Advances in space tourism and robotic missions to Mars dominated the space activities of 2021. The moon is likely to be the center of attention in 2022, as companies and governments launch various moon-bound missions.
NASA is attempting to return astronauts to the moon later in the decade and conduct routine science missions on its surface in preparation for a trip to Mars, but it will likely not happen in this decade. There are a number of rocket tests and science missions that need to be completed before astronauts can go to the moon.
The first steps towards the moon will be taken in the year 2022. Two new rockets will launch to space for the first time, each with more power than the previous one. Other countries are expected to join the march to the moon.
The Space Launch System, or S.L.S., could make its first journey to space without humans as early as March 2022.
The first flight in NASA's Artemis program will be called Artemis 1 and will be the first in a series of flights. Artemis 1 will launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida and rehearse a trajectory that will be performed by Artemis 2, the subsequent mission that is scheduled to carry astronauts sometime in 2024. Artemis 3 will result in a moon landing.
Artemis 1 has been delayed many times. It was originally planned for 2020 but was pushed to various times because of the Pandemic. The most recent delay was due to the need to investigate and replace a faulty internal computer controlling one of the rocket's four main engines.
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A prototype of the company's spaceship lifted off from a Texas facility in May.
NASA wants to return humans to the moon in about 25 years, and will use the space company's Starship to do so. It will be the agency's first mission to the moon since 1972. The ultimate goal of Musk is to ferry humans to Mars, and his rocket system is crucial to that.
First, the spaceship must reach the moon. A test flight with no people on board could happen in mid-2022.
Mr. Musk had hoped to launch the spaceship in 2021. The test flight was postponed because of delays with the company's new Raptor engines and a lengthy Federal Aviation Administration review of the environmental impact of the launch site. The F.A.A review is expected to finish in late February and will determine whether deeper environmental reviews will be necessary, or whether SpaceX can resume launches.
A successful test will be a key step in the moon program. The astronauts will rendezvous with the Space Launch System and transfer to the moon to descend the rest of the way to the lunar surface. After liftoff from the moon, the astronauts would be taken back to the station.
If development goes as planned, three robotic moon landers will make their way to the lunar surface in 2022.
Two companies, one based in Houston and the other in Pittsburgh, are aiming to send small lunar landers to the moon by the end of 2022. The landers were developed under NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, which is part of the agency's effort to rely on private companies for sending cargo and research instruments into space with the hopes of stimulating a commercial market.
The Nova-C lander is expected to be launched on the Falcon 9 rocket in early 2022, carrying a dozen payloads to the lunar surface. One of the instruments on board will measure the lunar dirt kicked up during Nova-C's landing, an experiment that could help engineers prevent messy lunar landings in the future. The small rover built by Spacebit will be deployed by the lander. In the fourth quarter of 2022, the company could send a second mission to the moon.
The four-legged lander with an onboard propulsion system will ease itself onto a basaltic plain on the sunlit side of the moon, carrying 14 research payloads. The company says that it will be ready for launch in the middle of 2022.
It depends on when the rocket will be ready to fly. Blue Origin is the engine supplier for the rocket, which is called Vulcan. The new engines have not been delivered.
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An artist's impression of the CAPSTONE mission, which is planned for launch in March of 2022. NASA/Rocket Lab/Advanced Space.
In March of 2022, Rocket Lab will send a small satellite called a CubeSat to NASA from New Zealand.
A future space station called Gateway will reside in sometime in the next decade and will be studied by a satellite.
New navigation technology will be tested by CAPSTONE. Satellites use onboard cameras to determine their location relative to star formations or the apparent position of the sun. CAPSTONE will attempt to glean its position in space by communicating with NASA's lunar rior.
South Korea will be the first country in the world to send a satellite to the moon.
The Korean space agency, the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, will lead the mission and it will be launched on a rocket in August of 2022. It will spend a year looking at the moon's geology and chemical composition from afar.
The satellite will carry a lunar terrain imager that will be used to survey potential landing sites for a South Korean robotic lunar lander mission.
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The Luna-25 lunar lander is in Moscow.
Three other countries will be sending robotic explorers to the moon in the year 2022.
Russia will have its first moon landing in 40 years when the Luna-25 lander launches in mid-2022. The lander will be used to study the lunar soil.
India will attempt its third moon mission in the third quarter of 2022, after the lander-rover bundle from Chandrayaan-2 crashed in 2019.
The ispace space company plans to send a lander to the moon in the second half of the century. If the landing is a success, it will deploy a pair of rovers. The United Arab Emirates built a small four-wheeled robot named Rashid. Japan's space agency has built a robotic explorer that is the size of a basketball. After deployment, it can be divided into two and used as wheels to explore the lunar dirt.
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A guide to the craft.
The New York Times has an interactive section aboutexploring the solar system.
