Mark McCaughrean is the senior advisor for science and exploration at the European Space Agency. The conditions for life to have developed could be found on the icy moons.
McCaughrean says that Jupiter will be able to look for biosignatures on the surface of Europa's ice, which could rain down from the ejected particles into space.
The Euclid telescope, which was switched from a Russian rocket to a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, is scheduled to be launched later in the year. The telescope will look over a third of the sky to look for dark matter and dark energy.
When Psyche takes flight, NASA should launch a science mission of its own. The asteroid 16 Psyche is rich in metal and has never been seen before.
There will be a number of intriguing developments in the years to come. The OSIRIS-REx mission is scheduled to return to Earth in September with pieces of an asteroid which could offer new insight into the structure and formation of the solar system. The start of a 3,000-satellite communications network is what Amazon hopes to start in early 2023. Several new rockets are set to launch, including the United Launch Alliance's Vulcan Centaur rocket, which will carry Astrobotic's moon landers and some of Amazon's satellites. Satellites could be taken into space by both rockets.
There is a large amount of activity. This year is very exciting for me.
This story is a part of MIT Technology Review’s What’s Next series, where we look across industries, trends, and technologies to let you know what to expect in the coming year.
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