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How far can mankind advance in space exploration in the next 10 years? Will tourist flights, colonization of the moon and travel to Mars become possible? A regular contributor interviewed three space industry experts.

There has not been so many exciting developments in the field of space exploration since the 1960s.

The US agency NASA recently made a test launch of the Orion spacecraft, the first manned spacecraft since the shutdown of the Space Shuttle program. NASA is also developing a powerful SLS carrier, which in terms of its characteristics can be compared only with the American Saturn-5 - the most cargo-lifting space rocket in history. The European Space Agency lowered the device to the surface of a comet 510 million kilometers from Earth. China is working on the creation of Tiangong-2, the second orbital station.

In addition, the economy of the space industry is influenced by private companies that develop suborbital and orbital manned flights and even expeditions to Mars.

In the next few years, the construction of the James Webb Telescope, an orbital observatory the size of a tennis court, will be completed. The device will be placed in one of the libration points of the Earth-Sun system.

Is it possible to create lunar bases and colonize Mars by the 2020s?

Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption Perhaps in the coming years, a space base will be equipped on the moon

To answer this question, we turned to several space exploration experts: Scott Pace, director of the American Space Policy Institute in Washington; editor of Spaceflight magazine, former NASA employee to David Baker and professor of planetary science at the British Open University Monica Grady.

Our experts agree that it is not easy to predict the direction of space research in the short term, not least because of the influence of domestic and foreign policy factors. At the same time, there were as many as six topics on which the forecasts of the interviewed experts did not coincide.

Humanity will return to the moon

Baker: This will happen, if only because the Moon - here it is, hanging over our heads, you just need to look at the sky. The flight to our satellite takes only three days, and the task of sending astronauts there on relatively short-term expeditions is technically quite feasible. China is very serious about launching a manned spacecraft to the moon.

Grady: I think a semi-permanent base will be established on the Moon. We are not talking about colonization, but the Moon could be used to launch expeditions to Mars and other objects in the solar system.

Pace: The problem with the current US space policy is not only that we have taken the Moon off the agenda and given it the rather vague prospects of missions to Mars and asteroids. We have also let down a large number of international partners interested in studying the Moon. It is necessary to resume work on the lunar program, since it has geopolitical, technological and economic value for both the United States and our main partners.

But we won't fly to Mars yet

Grady: Now Mars is a priority target for manned expeditions. However, I do not quite understand what exactly should happen after we fly down to it and plant a flag there. Now there are disputes about the possible transformation of the whole of Mars into a protected area like nature reserves on Earth.

Pace: When NASA announced that it was going to send a manned expedition to Mars, many foreign space agencies made it clear that they were too tough to participate in such a program. In a strategic sense, the US has chosen a direction of research that excludes the possibility of international cooperation - the most important resource in the modern world.

Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption Perhaps a reserve should be made from the "red planet"

Baker: In fact, NASA has become dependent on the image that was imposed on it in the White House. Public perceptions of NASA's capabilities are very different from the real state of affairs. The new Orion manned spacecraft is designed for a maximum of three weeks of autonomous flight. It will not be able to support the life of astronauts during a multi-month flight to Mars. The current plans for a Martian expedition are dangerous because of their lack of thought and untimeliness.

China and India are major space powers

Baker: India and China are in the space race. I believe that the competition between these two countries will gradually intensify in the next few years.

Pace: It is hardly worth talking about the space race in this case. For China, the national space program is a means to increase the patriotic feelings of the population and, as a result, increase the popularity rating of the Communist Party. In addition, this is an opportunity to develop the space industry, as well as instill in the younger generation of Chinese people an interest in science and technology.

Baker: In Western countries, space programs are reviewed with every change of government. Too much time and financial resources are wasted due to lack of consistency in space exploration policy. China has an advantage in this sense - its undemocratic political system is able to plan for several years ahead and achieve its goals.

