The Future of Space Exploration
This article provides an overview of what we’re currently exploring and where we’re heading, with a focus on the future of the International Space Station, the construction of the Gateway in lunar orbit, returning to the Moon for the first time since 1972, and stepping foot on Mars.
We’ve been exploring space for over 60 years since the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched on the 4th October 1957. Later this month we’re celebrating 50 years of Apollo. Fifty years since we landed on the Moon — July 20th 1969, when Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made history. For the first time, humans stepped foot on another celestial body. The Apollo program is something that we, humankind, are all very proud of. One of our greatest accomplishments, it changed the course of history.
Later this month we’re celebrating 50 years of Apollo. Fifty years since we landed on the Moon — July 20th 1969.
However, since Neil and Buzz stepped foot on the Moon only ten people have done so since — all American men. The last time was in 1972. Expectations that we would colonise the Moon and extend our presence in the Solar System with regular journeys to Mars consisting of fleets of spacecraft and space stations have been confined to science fiction. The future of exploration as foretold during the Apollo era has failed to materialise. The furthest we’ve been since 1972 is 400km away from Earth. Compare that to the 400,000km the Apollo 13 astronauts achieved in 1970 when they looped around the far side of the Moon. Since then we’ve been living in the shadow of the Apollo generation.
What went wrong? We’ll analyse that in more detail in the coming weeks. But for now, what’s important is that Space Exploration since 1972 has taken on a different path, one far more practical than cosmic. Recent focus has been on conducting microgravity science experiments and learning how to live and work in space: two success stories of twenty years of the International Space Station. However, the signs are that this is beginning to change. Our cosmic Space Exploration dreams can once again be realised.
The furthest we’ve been since 1972 is 400km away from Earth. Compare that to the 400,000km the Apollo 13 astronauts achieved in 1970 when they looped around the far side of the Moon.
There is a real momentum in the space industry today, driven by NASA’s Space Policy Directive 1 to return humans to the Moon by 2024. Private space companies are driving technological innovation, no more so than SpaceX with their reusable booster technology. New countries including China and India are making huge investments in the space industry, with China landing a rover on the far side of the Moon for the first time earlier this year. The compete / cooperate dynamic is driving global activity and Space Exploration is the winner.
I’m very optimistic about the Future of Space Exploration. We’ve already established in the first article that the benefits are there, we know the technology exists to take us forward, and the political will is there (at least from America and China). There exists a number of countries/agencies with burgeoning space industries. With the cost of launch decreasing, access to space is rising. Space Exploration is awakening from its slumber; poised to return better than ever before and once again ignite generations.
Are you ready for the Future of Space Exploration?
If you missed it last week, each article will be tiered in two levels: firstly with an introductory layer called BASE CAMP, which will provide a summary of the key messages for readers who want a quick overview of the topic, followed by a second layer called THE SUMMIT, which will provide the reader with additional detail, analysis and insight.
BASE CAMP
Space Exploration is a rapidly evolving field. Emerging activities include the lucrative and much needed space resource utilisation, in particular in-situ resource utilisation (utilisation of the resources on the Moon and Mars), deep space refuelling, advanced robotics with increased locomotion and powered by Artificial Intelligence, and commercial crewed transportation (private company transportation to space via Boeing, SpaceX, and soon Blue Origin).
This new era of Space Exploration requires a new approach. To go farther we must be able to sustain missions of greater distance and duration. We must use the resources we find at our destinations. We must overcome radiation, isolation, gravity, and extreme environments like never before if we are going to settle in the vicinity of the Moon and travel on to Mars. These are just some of the challenges we face to push the bounds of humanity.
In order to be able to shift our exploration focus and activity from Low Earth Orbit to the Moon and before we can even contemplate Lunar settlements and Elon Musk proposed Martian colonies, we must first engineer the capability to transport larger, heavier payloads off Earth and beyond our gravity. The first heavy duty rocket of this new era of Space Exploration arrived on February 6, 2018 when SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully completed its first test flight. The rocket has since carried out two further launches, the most recent one being last week where it delivered 24 satellites in its first night launch (read more here).
