Spacecraft that were launched in 2013 and even earlier, will reach their destination in 2014, and they are expected to provide us with new insights.
Scientific discoveries are always a surprise, but there are at least a few things that are literally on the edge of development. However, one thing is certain, if a malfunction does not occur, spacecraft that were launched in 2013 and even earlier, will reach their destination in 2014, and they are expected to provide us with new insights.
The Rosetta spacecraft of the European Space Agency (in which Israeli researchers are also involved) will arrive this year - a full decade after its launch - to the comet it intends to investigate and examine its composition. This is a comet from the family of Jupiter comets (comets whose orbit is controlled by the largest planet in the solar system), whose diameter we discovered is 4 kilometers. On January 20, the control personnel will send a wake-up call to Rosetta to prepare its instruments for orbiting the comet and launching a lander to land on its surface.
"Rosetta is supposed to be an important tool in understanding the history of the solar system" says Stefan Olamek, the lander project manager. "It would be interesting to know if the organic chemistry responsible for life is found in comets."
The lander carries ten scientific instruments that will conduct a wide range of experiments, including molecular and organic analysis and experiments to examine the symmetrical structure of the molecules.
At the time of the landing, planned for November 2014, the comet will be 3 times farther from the Sun than the Earth, and it will move inward.
And in the meantime, two orbiters are making their way to Mars: the orbiters were launched in the last two months, in the appropriate time window for launches to Mars when the orbits of the two planets are approaching: The American spacecraft Maven, and the Indian spacecraft MOM (Mars Orbiter Mission). Both spacecraft will reach Mars in September 2014.
The purpose of the MAVEN spacecraft will be to determine the effect of the loss of atmospheric gases into space on the climate of Mars throughout the periods, as well as to understand where the atmosphere and water disappeared. The data collected by Meaven will also help scientists estimate how many percent of the Martian atmosphere has been lost over the years by measuring the current rate of gas escapes into space and gathering information about the relevant processes that would allow for backward ejection.
The Indian MOM It will rendezvous with Mars on September 24, 2014 where it will probe the atmosphere and 'smell' signs of the presence of methane gas.
And of course we should expect more news from other missions located throughout the solar system: Cassini on Saturn, Mercury Messenger on Mercury, the Chinese robot Yuto on the moon, Curiosity on Mars and more.
And that's the good news, because these things rely on investments in past years. But in the future we will have fewer scientific discoveries, the main bodies that fund scientific research in the US have announced that they will reduce the number of scholarships by a thousand in the coming year due to budget problems. No member of Congress will lose his seat because a cure for cancer that could have been discovered was not discovered.
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Scientific discoveries are typo
Eagerly awaiting the results
It's a shame that Kepler is not on the list, every planet that is discovered gives hope, that maybe we are not alone in the universe.
Or that our descendants will have somewhere to fly.
What about the Gaia telescope, isn't it supposed to start providing data in 2014?