Late this night, at about 1:47 a.m. ET, the Artemis-1 mission lifted off; it is now on its way to the Moon. The 320-foot-tall (nearly 100-meter) Space Launch System, the most powerful launch vehicle ever built, and the Orion space capsule, which was partially built in Europe, will orbit the Moon and then return. The still-unmanned lunar mission serves as a dress rehearsal for the manned return to the Moon, with only three dummies on board this time.
50 years after the last Apollo mission, the Earth’s satellite has once again become the target of manned space flight. With the Artemis program, the USA and Europe want to land humans on the Moon once again by 2025. This time, a space station in lunar orbit and later a lunar base are intended to enable the long-term presence of astronauts on the Moon. But other nations, including China in particular, also have their eyes on the Moon and are preparing a manned return to the Earth’s satellite.
The Launch is Finally Successful
Structure of the SLS launch vehicle with the Orion module. (Credit: NASA)
Artemis-1 launched to the Moon from Cape Canaveral on November 16, 2022, at 6:47 a.m. UTC. The countdown and launch were broadcast live by both ESA and NASA. For the first time, the Space Launch System (SLS) launch vehicle developed by NASA specifically for lunar missions and the Orion capsule designed and built in Europe will now fly together to the Moon, orbit it, and return to Earth.
But the development of the SLS in particular had its difficulties: its completion was delayed by years, and in 2022 there were repeated problems with refueling; the launch of Artemis-1 had to be postponed several times.
The excitement with which the launch of the giant was followed around the world was correspondingly great. Powered by four engines fed with liquid hydrogen and oxygen and two solid rockets, this 321-foot-tall vehicle is the most powerful launch vehicle ever built. It surpasses even the legendary Saturn V of the Apollo missions.
Aboard the Artemis-1 mission, there is a crew of a truly special kind. Three dummies are taking part in the first lunar flight of the Artemis program and, with the help of numerous sensors and measuring instruments, recording the stresses to which human astronauts will be exposed. The pilot dummy, named “Moonikin,” will test not only sensors for radiation, vibration, and pressure forces but also the space suit that the astronauts will later wear during critical mission phases.
The ‘crew’ of the Artemis I mission to the Moon. (Credit: NASA/Lockheed Martin/DLR)
The two passengers, “Helga” and “Zohar,” are torso dummies whose materials are modeled on those of the female body, because the next Artemis flights will be the first time female astronauts fly to the Moon. Zohar wears a special radiation protection vest, while Helga does not. Several thousand radiation sensors determine the level of cosmic radiation to which the dummies are exposed during the flight.
Flight to the Moon
The SLS launch vehicle is designed to accelerate the Orion module to a good 22,350 miles (36,000 kilometers) per hour. After about eight minutes, the solid rocket boosters and the four engines of the first rocket stage burn out and are jettisoned. Artemis-1 first reached orbit around Earth and the Orion capsule deployed its two solar sails.
Next, to give the spacecraft the thrust it needs to leave Earth’s orbit and fly to the Moon, the rocket’s upper stage, called the Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS), kicks in. Its engine, also fed by liquid hydrogen and oxygen, puts the Orion spacecraft on a lunar course. About two hours after launch, the Orion capsule separates from the ICPS burn stage. The Orion capsule now receives enough thrust to continue on its own to the Moon.
Meanwhile, the ICPS releases ten mini-satellites, known as CubeSats. These carry various small measuring instruments and sensors with which they investigate, among other things, the lunar surface and the radiation, particles, and magnetic fields between the Earth and the Moon. One CubeSat is also designed to land on the Moon, and another will fly to a near-Earth asteroid using a light sail.
Around the Moon and Back
Artemis 1 mission flight plan. (Credit: NASA)
The Orion capsule needs several days to reach the Moon. On the sixth day after launch, it is expected to pass the closest point to the Moon on its trajectory. It will fly over the lunar surface at an altitude of around 60 miles (100 kilometers).
The space capsule will then ignite its propulsion jets to enter an elliptical orbit around the Moon. This takes Orion around 40,000 miles (64,000 kilometers) above the Moon. It will then be about 280,000 miles (450,000 kilometers) from Earth—further than any spacecraft designed for manned missions before it.
To bring the spacecraft back out of lunar orbit and on course for Earth, the engines of the Orion service module will be fired again about a week later. 26 days after launch, Orion will reach Earth again and enter the Earth’s atmosphere. This marks the beginning of the crucial test for the Orion module’s newly developed heat shield.
