Photo credit: Galaxy image: shutterstock.com

For centuries, people have been looking to the stars to help us understand our universe. In the last century, humans traveled into space, and we have been sending probes, rockets, rovers and more into space ever since. The next few years will see new milestones in our knowledge of space, and humans will venture back to the moon and prepare the way for a trip to Mars!

The last time a human walked on the moon was over 50 years ago. You might know the names Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the first humans to land on the moon as part of Apollo 11 in 1969. But have you heard of Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt? They were the last astronauts to set foot on the moon in December 1972 as part of Apollo 17.

The Apollo program was the first to send Americans to the moon. Now the Artemis mission will return humans to the moon. If things go as planned, it is a step towards a journey to Mars!

Artemis 1 sent mannequins around the moon last year, and a human crew is set to orbit the moon in November 2024. The Artemis 2 crew was announced on April 3. It has three NASA astronauts—commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialist Christina Koch—and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.

NASA and its global partners plan to explore the lunar surface, build a base station on the moon and put a Gateway space craft into lunar orbit. In July, NASA announced contracts with several companies to create a sustainable working site on the surface of the moon. This includes building a landing pad, developing technology to provide fuel and energy, and even constructing roads on the moon near its South Pole. These facilities could be used to help send a crewed mission to Mars.

If the Artemis 2 crew is successful in orbiting the moon in 2024, the next step will be to land astronauts on the moon, possibly by 2025 or 2026. The space crafts that will take the astronauts to the lunar surface are being developed by private companies. SpaceX is working on a lander for Artemis 3 and 4, and Blue Origin will build the lander for Artemis 5.

Out-of-This-World Views

Space-based telescopes can see further into the universe than those here on Earth. That’s because they do not have the HINDRANCE of clouds, light pollution and distortion caused by Earth’s atmosphere. These powerful instruments have been used to discover nebulae, planets, black holes, dark matter and more.

The Hubble Space Telescope launched in 1990. It orbits about 332 miles above the planet, outside of Earth’s atmosphere. It completes a full orbit of the Earth in just a little over an hour and a half, traveling at about 17,000 mph. Over the years, astronauts have upgraded parts of Hubble and added new instruments. This has allowed the telescope to surpass its predicted 15-year lifespan.

The Hubble has viewed locations over 13.4 billion light years away from Earth! It has provided scientists with valuable data, including information about black holes. Because of Hubble’s observations, we now know that most galaxies have large black holes at their centers and that the size of the black hole is related to the size of the galaxy.

In December 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope launched. Unlike the Hubble, the JWST orbits the Sun at a point further out than the Earth but in line with our planet, a million miles away! A large sunshield protects the Webb Space Telescope from the heat and light of the Sun and Earth.

The mission of the JWST team includes looking for the first galaxies, studying how galaxies evolve, and finding out if other solar systems have the elements needed to support life. The first official images from JWST were shown in July 2022. The JWST is expected to operate and send data and images back to Earth for the next several decades. This is a telescope for the next generation, according to JWST deputy project scientist for planetary science Stefanie Milam.

“Kids that are in grade school today (could) be using this telescope,” Milam explained to Space.com. what’s needed to support life. The first official images from JWST were shown in July 2022.

Asteroid Bennu Sample to Land in Utah Soon!

An out-of-this-world delivery is heading this way and should arrive the morning of Sept. 24.

This will conclude the PRIMARY mission of OSIRIS-REx, an uncrewed NASA spacecraft with its science team led by the UofA.

This ambitious mission launched almost seven years ago, sending OSIRIS-REx to get a sample of an ancient asteroid and to deliver that sample of dirt and small rocks to the science team.

The team selected Bennu, a near-Earth asteroid. It’s a carbonaceous (C-type) asteroid, meaning it is largely made up of carbon, making it almost black. Hopes are high that Bennu also has water-bearing minerals and even some organic molecules. Experts believe it is around 4½ billion years old (older than Earth), and its make up could help reveal how our Solar System was formed and more!

“We’re so excited,” says Dani DellaGiustina, Deputy Principal Investigator for the mission. “It’s just incredible to have built a device that is capable of visiting an asteroid, grabbing a piece of that asteroid, bringing it back to Earth—that’s a huge, incredible human endeavor! It took thousands of people to make this happen.”

About a cupful of Bennu’s surface was stowed into a special vehicle called the Sample Return Capsule (SRC). OSIRIS-REx is well on its way and will drop the SRC into Earth’s atmosphere. “I think we are all incredibly excited but also a little nervous because having a sample, it’s protected…but it gets really hot during that journey. It gets to temperatures that exceed 5,000°F,” Dr. Della Giustina explains. If everything goes as planned, two parachutes will provide a soft landing in Utah and the sample will remain pristine.

The team thinks they have 200–250 grams of Bennu, which could keep UofA and researchers all over the world busy for decades. After the drop off, OSIRIS-REx is being renamed OSIRIS-APEX and should reach asteroid Apophis in 2029.

Exploration Timeline:

1600

• 1608 – Hans Lipperhey, also known as Johann Lippershey, patented the telescope

• 1610 – Galileo Galilei wrote about observing the moons of Jupiter

1950

• Oct. 4, 1957 – First artificial satellite (Sputnik) launched into orbit

1960

• April 12, 1961 – First person in space, Yuri Gagarin, orbited Earth on Vostok 1

• March 18, 1965 – First space walk (USSR)

• July 20, 1969 – First moon landing (USA)

1970

• Dec. 19, 1972 – Last time a human stepped on the moon

1980

• April 12, 1981 – First Space Shuttle Launch, exactly 20 years after the first human went into space

1990

• April 24, 1990 – Hubble Space Telescope launches

• July 4, 1997 – First NASA rover (Sojourner) to land on Mars

2000

• Nov. 2, 2000 – First crew lives onboard International Space Station

2020

• Dec. 25, 2021 – James Webb Space Telescope launches

• April 3, 2023 – Artemis II crew announced

2024

• Artemis 2 crew hopes to launch on first crewed mission to the moon in over 50 years