From Mars to asteroids and space robots, we will see space exploration continue to expand throughout the solar system. We will also see some new rockets take off from the earth.
People on earth have finally crossed 2020, and aliens have come to join in the fun. There is no doubt that we are looking forward to a lot of cool and exciting space events next year, and these stories will be the most anticipated. In the magical year of 2021, take off to take risks!
What space events will be worthy of attention on earth in 2021?
? 1 Landing on Mars
With the arrival of three different missions, the ability of human beings to study Mars will make a great leap in 2021.
The space industry is developing rapidly, and Mars is currently the most popular mission destination. NASA will continue its long-term exploration of life on Mars. It will store samples of Mars on Earth for final analysis and test the first Mars helicopter named ingenious. China’s "Tianwen-1" mission is the first mission to mars independently developed by China, and we will see the trinity of orbiter, lander and rover to explore this red planet. The United Arab Emirates also launched the first mission "Hope Orbiter" to Mars to inspire the "next generation".
Tianwen-1, China
According to the information released by the National Space Administration, February 10th, 2021 will be the key time node for the near fire braking capture of the Mars probe in Tianwen-1, which is also the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month in China, just one day away from New Year’s Eve, and it is the strongest gift for the Chinese New Year to hundreds of millions of people.
The twelfth lunar month 29 entered the orbit around Mars.
On April 23rd, Tianwen-1 will arrive on Mars. Thirteen different scientific payloads were deployed, including seven on the orbiter and six on the Mars rover. The orbiter will use its radar, spectrometer, magnetometer and other instruments to study Mars from orbit. The launch mass of the probe is 5 tons, which is the largest probe ever launched to Mars. The reason why Tianwen-1 weighs 5 tons is that it has to realize the "circling, landing and patrolling" of Mars in one step, that is, Mars circling, landing and patrolling the fire surface, and it is equipped with multiple cabin structures, such as orbiter, entry module, landing gear and patrol, thus creating the historical record of the largest Mars probe in human history.
Tianwen-1 orbiter and its high resolution camera
Schematic diagram of Tianwen-1 location
Tianwen-1 is the first step of independent interplanetary exploration in China, and this first step is also a brilliant beginning. Tianwen-1 has been in orbit for more than 157 days since its launch on July 23, during which it made three mid-course corrections and one deep space maneuver. At this time, it is only about 10 million kilometers away from entering the gravitational capture point of Mars, and the journey has passed more than half. At present, it is aiming at the near-fire capture node on February 10, 2021. Next, the last track correction will be made, followed by the first near-fire braking. Due to the longer and longer communication delay of the ground fire, it is necessary for the detector track control engine to ignite on time, and the ignition time is longer (15 minutes), which requires extremely high on-orbit autonomous management and performance of the power system.
Near fire braking of 3000N engine
After the first near fire braking, Tianwen-1 will enter the capture orbit, and then the capture orbit will be maneuvered to change the inclination angle of the far fire surface. Finally, the detector assembly will run in the ring fire orbit for a period of time, during which the high-resolution camera will be used to carry out high-definition imaging on the key areas of the fire surface to further select the landing zone, so as to prepare for the lander to implement the Mars landing operation. Behind Tianwen-1’s seemingly rapid progress is solid engineering strength accumulation and scientific mission planning, without the slightest impulse and recklessness, which is also the concrete practice of great powers in major aerospace projects.
American perseverance
Artist’s impression of persistence and the ingenious helicopter.image: NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance was launched on July 30, 2020 and will arrive on Mars on February 18. If the landing is successful, Perseverance will be the fifth rover to reach Mars, and the others are Pathfinder, Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity (other famous probes, such as NASA’s Insight, are landers, not rovers). This six-wheeled, 2,260-pound aircraft is equipped with various instruments, including 23 different cameras, a device for monitoring the weather on Mars, an ultraviolet spectrometer for scanning the surface of Mars on a micro scale, a ground penetrating radar, and many other cool toys. High-definition simulation animation of the landing of Perseverance on Mars.
