Published January 2020.
A new year brings with it a plethora of new space missions to look forward to. In this issue, we’ve outlined some of the upcoming space exploration missions over the next few years that aim to expand our understanding of the Solar System and deliver new science and technology.
1: Mars 2020
NASA’s Mars 2020 mission continues the team’s endeavours to prepare for human exploration of the red planet in the 2030s. Mars 2020 aims to launch a rover in July 2020, landing in the Jezero Crater in February 2021. Modelled on Curiosity, this car-sized, albeit heavier, rover will carry an array of instruments to seek signs of ancient life, collect and store soil and rock samples for a future return mission and demonstrate future technologies. Among this includes a new landing technique known as Terrain-Relative Navigation, which essentially allows the rover to determine its location relative to the ground as it descends and can trigger an autopilot function to avoid hazardous areas. Descents through the Martian atmosphere have proved challenging for past missions, limited by the ability to detect relative location and having to instead pick a target landing zone before descending. As a result, landing target zones have been on the safer plains of Mars. Using the TNR, the Mars rover will be able to explore riskier zones that potentially contain primitive, unseen material. Another neat piece of kit is the MOXIE, an instrument designed to convert Mars’ carbon dioxide into oxygen – a vital instrument if humans are to set foot on Mars. Although there are several Mars missions, this one forms part of the bridge from the Moon, to Mars that NASA has set as its decadal vision.
2: ExoMars 2020
Hot on NASA’s heels follows the joint ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars rover mission, also due to launch in July
2020 and arrive at Mars in March 2021. It will also demonstrate key, future technologies for a safe entry,
descent and landing (EDL) to the Martian surface, mobility across the tricky terrain and conduct in-situ
sample analysis thanks to the Russian-built surface lab known as Kazachok. A main science focus will be
on studying the exobiology and geochemistry of preserved, subsurface materials. Oxia Planum is the
chosen landing site, beating the other potential candidate, Mawrth Vallis. Both sites are located just north
of the equator and have regions containing channels that cut through the southern highlands into the
northern lowlands. However, Oxia Planum is the safer of the two sites for landing and has the largest
exposure of rocks dating back to around 3.9 billion years old, so should help to achieve those science
goals.
3: Starship and Crew Dragon
In September last year, Elon Musk stood in front of a full-sized prototype of Space X’s latest fleet member: Starship. Standing 50 metres high and wrapped in gleaming stainless steel, this behemoth of a spacecraft is designed to transport 100 people into space and perform vertical ascents and descents much like the Falcon boosters. Musk has indicated that with testing underway, his ambition is for Starship to conduct its first orbital test flight in 2020. It would be an amazing feat of engineering if the orbital launch arrives as early as he says. Closer to achieving its goals, is the seven-man capacity spacecraft Crew Dragon, which suffered setbacks last year, causing delays to the much anticipated manned test flight.
NASA and SpaceX maintain the focus remains on Crew Dragon and that they aim to have a manned flight in 2020 with two astronauts on board. All in all, it could be an exciting year for SpaceX.
4: James Webb Space Telescope
Having garnered attention for the wrong reasons (recent delays and overspend), the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has been making steady progress following replanning and is on track to launch in March 2021. In August 2019, the JWST was fully assembled for the first time along with its scientific instruments, sunshield and the spacecraft into one single observatory – a significant milestone for the project. Designed to operate in very low temperatures of around -230 C, the JWST will be able to observe in the near and mid-infrared wavelengths. Combined with its size (its primary mirror is approximately seven times larger than its predecessor, Hubble), it also carries four scientific instruments that will enable it to capture faint objects, allowing us to look back further into the universe than ever before.
5: Gaganyaan
In 2019, all eyes were on India’s Space Agency (ISRO) as it attempted to land its spacecraft, Chandrayaan-2 on the Moon. Although they didn’t quite succeed, it captured the world’s attention and respect. ISRO announced that it will attempt another moon landing in 2020 (Chandrayaan-3) but it also talked about another lesser known mission, Gaganyaan. Gaganyaan is India’s mission to send astronauts into space by the end of 2021. The crew module is already in development as are the engines that will be used on a human-rated version of the GSLV MK-III launch vehicle. The ISRO is working to ambitious timelines and plans to conduct its first unmanned tests in December 2020. If India succeed in this mission, they will become only the fourth nation to send humans into space.
