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This year will be an out-of-this-world year when it comes to space missions, launches, and the next steps in space exploration.
In 2023, NASA will begin its trek into the metal world, a spacecraft will drop an unprecedented asteroid sample on Earth, a crew member will participate in a historic lunar mission, and several new commercial A rocket could make its launch debut.
I have looking forward to itaccording to NASA administrator Bill Nelson.
“More amazing discoveries from webb telescope, climate mission It will tell us more about how our planet is changing, the continuation of science on the International Space Station, and groundbreaking aeronautical developments by astronauts. X-59 When X-57 Experimental aircraft, the selection of the first astronauts to go to the moon in over 50 years,” Nelson said in a statement.
on the other hand, European Space Agency Launch missions to Jupiter and its moons, send satellites to create 3D maps of the universe, and begin training for the latest astronaut classes. This includes astronauts with physical disabilities.
Interactive: Best Space Photos of 2022
Here are some of the space headlines you can expect to see this year.
last year, Inaugural Mission One of NASA’s Artemis programs kicked off with a successful test flight to send an unmanned spacecraft on its historic journey around the Moon. The program’s first manned flight, the Artemis II mission, isn’t expected to take off until the spring of 2024, but the public will soon learn the names of the lucky astronauts who will be on board.
The space agency has already narrowed down its astronaut squad to the following areas. 18 applicants Eligible for Artemis Crew assignments. And last month, NASA officials announced that they would unveil the Artemis II crew in early 2023.
The Artemis II mission will have four people orbiting the moon and returning to Earth.
The next mission, Artemis III, aims to land astronauts on the moon for the first time since the 20th century Apollo program.
Artemis may not have a manned flight this year, but NASA is planning to send a robotic lander to the moon in an effort to further study the lunar topography and radiation environment and search for potential resources. Planning to land. It is mined from the moon and used for deeper exploration of space.
The program is called the Commercial Lunar Payload Service (CLPS) and relies on partnerships with more than a dozen companies privately developing their own lunar landers.
The first lander to fly under the program could be the one built by Pennsylvania-based Astrobotic. 11 science and exploration instruments We will reach the moon in the first few months of 2023. Land in Lacus Mortis, a large crater on the near side of the Moon.
Three more CLPS program missions could start in 2023, according to the company. NASA website.
The long-awaited Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer Mission juicewill be available between April 5th and 25th.
Launched from a European spaceport in French Guiana, the European Space Agency mission will spend three years delving into Jupiter and its three icy moons (Ganymede, Callisto and Europa).
All three moons are thought to have oceans beneath their icy crust, and scientists want to investigate whether Ganymede’s oceans are potentially habitable.
Upon reaching Jupiter in July 2031, the rover and 10 instruments will flyby the gas giant and its moons 35 times. Mission goals include investigating whether life existed in the Jupiter system, how gas giants formed their moons, and how Jupiter itself formed.
Boeing has been working for 10 years to develop a spacecraft that can take astronauts to and from the ISS, but by 2023 become a year This new space taxi is finally on the move.
After years of development delays and hang-ups, a spacecraft called the Starliner unmanned test mission To the ISS last May, which was considered a success. NASA personnel April 2023 First manned launch.
Starliner is expected to complete NASA’s plan to hand over the task of transporting astronauts to the ISS to the private sector. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule is already up to the task, with the company aiming to launch its seventh regular astronaut mission next month. Once Starliner begins operations, SpaceX and Boeing split missions in hopes of keeping as many staff on the ISS as possible before NASA retires the aging space station in the next decade. It is expected that
Continuing one of the most notable trends in spaceflight in the 2020s, some new commercial rocket companies are expected to debut brand new rockets that are wholly owned and operated by the private sector.
SpaceX will attempt the first orbital launch of its massive Starship spacecraft. The company hopes to one day use the vehicle to send the first humans to Mars, and NASA also wants to use the vehicle for its Artemis program.
Two other powerful commercial rockets are also in development. The Vulcan Centaur, developed by the United Launch Alliance, and New Glenn, a product of billionaire Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin. Vulcan rockets are now early 2023, Newglen could make its flying debut sometime after that. (However, new rockets are notoriously off schedule.)
Several new small rockets designed specifically to carry lightweight satellites into Earth orbit could also enter the scene. His two US-based startups, Relativity and ABL Space Systems, could kick off the year with their first launches from Florida and Alaska, respectively.
A collection of rocks and soil from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu will finally reach its destination this year by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft.
The spacecraft, NASA’s first asteroid sample return mission, Successfully sampled from Bennu in October 2020.
osiris rex Approaching Earth on September 24th A sample containing 2.1 ounces of material from the surface of Bennu will be dropped on a test and training range in Utah. If the spacecraft is still healthy, we will launch new expeditions to study other asteroids.
The samples reveal information about the formation and history of the solar system, as well as possible asteroids on their eventual collision course with Earth.
after an unexpected delayNASA’s first spacecraft designed to study metallic asteroids, is scheduled to launch in October.
The Psyche mission embarks on a four-year journey to a potato-shaped unknown world in the major asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The mission will study a metal-rich asteroid, also known as Psyche. The asteroid only appears blurry to ground- and space-based telescopes.
The anomalous object could be a leftover metal core from the planet or a piece of primordial matter that never melted. NASAPsyche could help astronomers learn more about the formation of the solar system. If Psyche is really the core, studying it is like peering into the core of a planet like Earth.
The mission missed its first launch window in 2022 due to software and equipment testing delays. The mission team has increased manpower to complete testing prior to launch.
In 2023, various other missions will be launched. NASA’s Tropospheric Emission Pollution Monitoring Mission, or tempomeasures hourly pollution in North America.
The agency will partner with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the European Space Agency. XRISM Missionor X-ray imaging and spectroscopy missions to study X-ray objects in space.
The European Space Agency and NASA will also cooperate. euclid mission Explore dark energy, the mysterious and invisible form of energy that drives the accelerating expansion of the universe.
an astrophysical stratospheric telescope for high spectral resolution observations at submillimeter waves, or Mission of Athroswill launch a balloon larger than a football field from Antarctica to study what causes star formation to end in some galaxies.
And NASA’s small satellite Pioneer of the Moon We use innovative equipment to collect data on the amount of water on the moon.