What is exciting is that Perseverance will collect samples of the surface of Mars and store them in small jars, which will be recycled and brought back to Earth in the following missions. The probe will land at Jezero crater, which used to be a lake, where Perseverance will look for signs of ancient life. "Perseverance" is also equipped with a miniature helicopter named "Wit", which is expected to be the first plane to fly on another planet, which gives people a lot of goose bumps.
Mars is a fascinating planet!
It is cold and covered with red dust and dirt. Like the earth, it has volcanoes, canyons and flat plains.
Scientists can also see ditches that look like they were carved by rivers and streams a long time ago.
Over the years, humans have launched four robotic aircraft, collectively known as Rovers!
NASA’s first wheeled Mars probe, Sojourner, was deployed on the Pathfinder lander in July 1997. Sojourner was named by 12-year-old Valerie Ambrose of Connecticut in memory of Sojourner Truth, an abolitionist and activist in the 19th century.
Sophie collis, a third-year student from Arizona, won the contest to name Spirit and Opportunity, two NASA rovers that landed on Mars in January 2004, three weeks apart. The car-sized Curiosity Rover has been exploring Gail Crater on this red planet since August 2012. Its name is named after Clara Ma, a sixth-grade student in Kansas.
Perseverance is modeled after Curiosity, and the new generation of Curiosity will adopt the same descent and landing system as Curiosity. And the connection between these two tasks goes far beyond this; Curiosity confirmed that Gail Crater had the ability to support life similar to Earth a long time ago. Hello, everyone, I’m the rover Perseverance! Thirteen-year-old Alex gave me this name!
United Arab Emirates-Hope
Artist’s conception of the UAE’s Hope Probe.Image: UAE Space Agency
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is also carrying out its first mission to mars in the form of "Hope" mission. This 3000-pound satellite will arrive in Mars in February this year to study the atmosphere and weather of Mars. The probe will enter a unique equatorial orbit, where it will move in the same direction as the planet’s rotation. This will enable Hope to focus on a single target for a long time.
Return to the moon
There is more water on the moon than we thought, and there is water almost everywhere. Some upcoming missions in 2021 will continue to improve our understanding of the earth, a large natural satellite.
Private space lunar exploration
Conceptual Image of Astrobotic’s Lander. Image: Astrobotic In July 2021, Astrobotic Technology, a private space company based in Pittsburgh, will launch the NASA“Peregrine Falcon-1 probe for NASA. The four-legged probe will land on the northeast side of the visible side of the moon, which is called the Death Lake. Peregrine Falcon will provide NASA with instruments for testing navigation and landing technology. If the mission goes as planned, the ashes of the famous science fiction writer Arthur C clark will be put on the moon.
Japanese rover rides ULA’s 1st Vulcan rocket Image credit: Sierra Nevada Corp.
Yaoki, Japan’s first lunar rover, will take off on the rookie mission of the new Vulcan Centaur rocket of the United Launch Alliance in 2021. Yao Mu will fly to the moon with the Peregrine Falcon lander of Astrobotic, a Pittsburgh-based company. This mission is sponsored by NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Service (CLPS) project.
Intuitive Machines, a private space company headquartered in Houston, will also use SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket to launch a robotic commercial lander named Nova-C to the moon in the summer of 2021. The Houston-based company said that the lander will "capture the original optical image of the lunar surface and convert it into topographic relative navigation measurement data to land within 200 meters (660 feet) from the scheduled landing site." The lander will send five NASA commercial lunar payloads (CLPS) to the lunar surface and send 13.5 Earth days’ data to our planet.
The payloads of other customers will be carried by Nova-C, because the lander is still capable of performing tasks.
Gwynne Shotwell, president of SpaceX, said in a statement: "Our cooperation with Intuitive Machines is a good example of two private companies cooperating with NASA to promote space exploration."
Countries return to the moon
(Image credit: NPO Lavochkin)
Russian will return to the moon in 2024, and launch Lunar 25 lander to Boguslavski crater near the South Pole of the moon. The probe will be equipped with eight scientific instruments to explore the area and look for signs of water ice. The last time Russia landed on the moon was in 1976, when it was the "Moon 24" of the Soviet Union.