New technology and innovative engineering means rocket boosters have the capability to return back to Earth for reuse — saving the hardware and in doing so dramatically reducing the cost of launch and thereby exploration.
NASA has been working on developing their new rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), for many years. SLS will be the most powerful rocket ever developed (read more about the SLS here). SLS has yet to begin testing amidst many delays. Unlike new generation rockets from SpaceX and Blue Origin, the two private space companies with exploration driven mission statements, SLS is a one-time use rocket. This is how it always used to be in the days of space exploration. Build a rocket, use it, and in the process destroy it.
Now, new technology and innovative engineering means rocket boosters (and soon to be the entire rocket for SpaceX’s Super Heavy boosters for their Starship) have the capability to return back to Earth for reuse — saving the hardware and in doing so dramatically reducing the cost of launch and thereby exploration. NASA’s SLS has been an expensive, over-budget project that is hoped to launch mid next year, however this looks unlikely. Still, SLS is almost certainly going to launch before SpaceX’s Starship and Blue Origin’s New Glenn — two heavy rocket systems that will compete with NASA’s SLS. See the figure below for a comparison of the rockets.
The SLS is designed to launch the Orion crewed capsule and European Service Module (ESM) that can support humans from launch, through deep space, and return safely back to Earth: NASA’s next generation human space capsule. SpaceX and Boeing have both developed their own crew capsules that will be used as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew program. The Starliner (Boeing) and Crew Dragon (SpaceX) spacecraft systems will carry up to four astronauts on NASA missions to the ISS maintaining a crew of seven astronauts aboard the Station to maximize time dedicated to scientific research on the orbiting laboratory. The first crewed SpaceX Crew Dragon launch of two American astronauts to the ISS is scheduled for late September this year, with the Boeing Starliner scheduled to launch three astronauts in early November.
Beyond human space exploration, robotic explorers continue to drive discoveries on distant planets and celestial objects. Lunar orbiters continue to reveal the Moon’s hazards and resources. In 2009 we learned that the Moon contains millions of tons of water ice. This ice can be extracted and purified for water, can be separated into oxygen for breathing, or hydrogen for rocket fuel. The Moon is quite uniquely suited to prepare us and propel us to Mars and beyond.
We must use the resources we find at our destinations. We must overcome radiation, isolation, gravity, and extreme environments like never before if we are going to settle in the vicinity of the Moon and travel on to Mars.
To bridge the gap between human exploration confined to the ISS and robotic explorers carrying out science, and laterly ISRU on the Moon, NASA is currently leading an international effort to build an orbital station around the Moon. The concept, which is in the early phases of development and is being reconfigured on an almost monthly basis, is called the Lunar Orbital Platform Gateway (the Gateway). It is designed to provide a platform in orbit around the Moon from which reusable lunar landers can transition to land anywhere on the lunar surface. The platform would also host deep space experiments as well as being a waypoint for human capsules. One of the big advantages of the Gateway is that it can be moved between orbits. Balanced between the Earth and the Moon’s gravity, the Gateway would be in a position ideal for launching even deeper space missions to Mars.
The Gateway is designed to provide a platform in orbit around the Moon from which reusable lunar landers can transition to land anywhere on the lunar surface.
Returning to the Moon is not going to be a repeat of Apollo. This time when we go to the Moon we’re going to stay — sustainable access to the Moon. This time it won’t just be one nation venturing to the proximity of the Moon but a group of international and commercial partners. In the coming decades we’re going to develop the technology to utilise the resources of the Moon–the abundance of water ice. These resources will not only help us live sustainably on the Moon (providing water and oxygen) and provide a local source of propellent, but could enable future Lunar settlements. The Moon is relatively close to Earth and we need to learn how to live and work on a world that’s a three day journey home. The Moon provides the perfect test environment for us to prepare for more challenging missions ahead to Mars, creating a stepping stone. As NASA has stressed time and time again, “The Moon is not the destination — the Moon is the waypoint”.