Future of the ISS

Pace: NASA intends to maintain its presence on the International Space Station until 2024. The question is whether our Russian partners will remain at the station by that time. It depends on further relations between Washington and Moscow. Both the American and Russian space programs are very much tied to the ISS, in this sense we are very dependent on each other. Everything possible is now being done to ensure that problems in relations between the two countries do not affect the joint operation of the ISS.

Baker: The Russians will not be able to operate the ISS alone, since the whole of it does not belong to them. I think the station will just be deorbited. By 2020, the service life of its original modules will exceed 20 years.

Pace: The future of the station depends on future international partnerships. If we do not have a clear understanding of what we are going to do after the ISS program is closed, we will simply remain out of work. Of course, manned cosmonautics will not end there, but the West will no longer be the leader in this area.

Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption Flights to asteroids are less justified than flights to the moon, expert says

Baker: There are serious concerns about the technical condition of the ISS. Over the past year, the number of man-hours spent on maintaining its performance has increased markedly.

Pace: By the mid-2020s China will launch its own station into orbit, and the Europeans are discussing with Beijing the possibility of launching their own astronauts to it.

Space tourism from private carriers

Baker: Think XCOR Aerospace (an American company that developed a suborbital horizontal takeoff and landing spaceplane. - BBC) and Virgin Galactic (a company planning to organize suborbital space flights. - BBC) will carry people into space. Of course, their clientele will mainly consist of moneybag tourists, but, in my opinion, these projects also have the potential in terms of conducting suborbital scientific experiments.

Grady: The first to go into space are millionaires and people obsessed with modern technologies (perhaps a combination of these qualities) - just like the super-rich became the first passengers of airplanes. Let's not forget that in the early days of passenger aviation, many airlines - such as British Airways - were state-owned enterprises. The same story will happen with flights to the moon. At the moment, such programs are only within the power of the state space agencies, but private companies like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic - or those that will come after them - will gradually begin to engage in them.

Pace: The absence of concrete plans for the US government in the field of space exploration after the end of the operation of the ISS is fraught with a rather serious threat to the nascent commercial sector. In the absence of a clearly defined government demand for the development of space technologies, it will be very difficult for private companies to survive. SpaceX and Orbital owe their current capability development to billions of dollars of targeted investment from NASA.

Baker: The future is not behind the mega-concepts of the era of Wernher von Braun (German rocket pioneer who was directly involved in the US lunar program. - BBC), but behind the consolidation of private corporations and their independence from the state. In this case, I think the results will not be long in coming.

Humanity will continue to conquer space

Pace: To understand what humanity is, it is necessary to be aware of where we are able to fly, what we will see there, what new things we can learn and what experience we will bring to Earth. We want (and must) see as many corners of space as possible: in some cases with our own eyes, in others with the help of automatic stations.

Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption Perhaps such views outside the window will one day become available to everyone.

Grady: Undoubtedly, in the future, automation will be equal in functionality to human abilities, so that there will no longer be a need to involve astronauts in scientific or technical tasks. But curiosity is inherent in humanity - we want to take a direct part in events and be present at new discoveries. People will still continue to fly into space, but robots will pave the way for us.

Baker: Although work on major research programs will continue (and, I hope, will end with their implementation), such projects are unlikely to become the basis for the development of space research. Most likely, the industry will be driven by the market and individuals - the democratization of the space program is already underway.

Grady: Undoubtedly, space research contributes to the development of technologies and contributes to the creation of new jobs. For example, the British space industry is one of the largest sources of government revenue. I look to the future with optimism - space continues to inspire and beckon us.

July 17, 2016 at 01:10 am

NASA's new Mars 2020 rover will search for traces of life on the Red Planet

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The other day, NASA spoke about the details of the new mission

To the question "Is there life on Mars?" scientists still don't have an answer. It certainly could have existed before. Perhaps it still exists in one form or another. But all this is speculation and assumptions without a clear answer. In order to get this answer, NASA is proposing to send a new rover to Mars, called Mars 2020.