The Russian lander luna -25 may be the first Russian spacecraft to reach the surface of the moon since the former Soviet Union. Russia plans to launch a lunar mission in 2021, carrying nine instruments. Luna -25 will land at the south pole of the moon and study the surface and outer circle of the moon. NASA and other space agencies are considering manned missions to the moon in this area in the future. From 1950s to 1970s, the Soviet Union made several unmanned missions to the moon, including the first spacecraft that hit the moon (luna II in 1959), the first spacecraft that made a soft landing (luna 9 in 1966), the first robotic lunar rover (luna 17/Lunar Rover 1 in 1970), and other milestones.
India’s Lunar Ship 3 mission will include a soft landing of the lunar rover at the South Pole of the Moon. The launch is scheduled for the end of 2021, but it may be postponed until 2022. I hope this mission can be better than Chandrayaan-2. On Chandrayaan-2, the vikram probe crashed on the surface of the moon due to communication failure.
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New rocket
Vulcan rocket of ULA United Launch Alliance, H3 rocket of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Ariane 6 rocket of Arianespace; Blue Origin and SpaceX are not the only companies that plan to launch new rockets in 2021. Some small satellite launching companies also hope to enter orbit in the coming year, including Firefly Aerospace Company, Relativistic Rocket Company and Virgin Orbit Company. China Commercial Aerospace Company, Star Glory, Blue Arrow Aerospace, etc.
Texas-based Firefly Aerospace Company originally hoped to launch the first Alpha rocket in 2020, which is a two-stage booster for launching small satellites, but now plans to carry out multiple missions in 2021. In addition to the first launch of the Alpha rocket from vandenberg air force base, California, Firefly plans to launch at least two more missions in 2021, according to the new launch agreement with the adaptive launch service company.
Relativistic Space, a startup rocket company based in Los Angeles, California, is building Terran 1 Terran 1 rocket, which is a fully 3d printed booster and will launch small satellites from launch pads in Cape Canaveral, Florida and Vandenberg. The company is expected to make its first flight in 2021, and recently won a second launch contract from NASA among other commercial agreements.
NASA SLS giant rocket launched its first mission to the moon.
Some very important launch plans will be carried out in 2021, and perhaps none is as important as the first launch of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS).
Artist’s concept of NASA’s space launch system (SLS) blasting off. image: As a part of NASA’s Artemis program, this rocket is expected to send astronauts to the moon in 2024 and eventually humans to Mars. The first version of this huge rocket will be able to transport more than 27 metric tons (or 59,500 pounds) to orbit farther than the moon, with a speed of nearly 24,500 miles per hour (39,400 k/h). The first launch is planned for November 2021, when the rocket will put an unmanned Orion capsule into orbit.
Biden will be sworn in as the president of the United States in January 2021. He should learn more about his government’s NASA policy and whether NASA is still expected to send astronauts to the surface of the moon in 2024. If the giant launcher of NASA’s ambitious space launch system can clear the test obstacles this year and complete the construction on time, the agency’s Artemis I mission will fly around the moon after launch in November 2021. This will be the first launch of SLS and the second launch of NASA’s Orion spacecraft, which carried out its first unmanned space mission in 2014. Artemis-1 is the key to NASA’s human moon landing program, because the agency plans to carry out a manned orbital moon mission in 2023 and then a manned moon landing in 2024. However, Jim Breeden, director of NASA, warned Congress that meeting the landing deadline may also depend on whether NASA can get more funds for its manned landing system.
SpaceX starship first commercialized
Starship prototype during free fall, in a test completed on December 9, 2020. Image: For SpaceX, 2021 should be an exciting year. The company led by Elon musk intends to put a 165-foot (50-meter) high spacecraft into orbit. The next generation of rockets will carry goods and passengers to Earth orbit, the moon and Mars. As SpaceX builds a broadband Internet constellation, the company will continue to deliver a large number of Starlink satellites. After several ambitious tests in 2020, SpaceX may send its first commercial payload into space by Starship spacecraft in 2021. Jonathan Hofeller, SpaceX’s vice president in charge of commercial sales, said in June 2019 that the company is negotiating launch opportunities with several telecom companies. However, even if SpaceX has not set this tentative date, it is rapidly advancing the development of interstellar spacecraft, including an ambitious maneuver test in December 2020.
