SPACE 29 December 2021

By Leah Crane

NASA/JPL-CALTECH

IF ALL goes well, the first major space mission of 2022 will be the launch of the Space Launch System rocket in February. After many budget and schedule overruns, NASA’s colossal rocket is finally set for its first uncrewed flight, which will carry several small satellites into orbits either near or around the moon.

They won’t be the only lunar visitors. NASA has contracted private firms to send nine rovers to the moon, along with landers and other experiments. “Many of these are tests of this new idea that NASA is pushing, on whether commercial companies can deliver payloads to the moon, accepting higher risk for lower cost,” says Jim Bell at Arizona State University. “It’s a new paradigm for space missions, and a real renaissance in lunar robotics.”

Japan and the Russian space agency Roscosmos will also send landers, and India and the United Arab Emirates are each sending a lander and rover, as are firms in Germany and the UK.

NASA has its sights set on an asteroid called Psyche, too, with plans to launch a mission of the same name in August. It will visit the strange space rock, which is made mostly of iron and could teach us how planets form and what their metallic cores are like.

Information:-
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg2
5233661-900-2022-preview-a-round-up-of-the-years-most-exciting-space-missions/#ixzz7GzFeYolR

By: Gargi dalvi 7/C