The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was established on October 1, 1958. It became a direct successor to the "space race", a period of the 20th century, when the United States and the Soviet Union essentially competed with each other for the most advanced technologies and efficient space exploration. The US "won" when NASA's Apollo mission successfully landed a man on the moon in 1969.
Since then, NASA has conducted just under 200 missions, both manned and unmanned. However, in 2010 the administration suffered a major blow when the shuttle program was phased out and the Constellation program, which was supposed to send astronauts back to the moon, was canceled by the Obama administration.
Despite all this, NASA hasn't stopped exploring the universe, as missions on the International Space Station and the magnificent Hubble Telescope have shown. But even this is difficult to limit the ambitions of the space agency. Here is a list of ten wonderful missions that we are really looking forward to.
Parker Solar Probe
In May 2017, it became known about the newest NASA mission (and the last one presented). And it will be absolutely incredible: a flight to the Sun.
The probe will be launched in 2018 and will approach the Sun at a distance of 6.4 million kilometers, which is quite close by astronomical standards. The mission's goal is to gather important data about the structure of the sun and the heating mechanism that has puzzled scientists for decades.
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One of the paradoxical features of the Sun is that the surface temperature is 5500 degrees Celsius, and the corona, which is above the surface, is heated to 1.9 million degrees.
Take Earth, for example. The higher the atmosphere rises, the lower the temperature drops. The fact that the exact opposite is happening on the sun puzzles scientists and they want answers. The answers should be provided by the Parker solar probe.
This mission is exciting for several reasons. First, it will give scientists the answers they want. Secondly, the probe will come unimaginably close to the Sun and withstand thousands of degrees of heat. Third, it will be the fastest man-made object flying at a speed of 692,000 kilometers per hour.
The probe will land in 2025.
Europa Clipper
The mission of the Europa Clipper mission is to answer one of the most exciting questions of all time: Is there life elsewhere in the universe? In the 2020s, the spacecraft will go in search of extraterrestrial life to Europa, one of Jupiter's moons.
Recently, it was discovered that there is an ocean under the surface of Europa, and scientists want to know if this ocean can store life. They will look for key ingredients: liquid water, desired chemistry, and energy sources. To collect all the information needed, Clipper will fly around Europe and collect the necessary data. This process will be repeated 40-45 times, after which the probe will embark on a long journey to Earth.
JUICE
JUpiter ICy Moons Explorer (known as JUICE) is a mission led by the European Space Agency. ESA is working in partnership with NASA to provide the right tools and other parts.
The start of the mission itself is scheduled for 2022. Europa, Callisto and Ganymede, three moons of Jupiter, will be explored. JUICE's mission is to provide us with a better understanding of the composition, environment and evolution of satellites, including the possible existence of life. In some ways, the mission is similar to the Europa Clipper, but the data it collects will be much broader.
Like Clipper, this mission promises to be long. JUICE won't launch until 2022, and it will take 7.5 years for the probe to reach Jupiter. Then the mission itself will take place, and it will take another eight years to return to Earth. Of course, for astronomers who are used to dealing with long distances, these are small things.
Asteroid Redirection Mission
As the name suggests, the goal of the ARM mission will be to figure out how to protect Earth from the fallout of an asteroid that killed the dinosaurs, for example.
In the 2020s, this mission will be sent in the direction of a large asteroid nearby. Upon arrival, a large robotic arm will take a rock from the asteroid. From there, the spacecraft will tow the rock into the orbit of the moon so that astronauts on the Orion spacecraft can explore it entirely. The mission is to provide critical asteroid data that astronomers will put in place to learn how to better identify and combat any dangerous asteroids coming to us from space.
More importantly, ARM will play an important role in sending humans to Mars by the 2030s. The technologies used in this mission will be useful for long-distance travel. Therefore, while astronauts and scientists will study asteroids, instruments and equipment will be tested in parallel to help in the development of the Red Planet.
True, the project was recently suspended.
Orion spacecraft
The Orion spacecraft is the next major NASA mission to take people into space. It will take us further than ever, possibly to Mars. Orion is engineered to withstand high temperatures, speed, radiation and other extreme conditions. A conventional shuttle couldn't handle what the Orion could handle, and that's a great feat for aeronautics.
Orion will be launched on a large SLS (Space Launch System) rocket. This rocket will be able to take Orion out of the moon. And although the carrier itself is still under construction, Orion is already preparing for testing. The first took place in 2014. The next step will be to launch Orion to an asteroid nearby. The ultimate goal will, of course, be Mars.
Rover 2020
Speaking of Mars, Mars Rover - slated to launch in 2020 - will be an important step in Mars exploration. This vehicle the size of a car will crawl across the surface of Mars and collect data.
NASA likes to compare this robot to a living being: it has a body, brain, arms, legs, eyes and ears. In other words, the rover is capable of a lot. It is battery powered and insulated, and internally heated to combat Martian temperatures. These details must guarantee its reliability.
The "brain" will be a computer system for processing the collected data coming from different channels. The rover is equipped with a manipulator that will rummage around the earth, collecting samples like pebbles to return them to Earth for further research.
And he has "feelings." Cameras, antennas and other gadgets of the rover will allow it to navigate in place so that it can properly maneuver and document what is happening. It will communicate with the Earth remotely through antennas.
Euclid
Euclid is another joint ESA / NASA mission. The mission should collect data on dark matter and dark energy. Dark energy is an unknown force that negates gravity and accelerates the expansion of the universe. It accounts for about 68% of the universe, but scientists still do not know anything about it. That's why it's dark.
Dark matter is absolutely not associated with dark energy, despite the similar names. Dark matter makes up 27% of the universe. But this is not the ordinary matter we are used to. We are made of ordinary matter: protons, neutrons, electrons. Dark matter is not. And that's what it consists of - this is what scientists have to find out.
The Euclid telescope will be launched into space in 2020 and will collect cosmological information from two billion galaxies to gain a better understanding of the evolution of the universe.
WFIRST
The Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) will kill two birds with one stone. The purpose of this telescope is to collect as much data as possible about exoplanets and dark energy.
When it comes to exoplanets (planets outside our solar system), there are a few things worth giving WFIRST a few things. First, he will have to count them. The Kepler mission started counting exoplanets, and WFIRST will continue its work.
The next task for WFIRST will be to work on new technology for characterizing exoplanets and detecting them through direct visualization. Usually it is rather difficult to find them this way - you need to take a direct picture of the planet. It sounds simple, but often the parent star obscures the exoplanet and hides it from our view. WFIRST will try to change that.
As far as dark energy goes, WFIRST is just trying to figure out what it is. The telescope will study the accelerated expansion of the universe associated with dark energy. Armed with WFIRST and Euclid, scientists may have at least some answers. NASA plans to launch the telescope in the early 2020s, and it will fly for six years.
MAIA
NASA's Multi-Angle Imager for Aerosols mission directly touches our home. One of the mission's goals is to track cyclones on Earth. But its more important task will be to study air pollution.
As it rotates around the Earth, the mission will observe "particles" of polluted air in different places and measure the properties of matter in those places. Scientists will analyze this information and use it for the benefit of people.
Psyche
In 2022, the Psyche spacecraft will travel towards an asteroid (called Psyche, apparently) that orbits between Mars and Jupiter. This asteroid is unusual because it is composed of nickel and iron. Scientists believe it is a remnant of the planet's metal core from the early history of the formation of the solar system.
The information that will be gathered from this asteroid could provide us with a deep understanding of the structure of the cores of terrestrial planets like our Earth. It could also shed light on the processes of the formation of the solar system, for example, collisions and chaos that took place.
ILYA KHEL