New Glen rocket with blue origin appeared.
Blue Origin reusable first-class new Glenn rocket.
(Image credit: Blue Origin)
If all goes according to plan, Blue Origin Company in Washington State will launch its first orbiting rocket in 2021. Named New Glen after NASA astronaut john glenn, the rocket can launch up to 14 tons (13 metric tons) into geostationary orbit and 50 tons (45 metric tons) into low-earth orbit. NASA and Blue Origin recently announced that the rocket will join NASA’s commercial launch vehicle fleet; NASA has used Blue Origin’s suborbital rocket New Shepard (named after NASA astronaut Al Shepard).
Starliner crew test flight
Boeing’s CST-100 star-wheel spacecraft will be launched in January next year, Starliner’s second unmanned test mission. Boeing encountered some problems when it launched the commercial manned spaceship Orbit Test Flight -1 (OFT-1) into space in 2019-it did not arrive at the International Space Station as planned, and both NASA and the company investigated and implemented some lessons; Boeing hopes to make a second attempt on March 29, 2021, after the company solved the software problem that prevented Starliner from reaching his destination for the first time. If Boeing succeeds, Starliner will become the second certified commercial manned spacecraft to put astronauts into orbit after SpaceX’s "manned dragon". Assuming Starliner passes the unmanned flight test, Boeing plans to send three astronauts to the International Space Station no earlier than June 2021. NASA astronauts Mike Fink, Nicole Mann and Barry "Butch" Wilmore will conduct Boeing’s first manned test flight. Chris Ferguson, a Boeing astronaut, was initially assigned to command the mission, but for personal reasons, he withdrew from the often delayed spacecraft in October 2020.
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Deep space exploration
Adventures in deep space
The James Webb Space Telescope will be launched on October 31st, 2021.
(Image credit: NASA/Chris Gunn)
After many delays and expectations, NASA will launch the James Webb Space Telescope on October 31, 2021 (keep your fingers crossed). This new generation infrared telescope will run at the Lagrangian point of the Earth-Sun L2, nearly 1 million miles away from the Earth. From this vantage point, JWST will gaze at the early universe, study galaxies and supermassive black holes, and provide new insights into exoplanets, including atmospheric composition and even possible habitability. It has been delayed for many years from the original launch date in 2007. In July 2020, Covid-19 forced JWST to postpone the time from March to October, and then to 2021 for another seven months. However, NASA said that although telescopes may make this date possible.
A new NASA mission called Lucy will study eight space rocks in the next 10 years.
NASA’s Lucy mission launch to eight asteroids
Schematic of the dart mission. image: NASA/Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab Other notable launches in 2021 include NASA’s Lucy spacecraft, which will fly to Jupiter’s Trojan asteroid sometime in October or November, and NASA’s "double asteroid redirection test", which is scheduled to be launched in late July. The DART spacecraft will visit the twin asteroid Didymos and then deliberately hit the object to test our ability to change the direction of a potentially dangerous asteroid. This spacecraft will be the first visit by NASA to Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids, which orbit the sun in the form of two clusters. The James Webb Space Telescope will be launched on October 31, 2021, one behind Jupiter and the other in front of Jupiter. Lucy will also pass a main belt asteroid on her way to this huge gas giant planet.
The ongoing deep space exploration
Ongoing adventures in deep space
Remember NASA’s Juno spacecraft? The Juno probe took those incredible photos of Jupiter. How did it detect the shallow lightning and mushy hail on this gas giant?
A detailed photo of Jupiter’s clouds as captured by NASA’s Juno Space Craft in 2017. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SWRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstdt/Seá ndoran Unfortunately, This is almost the end of Juno, because NASA plans to deorbit Juno and disintegrate in Jupiter’s atmosphere on July 16th (they do this to prevent the pollution of Jupiter’s system). On the positive side, the mission lasted 41 months longer than NASA originally planned, that’s all.
