The only limits we have are those of our own courage and imagination
There’s an old saying about sky is the limit, in reality sky is not the limit. The limit is wherever we set our hearts wherever we set our minds and wherever we set our desires.
For more than 20 years, ISS has helped humankind discover advance solutions for better lives on earth and space. Given the curious nature of humankind we’ve looked in to the deepest parts of our oceans, studied our atmosphere, looked in evidence of creation of universe and even explored far-fetched space entities through the eyes of advance telescopes. Exploration is part of human destiny. It’s important to explore the unknown and from that bring back the knowledge that will further how we think about the Earth, the solar system and the universe. Now more than ever, a new generation of young kids look to the moon, MARS and beyond with optimism energy and wonder.
As the race for space tourism and exploration heats up so does the need for deep space exploration. Near-term physical exploration missions, focused on obtaining new information about the solar system, are planned and announced by both national and private organizations all over the world. There are tentative plans for crewed orbital and landing missions to the Moon and Mars to establish scientific out posts that will later enable permanent and self- sufficient settlements. Further exploration will potentially involve expedition and the other planets and settlements on the moon as well as establishing Mining and fueling outposts, particularly in the asteroid belt.
Below is a quick walk-through of some of the promising missions being launched in the near future by prominent agencies:
Artemis
NASA’s Artemis program aims to land another man and the first woman on the moon by 2024 and eventually establish sustainable space travel by 2028. The Artemis program is NASA’s stepping stone to their ultimate goal of landing on Mars.
SLIM
Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) is a lunar lander being developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The lander will demonstrate precision landing technology. It is expected to be launched in January 2022.
Lucy
Lucy, part of NASA’s Discovery Program, is scheduled to launch in October 2021 to explore six Trojan Asteroids and a Main Belt asteroid. The two Trojan swarms ahead of and behind Jupiter are thought to be dark bodies made of the same material as the outer planets that were pulled into orbit near Jupiter. Lucy will be the first mission to study the Trojans, and scientists hope the findings from this mission will revolutionize our knowledge of the formation of the solar system. For this reason, the project is named after Lucy, a fossilized hominid that provided insight on the evolution of humans.
Psyche
The Psyche spacecraft, part of NASA’s Discovery Program, is scheduled to launch at the end of 2022 to 16 Psyche, a metallic object in the asteroid belt. 16 Psyche is 130 miles (210 km) wide, and it is made almost entirely of iron and nickel instead of ice and rock. Because of this unique composition, scientists believe it is the remnants of a planet’s core that lost its exterior through a series of collisions, but it is possible that 16 Psyche is only unmelted material. NASA hopes to obtain information about planetary formation from directly studying the exposed interior of a planetary body, which would otherwise not be possible.
JUICE
The JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE) is an interplanetary spacecraft in development by the European Space Agency (ESA) with Airbus Defense and Space as the main contractor. The mission is being developed to visit the Jovian system focused on studying three of Jupiter’s Galilean moons: Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa all of which are thought to have significant bodies of liquid water beneath their surfaces, making them potentially habitable environments. The spacecraft is set for launch in June 2022 and would reach Jupiter in October 2029 after five gravity assists and 88 months of travel.
Enceladus
Enceladus is an astrobiology space probe mission concept to explore the possibility of life on Saturn’s moon, Enceladus. This mission would be the first privately funded deep space mission. It would study the content of the plumes ejecting from Enceladus’s warm ocean through its southern ice crust. Enceladus’s ice crust is thought to be around two to five kilometers thick, and a probe could use an ice-penetrating radar to constrain its structure.
While this particular mission doesn’t strictly fit in the category of exploration, it is still a worthy mention:
SPHEREx
The Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) mission is a planned two-year mission funded at $242 million. SPHEREx will study the sky in optical as well as near-infrared light which, though not visible to the human eye, serves as a powerful means for answering interstellar riddles. Astronomers will use the mission to collect data on more than 300 million galaxies, as well as more than 100 million stars in our own Milky Way.
So, while we are not there as much as we anticipated a few decades ago… In the quest to put a man on the moon, many spectacular scientific discoveries were made that benefited humanity. The same outside-the-box thinking is needed now to achieve human interstellar flight in the next 100 years which will enhance life on Earth and reap benefits now and in the future, I believe pursuing an extraordinary tomorrow creates a better world today and maybe then we can ask the question again. Are we there yet?