Re-entry and Landing
Because the capsule will enter Earth’s atmosphere at nearly 25,000 miles (40,000 kilometers) per hour during its return to Earth, it will heat up to nearly 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,800°C)—far more than it would if it were returning from the International Space Station in low Earth orbit.
The Orion heat shield, like the Apollo lunar missions, therefore uses a material that is consumed by the heat but allows little of it to pass through to the capsule. An additional layer of insulation and cooling systems in the walls of the spacecraft ensure that the Orion capsule is not damaged.
After the heat shield and the friction of the atmosphere have slowed the space capsule from about 25,000 miles to 300 miles (40,000 to 480 km) per hour, the first pair of special parachutes are triggered at an altitude of about 25,000 feet (7,600 meters). A short time later, the three large main parachutes take over and allow the capsule to glide gently down to the sea. The landing site is not far from the California coast in the Pacific Ocean.
Next Steps in the Artemis Program
If the flight of Artemis-1 is successful, the next manned steps in the Artemis program will follow. The follow-up mission, Artemis-2, is expected to take place in 2024.
For the first time, four humans will then fly to the Moon in the Orion capsule and orbit it on a similar trajectory to Artemis-1. Unlike Artemis-1, however, this mission will probably not enter a lunar orbit but will fly an eight-shaped loop in which the spacecraft is deflected by lunar gravity alone and returned to Earth’s course.
Artemis-3—probably in 2025 or 2026—will be the first time humans set foot on the Moon. On this mission, two astronauts will fly down to the lunar surface with a landing module and land. The remaining two astronauts will remain in lunar orbit. Whether all this will happen, however, depends crucially on how the dress rehearsal for the Artemis-1 mission goes.
More than half a century after the race to the moon, space is once again the venue for a rivalry. China is doing everything it can to become a superpower in space as well. Already, manned and unmanned Chinese missions have passed a number of milestones. But what does this mean for the rest of the world and the previously leading space nations?
The first landing of a space probe on the far side of the moon, a rover on Mars, and a manned space station in orbit: In recent years, China has caught up tremendously in space travel and is getting closer and closer to the previous leader, the USA. China’s government leaves no doubt that it is also striving for supremacy in space—whether in Earth orbit, on the moon, or on Mars.
At the same time, however, the political divide between China and Western countries seems to be widening, at least in terrestrial matters. As a result, a new competition for space may be brewing in spaceflight as well.
China as a new space nation
China has launched more probes and satellites in 2021 than any nation before.
Until just a few years ago, the U.S., Russia, and the EU were the undisputed pioneers in space travel. They launched the most rockets, sent space probes through the solar system, and carried the lion’s share of the International Space Station (ISS). But the skies have become more crowded in the meantime. More and more countries are launching their own satellite and space programs.
Enormous progress in a short time
At the forefront of this is China. President Xi Jinping is striving to make his country a superpower in space as well, and is well on his way to achieving this. After lagging behind the two major space nations, the United States and Russia, for a long time, China has now caught up. No other country has made so much technological progress in space in such a short time and in so many different areas. And no other country has such ambitious plans and such a good chance of implementing them.
“It’s becoming more and more clear how dominant China wants to be with regard to space and the space economy,” says Steve Kwast, a U.S. Air Force veteran and space strategist. “They see the profit margin, they see the economic revenue stream, and they see the national security implications.”
To achieve this, the Chinese government is investing huge amounts of money in the largely state-run space industry; more than 300,000 people are said to work for the Chinese space agency alone—far more than for NASA. In addition, there are semi-private companies working on behalf of the state.
From orbit to Mars
And the successes are impressive. Within a few years, China completed its own global satellite navigation system, Beidou, and set a new record for satellite launches in 2021. In one year, Chinese launchers put 55 satellites into orbit; the record previously held by the U.S. was 51 satellites in one year. The Chinese space agency is also already working on its own mega-constellation of some 13,000 Internet satellites.
China has also reached new milestones in the exploration of the moon and Mars. Chang’e 4 was the first space probe to land on the far side of the moon in 2019. In 2020, its successor, Chang’e 5 brought back to Earth the first lunar rock samples since the Apollo missions. In May 2021, China became the only country after the United States to successfully land a Mars rover on the Red Planet with its Tianwen-1 mission. The Zhurong rover has since been exploring an area in Utopia Planitia, a plain northeast of the landing area of NASA’s Perseverance rover.
China’s Mars probe Tianwen-1 with the Zhurong rover. (Image: China News Service)
China is now also competing with the U.S. and Russia in manned spaceflight. After launching its first astronaut in 2003, the country now operates a space station in low-Earth orbit, becoming the third nation after Russia and the U.S. to do so. In April 2021, the core module of the Tiangong station was launched into orbit, followed by the first laboratory module, Wentian, in July 2022. The second laboratory module, Mengtian, followed in October 2022. 14 Chinese astronauts have already spent time at the station as part of its construction and testing.
