Who are we and why do we live? These space missions will seek answers to fundamental questions [TOPtech]

OSIRIS-REx (from 2016)

On September 8, 2016, the Atlas V launch vehicle with the unmanned OSIRIS-REx probe was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Its target was the asteroid Bennu, one of the near-Earth objects and potentially dangerous asteroids for our planet. OSIRIS-REx reached its destination after just over two years of flight in December 2018. Shortly before, the spacecraft began observing the object, and NASA released amazing photos of the asteroid’s stony surface. On the last day of 2018, OSIRIS-REx entered orbit around Bennu, thus becoming the first man-made vehicle to orbit an asteroid.

We had to wait for the breakthrough moment of the mission until October 2020, when the probe approached Bennu and touched its surface for a few moments. NASA then took samples of the asteroid rocks with a special arm and sealed them in a special container, and then moved away from the object. The end of the mission is planned for September 2023, when the American space agency’s ship will deliver to Earth a capsule containing about 400 grams of priceless material from the asteroid. NASA believes that the study of rock samples untouched for 4.5 billion years will expand our understanding of the formation of the Earth and other planets of the solar system.

Mars 2020 (from 2020)

There has been a lot of talk about another mission in the last two years. After seven months of flight, in February 2021, the spacecraft with the rover Perseverance reached Mars. On February 18, NASA performed a spectacular landing of a Martian craft. The rover capsule initially decelerated in the rarefied atmosphere of the Red Planet, and Perseverance was then lowered to the Martian surface using a platform equipped with rocket engines. For more than two years, the rover has been exploring the bottom of the Jezero crater, where scientists believe there was a lake of liquid water in the past.

Perseverance has already made several discoveries and experiments, and one of the most interesting was the use of carbon dioxide taken from Martian air to produce oxygen. Researchers believe that this technology will allow the production of oxygen for future manned missions to Mars in the future. Together with the rover, NASA delivered a small Ingenuity drone to the surface of the fourth planet from the sun. In April 2021, for the first time in history, the vehicle made a flight using lift in an atmosphere other than our planet. Perseverance is currently exploring the Martian surface and collecting Martian soil samples to be taken from the Red Planet and delivered to Earth on one of its future space missions.

James Webb Space Telescope (from 2021)

Now it’s time for one of the absolute most important scientific instruments in history, the James Webb Space Telescope. Built at a trifle cost of $ 10 billion, the telescope was created for over two decades, and apart from scientists from NASA, researchers from the European and Canadian space agencies took part in the work. The instrument was launched into space in December 2021, and after a month of travel, it reached its final orbit around the Sun. It took the next few months for the researchers to get the observatory ready for work.

The real sensation came in mid-July 2022, when scientists presented the first few photographs taken by Webb. These turned out to be not only much sharper and more detailed than those taken using the Hubble Telescope, but also reached even deeper into the past, almost to the beginning of the Universe. The James Webb telescope – although it has been operating for less than a year – is today the most important astronomical observatory we have at our disposal. Researchers believe that it will allow us to explain many mysteries that the abyss of space still hides from us.

Artemis 1 and beyond (from 2022)

Artemis is not a single mission, but an entire program of space exploration. However, when talking about the most important space missions, we simply cannot omit it. The goal of the program is the first manned landing on the Moon since Apollo 17, and in the future also on Mars. The Americans announced their plans for manned missions a few years ago, but its inaugural mission did not take place until November 2022. NASA used a powerful Space Launch System rocket to launch the Orion spacecraft into space. He circled the Moon, and after a month spent in space, he returned to Earth, testing all Orion systems in practice.

The first mission was, of course, unmanned, but NASA and partner agencies plan to send astronauts into lunar orbit as early as late 2024. A year later, the historic first landing on the surface of the Silver Globe in over half a century is to take place. The astronauts will spend about a week on the moon. In the more distant perspective, NASA also plans to send people to Mars. However, this will probably not happen earlier than in the mid-30s of the 21st century.

Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer (from 2023)

Finally, the mission, which was entirely prepared and financed by the European Space Agency. We are talking about the JUICE mission, or rather Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer, which aims at three icy moons of Jupiter – Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. The mission’s €1.5 billion probe launched into space on April 14 this year from the spaceport in French Guiana. It is currently in orbit around the Sun, and will not reach Jupiter’s moon system until mid-2031. In December 2034, JUICE will enter orbit around Ganymede, becoming the first ever spacecraft to orbit a non-terrestrial moon.

The grand finale is planned for 2035, when the probe will be directed on a collision course with Ganymede and crash into its surface. The purpose of the mission is to study the conditions for life in the oceans located under the icy shells of Jupiter’s moons. Scientists also hope to find potential traces of living organisms on these objects.