The Moon provides the perfect test environment for us to prepare for more challenging missions ahead to Mars.
The aim is to live and work on another world with an intent ultimately to go to Mars. We’ve seen what happens when bad things happen on the way to the Moon with Apollo 13 (read about the near-disaster here). We can make it back, it’s three days away. If something like that were to happen on the way to Mars, which is only on the same side of the Sun as the Earth once every 26 months and when aligned presents a 6 month journey, the outcome wouldn’t be nearly as good. The Moon is the proving ground — Mars is the destination.
This time when we go to the Moon we’re going to stay — sustainable access to the Moon.
Whilst developing new crewed spacecraft, building the next orbital station, and returning to the Moon all represent challenging and extremely impressive feats for Space Exploration, the ultimate goal for space organisations around the globe is to land humans on Mars. Orbiters and rovers have been collecting important scientific data about the atmosphere and surface of Mars over the past few decades. Figure 1 gives an indication of what’s there now and the number of spacecraft to come over the next decade from a range of space agencies. The number of planned missions over the coming years is a sign of intent as we continue to prospect the planet ahead of the first human arrival in the 2030s (at the earliest).
The ultimate goal for space organisations around the globe is to land humans on Mars.
For ESA, the ExoMars 2020 rover, recently named Rosalind Franklin after the British chemist and X-ray crystallographer who contributed to unraveling the double helix structure of our DNA, will journey 9 months to Mars in 2020 to search for signs of life. The rover will become the first to explore beneath the surface of Mars and represents our best hope yet of finding signs of life past or still present today. Even more ambitious plans are being prepared for a Mars Sample Return mission — a joint mission between NASA and ESA. The mission will be the first of its kind and will provide samples of the Martian surface for scientific examination on Earth. In a few weeks a special edition will focus on Mars: Why we’re so obsessed with the Red Planet and what we hope to find there.
Space missions have already been launched to reach and study the Moon and Mars, however, to deem the exploration cycle complete, these space activities and the presence on these bodies have to be sustainable. This cannot be said today due to the extremely high costs associated with the space exploration missions, especially considering the distance of these bodies from Earth, where bringing resources from Earth whenever needed to provide for the presence on these bodies is not economically viable and certainly not sustainable. Thus has risen the rationale for Space Resource Utilisation (SRU). Space and celestial bodies are rich in resources like water, oxygen and metals etc. that have the potential, if exploited, to address the needs of long duration space missions whether manned or robotic and eventually support sustainable presence of humans in Space beyond LEO.
Long term examples of uses for resources in space include Lunar Regolith for infrastructure development, Helium mining and fusion for large scale wireless power transmission to meet energy needs, and the mining of Platinum Group Metals from asteroids that can be resold on Earth.
Space Resource Utilisation is a tantalising prospect for space missions. Huge savings and new value streams can be realised with cargo capacity limitations being eased. Long term examples of uses for resources in space include Lunar Regolith (the layer of loose deposits of dust, soil and broken rock covering the surface of the Moon) for infrastructure development, Helium mining and fusion (currently infeasible) for large scale wireless power transmission to meet energy needs, and even the mining of Platinum Group Metals from asteroids that can be resold on Earth. A future article will explore the state of resource utilisation: what we can find in space, how we can use it, and when.
I would like to finish our introduction to the Future of Space Exploration with a quote from Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, who said:
“You want to wake up in the morning and think the future is going to be great — and that’s what being a spacefaring civilization is all about. It’s about believing in the future and thinking that the future will be better than the past. And I can’t think of anything more exciting than going out there and being among the stars.”
Nice one, Elon!
That brings us to BASE CAMP. I hope the overview has provided you with a good introduction to the focus areas of future Space Exploration. In the following section we will revisit the topics in the introduction in more detail by exploring the finer details of the future of the ISS, the development of the Gateway and returning to the Moon to stay. If you’re ready, let’s begin our climb to THE SUMMIT.