The agency has published a "roadmap" for landing the rover on Mars. So far, the date of the final leg of the journey is February 2021. An image of the future rover has also been published. All stages of preliminary preparation for the implementation of the project have been completed.

The new stage involves the approval of the final version of the structure of the rover and the beginning of the manufacture of individual elements of the system. After all the parts are manufactured, the assembly of the system will begin, testing its performance and sending the rover to the spaceport. The transition to this phase, according to project manager George Tau (George Tau), should occur as early as next year.

Since the Mars 2020 mission is the "heir" of the Curiosity mission, the structure and some elements of the new rover are very similar to those used in Curiosity. Thanks to this, scientists did not have to “reinvent the wheel” when creating Mars 2020. Some parts and key components of the rover have already been made, since the technical base has remained from the previous project.

Model 2020 will collect soil samples from Mars and test them for traces of microbial life. This task was not set before Curiosity. The 2020 rover will also have to collect and store selected samples, something its predecessor did not do either. The samples are planned to be sent back to Earth one day for further testing. So far, there are no specific plans for this phase of the mission. “The Mars 2020 mission is the first step in a multi-stage campaign to return collected and sealed images of Martian rocks. The mission is an important milestone in the implementation of the Journey to Mars program. The goal of the program is to determine whether life previously existed on Mars ... ”, - said Geoffrey Yoder, one of the leaders of the Mars 2020 program. It is planned to select and place in airtight capsules 30 of the most interesting samples of Mars rocks for science.

It is known that the Mars 2020 rover will study one of the regions of the Red Planet, where, according to scientists, there was previously a favorable environment for the existence of microbial life. So far, the region has not been determined - scientists are considering several likely places of interest in terms of research.

The Mars 2020 rover will have 7 main scientific instruments. The overall equipment of the rover is better than that of Curiosity. The first tool is the rover's main camera (the part that looks like a robot head). The camera is more advanced than the camera Curiosity has been equipped with. The Mastcam-Z will be able to capture panoramic shots and stereoscopic images, just like the 2020 predecessor's camera. But it has a higher optical zoom than the previous model. In fact, all of Mars 2020's cameras are better than those of Curiosity, plus, in addition to video, the rover will also be able to record sound. And of course, the new rover will also be able to take selfies.

The SuperCam on the 2020 is an upgraded version of ChemCam, Curiosity's tool. In fact, this is a powerful laser gun, with which the rover will “shoot” at the rocks of Mars and analyze the resulting products. All this makes it possible to identify the mineral and understand the elemental composition of the rock. Based on the rock analysis data, Earth scientists will decide on the priorities for studying the various regions of Mars where various rocks occur.

The rover's third instrument is MOXIE (Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment). It will capture carbon dioxide and convert it into pure oxygen. This experiment will make it possible to understand whether future colonists on Mars will be able to receive enough oxygen for the needs of the colony. Oxygen is also needed to create rocket fuel.

The fourth tool is MEDA Mars (Environmental Dynamics Analyzer). It is needed to study Martian weather conditions. The device's sensors will measure temperature, wind speed and direction, pressure, relative humidity, dust size and shape.

The fifth tool is RIFMAX. This is a georadar. He will be able to "look" under the surface of Mars to a depth of 10 meters (500 m is indicated) with a resolution of 5-20 centimeters. Thus, thanks to RIFMAX, scientists will receive a map of the surface layers of Mars in the rover's landing region.

The Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL) is an X-ray fluorimetric spectrometer that will also contain a high-resolution thermal imager to determine the composition of Martian soil from rare elements. PIXL allows you to more accurately detect and analyze elemental composition than was previously possible.

Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals (SHERLOC) is an ultraviolet Raman spectrometer that will provide small-scale imaging to determine small-scale mineralogy and detect organic matter. SHERLOC will be the first ultraviolet spectrometer on the surface of Mars and will interact with other instruments in the payload.

