Dec. 13 (UPI) — NASA will end 2022 with several back-to-back achievements for the history books, from breathtaking images taken by the James Webb telescope to further demonstrations of flight on Mars with the Ingenuity helicopter.
This year also marked the launch and return of the unmanned Artemis I mission, with later flights planned to take humans back to the moon by 2025.
James Webb telescope images stun
The James Webb Space Telescope, which provided humanity with a glimpse at distant galaxies in stunning images released in this year, will continue to serve as a trove of scientific knowledge in the upcoming year, space agency officials said.
Many developments in 2023 will come in the form of the release of research and images from the telescope, which still is in the first year of operation.
“JWST science continues to amaze both the public and science community!” Stefanie Milam, the Webb deputy project scientist for planetary science, told UPI.
“We still have so much exciting science to come with the first year of operations including comets, the ice giants in the outer solar system, dwarf planets — including everyone’s favorite, Pluto — as well as new perspectives on ocean worlds. Stay tuned!”
Studies galore
A NASA portal provides abstracts for some of the studies highlighted by Milam, which still are making their way through research and peer review processes.
In one study, researchers are using data from the James Webb telescope to survey water in asteroids in the solar system.
“The history of water in the Solar System is fundamental, both cosmochemically and astrobiologically, and observing water on asteroids helps constrain the story of our planetary system and of life on Earth. However, until now, this has been a very challenging endeavor,” reads one abstract on the portal.
That team of researchers, led by David Trilling with Northern Arizona University, will observe some 100 asteroids as small as 100 meters to “derive the amount of water present in the asteroid belt.”
“A pure parallel project with JWST is the only way to carry out this experiment, with its implications for the formation and evolution of our solar system and life on Earth,” the abstract reads.
A team of researchers led by Michael Kelley with the University of Maryland has completed observations of the Hale-Bopp comet as it passed the sun at a distance of 46 astronomical units, which are “distances where many surface ices are thermally stable.”
Researchers said in the abstract that such data would allow for the study of cometary volatiles in a unique context, on the surface of an Oort cloud comet at distances equal to the Kuiper Belt.
“No other observatory can spectroscopically observe Hale-Bopp in the near-infrared, and no other comet will be observable at this distance in JWST’s lifetime,” the abstract reads.
Laying groundwork for exploration
“This, and future studies of cometary surfaces with JWST, will lay the groundwork that, together with spacecraft missions to comets, will enable us to assess cometary nuclei under a wide range of physical circumstances.”
In another study teased by Milam, researchers have proposed observing the moons of Uranus to search for the presence of ammonia-rich species, organics and carbonates. That study will also measure carbon dioxide ice and water ice on the moons Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon.
Another team of researchers is using the James Webb telescope to study the composition of Pluto’s atmosphere. A similar study will also be performed on Charon, a natural satellite of the dwarf planet.
Researchers already have been using information gathered by the telescope in groundbreaking studies, including identifying the molecular and chemical profile of the atmosphere of the planet known as “WASP-39 b.”
“While Webb and other space telescopes, including NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer, previously have revealed isolated ingredients of this broiling planet’s atmosphere, the new readings from Webb provide a full menu of atoms, molecules and even signs of active chemistry and clouds,” NASA said in a press release last month.
The telescope in recent weeks also captured new details about the dark cloud L1527 and its protostar, which shows that it has been gathering material on its way to become a new star.
Looking at Saturn’s largest moon
NASA also hinted at new research on Saturn’s largest moon Titan, which has not yet been peer-reviewed but is expected to be published by next year when the academic review process is complete.
“Because Titan has a dense atmosphere, its surface is hidden in visible light. Enter Webb’s infrared eye, which captured clouds as well as bright & dark patches on its surface,” NASA’s account for the James Webb Telescope said on Twitter.
Titan is a unique planetary body in the solar system as the only one other than Earth that has rivers, lakes and seas — which consist of molecules like ethane and methane instead of water.
“The two clouds seen by Webb validate long-held predictions that clouds form in the northern hemisphere during Titan’s late summer, when the Sun warms its surface,” NASA said.
“Follow-up observations by the Keck Observatory also revealed clouds, confirming seasonal weather patterns.”
Dozens of studies are also expected in the new year on supermassive black holes, as well as exploring the structures and origins of the universe.