THE SUMMIT
A good place to start our tour of the future of Space Exploration is with the Global Exploration Roadmap. The International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG), first introduced last week, have a global roadmap which reaffirms the interest of the 14 space agencies to expand human presence into the Solar System, with the surface of Mars as a common driving goal. The Roadmap is focused on “solar system destinations where humans will someday live and work.”. It reflects a coordinated international effort to prepare for space exploration missions beginning with the International Space Station (ISS) and continuing to the lunar vicinity, the lunar surface, then on to Mars. The Global Exploration Roadmap represents a blueprint of next steps for the current and next generation of explorers.
Global consensus about the importance of the Moon on the pathway to Mars.
Low Earth Orbit
ISS continuation and future LEO platforms.
The majority of our activity in space occurs in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) which is the zone between 100km and 2,000km out beyond our planet’s surface. As of the end of March 2019, there are currently 2,062 satellites in orbit around the Earth, 65% of them can be found in LEO. It’s a busy hive of activity that will only become more congested over the coming years and competition for allocation of LEO is huge (there exists a United Nations Agency called the International Telecommunication Union who are responsible for this allocation process). Objects in LEO have less space to navigate in contrast to those in more distant orbits, due to their smaller orbit resulting from the close proximity to the Earth. Also the closer the orbit is to Earth, the faster objects travel. Objects in LEO travel at 28,000km/h which makes collision avoidance even more difficult to manage. The majority of objects in LEO are pointing towards the Earth and benefitting life on our home planet, through observation, communication, navigation, and connectivity.
There is one object in particular though that we’re very interested in from a Space Exploration perspective: The International Space Station (ISS). The ISS is where we will begin our journey to explore further the Future of Space Exploration.
The International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is a crewed space station that was launched into Low Earth Orbit (LEO) in 1998. The ISS is a partnership between European countries (represented by ESA), the United States (NASA), Japan (JAXA), Canada (CSA) and Russia (Roscosmos) and presents opportunities for the joint development, operation and utilisation of a permanently inhabited Space Station in low Earth orbit.
The Space Station is contracted to continue carrying out science experiments, technology demonstrations for Beyond Low Earth Orbit (to come in the following section) and providing a platform to further our understanding of how humans can live and work in space until 2024 (at least under current conditions but likely to be extended to 2030). Currently, typical missions to the ISS last six months and consists of crews of six astronauts from the five international partners.
Through international collaboration, over 2,100 scientific experiments have been implemented with more ongoing.
The International Space Station (ISS), continuously crewed since 2000, shows the benefits and potential of human activity in low Earth orbit. The ISS hosts ongoing scientific investigations sponsored by government and non-government entities. Through international collaboration, over 2,100 such activities have been implemented with more ongoing. The ISS is an invaluable long-duration flight analogue for future human deep space missions enabling research to address human health and performance risks as well as serving as a testbed for critical technologies. It is also used for educational and outreach activities, reaching millions of students and the interested public around the world each year. The ISS is facilitating the economic development of low Earth orbit, which will remain an important destination for human activity and research in space.
After 2024, it is assumed the ISS will be extended using an increasingly commercialised approach. Just two weeks ago, NASA announced plans to invite commercial astronauts aboard the ISS — for a fee. NASA says the station isn’t about to become a profit-making venture, but the plan will help defray the cost of upkeep, and a step toward a future when NASA buys time on a privately owned station rather than being the one running the infrastructure. (Read more about the surprise announcement here.) Several private sector companies have announced concepts for commercial platforms, which could be human-tended, to offer services to a diverse set of non-government and government users. In addition to government users, demand is expected to come from private companies conducting research or in-space manufacturing, tourism, and other commercial initiatives that benefit from access to low Earth orbit. Note: A future article will explore potential commercial LEO opportunities.
Commercialisation demand is expected to come from private companies conducting research or in-space manufacturing, tourism, and other commercial initiatives that benefit from access to low Earth orbit.
