Recently, Wu Yanhua, deputy director of the National Space Administration, said that the fourth phase of China's lunar exploration project has been approved; the Chang'e 6, Chang'e 7 and Chang'e 8 missions will be implemented in succession in the next 10 years. Research station basic type and other tasks.
In addition, there are many countries in the world who are "gearing up" and want to show their skills in the increasingly white-hot space competition in the future.
Moon exploration is in the ascendant, and there are many new entrants
NASA plans to launch an uncrewed Orion spacecraft to the moon this year for orbital verification around the Artemis plan to return to the moon and lead to Mars.
According to the plan, three other small probes in the United States will land on the moon this year to verify technologies such as 4G communication on the lunar surface.
Throughout the Artemis program, these small and cutting-edge technology demonstrations are part of NASA's "Commercial Lunar Payload Services Program", which is NASA's project to mobilize commercial forces to deliver cargo and scientific instruments to the moon. Before moving, food and grass will go first.”
In addition, NASA will also launch an orbital verification CubeSat in March this year, also to explore the way back to the moon.
Russia is also eager to return to the moon.
Its Luna-25, which it plans to launch this year, will be the first Russian/Soviet probe to land on the moon since 1976.
In three sample return missions between 1970 and 1976, the Soviet Union returned a total of 301 grams of lunar samples.
But this time, the new lunar probe will not return to the earth, but will carry 30 kilograms of scientific instruments to the Boguslavsky crater near the south pole of the moon, and excavate and sample the water in the permafrost on the lunar surface. Research.
"The moon is at the center of our plans for the next 10 years," the Russian Space Research Institute announced in March 2021.
In the third quarter of this year, India will launch its third lunar probe, Chandrayaan-3.
Chandrayaan-3 will land on the south pole of the moon with five scientific instruments.
The Chandrayaan-1 orbiter, launched in 2008, ended its work early due to a malfunction after a year of orbiting the moon.
The Chandrayaan-2 launched in 2019 was originally planned to land softly on the lunar surface, but the lander eventually crashed. The chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization concluded that 90% to 95% of the mission was successful, and only the last part of the lander lost contact. 5% fail.
After the Japanese company ISpace has undergone team reorganization, partner replacement, system plan modification and delivery vehicle changes since 2008, it will finally launch the Hakuto-R, which means "white rabbit" in Japanese legends, in the second half of this year.
The lander is more than 2 meters high and has a built-in mini probe that may be more like a rabbit or a small "Star Wars" robot. It is equipped with the UAE's first lunar rover "Rashid" only 58 cm high soil research.
Although the "Hitian" launched in the early 1990s lost contact with the orbiter, it also made Japan the third country to achieve lunar exploration.
The "Pathfinder" probe that South Korea plans to launch into lunar orbit in August this year is expected to achieve South Korea's first extraterrestrial exploration mission.
Since the beginning of the 21st century, a new round of lunar exploration boom has been launched around the world.
Regardless of whether they are independent or multi-party cooperation, the pioneers and followers of lunar exploration are designing and implementing their own projects, and reviewing the development and utilization of lunar resources with a new concept of cislunar space development.
As a satellite that has been with the earth for trillions of years, the moon will witness the exploration activities of many countries in 2022. It is not only an important window for human beings to understand the universe, but also a station leading to farther and deep space.
Landing on planets to visit satellites, looking for clues to life
The idea of manned fire has been around since the 1940s.
But to this day, the only Earth imprint on the red planet remains an unmanned probe.
Mars exploration has a launch window every 26 months.
Due to the parachute system, flight software and other issues, as well as the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the joint European-Russian mission that was supposed to depart in the same season with China, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates in 2020 missed the window period, so it was postponed to September 2022.
Like most missions to Mars, it will sample Martian soil, rocks and analyze it for traces of life.
Compared to its predecessors, the mission will drill to a record depth of two meters below the surface of Mars - a depth at which organic material from 4 billion years ago may be well preserved, when conditions on the surface of Mars were closer to that of a baby period earth.
Also in the search for life, the European Space Agency will launch a probe called "Juice" in the middle of this year.
It will accelerate the flight with the help of the planet's gravity, and arrive at Jupiter in 8 years. It will detect the three icy planets Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, and collect information on the oceans, surfaces and interiors under their ice caps, with a view to discovering Clues that support the conception of life.
Focus on asteroids for scientific exploration or technical experiments
In addition to planets and their moons, a series of small celestial body scientific exploration or technology experiment projects will also be launched this year.
From September 26 to October 1, when the near-Earth asteroid Dimorphos and its binary star system flew by the Earth at a close distance of about 11 million kilometers, NASA's double asteroid redirection test mission probe, which was launched in November 2021 The "dart" will smash into the asteroid to explore the way the asteroid's orbit has been artificially altered.
This is the first planetary defense exercise mission aimed at "bumping away" a near-Earth asteroid.
The effect of its mission implementation will be jointly evaluated by the photographic cube star carried by the "Dart", the ground-based astronomical telescope and the European Space Agency's "Hera" probe, which will revisit the asteroid in 2024.
The "Lucy" probe, also launched last year, is heading for the outer solar system along an ingeniously designed orbit.
According to the exquisite orbit designed by NASA scientists, it will visit 1 main-belt asteroid, 4 Trojan asteroids and 1 satellite located in the L4 region of the Sun, and 2 Trojans located in the L5 region of the Sun in the next 12 years. asteroid.
NASA also plans to send probes to a mysterious giant asteroid, "Phantom Star."
Unlike other stony or icy objects, the asteroid is about 241 kilometers in diameter and appears to be composed mostly of nickel and iron, the same elements present in Earth's core.
Given that it is difficult for current scientific instruments to approach the interior of the earth infinitely, scientists hope to further understand the origin and evolution of planets in the solar system through the survey of this asteroid.
The probe will arrive at its destination in 2026 for a 21-month close-up mission.
The universe is huge, and space probes are the eyes that extend human vision and cognition.
Some of the global deep space exploration missions in the new year are about to start, and some have already been implemented.
The probes launched by these missions will carry the eternal question of "who am I, where do I come from, and where do I go", and continue to search in the sea of stars.
(According to "China National Astronomy") (Bai Ruixue)