Just the beginning
For Xi Jinping and China’s space agency, however, this is just the beginning. They see an expanding space presence and space technology as an essential part of China’s development. “To explore the vast cosmos, develop the space industry, and build China into a space power is our eternal dream,” Xi stressed in a recent “white paper” on China’s space program. The space industry is a crucial element of the national strategy, he said.
Competition for space supremacy
For decades, things in space were largely cooperative and peaceful. Exploration of the solar system and research in Earth’s orbit were primarily characterized by cooperation rather than competition. Even old archenemies like Russia and the United States worked together on joint projects like the International Space Station (ISS).
However, this was not the case for China. Unlike Russia, which did maintain close relations with the Western space nations, the country remained relatively isolated even in space. For example, the U.S. blocked its participation in the ISS out of fear of industrial espionage by the Middle Kingdom or China. There was also little interest in cooperating on space probes.
Rival blocs
But the former pariah, China, has become a full-fledged rival. Thanks to its technological advances, China has also become a power in space that other spacefaring nations can no longer ignore. China’s undisguised striving for power, but also the Ukraine war and the associated conflicts between Russia and the West, have drawn new fronts—a new cold war is brewing.
As was the case a good 70 years ago, superpowers are vying for records, technologies, and resources in space. And as in the first “Space Race” in the 1950s and 1960s, two blocs with largely contrasting ideological and political views are facing each other. “One bloc includes more authoritarian states led by China and Russia, and the other is made up predominantly of democracies allied with the U.S. and “like-minded” countries,” Alanna Krolikowski of Missouri University tells The Guardian.
A new eastern alliance?
After decades in which Russia and China barely cooperated with each other in space, a new rapprochement between the two formerly communist states now seems to be on the horizon. There are declarations of intent for future joint projects on the moon and demonstrative mutual visits by Putin and Xi to their national spaceports. An alliance would bring advantages to both: China benefits from Russia’s greater space expertise and experience; Russia, in turn, could benefit from China’s greater financial strength and more advanced technology.
However, it remains to be seen how close this cooperation will actually be.
After all, Russia and China have another thing in common: Their governments are striving for global supremacy and a new old greatness for their empires. This also implies a more rivalrous than cooperative attitude with potential competitors. Some experts are therefore rather skeptical about the new “bromance” between Putin and Xi. The techno-nationalist attitudes of both states could stand in the way of genuine cooperation in space.
Return of the Sputnik trauma
For the U.S., long the undisputed leader in all areas of space, new rival China is a problem: “We are back to where we were in 1957. This is not a Sputnik moment in the strict sense, but it comes very close to its spirit,” U.S. intelligence expert Mike Rogers recently stated. “China is racing ahead in space, while we are unfortunately resting on our laurels, impressive as they may be.”
General David Thompson, vice chief of the U.S. Space Force, takes a similar view: “We are absolutely in a strategic competition with China, and space is a part of that,” he told in early 2022. China, he said, is expanding its space capabilities twice as fast as the United States. “If we don’t start accelerating our development and delivery capabilities, they will exceed us.”
The new space rivalry could become particularly problematic for the closest celestial body to us, the moon.
China’s plans for lunar missions
The lunar rover Yutu-2 and its mother probe Chang’e 4 completed the first landing of a man-made vehicle on the far side of the moon. (Image: CSNA/Siyu Zhang, Kevin M. Gill/CC-BY-SA 2.0)
Everyone wants to go to the moon. After a break of almost 50 years, the Earth’s satellite has once again become the focus of interest in space travel. The moon also has great strategic importance as a stopover to Mars, as a location for space telescopes, and as a lucrative destination for space tourists.
And here, too, China is playing a major role. China’s lunar program initially relies on unmanned probes to test and develop technologies and locations for later manned lunar missions. The first major success came in 2013 with Chang’e 3, the first landing of a Chinese space probe and small rover on Earth’s satellite. Chang’e 4 followed in 2019 with the first landing on the far side of the moon—the first space probe ever to do so. A satellite placed at lunar Lagrange Point 2 will serve as a relay for the radio signals; a second relay satellite is to be added in 2024.
Lunar South Pole as a priority target
This means that China is present even before the USA in a lunar region that is considered particularly suitable for future lunar stations. This is because data from orbital probes suggests that there could be 3-foot-thick layers of water ice in the deep shadows of some craters in the South Pole-Aitken depression located at the lunar south pole, an important resource for future lunar astronauts. Metals and other resources could also be found in the regolith of this region.