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is the only country that successfully collected samples from the asteroid surface (Hayabusa 2 brought back samples from the Longgong asteroid earlier this month), but NASA’s OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft in Bennu may have a storage room full of debris collected from the asteroid surface. Osiris-Rex will leave Bennu in March, but will not reach Earth until September 2023.
NASA’s Parker Solar Detector will perform three perihelions (the closest orbit to the sun) in 2021, and it is getting closer and closer to its final destruction, which may happen in 2025. The probe will also fly past Venus in October, reaching a distance of 2,352 miles (3,786 kilometers). This flyby of Venus will make the probe fly along a path, which will make it the closest man-made object to the sun (this record has been kept by it). The European Space Agency’s solar orbiter is also studying the sun. It will officially enter the main stage of the mission in November, but the probe is already doing some exciting work.
Bepi Colombo of the European Space Agency plans to enter the orbit of Mercury by the end of 2025, but it will approach Venus on August 10th, 2021. With the help of this second gravity, Babe Colombo will be within 343 miles (552 kilometers) of Venus.
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near-earth orbit
Astroscale space debris removal experiment
(Image credit: Astroscale)
Astroscale-Demonation(ELSA-d) end-of-life service mission will be launched from Kazakhstan in March 2021 with Russian Soyuz rocket to cope with the increasingly serious problem of space debris in orbit. The dual spacecraft mission includes a 385-pound spacecraft. "customers" who will use rendezvous technology and magnetic capture mechanism in orbit. As more and more companies send micro spacecraft into low earth orbit, it is expected that orbital debris will increase in the next few years.
space station
China will launch the Tianhe Space Station module in 2021, which will be the basic element of the whole space station and is expected to be completed in 2025. The core module of China Space Station will be launched this spring, and the space station construction task of China’s manned spaceflight project has been fully started, and the astronauts who have carried out four missions in the space station construction phase have been selected! Zhou Jianping, chief designer of China’s manned spaceflight project, said that the core module of China Space Station is expected to be launched in the spring of 2021. In the next two years, it is planned to build the Tiangong Space Station independently built and operated by China through 11 intensive missions.
Activities on the International Space Station will continue as usual. The 64 astronauts of the expedition are expected to complete most of the work, make full use of their brand-new Bishop airlock nano-rocks, and conduct a series of cool scientific experiments.
Private astronauts fly to the International Space Station. SpaceX plans to send astronauts into space in 2021 with Axiom Space, a Houston-based company, to perform tasks on the International Space Station. This trip may have eight days of space station and two days of travel time. Although tourists have visited the space station before, Axiom pointed out that this will be the "first completely private" trip to the space station. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) hopes to open the space station in the future to gain more business opportunities, although Congress did not provide enough funds for these plans in fiscal year 2021.
Astronomical phenomena
In the coming year, amateur astronomers will have some events worth looking forward to, including the total lunar eclipse on May 26th, which will be visible in all 50 states of the United States (including most of Alaska), most of Canada, Southeast Asia, Australia, Oceania and parts of South America. There will be a total solar eclipse on December 4, 2021, but it is limited to Antarctica, and a partial solar eclipse can also be seen in South Africa.
The Rubin Observatory under construction in Chile. Image: Rubin Observatory Chile’s Vera C Rubin Observatory will not achieve full power until October 2022, but its wide-field reflecting telescope will see the first beam of light in 2021. Unless elon musk’s star chain blocks our view, astronomers will use this device to capture 1,000 images every night and observe nearby stars and distant galaxies.
The potentially dangerous asteroid Apophis will approach the Earth in March this year, when it will be within 10.5 million miles (16.9 million kilometers). This will be our last chance to observe this asteroid with radar imaging. It will be very close to the Earth in 2029, when it will be within 19,000 miles (31,000 kilometers) of the Earth, which is one tenth of the distance from the Earth to distance to the moon. The probability of Apophis hitting the earth in 2068 is extremely low, but it is not zero.
https://gizmodo.com/the-space-news-we-ll-be-watching-in-2021-1845842911
https://www.space.com/space-missions-to-watch-in-2021
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/cQnjSUqtfNtORn7fxpHiLQ