After the announcement of the new program, NASA spoke about the details of the new mission. The organization also answered a number of questions from users who watched the presentation of the Mars 2020 mission. For example, NASA specialists will change the structure of the wheels of the rover in order to make them stronger than Curiosity wheels. As you know, this rover's wheels have suffered significant damage over time.

The landing system of the rover will also undergo changes. The general landing pattern is the same as that of Curiosity. But experts will now be able to determine for themselves when the system's parachute should deploy, not just the speed at which that parachute should deploy automatically. According to the developers of the system, this allows to reduce the landing area of ​​the rover by half. As mentioned above, the rover's cameras will be able to record audio as well. The cameras will start working even at the stage of the descent of the apparatus in order to record all the details.

If you wish, you can watch a video presentation of the new system.

After 2020, American rovers can finally be accompanied by a European device. What difficulties await him?

The European Space Agency has begun testing the ExoMars-2020 Martian rover, a joint Russian-European project to explore the fourth planet in the solar system. How is the device different from the American missions Mars-2020 or InSight, and will Roscosmos be able to fulfill its part of the deal?

Hand in hand with Europe

The ExoMars project began with the signing of a cooperation agreement between the Russian Federal Space Agency and the European Space Agency in 2013. According to the text of the agreement, the parties are not limited only to Mars, but are also ready to cooperate in the exploration of the Moon and Jupiter. Russia has never flown to the gas giant, even in Soviet times, if these intentions come true, then the mission will become a record for our country in terms of penetration into space.

The implementation of ExoMars initially involved two stages: the launch of vehicles in 2016 and 2018. The first Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) mission ended in partial failure: the Schiaparelli landing module crashed while landing on the surface of the planet. The orbital probe does its job: it analyzes the atmosphere and the surface of the Red Planet, looks after the best place for the rover.

But in connection with the failure of Schiaparelli, Russian-European cooperation faced a difficult task - to conduct a new Martian mission flawlessly in order to confirm the ability to work together in difficult political and economic conditions. So far, this has affected the postponement of the second stage: the launch of the rover is scheduled for 2020.

On the Russian side, the project is being worked directly by Roskosmos, as well as the Scientific and Production Association named after. S.A. Lavochkin and the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The task of Russia will be to launch the device into space in 2020 using the Proton-M carrier with the Breeze-M upper stage, as well as to create a landing platform for delivering the European rover to the surface of the Red Planet - one of the most important stages of the mission.

For Russia, the success of the mission is fundamental: after the failure of Phobos-Grunt in 2011 and the mixed results of Schiaparelli, it needs to make every effort to demonstrate the ability to carry out interplanetary missions.

Russia has chosen the path of creating analogues of OneWeb systems and maintaining an orbital group of military and near-military vehicles, without any ambitious tasks. Work on the creation of a Russian super-heavy rocket or apparatus "Federation" is at the initial stages. Therefore, ExoMars is also extremely important in ideological terms: Russians are unlikely to appreciate success in creating a constellation of satellites, but presenting a joint project as an example of effective cooperation and achievements of domestic science is a completely different matter.

An example in the "media" coverage (and success) of Mars exploration shows NASA. Over the past 15 years, the Americans have landed and carried out many years of work on the Opportunity, Spirit and Curiosity rovers. And the new approach of the US authorities implies an even greater reorientation of the space agency for large-scale scientific projects, such as the search for life outside the Earth or a flight to the same Mars.

Digging deep

Mars is not just one of the closest planets to Earth. He was and remains a potential candidate for the search for extraterrestrial life. Therefore, upon arrival on the Red Planet, the ExoMars mission rover will join NASA vehicles to study the Martian environment and search for potential signs of life. By the way, the Russian landing platform is also equipped with a laboratory with several instruments that will work even after the rover descends.

One of the main elements in this is the opportunity to study not only the surface, but also the interior of Mars. They can answer not only questions about the structure of the planet, but also shed light on the question of the existence of extraterrestrial life - at a depth, protected from direct radiation, the chance of detecting it is much higher.

