Russian Mars, water on the Moon and an encounter with an asteroid. Space plans for 2022
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08 Jan 2022, 04:00
The Russian automatic station will finally go to the moon, the American spacecraft will collide with an asteroid – Taiga.info talks about the main space plans for 2022.
Russian spacecraft on Mars
In September, the European Space Agency and Roscosmos are planning to launch the second phase of the ExoMars mission (the first phase began six years ago). This time, a Russian landing platform with a European rover on board will be delivered to Mars. The mission’s scientific instruments will explore the surface of Mars, including analyzing organic molecules.
Meeting with asteroids
The American apparatus Psyche will set off in August 2022 to investigate the metal asteroid Psyche, which may have once been the core of a protoplanet.
In addition, the DART spacecraft launched last year will reach its destination and collide with the asteroid Dimorph to test its trajectory change. In the future, this will be useful for protecting the Earth from dangerous space objects.
Everybody flies to the moon
If 2021 was rich in Martian news, then 2022 will be devoted to the exploration of the Moon. This year, the first flight of the new powerful American Space Launch System rocket around the Moon is to take place – while in unmanned mode. If all goes according to plan, in a couple of years people will go to the moon for the first time in five decades. Every rocket launch costs about $ 2 billion.
The miniature American CAPSTONE satellite will fly to the moon in the spring to check the estimated orbit of the future Gateway space station. Three more lunar missions will be launched by private companies as part of NASA’s program to support the commercialization of space.
In the summer of 2022, it is planned to start the long-awaited (the previous one was in 1976) Russian mission “Luna-25”, which will search for water in the region of the long-awaited Earth’s south pole. In addition, Japan, South Korea and India will send their spacecraft to the Moon.
Ilya Kabanov, scientific observer of Taiga.info (@Metkere)