China plans to use the Chang’e 6 lunar probe to determine whether this is actually the case. It is scheduled to launch in 2024 and take samples from the South Pole basin and bring them back to Earth. The two follow-up missions, Chang’e 7 and 8, are also to land in this region and conduct geological investigations and technical tests there. Among other things, experiments are planned on the use of regolith as a building material.
But China also wants more than just robotic flying visits to the Earth’s satellite; its long-term goal is a manned lunar base. According to current plans, the unmanned construction phase for such a station is to begin around 2030, and the first Chinese astronauts could then land in 2036. According to the Chinese space agency, the lunar base will primarily serve research purposes and will also be open to other nations.
A joint lunar station between Russia and China
The first partner for this venture could be Russia. In the summer of 2021, the Chinese and Russian space agencies signed a memorandum of understanding for a joint International Lunar Research Station (ILRS). In July 2022, Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin told Russian broadcaster Russia-24: “We are now almost ready to sign the contract for a joint lunar base with China.”
In parallel, Russia has resumed its Luna program, which had been paused for nearly 50 years. In September 2022, the Luna-25 spacecraft was scheduled to initiate the Russian return to the moon, also landing in the lunar south polar region. The piquant thing about this is that the newly launched Russian Luna missions were originally planned in cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA). However, the latter terminated the cooperation after the start of the Ukraine war. Luna 25 is scheduled to launch no earlier than 2023.
Dispute over the Artemis Accords
According to the report, lunar exploration is also seeing a new edition of the old space race, with the Chinese-Russian ILRS on the one side and the Artemis program of the U.S. and Europe on the other. The latter plan is to land astronauts on the Earth’s satellite again as early as 2025 and to launch a lunar space station into lunar orbit. This could threaten a conflict over lunar sites and resources, in part because space law has so far not contained any clear regulations for this scenario.
To change this, the U.S. has drawn up the so-called Artemis Accords, a set of agreements intended to regulate the dealings of various players on the moon. In the Accords, signatories agree to abide by the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, avoid mutual interference, share information, and use the most compatible technologies possible. “What we’re trying to do is make sure that there is a norm of behavior that says that resources can be extracted and that we’re doing it in a way that is in compliance with the Outer Space Treaty,” Bridenstine says. In addition to the U.S., 20 countries have signed the treaty so far.
But China’s government sees the Accords as an attempt by the U.S. to impose regulations on other space-faring nations, and China, in particular, that unilaterally benefit U.S. interests. “The Accords are an attempt to seize the moon for themselves and colonize it,” criticized Chinese military expert and commentator Song Zhongpin in the Global Times in 2020. Reports on Chinese state broadcaster CGTN were in a similar vein. However, there are also Chinese experts on space law who concede that international guidelines for lunar exploration and exploitation are needed and that the primarily bilateral accords could at least be a precursor to those.
In any case, one thing is clear: The next few years will see competition for lunar milestones, sites, and resources, and China will be at the forefront.
China’s new Tiangong space station
The Chinese space station Tiangong in July 2022, with the core module Tianhe in the center and the laboratory module Wentian on the left. Also docked outside are a freighter on the right and the manned Shenzhou space capsule below.
In parallel with the new race to the moon, the balance is also shifting in manned spaceflight in Earth orbit. After Russia and the USA as leading operators of space stations, China now also has its own space station in Earth orbit.
In principle, there was little else for the country to do because, in 2011, at NASA’s instigation, China was expressly excluded from participating in the International Space Station (ISS) because industrial espionage was feared.
Tiangong is modular and as big as Mir
Like the Russian Mir space station and the ISS, the Chinese Tiangong station has a modular design and is gradually being added to orbit. It orbits in low Earth orbit between 340 and 450 kilometers above the Earth, roughly the same range as the ISS. When it was completed in October 2022, the station consisted of a core module and two laboratory modules and weighed around 80 to 100 tons. In terms of size and weight, it is roughly equivalent to the former Russian Mir space station but has only one-fifth of the mass of the ISS.
The station’s core module, Tianhe, was successfully launched into orbit by a Long March 5B launch vehicle on April 29, 2021. The module, which is nearly 17 meters long, contains a service section with life support systems, a power supply, propulsion systems, and systems for position and navigation. The second part contains quarters for three astronauts, computer and control systems, and communications equipment. In addition, the Tianhe module has a docking system and a robotic arm.