In September 2010, the Chinese government approved the implementation of their space station project. China’s Space Station project is organised in two phases: the first phase includes the Space Laboratory; the second phase includes construction of a Space Station. After the construction is completed, two or three astronauts will live and work continuously for long durations, with the station supporting a maximum of six people during periods of crew rotation. The astronaut crew will conduct long-duration missions to conduct scientific and technological research and exploration activities.
Beyond Low Earth Orbit
Human space exploration capabilities to visit other celestial bodies.
NASA’s Space Launch System provides a critical heavy-lift capability powering people and cargo to the Moon and beyond. It also opens new possibilities for other payloads, including robotic scientific missions to places like Mars, Jupiter and beyond. Offering the highest ever payload mass and volume capability and energy to dramatically reduce travel times to deep space destinations, SLS is designed to be flexible and evolvable in order to meet a variety of crew and cargo mission needs.
The Orion Spacecraft is built to take four crew members farther into space than ever before. Orion will serve as the exploration vehicle that carries crew beyond the Earth and provides safe reentry at the high return velocities typically needed for deep space missions. The Orion service module is built in Europe and provides in-space propulsion capability, attitude control, power, water and oxygen needed for a habitable environment.
Orion will serve as the exploration vehicle that carries crew beyond the Earth and provides safe reentry at the high return velocities typically needed for deep space missions.
Russia will begin testing a new crew transportation system in the early 2020’s. Initial flights to the ISS will demonstrate the new system that will eventually be used for missions to the Moon. By the end of the 2020’s, the Russian super-heavy launch vehicle with the crew transportation system will be ready for human flights to the Moon. Prior to this, several robotic precursor missions will explore the Moon’s surface and test technologies as a part of the Russian lunar program.
The Gateway
The Lunar Orbital Platform Gateway (The Gateway) is a collaboration between ESA, NASA, Roscosmos, JAXA and CSA. It intends to provide a platform in space from which the exploration of deep space by crewed missions can be undertaken (e.g., crewed missions to Mars) and where the effects on the human body of long duration exposure to deep space can be monitored. It allows human expansion initially in the lunar vicinity and be accessible by launchers and crew vehicles.
The Gateway intends to provide a platform in space from which the exploration of deep space by crewed missions can be undertaken and where the effects on the human body of long duration exposure to deep space can be monitored.
The area of space around the Moon can be an effective location from which to travel to other destinations in the Solar System, such as the Moon or Mars. The radiation environment there is also representative of deep space. The Gateway will be an enabling infrastructure for human and robotic missions that access the lunar surface with the ability to return to Earth. In its initial configuration, the platform can act as a mothership for lunar exploration. Astronauts will regularly visit the spaceship as they prepare for missions to deep space and they will perform experiments, control vehicles on the Moon, pick up samples, and test new technologies.
Why the Gateway?
- Learn more about living in deep space;
- Operate robotic missions to and on the lunar surface;
- Stage crewed missions on the lunar surface (Human Lunar Lander);
- Enhance science of the Moon and the Solar System;
- Assemble and check-out of the transport vehicle to Mars.
Plans for the Gateway are currently being redesigned, in line with the US Presidential Space Policy Directive 1: to return humans to the surface of the Moon by 2024.
From the Gateway, lunar surface missions can feature:
- Reusable lunar landers: shifting cost from developing recurring units to enabling other elements such as an in-space refuelling infrastructure;
- Decreased risk by making the Gateway available as a crew safe haven in a surface abort scenario;
- A crew of four to maximise exploration return and provide flight opportunities for many partners;
- Advancing and augmenting in-situ resource utilisation activities started by lunar robotic missions;
The Gateway will be an enabling infrastructure for human and robotic missions that access the lunar surface with the ability to return to Earth.
