10 Upcoming Space Missions You CANT Miss

 it's not only nasa that have big things  planned for 2021  and beyond other space agencies around  the world  are looking to mark their place in space  exploration history  while 2020 might have been a little  disappointing there were some pretty  impressive achievements in the last 12  months  including the first manned spacex falcon  9 rocket launch  and the japanese hayabusa 2 taking a big  old bite out of the ryuju asteroid  so what future missions are there to  look forward to as mankind attempts to  satisfy its unquenchable thirst  for the nectar of the gods that is  cosmological investigation  welcome to fact nominal today we're  looking to the future of galaxy  exploration in space missions to look  forward to  perseverance lands on mars february  the big story of the past year was the  launch of the perseverance  a replacement for the martian curiosity  rover  it's due to touchdown on the red planet  in february this year  with scientists tantalizing taste buds  salivating at the thought of new data  collected from an entirely different  assortment  of robotic instruments and equipment its  main role won't be to search for water  that cat is out of the bag but instead  look for signs of life  no not little green men but something  more along the lines of the fossilized  remains of ancient microbial life  hiding in the clay deposits of what is  thought to once be a river delta feeding  the gizero crater  the core samples retrieved will be  deposited on the surface like  robotic dung droppings to be retrieved  during the highly ambitious  first manned mission to mars china's  ambitions  2022. last year china proved their worth  in the realm of space discovery  by landing the chang a4 spacecraft on  the far side of the moon  in its oldest and deepest crater  completely  uncharted territory next year the one  billion  strong nation assures the world it's  right on target to launch a third space  station into orbit  the new station will be roughly a fifth  of the size of the iss  similar to the mir it will have a mass  of between 80  and 100 tons with mission operations to  be carried out from the ground  by the beijing aerospace command and  control center  by the end of the decade their space  program will include a lunar base  probe and surface rover sent to mars and  even the promise of the return of  martian soil samples  back to earth we're going back to the  moon  2024 nasa are on track to have a man and  woman set foot on the moon in 2024  the artemis mission will take astronauts  to the lunar south pole  and will be a tune-up mission of sorts  ahead of the planned manned space flight  to mars  the surface of the moon will serve as a  testing ground for water collection  technology  as well as utilizing soils from foreign  worlds to grow food  long-term effects of zero or reduced  gravity on the human body  will also be closely studied prospector  1 mission  2027 captain kirk wasn't kidding when he  said that space was the final frontier  the rashes are just as there was a gold  rush in the wild west of newly formed  north america  so too will there be a gold rush out  into space  the prospector 1 is a craft devised by  the privately owned  deep space industries that seeks to  touch down on roaming asteroids  and assess their viability as a mining  resource  it sounds like a bad plot from the movie  armageddon  at present space is an untapped resource  there are asteroids full of rare metals  with just a single hunk of rock worth  more than all the money in the world  literally the goal is to scout out rich  deposits  and eventually mine them commercially  and bring those resources back to earth  for refinement  and subsequent use in industry and  manufacturing  got the juice 2030.  in an effort to understand how life can  exist outside our solar system the  european space agency will send out  juice their jupiter icy moons explorer  the explorer will collect  detailed observations and record data  for the jupiter's three largest moons  ganymede callisto and europa the  explorer is expected to arrive in 2030  after a roughly eight year journey out  into the further reaches of our system  the focus will be to better understand  how slightly more favorable conditions  on the frozen water containing moons  could have potentially led to a  life-sustaining environment forming on  their surface  juice will spend three and a half years  in close proximity to jupiter  and is integral in adding weight to the  hypothesis  that huge gas giants around our  neighboring stars may be hiding  perfectly habitable worlds  and even life itself on their  surrounding moons  deployment of the lisa 2034  lisa is a more convenient way of saying  the laser interferometer space antenna  and operates in rather the same way as  the also clumsily named  laser interferometer gravitational wave  observatory here on earth  ligo for short ligo has been  instrumental in furthering scientific  knowledge  by detecting and confirming the  existence of gravitational waves  confirming a prediction made by albert  einstein in his general theory of  relativity  over 100 years ago the lisa is the next  logical step  in more accurately measuring these  gravitational waves  the european space agency aims to deploy  a trio of satellites that will spread  out in a triangular formation  two and a half million kilometers apart  following earth in its orbit around the  sun  much fainter gravitational waves are  then able to be observed over millions  of kilometers  despite being just 20 picometers in  amplitude  or smaller than an atom the interstellar  slingshot  2036 alpha centauri is our closest  star system but it's still 4.37 light  years away  the journey would take 76 000 years  using current rocket technology  or roughly a thousand human lifetimes  breakthrough initiatives is a group  consisting of facebook founder mark  zuckerberg  technology investor yuri milner and  arguably the greatest scientist of our  generation  the late dr stephen hawking they have a  plan  it's the breakthrough starshot project  and sounds the stuff of science fiction  not science fact one thousand tiny  nanocrafts  that fit on the palm of your hand dubbed  star chips  will be shot out into space each square  will sport four  two megapixel cameras able to send data  back to earth  via a meter long retractable antenna  each star chip will also have a light  sail  and will be propelled out into the void  courtesy of an 100 gigawatt light beam  pushing them towards alpha centauri  the first martians 2030 or later  much needs to be done before nasa can  send living breathing human beings to  mars  the success of this mission hangs in the  balance pending the lessons learnt from  the perseverance marslander  and artemis lunar missions the 2030  milestone date may be a pie in the sky  dream  but it's not entirely beyond the realm  of possibility  though a trip to the moon is a thousand  times the distance from earth to the iss  going to mars is a 34 million mile trip  that takes eight months and that's just  one way  keeping humans happy and healthy during  deep space travel will be the first  hurdle  then there is the issue of landing  setting up a base of operations  replenishing food and supplies and then  making the journey back  we'll get there but there is still more  work to do  the new space race to be decided  this is the big one arguably one of the  most sought after  and historically important rewards in  the history of space travel  the holy grail commercial passenger  flights  up into space the contest is in full  swing  and it's a mexican standoff between a  trio of eccentric multi-billionaires  there is the steve bezos backed blue  origin seeking to put civilian boots on  the moon with the grand plan of having  thousands of people living and working  in space  the company has already launched and  landed its space tourism rocket  named after space pioneer alan shepard  then the brainchild of elon musk  spacex looking to take man to mars  for a hefty price tag the falcon 9  rocket has had a whole host of  successful launches  and although the last one was not so  successful it was still enough to land  them and nasa contract  trailing in the rear well behind the two  front runners  is richard branson's virgin galactic  having initially had lofty plans to sell  tickets to space  this company is dropped out of the race  somewhat content to make money launching  satellites into orbit  instead but there is a dark horse coming  up the inside  looking to use up the crown from the  odds on favorites  russian space agency russ cosmos has  partnered with space adventures  to turn retired rockets and spacecraft  into space taxis  an ambitious future plan includes  turning the eventually decommissioned  international space station into a  luxury hotel for the rich and famous  willing to part with tens of millions of  dollars to get the best view of earth  from above it