it Will be a year of adventures spatial record in 2021, with Nasa and the billionaires at the helm of new businesses being chased by the chinese in a comparison of more and more turned on. Everything begins in the name of Mars, when in February (9) a probe in the united Arab Emirates will enter into orbit around the planet: they called “Hope”, “hope”, to transmit confidence to the young people in looking at the future of the Country. On arrival there is also the chinese probe “Tianwen-1”, which in April will get a rover in the Utopia Planitia. So Beijing, after having demonstrated mastery of the lunar landings, will for the first time in the horizon martian.
Perseverance
The 18th of February, then, will be the turn of “Perseverance” of Nasa. Will land in Jezero Crater, launching the third phase of the research of the life after the Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity. The new sophisticated robot will search for traces of fossilized microorganisms in a place at the confluence of the ancient rivers that resulted in a lake, considered ideal for the demanding discoveries. In the investigation will help the first drone-helicopter Ingenuity.
Luna
Another important objective of the year will be of the Moon. The two probes of the american private with instruments funded by Nasa, will evaluate the resources of the soil useful for the future settlement or bring to the Earth (such as the helium-3 for fusion reactors). “Peregrine” by Astrobotic will start with the new vector Vulcan Centaur coming in the basaltic plain Lacus Mortis to the North Pole and in the fall will be followed by “Nova-C” by Intuitive Machines that you adagerà in the twisted Vallis Schröteri.
tourists
After a lot of promises will finally be the year of the start of the tourist flights to the threshold of Space, a hundred kilometres in height, to experience the thrill of a few minutes of weightlessness. The british billionaire Richard Branson, at the age of 70, after having tried in the past without luck around the world in a balloon, will be on board the second flight, to the payment of his airplane to the rocket “SpaceShipTwo” taking off from New Mexico in the Usa. In the meantime, you are waiting more than six hundred passengers who have already paid an advance ticket from 250 thousand dollars. With the same intentions Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, is preparing similar operations. His capsule New Shepard with six passengers will fly from the spaceport in Texas, and after the jump she will return with thrilling hanging on a parachute.
asteroids
Other automatic missions of Nasa chase instead, the coveted destination of the minor planets. “Lucy” is going to explore the seven asteroids, trojans within the orbit of Jupiter, and the “Dart” will reach the couple Didymos and Dimorphos. On this last will shoot a bullet in the first attempt of the deviation of the trajectory of a small body risky for the Earth. Prior to the meeting will come off the nanosatellite LiciaCube of Asi, the Italian. Built by Argotec in collaboration with the Politecnico di Milano and the University of Bologna, will experience the effects of the explosion.
Artemis
Finally, if by December the super-rocket Nasa’s SLS, the largest ever designed, is able to tackle the first mission of the Artemis-1 testing the new spaceship Orion) in a flight circumlunare, from the last stage of the rocket will release a bunch of eleven nanosatelliti for different purposes. The one chosen by Nasa in Europe is the Italian ArgoMoon always Asi-Argotech, which will transmit images from the lunar orbit. In parallel nanosatelliti americans and japanese will try the ice at the South Pole. And they are just the most important stages of a 2021, which marks a revival in style exploration between science and economy.