To date, it is this "deep" approach that is "in trend" in the design of Martian vehicles. For example, NASA's Curiosity rover is equipped with a "drill" that allows it to make holes several centimeters deep in rock and collect samples. Particularly noteworthy in this sense is the InSight spacecraft launched to Mars in mid-May. Unlike Curiosity, this robot is not capable of moving on the surface, but it can cause a significant breakthrough in research thanks to a full-fledged drill: the device is able to penetrate up to six meters below the Martian surface. InSight will measure the seismic activity of the planet, the composition of its bowels, the temperature of the soil, and also conduct its chemical analysis. The results of the research will allow specialists on Earth to draw conclusions about the core and mantle of Mars and, using its example, learn more about the structure of our own planet.

What about ExoMars? It would be strange if the mission ignored an important aspect of Martian exploration. Yes, the new rover will not be able to compete with the static InSight, but among the rovers it will be unique (if everything goes according to plan) - its built-in drill is able to break through the Martian rock to a depth of two meters. This is important, since the mobility of the apparatus will allow changing mission targets on the go: if scientists from Earth find a place where water (in one form or another) could potentially be preserved, or traces of signs of life, the apparatus can quickly analyze the rock in a new place.

For the future

If the Russian-European mission is successfully completed, world science will not only receive information that will help to understand the structure of the planet and, on the basis of this, ensure the goal-setting of future missions, but will also raise the prestige of extraterrestrial research in Russia and the EU, which will make it possible to receive funding for future missions. Moreover, sanctions do not apply to joint research, in particular, Europe has lifted restrictions on the supply of fuel for ExoMars-2020.

In light of the Russian leadership's loss of interest in large-scale space projects and reorientation to orbital projects, ExoMars can prove the importance and necessity of research beyond the Earth. But this also raises concerns: if something “goes wrong,” Roscosmos and the European Space Agency may lose faith in the fruitfulness of cooperation, and Russia alone is unlikely to be able to implement such projects.

