2014-10-16

space

It takes a small effort to keep up to date on space news. Here's a summary of some current space flights that I like.


New Horizons
In 2015 we will see Pluto (a dwarf planet) for the very first time. This is the best picture we have of Pluto today:

New Horizons should improve this picture gradually from February to August 2015, yeah!

Dawn
Remember Ceres, the dwarf planet between Mars and Jupiter. Only 900km accross, yet it could have more fresh water than planet Earth, and it holds about a third of the mass of the Asteroid belt. Dawn will give us a first look at Ceres in February 2015, yeah!


China to the Moon
Many people laugh with the Chinese space program, they shouldn't! They launched Chang'e 3 to the Moon in December 2013, and released a rover that is still operational today. Never mind that it stopped driving in January 2014, having a bunch of instruments operate for more than 10 months at -150 and +100 degrees Celcius is *amazing*.
Chang'e 4 will launch 23 October 2014 to fly to the Moon and back, testing return to Earth. Chang'e 5 will collect some rocks from the Moon in 2015 and fly them back to Earth. How long will it take before they send people ?
My guess is they won't just plant a flag, they will go to the Moon to do real long term science.


Elon Musk
Elon Musk is a man with a clear vision. He wants to put a million people on Mars as soon as possible. He is currently in charge of SpaceX (and also CEO of Tesla). They already had four or five flights to the International Space Station with their own rockets and their own spacecraft. My best guess is that they will have an unmanned Mars landing in about six years, and manned around 2025-ish.


There is more:
-Rosetta (circling a comet!) with Philae
-Juno

-the Chinese space station (construction from 2018 till 2022-ish)
-the American rovers on Mars
-lot's of satellites around Mars
-and the Voyager probes are still alive