2022 should be particularly dense in space events: Artemis I mission launch, JWST commissioning, Dart mission… An overview of events not to be missed!
“Prolific.” This is a term that we can associate with 2021 and 2022 in relation to space exploration. In 2022, the general public will have the opportunity to attend various events and missions into space. From January, the James Webb Telescope will be operational, while the first mission of the Artemis lunar program will be launched in the first half of the year. At the same time, China continues to consolidate its dominance in the space sector with the opening of its new orbital station.
Goal: space exploration
January will mark the beginning of a new era in deep sky observation, with the deployment of the James Webb Space Telescope. The new device from NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) is set to be the successor to Hubble and has been considered a technological good by specialists. the James Webb Space Telescope (or JWST) will be located 1.5 million kilometers from Earth in the opposite direction from the Sun, in the heart of a region called “L2 Lagrangian Point”. JWST will then be able to make observations of nearby celestial bodies such as Earth’s neighboring planets, but also of distant galactic systems. The researchers’ goal is clear: to trace the history of the universe to understand its formation. Engineers estimate that the telescope will be able to detect galaxies that formed only 100 million years after the Big Bang.
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Illustration of the new US missile, the Space Launch System.
Over the following months, another historic event will take place: the launch No mission of Artemis I. The latter, tentatively scheduled for the end of 2021, will see the new American missile space launch systemTake off for the first time to insert the Orion capsule around the moon. Orion is a cabin intended to transport future astronauts to the Moon during upcoming Artemis missions. NASA’s calendar of the lunar program has been delayed by several months, due to delays in manufacturing spacesuits and a complaint by Blue Origin CEO Jeff Bezos, challenging the contract with the US justice system.
>> Read also: “The Universe: This is how everything will end”
