Missions to land on the moon… and telescopes to study the universe
With the passage of the years and the developments witnessed in space and astronomy, it must be recognized that 2022 was a rich year that will be difficult to catch up with.
NASA stunned the world with cosmic scenes captured by the James Webb space telescope, the Dart mission pushed an asteroid into a new orbit, the human Artemis mission returned to the moon’s trajectory, China finished building a new space station in orbit, and the SpaceX company completed X »61 launches and missile landings in 12 months, and the Ukraine war led to the shaking of Russia’s position as a space power.
Predictable space events
These events and many others took place in 2022, but the year 2023 promises a lot of excitement from the launch pads, the surface of the moon and in the sky. Below we present to you a list of the most important expected space events. Although the dates for some of them have not been determined yet:
> One or more new landings on the moon: We can talk about one sure landing on the moon during 2023; The Japanese company, iSpace, launched its M1 mission aboard a SpaceX rocket last December. The M1 is moving in a slow and fuel-efficient way, and it is expected to reach the moon next April, when it will try to land a rover made by the United Arab Emirates and a robot developed by the Japanese space agency JAXA, in addition to other payloads. .
The new year may also witness 5 other launch attempts; NASA has teamed up with two private companies to deliver payloads to the lunar surface. Both companies, Intuitive Machines in Houston and Astrobotic Technology in Pittsburgh, have faced delays over the past year, but their scheduled flights could happen in the coming months.
Euclid telescope
Lunar missions belonging to three government programs may follow the example of these two companies, namely: the Indian “Chandrayan-3” mission, which was delayed last year and may be launched this year; the Japanese “Slim” mission (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon), which aims to test Japan’s lunar landing technologies; And the Russian “Luna 25” mission, which was postponed last September, and the “Russian Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos)” may try to launch it in 2023.
> New missiles: NASA’s “Space Launch” launch system left planet Earth in 2022, and lit up the Florida sky with an amazing flame, carrying with it the “Artemis 1” mission to the moon. This launch diverted attention to SpaceX, which is working today to build the next generation of its Starship rockets. One of the key elements in the manned and awaited “Artemis 3” mission to the moon.
SpaceX succeeded in bypassing a basic environmental review that reinforced its readiness to launch an experimental and unmanned orbital flight from South Texas if some conditions were met, but the rocket was not ready to fly in 2022. The company has not yet announced a test date for this year, but ground experiments The routine equipment of “Starship” indicates that the company is in the process of preparing for it.
In 2023 we may see a number of other missiles taking off for the first time. Most notably, the “Vulcan Centaur”, which will be launched by the “United Launch Alliance”, to finally replace the “Atlas V”, which played a major role in US missile launches in the past two decades. The Vulcan is based on a BE-4 engine designed by Blue Origin, a rocket company founded by Jeff Bezos.
A number of private US companies are expected to test space missiles this year. Most notably the companies “Relativity” and “EPL”, and foreign companies may join them, such as “Mitsubishi Heavy Industries”, which may test the Japanese “H3” missile in February, and the “Ariane Space” company, which is preparing for a test flight of the “Ariane 6” missile. » European.
Cosmic studies
> New space telescopes: The Webb telescope amazed space lovers and scientists with its pictures of the universes, but this year may bring us more opportunities through various orbital observatories. The Chinese “Shanshan” Observatory is the most prominent of them, as it is more like an updated and more advanced version of the famous “Hubble” telescope. The mission intends to survey the universe using optical and ultraviolet waves in Earth orbit, near the Chinese “Tianjong” space station. Also, Japan is expected to usher in the new year by launching the “CRISM” mission, which will use X-ray spectroscopy to study plasma clouds in an attempt to explain the composition of the universe. Last but not least, the European space telescope “Euclid (Euclides)” may launch on a SpaceX rocket after the Russian invasion of Ukraine led to the telescope losing its seat on the Russian “Sayuz” rocket. The European telescope aims to study dark energy and dark matter in the universe.
> New planetary missions: This year Jupiter will receive a spaceship that will be the first mission to orbit another planet’s moon. The “Jupiter ICE Moon Explorer” mission of the European Space Agency will launch on the “Ariane 5” rocket on April 5, to settle in the “Jovian” system (a satellite system formed by Jupiter’s satellites) in 2031. After arriving at The target planet, the mission intends to carry out 35 flights near 3 of the giant planet’s moons; These are Callisto, Europa, and Ganymede, which are believed to have oceans under their surfaces. In 2034, Joyce will begin orbiting Ganymede. The largest moons of the solar system.
in turn; The “Rocket Lab” company in New Zealand plans to get close to the sun and use the “Electron” rocket to send a mission to Venus (Venus). The company’s satellite, called “Photon”, will try to employ a small probe developed by the company in cooperation with researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to conduct a rapid study of the planet’s toxic atmosphere. The mission was scheduled to launch next May, but it will likely face some delay due to the company’s prioritization of other missions.
> Total and near total eclipses: Two solar eclipses await us in 2023; A complete one on next April 20 will dominate the southern part of the globe, during which the moon will completely block sunlight in distant parts of Australia and Indonesia.
in turn; North America will witness an annular eclipse on the 14th of October. Sometimes this type of eclipse is called a “ring of fire”; Because the moon during it is very far from the earth so that it cannot completely block the sun, but it shows what looks like a ring effect when it reaches its climax. This eclipse will appear in parts of the United States before ending in South and Central America. And if the weather conditions are right, people will enjoy a wonderful solar show that precedes a total eclipse on April 8, 2024, which is expected to cover the United States from the southwest to the northeast.
The New York Times Service.