SpaceX's Starman doll inside Elon Musk's red Tesla Roadster with Earth in the background, shortly after launch on February 6, 2018. By November 2, the duo were orbiting in a much farther orbit. Mars. Image Credit: SpaceX 2018 saw a wide range of milestones in spaceflight, stretching from the sun to the edge of the solar system. Space agencies have launched missions to explore several planets in the solar system, in addition to the sun. A space tourism company made its first space trip. And who can forget the launch of the rocket that carried an astronaut doll inside a car towards Mars orbit? Here are some of the highlights of spaceflight activities this year.
1) The Insight rover lands on Mars
NASA's Mars rover landed safely on the Elysium Planitia Plain on November 26, opening a new page in Mars science. As a fixed lander, the Insight is different from the rover that NASA is accustomed to. NASA's last mission to land on the surface to Mars was the Curiosity rover, which landed in 2012 (and which is still actively operating as it is currently climbing Mount Sharp or Aiolis Mons); NASA plans to send another rover in 2020.
But the constant is essential for science to be conducted by Insight. You will hear about Martian earthquakes and volcanic activity on Mars, follow the wobble of the axis of the Red Planet, and study its internal structure. (He also accompanied the Insight's trip to Mars two cubesat, which will be discussed at the end of this article.)
The Insight's arrival to Mars was comforting, as the mission's launch was delayed two years from its original launch date in 2016 due to a leak in the spacecraft's seismometer. At the time, NASA wasn't even sure the mission could go ahead due to the increased cost of fixing the problem. Insight's mission is fundamental to understanding all rocky planets, including Earth, and allowing it to take off was the best scientific decision. Insight is now preparing its tools and will be ready to start collecting scientific data soon.
2) The crew's Soyuz missile launch failed
Just minutes after US astronaut Nick Hague and Russian astronaut Alexey Ovchinin were launched aboard Mission 57's flight into space on October 11, a defective sensor forced a Soyuz rocket to launch a missile. The two men made an emergency landing in Kazakhstan (the country from which the mission was launched). Haig and Offshenen emerged from the capsule in good physical condition. The mission is scheduled to be launched again on February 28, 2019.
For a few weeks, it was uncertain what impact this accident might have on the International Space Station, which has been in the human presence since 2000. The Expedition 56 crew said they were willing to stay in space as long as necessary, but that their flight was supposed to. It only lasts for six months - until late December.
After Roscosmos (Russian Space Agency) completed the investigation and repaired the accident, Mission 58 was launched on December 3 to allow the crew to return to Earth on time. Space station activities will continue to be in normal rotation, but for now, crews will mostly consist of three people instead of six.
3) Launching the Parker probe towards the sun
NASA's latest solar mission, which has been preparing for decades, will allow a fly through the superheated corona of the Sun for the first time. The Parker Solar Probe successfully launched on August 12, 2018, on a journey that will allow it to dive into the sun's outer atmosphere multiple times, providing unprecedented information about the sun's composition and internal processes.
Why is the sun's outer corona so hot? This question is one of our Sun's biggest mysteries.
Temperatures there range between 1.8 million and 5.4 million degrees Fahrenheit (1 million and 3 million degrees Celsius). Compared to the surface of the Sun, it is much cooler at 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5,500 degrees Celsius). Scientists believe that the sun's convection and magnetic fields contribute to the corona's warming, but they need observations to support the theory. A specially protected Parker probe will help them arrive at the answer.
The mission honors pioneering astrophysicist from the University of Chicago, Eugene Parker, who predicted the solar wind (the constant current of solar particles) in the 1950s. Parker, 91, is the first living person to have a mission named after NASA. The mission launch has already attended.
4) The Falcon Heavy rocket launches for the first time
SpaceX launched its large rocket into space, attracting the attention of people all over the world. The Falcon Heavy rocket was launched on February 6, 2018.
The main payload was a doll called Starman in the red Tesla Roadster of Elon Musk, the company's founder. The upper stage rocket carried the car and passenger into deep space, towards Mars orbit.
While the mission generated a lot of attention around the world, it was SpaceX's first step in breaking into the space-heavy launch market - a highly lucrative market that involves launching military satellites and science payloads to other planets on relatively short trips. SpaceX, led by its founder Elon Musk, is considered a proponent of the exploration of two modes of Mars. The company is currently developing a giant space rocket to transport the Colonists to Mars in the coming decades.
5) Launch of the TESS mission to discover exoplanets
NASA's quest to find Earth-like planets got a boost on April 18, 2018, when the agency launched its Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Unlike previous satellites, the TESS is designed to search for planets near stars near our sun.
Finding planets close to Earth offers important advantages, such as allowing other telescopes to observe these worlds to learn more about the composition of their atmosphere. TESS will also serve as an exploration observatory for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, slated to launch in 2021 on a scientific mission that will partly include studying exoplanets.
The TESS telescope has been placed in a unique, highly elliptical orbit, with an orbital period of 13.7 Earth days, approaching the Earth from a relatively close distance (67,000 miles, or 108,000 kilometers) to send data to Earth before flying again to 232,000 km. A mile (373,000 km) for scientific observations. The TESS telescope will survey the entire sky during its main two-year mission, although scientists hope it will last in its stable orbit for longer.
The telescope's first planetary discovery was announced on September 19, 2018 - a super-Earth planet 60 light-years away.
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