Artemis program progresses
The Artemis I mission, the first major spaceflight of the Artemis program, was launched last month from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with the main objective testing the Orion space capsule and its heat shield. The mission ended when the Orion space capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on Sunday.
That came after a voyage of 1.4 million miles in which the capsule circled the moon and returned in 25 1/2 days — a first for a human-rated spacecraft.
Project officials said at a subsequent news conference that the heat shield protected against what NASA has called “the searing heat of entry,” during which temperatures reached about 5,000 degrees F around Orion.
The Artemis II mission, the first crewed spaceflight in the Artemis program, is expected to be launched in 2024 and travel around the moon before returning to Earth. The four-member crew for that mission has not been announced but is expected to include a Canadian astronaut under a treaty signed in 2020.
On Saturday, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson hinted that the crew for the next flight had been selected, and he publicly urged the Astronaut Office at Johnson Space Center to reveal the names soon.
With the Artemis III mission, NASA said it will land the first woman and the first person of color on the moon and establish long-term exploration in preparation for missions to Mars.
“While Mars remains our horizon goal, we have set our sights first on exploring the surface of the Moon with human and robotic explorers,” NASA’s website reads. “We will send astronauts to new locations, starting with the lunar South Pole.”
In 2023, NASA will continue building the rocket for the Artemis II flight, while manufacturing parts for the Artemis IV, V and VI missions.
SpaceX’s crucial role
SpaceX, the private space company founded by controversial billionaire Elon Musk, was selected by NASA in April 2021 to develop a variant of its Starship spacecraft to take astronauts to the surface of the moon.
A long-delayed launch of Starship into orbit has not occurred, though space observers say that might be getting close.
And the process of getting astronauts to the moon involves a great deal of untried technology and require several Starships — one carrying the astronauts and others to supply propellant to a previously launched Starship that will refuel the spacecraft with the potential moonwalkers.
Once supplied with fuel, the lunar lander Starship will head to the moon.
SpaceX, as part of its $2.9 billion contract, is to conduct an uncrewed demonstration mission to the moon before Artemis III as early as April 2025.
Other launches, developments
One of NASA’s first major achievements in the new year is expected to be a mission named Tropospheric Emissions Monitoring of Pollution, or TEMPO, which will be the agency’s first Earth Venture Instrument mission.
“TEMPO will measure the pollution over North America, from Mexico City to the Canadian oil sands, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific, hourly and at high spatial resolution,” NASA said in a statement.
“TEMPO will be the first space-based instrument to monitor air pollutants hourly across the North American continent during daytime.”
The date for that mission has not yet been set, but is expected in “early 2023.”
It will be followed by the first flight of the Quesst quiet supersonic aircraft, which will occur at defense contractor Lockheed Martin’s flight facilities in Palmdale, Calif.
The Quesst mission’s goals include flying the supersonic plane over communities in the United States to gather data on the human response to the sound generated by the aircraft.
Similarly, NASA will conduct the first test flight of the X-57 — a small, experimental plane powered by electricity that demonstrates the agency’s efforts into making flying “cleaner, quieter and more sustainable.”
That test flight is expected to occur at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in California.
Perhaps the biggest NASA launch expected in 2023 will be of Psyche mission, scheduled Oct. 10 from Kennedy Space Center.
The Psyche spacecraft manufactured by Maxar Technologies will travel to the metallic asteroid of the same name under a project managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and led by Arizona State University.
“The Psyche mission is a journey to a unique metal-rich asteroid orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter,” the mission’s website reads.
“What makes the asteroid Psyche unique is that it appears to be the exposed nickel-iron core of an early planet, one of the building blocks of our solar system.”
Getting to the space station
SpaceX is expected to launch its Crew-6 mission in mid-February from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center with astronauts bound for the International Space Station.
The launch of Crew-7 is also expected in the fall of next year ahead of the return of Crew-6.
Meanwhile, NASA’s Boeing Crew flight test is expected to be launched in April to demonstrate the “ability of Starliner and the United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket to safely carry astronauts to and from the International Space Station.”
“Following a successful test flight with astronauts, NASA will begin the final process of certifying the Starliner spacecraft and systems for regular crew rotation flights to the space station,” NASA said in a statement.
.stph_caption .title{color: #000000;}
