After a series of successful placements missions in the past year, 2021 promises some new international research projects.
Three countries have launched a spacecraft designed to begin exploring Mars in 2021.
The U.S. space agency, NASA, expects its explorer, known as Perseverance, to land on the Red Planet on Feb. 18. The explorer, or rover, is on a mission to “find traces of life and collect rock and soil samples, ”Says NASA.
Perseverance is NASA’s fifth Mars explorer. There is a small experimental helicopter, called Ingenuity. The machine was the first to test the capabilities of such a craft on another planet. One important test will test a device designed to capture carbon dioxide from Mars’ atmosphere and convert it to oxygen.
China’s Tianwen-1 spacecraft was launched in July last year on a mission to search Mars for water signs. It is expected to reach Mars in February. The spacecraft will attempt to land at Utopia Planitia, a large flat area in the northern half of the planet. Once there, use a Tianwen-1 rover for inspection.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) launched the hopes Probe in July 2020. The explorer is also set to reach the Red Planet next month. The country describes Hope as “the first probe to give a complete picture of the Martian atmosphere and a layers. ”
The mission will study climate and weather activity on Mars’ lower atmosphere. Hope also monitors and studies hydrogen and oxygen in the high Martian atmosphere, the UAE space agency said.
New replacement vehicles to be tested
Boeing is expected to conduct another unidentified flight test of its Starliner spacecraft. The company was selected by NASA – along with SpaceX America – for their Commercial Crew Program. The program uses a private spacecraft to transport U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). SpaceX has already delivered two successful crew missions to the ISS.
If Boeing’s undeveloped test goes well, the company is expected to move forward with their first Starliner crew test run.
NASA said it plans to finalize final preparations for the first flight of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion spacecraft for launch sometime in the fall. The flight was the first unexplored test flight for SLS and Orion. The goal is to complete a month-long mission around the moon.
The experiment is part of NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to bring the first and next female to the moon by 2024. The long-term goal of the program is to establish a continuous human presence on the moon. .
NASA is testing planetary protection
At the end of July, NASA says it will launch its first “test for planetary protection” asteroids. The mission is called the Double Asteroid Diversion Test (DART). It will send a spacecraft to orbit in high-speed orbit at high speed in an attempt to change the orbit of the asteroid in space. The asteroid target near Earth is called Didymos. The work will only be a protective test comas, as Didymos represents no threat on Earth.
In October, NASA plans to launch its Lucy space mission. The work aims to study a crowd of strange objects orbiting Jupiter called Trojan asteroids. The space agency says the mission will involve a 12-year journey to eight different asteroids.
Also in October, NASA plans to launch their James Webb Space Telescope, which has been delayed several times. This is NASA’s replacement for the Hubble Space Telescope, which has been in operation for 30 years.
The James Webb is a large infrared telescope at nearly seven meters mirrors to look for a place. NASA says the mission is designed to look deeper into space and offer more answers about the universe’s past than any other spacecraft.
My name is Bryan Lynn.
Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on reports from The Associated Press, Reuters and NASA. It was Mario Ritter, Jr. the editor.
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Words in this story
mission – n. fly a spaceship to perform a specific task or task
sample – n. a bit of something that will give information about what was taken from it
probe – n. a vehicle used to examine or observe something closely
cover – n. degree of something spread over an area
asteroid – n. small planets or space rocks orbiting the sun
comas – n. the ability to perform a specific task or task
mirrors – n. a piece of glass that reflects light or images