In 2020, not only was the way to travel at home and abroad blocked by the Corona 19 pandemic, but the road to space was not smooth.
In March, NASA closed two rocket manufacturing facilities with confirmed COVID-19 cases, and the lunar exploration plan was canceled, and the launch plan of the Mars probe Rosalind Franklin in Europe and Russia is scheduled for 2022. It was postponed. Plans for space, which have been somewhat slow, are expected to proceed sequentially in 2021.
Therefore, let’s check the major issues of’the 11 major space exploration missions and the possibility of success in 2021′ reported in the MIT Technology review.
The MIT Technology Review announced ’11 major space exploration missions and potential success in 2021′. ⒸGetty Mage Bank
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Endless interest in Mars
Mars is the next closest planet to Earth after Venus. In addition, since it is the only planet in the solar system that can find traces of life, exploration is being conducted with the issue of human habitability.
2020 is the time when Earth and Mars are the closest, and it was the right time to explore Mars as the probe will follow the’Horman transition orbit’. So, in the lead in the UAE, China and the United States sequentially launched a probe on Mars.
In the order of launch, UAE’s Al Amal, China’s Tianwen-1, and U.S. Perseverance landed on the surface of Mars between February and April this year and conducted a full-scale exploration of Mars. Is done. They will explore Mars’ geology and traces of life, especially the UAE’s Amal, who entered Mars orbit on Feb. 10, arriving first and discovering the cause of the Mars atmosphere’s loss of hydrogen and oxygen.
All of them must arrive safely to Mars and endure the entire process of landing and missions to become so-called’perfect success’, but the MIT Technology Review predicts a success rate of 90%.
‘Amal’ Mars Exploration Mission Path Tracking Ⓒhttps://www.emiratesmarsmission.ae
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Jupiter Probe Juno’s mission extended
Juno is a Jupiter rover launched by NASA in 2011. He was tasked with investigating Jupiter’s atmosphere, the amount of water present on Jupiter, the gravitational and magnetic fields, and the presence of rock masses. In particular, unlike the Galileo probe that was launched earlier, photographed the outside of Jupiter, Juno mounted a visible light camera to photograph the inside of Jupiter and transmitted it to Earth. Since the first transmission of photographs taken in Jupiter’s orbit in 2016, it has been the first to photograph the poles through Jupiter’s radiation environment. It is thanks to Juno that Jupiter’s red spots can clearly identify the Great Red Spot.
Juno, who collected and introduced Jupiter’s actual image and Jupiter’s data to Earth during the seven-year mission, was scheduled to end its basic mission in July 2018 and crash into Jupiter in July 2021. But NASA sees the natural evolution of Jupiter’s gas as a new opportunity and extends Juno’s mission to September 2025.
Prior to Juno’s extension of the mission, the MIT Technology Review predicted a 90% chance of success with the Juno probe ending its activity.
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot photographed by NASA’s Juno spacecraft Ⓒwww.missionjuno
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Again, Challenge to the moon
Humans first set foot on the moon with the Apollo 11 launched in 1969. 52 years later, civilian cargo rockets will be launched on the moon in 2021. NASA said on June 20 this year that 28 cargoes, including 14 scientific materials and cargoes, will be destined for the moon in a Vulcan Centaur rocket via Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS). .
Since the first lunar exploration, the so-called space advanced countries have launched a lunar shuttle, led by the government, to move back and forth between the moon and the earth, opening the’space age’. However, this is the first time a private enterprise has attempted to land on the moon as a private enterprise.
The mission name’Peregrine Mission 1′, established by private company Astrobiotic with NASA, will deliver a box weighing about 770kg, about 1.9m high, and 2.5m wide to a large crater near the moon. If this mission is successful, another cargo will be transported to the moon aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket in October.
Russia, which temporarily suspended its lunar mission with Luna 24 in 1976, is expected to launch its 25th lander to Antarctica on October 25th. It seems that the US and China are actively carrying out the lunar exploration program.
Russia’s Luna 25 will test the landing technology it intends to use in future robotic missions, transport various research equipment to the lander to analyze the lunar soil.
The MIT Technology Review evaluated the success of the Vulcan Centaur as a’beginner’ towards the moon at 60% and the’career breaker’ Luna 25 at 80%.
Meanwhile, other missions in the MIT Technology Review’s 11 major space exploration missions and potential for success in 2021 can be found on the website (https://www.technologyreview.com).
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