Trips and explorations to the Moon, Mars and Venus are in the plans of some countries in their busy race into space.
Space travel is booming, as new space stations are planned and the race to the Moon and Mars continues. The list of missions that are planned in the world is long and the number of countries and commercial suppliers that participate grows every day.
With a private astronaut’s first mission, a movie shoot, and perhaps finally a Boeing Starliner flight to the ISS space station, private companies re-engage in America’s space plans by 2022.
An overview about the projects for the new year:
U.S
The North American Space Agency NASA has bet in recent years more and more on commercial partners and wants to further strengthen this type of cooperation in 2022. It has planned with the firm SpaceX de Elon Musk various projects, including new manned and unmanned voyages to the International Space Station (ISS).
The agency further hopes that the spacecraft Starliner de Boeing, affected by the crisis, may soon fly to the ISS.
In addition, it was planned with the company Axiom Space the first private astronaut mission to the space station, where the Hollywood star Tom Cruise he also plans to shoot a movie there. The company Blue Origin, from the creator of Amazon Jeff Bezos, meanwhile, is planning its own commercial space station.
However, the new administrator of NASA, Bill Nelson, had to correct the calendar set up by his predecessor: the mission Artemis was to take American astronauts, including the first woman, to the city for the first time in nearly 50 years in 2024 Luna. Now, this moon landing will take place at the earliest in 2025.
The mission is scheduled to take four astronauts on the spacecraft Orion to lunar orbit, from where two of them will make a transfer to a space vehicle of SpaceX to make the last trip and land on the moon. In addition, it is intended to create a kind of space station on the Moon that serves as a base for a manned flight to Marsbut only in the distant future.
Russia
The Russian space agency Roscosmos In the meantime, it hopes to put an end to the series of breakdowns at its new Vostochni cosmodrome in the new year. “We must finish its construction in 2022,” declared Roskosmos chief Dmitri Rogosin.
The spaceport facilities, located about 6,000 kilometers east of Moscow, have been partially operational for five years now, although they should have been fully operational for some time. But corruption and company bankruptcies posed a number of obstacles.
According to official plans, new models of rockets, such as the “Angara”, will take off from Vostochni in the future.
Russia also wants to make a new attempt to reach the moon from the new spaceport next spring. The launch of the space probe Luna 25 It is slated for May, although it really should have been on the way a long time ago.
“We will re-enter lunar orbit for the first time after 46 years,” said Rogosin. In the future, cosmonauts will also fly to the moon. Russia wants to build a space station on Earth’s satellite by 2040.
According to the flight plan, in 2022 at least five Russian spacecraft will arrive at the ISS, two of them manned by cosmonauts.
Debate is likely to continue over the term of operation of the station, which has now been in operation for more than 20 years. The official decision on its continuity after 2024 is still pending. Russia wants to build its own space station and plans could be finalized in the coming months.
Meanwhile, in 2022 a terrestrial project will be concluded, the construction of the new space center in Moscow, which will also be the headquarters of the authorities of the field. The 248-meter-high building, which would resemble a rocket, will house some 20,000 employees. Space research will be carried out at its facilities.
China
China, the emerging space power, plans to finalize several of its ambitious plans in 2022. Top priority will be placed on the timely completion of the space station Tiangong (Heavenly Palace), the construction of which should be completed by the end of the new year.
The central module Tianhe (Celestial Harmony) was launched into space in April. A crew of three astronauts currently live and work there. China has yet to launch two more modules of the station into space, while planning new cargo missions and manned flights.
The highlight of the Chinese space program so far has been the 2019 moon landing of a rover on the far side of the Moon. No other country had accomplished this maneuver before. In 2021, the Chinese also took their first rover to Mars.
The Chinese government’s space ambitions are not only linked to national prestige, but also to the global technological leadership that it wants to challenge the United States. Meanwhile, more missions to the Earth’s satellite and the red planet are planned in the medium term.
Europe
The European Space Agency (ESA) expects potentially spectacular results from ongoing missions in 2022 and is confident of the successful launch of new space voyages.
It should also be an exciting year for European astronauts. For example, the Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti He is scheduled to conduct his second space mission in April and become an ISS commander. It is also possible that there will be an encounter on board the station with German astronaut Matthias Maurer, which is due to end its six-month research stay some 400 kilometers from Earth in April.
The Solar Orbiter probe, Launched in 2020, it will come within 50 million kilometers of the Sun in March, closer to the center of the solar system than any previous space probe, and is expected to provide new images of the star.
By June 2020, the probe had already flown less than 77 million kilometers from the Sun and had taken images of mysterious “bonfires” on the star.
After a successful launch, Europeans expect the first observations of the new James Webb space telescope, created in collaboration with Americans and Canadians.
New missions are also on the Europeans’ agenda, such as the Artemis 1, which will depart in February with the European service module on board. The unmanned mission to the Moon will last 20 days and will serve as preparation for a future manned moon landing in conjunction with NASA.
In September the second part of the mission will be launched ExoMars, with a rover on board heading to Mars. ExoMars aims to investigate the question of whether there has ever been life on the red planet.
And by the middle to the end of the year it should be decided which of the many applicants will participate in future missions as ESA astronaut.
United Arab Emirates
It is one of the richest countries in the world and they also carry out an ambitious space program.
The current objectives are reach the Moon in 2024, explore Venus from 2028 and land a probe on an asteroid by 2033. So far, only two missions have managed to land on an asteroid, one from the United States and one from Japan. In February, an Emirati space probe reached Mars, a planet that the Arab country wants to colonize in less than 100 years.
As at the World’s Fair, which opened in October in Dubai, the Emirates are also concerned with showing the image of a modern and progressive state that literally reaches for the stars.
The budget, however, is still manageable. It accounts for about a fifth of the more than $ 20 billion available to NASA in the current budget year.
Saudi Arabia also wants to get into the game, having its own satellites built and launched into orbit. Riyadh is also betting that there will soon be a lot of money to be made in space. According to estimates, the space industry could generate more than a trillion dollars annually by 2040.
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