Plans for the Gateway are currently being redesigned, in line with the US Presidential Space Policy Directive 1: to return humans to the surface of the Moon by 2024. The Gateway is now being developed in two phases. The first phase will consist of the basic infrastructure required to enable NASA to get their astronauts to the surface as quickly as possible, which means minimal power and propulsion and a small Gateway with few initial modules. The Gateway will be positioned in a near rectilinear orbit (this orbit gives the Gateway the best access to both Earth and Moon) of the Moon by 2024 with a lander aggregated at the ‘mini’ Gateway. The decision by the US government to direct NASA to accelerate plans to return to the Moon has forced this phasic approach to developing the Gateway and has left two key questions: 1. What will be the role of international partners under the replanning of the Gateway; 2. Does the accelerated plans to put humans on the Moon by 2024 compromise efforts to ensure future Space Exploration is sustainable? These questions, and others, will be examined in an upcoming article dedicated to the Gateway.
To the Moon
Human lunar surface exploration.
A new era of space exploration is beginning, with multiple international and private sector actors targeting a human return to the Moon. At the start of the year, China landed on the far side of the Moon with a lander for the first time in history. This is just the start of a very busy decade of Lunar Exploration to come.
At the start of the year, China landed on the far side of the Moon with a lander for the first time in history.
It’s nearly 50 years since the first Moon landing and you might ask why do we need to go back to the Moon? Well when the Apollo Moon landings happened they only went to the equatorial regions and barely scratched the surface of understanding what the Moon can tell us about the history of the solar system and its potential to support future exploration. So it’s time to go back. We learned a lot more now about there being potentially water on the surface of the Moon and that is both scientifically interesting for what it tells us about the distribution of water and the origins of life but on the other side it’s potentially a material that could support future explorers to go further, to learn to live off the land and sustainable exploration is the big goal. The NASA Artemis program will lead the way in our return to the Moon. Artemis has been split in two phases. Phase 1 consists of a landing by 2024 using the Gateway with new Landers that NASA are going to be developing. Then in Phase 2, by 2028, the goal is sustainability (at least in terms of access and transportation).
This renaissance in lunar exploration will offer new opportunities for science across a multitude of disciplines from planetary geology to astronomy and astrobiology whilst preparing the knowledge humanity will need to explore further into the Solar System. Recent missions and new analyses of samples retrieved during Apollo has transformed our understanding of the Moon and the science that can be performed there. We now understand the scientific importance of further exploration of the Moon to understand the origins and evolution of Earth and the cosmic context of life’s emergence on Earth and our future in space.
When the Apollo Moon landings happened they only went to the equatorial regions and barely scratched the surface of understanding what the Moon can tell us about the history of the solar system and its potential to support future exploration.
Lunar science is vital to understanding where humans should explore and potentially one day settle on the Moon. For instance, ESA are supporting the Russian led Luna-Resource Lander (Luna 27) mission which aims to explore the South polar region of the Moon and measure the water believed to exist there to determine its origin. Robotic lunar missions enable space agencies to prepare and test mission operations, which is important for developing the processes and infrastructure to enable humans to safely and successfully explore the Moon. In tandem with the science, many space actors will be interested in understanding the potential economic implications of lunar development and/or commerce.
Phase 1 consists of a landing by 2024 using the Gateway with new Landers that NASA are going to be developing. Then in Phase 2, by 2028, the goal is sustainability.
Robotic missions will precede human explorers to the Moon, near-Earth asteroids, and Mars in order to unveil many of their secrets, characterise their environments, and identify risks and potential resources. As a precursor to crewed landings to the Moon, there is a need to demonstrate technologies for human missions. It is necessary to perform surveys and sample returns for science as well as resource and environment assessment.
Whilst early lunar robotic missions will be a precursor to humans, crewed missions will not negate the need for robots. In the coming decades we will experience an augmentation of capabilities with a fleet of robots assisting humans on the Moon (and vice versa). Robots have been used for space missions for decades due to their ability to work in harsh and hazardous environments that would be unsafe for humans. Robots handle tedious jobs very well and therefore in the case of human and robotic cooperation offer potential to free up time for astronauts to work on higher value activities on the Lunar surface that require more complex problem solving and task orientation. Artificial Intelligence builds upon this deep history and current developments in space robotics to offer promising augmentation capabilities to achieve complete autonomy, allowing for greater perception (vision) and dexterity which enables robots to make their own decisions. Note: there will be a special article on Artificial Intelligence for Space Exploration in the coming weeks. Future visions to build a base/settlement on the Moon will rely heavily on robots to carry out the initial infrastructure preparation and habitat development.