6: Psyche
A pretty cool mission name, isn’t it? NASA’s tag line for this is a “mission to a metal world”. Indeed Psyche, named after the ancient Greek goddess of the soul, is one of the ten largest asteroids in the asteroid belt located between Mars and Jupiter. Psyche is unique in that it is made of metal, rather than rock or ice, thought to be a product of violent impacts that may have stripped away its mantle. Left behind is an exposed nickel-iron core of a protoplanet, similar to that though to exist at the centre of the terrestrial planets (but are unreachable for observation). By studying this core, NASA hopes to learn more about the early formation of the rocky planets and how they came to accrete metal cores. We could discover that an entirely different process was responsible for Psyche’s creation and that would be equally exciting. The Psyche spacecraft is due to launch in 2022 and reach the asteroid’s orbit in 2026, where it will conduct observations for 21 months.
7: JUICE
JUICE (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer) is the first large mission under ESA’s ten-year Cosmic Vision programme. With the go ahead given in April 2019 to begin production, launch is planned for 2022, arriving at Jupiter in 2029. Over three years, JUICE will study the gas giant and make detailed observations of Jupiter’s three largest moons, Ganymede, Callisto and Europa, with Ganymede being the predominant focus. Among the themes for the Cosmic Vision programme is the emergence of life, and JUICE will focus on the habitable environments around gas giants, using Jupiter as the archetype and blueprint for other solar systems. For a long time, we have speculated over what lies beneath the icy exterior of these satellites and how they formed, so this mission is one to watch.
8: Europa Clipper
Since 1979 when Voyager returned images of Europa, the smallest of Jupiter’s four Galilean moons, scientists have strong evidence to believe that beneath its water-ice crust, it harbours a salty, liquid ocean – more liquid than all of the Earth’s oceans combined – and may potentially have the right conditions conducive to life. NASA’s Europa Clipper is planned for launch this year, although at the time of writing, there is no firm date. The spacecraft will journey to Jupiter and from there, conduct 45 close passes of Europa, over the course of which it will scan the entire moon. Each pass will vary in trajectory and in altitude, ranging from 2700 kilometres to 25 kilometres above the moon’s surface. Europa Clipper will scan the moon for subsurface oceans, and collect data on its depth, chemistry and composition, relaying data back to the mission team for analysis after each flyby.
9: China’s Space Station
Although China’s Chang’e-4 mission to the Moon garnered a lot of attention, the Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA) has also been diligently working on another project: its own space station. Known as the Tiangong programme, the CNSA has set the goal of completing a modular space station by 2022, and is on its way to doing so having already launched two space laboratories, Tiangong 1 and 2 in 2011 and 2016 (both have been subsequently deorbited). No date has been confirmed as yet but it is thought that the core module of the CSS, known as Tianhe will be ready for launch in 2020. The core module will provide life support systems, living quarters and docking stations, while 2 other modules will follow to provide experimentation labs. The CSS will be able to board three astronauts at a time, and the CNSA has indicated that it is very much intended as an international platform, to replace the ISS when it retires.
10: Artemis 1
We couldn’t do a top ten without mentioning, what is set to be the biggest programme of space exploration of the decade. Artemis, NASA’s mission to go back to the Moon and establish a lunar gateway deserves a call out, despite a Moon landing still being at least four years away. NASA has stated that it is targeting 2020 for Artemis 1 (formerly Exploration Mission-1) to send an uncrewed test flight of the SLS and Orion spacecraft together into lunar orbit. Its timeline includes 2022 for Artemis 2 to send a crewed test flight into lunar orbit and to begin constructing the first element of the Lunar Gateway in space, followed by Artemis 3 in 2024, where they hope to once again, set man down on the Moon. Ambitious, big and compelling.
This article was featured in Popular Astronomy, January 2020 issue.
Nisha Beerjeraz-Hoyle 