Exactly 59 years ago, Soviet scientists and engineers launched the first artificial Earth satellite into space. Since then, many steps have been taken to explore outer space. However, according to experts, a lot has already been mastered in near-Earth orbit, and we need to move on. The next step will be the exploration of Mars. About the Russian-European project "ExoMars" and its Russian component– take-off and landing module read in the material of the Zvezda TV channel. Igor Komarov, the head of the state corporation Roscosmos, reported to President Vladimir Putin last week that Russia is developing a take-off and landing module of the ExoMars project for a flight in 2020. According to Komarov, the launch of the first ExoMars mission, which took place in March , is a landmark event, and in the near future it is expected to start exploring the surface of the planet. During it, landing on the Red Planet, equipment that examines the surface of Mars will be worked out. This is like a stage in the Mars exploration program, which will ensure both landing, and the collection of materials, and the development of take-off technologies, the return of payloads and soil samples from Mars, ”said Komarov. According to experts, the successful completion of this project will be a major step in space exploration beyond the Earth's orbit. project. Much of the experience accumulated during the Soviet era has been lost, and it will have to be restored, ”commented the founder of the Selenokhod company, which created the lunar rover to participate in the Google Lunar X PRIZE international competition, Nikolai Dzis-Voinarovsky. To reach the Red Planet, the interplanetary station of the Russian-European mission ExoMars due in mid-October. First steps towards the exploration of Mars The first attempts to create a project for the delivery of Martian soil were made back in the 70s of the last century. Then it was proposed to fly to Mars on a super-heavy launch vehicle H-1. According to this version of the mission, which was called "Mars-5NM", the preliminary design was protected, however, due to failures with the launch of H-1 in 1973, the flight project to Mars was also closed. However, scientists and engineers thought about the delivery of soil from the Red Planet have not left. In the same year, a new project was proposed - "Mars-5M". He used a two-start scheme, which, by the way, was recently shown by Elon Musk in his video about the colonization of Mars. According to the idea, the heavy Proton rocket should launch the orbital and landing modules, which would dock in Earth orbit and fly to Mars. In the orbit of the Red Planet, each module would perform its function. Orbital - filmed the surface and chose a landing site, and landing - took soil samples and returned to Mars orbit. There, the scheme was repeated: docking with the orbital module, flight to Earth and return. The full cycle of this project was three years. The project could well have taken place if the Igla docking system, which was used not only in this project, but also at the Salyut-6 station, had not failed. The Soyuz-79 spacecraft could not dock to it. Confidence in the entire project was undermined, it was declared unreliable and closed in 1977. "ExoMars-2020" Today, NPO named after S. A. Lavochkin is implementing a new project of flight to Mars and exploration of the surface and subsurface layer in close proximity to the landing site. However, it is worth noting that ExoMars-2020 is an international project that provides for the development by the Russian side of an amphibious module with a landing platform, while the European side is developing a transfer module and a rover. As Roscosmos told the Zvezda TV website, the program has several key goals: entry into the atmosphere, descent and landing of a payload on the surface of Mars; rover movement on the surface, access to the subsoil for sampling, preparation, placement and analysis of samples. Also, one of the goals is the qualification of Russian ground-based communication facilities for communication in deep space in cooperation with the European Space Agency. It is noteworthy that the concept of creating a spacecraft is similar to the Mars-5M concept. It will also consist of a flight and landing modules. The spacecraft is supposed to be put into orbit on the Proton-M launch vehicle with the Breeze-M upper stage. According to the project, the flight module will correct the trajectories during the Earth-Mars flight stage, and will also provide power supply to the landing module system using solar panels , however, after separation, the transit module will enter the Martian atmosphere and burn up. In turn, the landing module must make a flight within 30 minutes to enter the atmosphere of Mars, descend in the atmosphere and soft landing on the surface. According to experts, both parachute systems and special soft landing devices are needed to land on the Red Planet . After all, it is the landing, and not the flight, that is the key stage in the life of spacecraft. This is exactly what NGO them. S. A. Lavochkina. The uniqueness of this project lies in the fact that both the rover and the scientific equipment will be placed simultaneously on the landing platform, which will reduce the landing speed from hypersonic to normal landing. To do this, it is supposed to use aerodynamic braking in the conditions of a strong rarefaction of the atmosphere of Mars. According to experts, the landing module is the next generation of the modified service module of the Phobos-Grunt spacecraft, which came to replace the obsolete devices of the Phobos and Mars-96 projects at the end of the 90s. The modern module is built according to a scheme that allows you to improve its individual systems and components without major modifications to the main structure. This device carries up to 45 kilograms of payload, which includes instruments for geophysical research, instruments for monitoring weather conditions, instruments for analyzing the composition and structure of the surface. “These instruments are necessary for studying the geology of the planet, as well as searching for signs of life through sampling and soil, both from the surface of Mars, and from a depth of up to two meters, ”said Mikhail Fadeev, an employee of the communications department of the state corporation Roscosmos, to the website of the Zvezda TV channel. man on mars However, these are all the first steps in the exploration of Mars that humanity is taking. The ultimate goal is to land a man on the surface and colonize the Red Planet. As Dzis-Voinarovsky noted, some NASA documents on their current space program promise a manned landing on Mars ten years after the first flight of the SLS super-heavy rocket to the Moon, which is scheduled for November 2018. return, then it is 2028–2032,” the expert predicted. At the same time, the main difficulties are of the same nature: earthlings have never done this before. The maximum is the landing of a man on the moon. However, in order to give a general idea of ​​how much more difficult it is, it is enough to recall the distance to Mars. The red planet is located at least 56 million kilometers from the Earth, while from the Moon - 0.4 million kilometers. Mankind still has many difficult tasks to solve: to assemble an interplanetary ship in Earth's orbit, to make a shuttle that will land on Mars, and then take off with people on board. Against the background of these tasks, the rest of the problems seem to be not so difficult.