In the coming decades we will experience an augmentation of capabilities with a fleet of robots assisting humans on the Moon (and vice versa).
Mars
Working towards our first steps on the Red Planet.
Mars for many reasons, which will be explored in an upcoming special article dedicated to the Red Planet, has been the focus for space agencies to further Space Exploration. However, recently it’s become almost universally agreed that returning to the Moon and using it as a platform for human exploration of Mars is the way forward. Getting to Mars is tricky, even for a robot, and landing on the surface even more challenging. Of the 56 Mars missions so far, only 26 have been successful — a testament to the difficulty in reaching the planet.
Of the 56 Mars missions so far, only 26 have been successful — a testament to the difficulty in reaching the planet.
There are several strategic, practical and scientific reasons for humans to explore Mars. Among them we know that Mars is the most accessible planet in the solar system. Additionally, exploring Mars provides the opportunity to possibly answer origin and evolution of life questions, and could someday be a destination for survival of humankind.
From a practical perspective we know that Mars is unique across the entire solar system in that it is a terrestrial planet with an atmosphere and climate, its geology is known to be very diverse and complex (like Earth), and it appears that the climate of Mars has changed over its history (like Earth). Many of the key questions in solar system science can be addressed effectively by exploring Mars. A special feature dedicated to Mars will launch in the coming weeks!
It appears that the climate of Mars has changed over its history (like Earth).
SpaceX plans to bring humans to Mars with a two-stage rocket: the Starship upper stage and a Super Heavy booster (the Big Falcon Rocket). Starship and Super Heavy Rocket represent a fully reusable transportation system designed to service all Earth orbit needs as well as the Moon and Mars. This two-stage vehicle — composed of the Super Heavy rocket (booster) and Starship (ship) — will eventually replace Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy and Dragon. On September 17, 2018, SpaceX announced fashion innovator Yusaku Maezawa would be the company’s first private passenger to fly around the Moon in 2023. This first private lunar passenger flight, featuring a fly-by of the Moon as part of a weeklong mission, will help fund development of SpaceX’s Starship and Super Heavy (formerly known as BFR) which will one day hopefully take humans to Mars.
It’s important to highlight that there are a number of probes exploring more distant planets and other celestial bodies in our Solar System. These probes are making ground-breaking discoveries and relaying extremely important scientific data that serves as the foundational knowledge for future robotic, and potentially one day human exploration missions. This article focuses primarily on the near team (Moon) and medium term (Mars) goals for space exploration, as opposed to providing details on science missions that serve as precursors for future exploration missions (to be addressed in upcoming articles).
For now, here are many incredible missions currently probing the extremities of our Solar System, summarised in the table below:
Note: The missions included in this table are orbiters, landers, or impacters. No fly-bys are considered, though special mention to NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto, which became the first spacecraft to explore Pluto and sent back stunning images.
*NASA announced the next New Frontiers mission last week, Dragonfly: a rotorcraft mission toward Saturn’s moon Titan in 2026, building on from the Cassini mission. Soon to be moved into “Planned” stage.
These probes are making ground-breaking discoveries and relaying extremely important scientific data that serves as the foundational knowledge for future robotic, and potentially one day human exploration missions.
That brings to an end our tour of the Future of Space Exploration. Hopefully you made it to THE SUMMIT and leave with a better understanding of the key global focus areas for human spaceflight and robotic exploration. This article was meant to serve as an overview from which a number of spin-off articles will be written that delve deeper into the topics presented.
Don’t forget in two and a half weeks the world will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing! Make sure you find a good way to celebrate our greatest feat in the history of Space Exploration. Ad Astra!
