Summary of the year 2015 in space, part 2016 - what is expected in XNUMX

In the coming year, launches to Mars and an asteroid are expected, and a spacecraft that will arrive after many years of neglect to the largest planet in the solar system - Jupiter

Exo Mars

In 2016, two major space missions will be launched. The European Space Agency, in cooperation with the Russian Space Agency, plans to launch in March the "Exo-Mars". This is the first phase of a mission that will also include the launch of a rover to Mars in 2018. The current phase includes an ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter designed to study the atmosphere of Mars and the unknown source of methane in the atmosphere, which is found there in very low concentrations. Since methane is unstable over time in the atmosphere, there must be some source that renews it, either geological or biological. In addition, the mission will include a lander called Scaparelli (named after the astronomer Giovanni Scaparelli who studied Mars) which will operate for a few days only, and will serve as a technological demonstration for the technique of landing on Mars, in preparation for the rover's landing in 2018.

Osiris Rex

NASA will launch the probe in September Osiris-Rex, which, like the Japanese "Hyabusa" probe in the previous decade, will reach a near-Earth asteroid in 2018 to collect a sample from it to return to Earth (and it is worth noting that the Yabusa 2 is already on its way and will also reach another near-Earth asteroid in 2018). Another NASA mission, a lander to Mars named "Insight", was planned for launch in March but the launch was postponed due to a malfunction in the scientific equipment. As a result, it will miss the launch window of 2016 and wait until 2018 for the next window.

Juno will get justice

On July 4, a date that happened to fall on American Independence Day, the probe Juno of NASA is about to finish a five-year journey and reach the planet Jupiter. Juno will investigate how Jupiter was formed, its internal structure and its enormous meteorological phenomena - such as the "Great Red Spot" - a storm larger than Earth that has been observed since the invention of the telescope. In addition, Juno will investigate the magnetic field and the aurora phenomenon that also exist on Jupiter - but on a much larger scale than on Earth.

For amateur astronomers Among you it is worth noting that the mission will cooperate with amateur astronomers in the selection of the photo sites for the visible light camera of Juno (JunoCam), as well as in the assembly of the camera's images. for details See here.

inflatable spaceships

2016 will also see important progress in the field The inflatable space vehicles. At the beginning of the year, an inflatable space assembly built by a company will be launched towards the International Space Station Bigelow Aerospace. The whole, which is called BEAM (Bigelow Expandable Activity Module), will be a milestone in the development of this unique technology, which NASA recognized its advantage in the 90s, but various reasons and opposition from Congress led it to give it up and work with the known technology of rigid materials in the construction of the space station components the international. An inflatable space vehicle, which is launched in a folded form and inflates after the launch into space - has a significant advantage since it contains more volume and weighs less.

Although the people and management of NASA will not state this explicitly - but they are surely keeping an eye on it The upcoming US presidential elections. Past experience shows that a change in political leadership also affects NASA's plans. For example, when President Barack Obama was elected, he canceled the Constellation program of his predecessor Bush, which planned a manned return to the moon by the end of the current decade, and which was criticized for being unrealistic. The Orion spacecraft remains the only remnant of that program. NASA's concern is expressed, for example, in the words of NASA Administrator Charles Bolden who said recently Because "NASA's fate will be lost" if the next administration changes its path and goals.

Some more of the events that are expected next year

• The first launch of a launcher Heavy falcon of the SpaceX company, which actually consists of three first stages of the Falcon 9 launcher that are connected together, with a single upper stage of the Falcon 9. On the test flight, the experimental satellite will "catch a ride" LightSail-1 of the American Planetary Society, which will examine the solar sail method as a propulsion method for spacecraft.
• NASA will select the next mission in the framework "Discovery" program. The five propositions Those who reached the final stage of the competition to select the mission, which will be launched by the end of 2021, are: a probe that will dive into the dense atmosphere of Venus; A compass probe for Venus; A probe that will investigate the asteroid "Psyche 16", which is composed of nickel and iron and may be the exposed core of a protoplanet (primordial planet); A space telescope for faster and better detection of near-Earth asteroids that may collide with the Earth; and a mission to study "Trojans", asteroids that orbit the Sun in the same orbit as Jupiter. NASA has indicated that it may choose two missions at the same time.
• סין launch, at least according to what is known now, the space station Tiangong 2, after a relatively long period of inactivity in the field of manned space.
• the probe Cassini, which has been exploring the planet Saturn since 2004, will start at the end of the year last stage in its mission, which will eventually destroy itself and burn up in Saturn's atmosphere in 2017. During this phase, known as the "Cassini Grand Finale", the probe will dive closer than ever to the planetary rings that orbit Saturn, and enter an orbit that takes it inside the space between the rings and Saturn itself.