoplanets

The long-awaited James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled for October, will be NASA’s next major space observatory.
However, the launch of the telescope has been delayed and pushed several times over the years, and it may experience more delays due to the pandemic.

The new launch date is October 31, 2021. The telescope will be launched from French Guiana. According to the agency, it was earlier planned to launch in March 2021. This has been delayed by the pandemic and technical challenges.

The telescope will answer questions about our solar system, study exoplanets in new ways, and look deeper into the universe than we have ever been able to do before.

This telescope is our next big detective in the universe

It is equipped with a mirror that can stretch 21 feet and 4 inches – a massive length that allows the mirror to collect more light from the objects it observes once the telescope is in space. The more light the mirror can collect, the more detail the telescope can observe.

It is the largest mirror NASA has ever built, the agency said, but its size has created a unique problem. The mirror was so large that it could not fit in a rocket. Therefore, they designed the telescope as a series of moving parts that can fold origami style and fit within a space of 16 feet.

“Webb is designed to build on the incredible legacies of the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes, by observing the infrared universe and exploring every phase of cosmic history,” said Eric Smith, NASA Webb’s program scientist at headquarters. of the agency, said in a statement.

“The observatory will detect light from the first-generation galaxies that formed after the big bang in the early universe and study the atmosphere of nearby exoplanets for possible signs of habitability.”

Vera Rubin’s ‘first light’

When the Vera C. Rubin Observatory begins its observation from Chile from 2023, its SUV-sized camera can record complete panoramas of the southern sky every few nights. It requires a new kind of camera that has never been seen before.

It is the largest digital camera in the world that can spot a golf ball more than 20 km away while capturing beautiful 3,200-megapixel photos.

The “first light” of the observatory is expected in 2021. The first light is the first astronomical image recorded by a telescope after completion.
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With the capabilities of the observatory, it can detect faint objects 100 million times dimmer than we can see with the naked eye. It is designed to map the Milky Way, explore dark energy and dark matter, and explore the solar system.

During the ten-year survey, the camera is expected to capture 20 billion galaxies.

Rubin, who passed away in 2016, once mentored fellow aspiring female astronomers and campaigned for women in science. Rubin is considered one of the world’s most influential astronomers and provides some of the first evidence that dark matter – which forms a large part of the universe but cannot be seen – exists.

The camera is currently being assembled and the team has estimated that the camera will be ready for testing by 2021 before being sent to Chile to be installed.

Artemis: a new space generation

The NASA Artemis program, which seeks to land the first woman and the next man on the moon in 2024, made great progress despite the pandemic last year. And in 2021, there will likely be more progress and milestones for the program.

The milestones achieved so far for the Artemis program include the launch of the Artemis agreements and signing by other nations; the completion of the nuclear phase of the SLS rocket and Orion crew capsule that Artemis astronauts will carry to space; and progress on the Gateway lunar outpost that will help astronauts land on the moon.
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The first team of 18 Artemis astronauts has also been announced, and it is a diverse group that includes some newcomers to NASA as well as veterans of aerospace.
The astronauts will explore the south pole of the moon, focusing on conducting experimental science and learning more about the origin of water on the moon, among other scientific objectives.

While the first Artemis mission in November 2021 will be an unmanned flight test, in August 2023 Artemis II will be a fly of the moon.

These missions will pave the way for Artemis III – when astronauts return to the lunar surface.

NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, will create the moon’s first water source maps for future human space exploration as soon as it lands on the lunar surface in 2022.

By the end of the decade, an Artemis base camp could be established at the south pole of the moon.

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