The laboratory modules
On July 24, 2022, another mission brought the first of two laboratory modules to the station. This initially docked to the docking site located at the forward end of the core module so that the two modules are in line. However, subsequent transposition gave the approximately 20-ton laboratory module its final position transverse to the core module. Wentian contains quarters for three additional astronauts and space for scientific experiments, as well as a second robotic arm and backups for key core functions such as navigation, propulsion, and attitude control.
The Wentian laboratory module also contains the station’s future main airlock. Astronauts will disembark through it when they need to perform outboard missions. These will be necessary, for example, to maintain and service measuring instruments attached to the outside of the station in the future. The laboratory module has special holders for this purpose, into which large instruments can also be latched. These could include a small reflecting telescope from 2023 and, from 2027, a four-ton instrument for measuring cosmic radiation, which was developed with the participation of European scientists.
In October 2022, the basic structure of the space station was completed with the second Mengtian science module. This module contains additional space for experiments as well as an airlock for supplies and other payloads. Unmanned supply capsules of the Tianzhu type can dock with it. It is unclear to what extent the docking mechanism, which is based on the Russian system, is also compatible with the systems of the ISS and the space capsules of other countries, as, with many technical details, China’s space agency is keeping a low profile.
First ion propulsion system in manned space flight
Test of a Hall-effect ion thruster at NASA. Tiangong is the first manned space vehicle with ion propulsion. Image: NASA
The Tiangong station’s propulsion system is a major feature. In addition to classic thrusters, the Tianhe core module also has an ion propulsion system—the first manned space vehicle ever to do so. The four Hall-effect thrusters generate their thrust from a stream of positively charged particles, presumably xenon ions, accelerated by an electric field. A ring current of electrons controlled by a magnetic field provides additional thrust and neutralizes the ion current after it exits the propulsion nozzle.
The advantage of such ion drives is their small size and long operating life. They can generate less thrust than chemical thrusters, but a small amount of xenon gas is sufficient to propel them. On the Tiangong space station, the Hall thrusters are expected to operate for at least 15 years and maintain the station’s orbital altitude at a stable level. One disadvantage of ion propulsion, however, is the highly corrosive effect of the accelerated ions. To prevent them from damaging the thrusters and the space station’s hull, they are surrounded by an additional shielding magnetic field and a protective ceramic shell.
Other nations may also join in
At present, China’s new Tiangong space station is mankind’s second “outpost,” alongside the ISS, but it could soon be the only one. That’s because the ISS is already relatively old, and its funding is on the line. In the wake of the Ukraine war and increasing conflicts with Western countries, Russia has announced the end of its participation in 2024. Whether the International Space Station will continue to be operated then, and in what form, is still unclear.
In the future, however, Tiangong—the “Heavenly Palace”—could also become a place of international cooperation, the Chinese government emphasizes. Some of the scientific experiments currently installed on the space station are already being carried out in cooperation with other countries or were developed entirely by research institutions in Europe. Among others, Norway, Belgium, Switzerland, and Germany are involved. There is also particularly close cooperation between China and the Italian Space Agency. It is developing the cosmic ray measurement instrument, which is expected to be installed in 2027.
“After our space station is completed in the near future, we will see Chinese and foreign astronauts flying and working together,” Ji Qiming of China’s manned spaceflight agency said in a recent press conference. The participation of astronauts from other countries is guaranteed, he added. Whether and in what form this participation will take place, however, remains to be seen.
What also seems clear, however, is that if China’s rapid development in space travel continues at this rate, most other countries may have little choice but to join in. “The exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or not,” said then-U.S. President John F. Kennedy in 1962 during his famous moon speech in Texas.
Picture this: On the solar system’s rim, a ninth planet is slowly but surely taking shape. This scenario being close to reality is the opinion of several researchers. A planet further distant from the Sun than Neptune, Planet X has the potential to be one of the century’s most significant astronomical discoveries. While its existence has yet to be verified, the ninth planet of the solar system has been a topic of conversation for decades. The concept of a possible ninth planet, variously known as “Planet 9,” “Planet X,” and “Nibiru,” dates back to the 19th century.
Do we actually live in a solar system with nine planets, or is Planet X just a myth? Astronomers have spent decades on the hunt for a hypothetical ninth planet. What do we know about this phantom planet that could evolve at the edge of the solar system?
Although some in the scientific community have voiced their doubts about this proposal, believing that the data used to support it may be explained in other ways, the prospect of discovering a ninth planet in our solar system has sparked enormous excitement among other academics. The search for Planet Nine is aided by the development of new technologies and the appearance of new observatories, both of which have the potential to either identify an unseen planet or note its absence and close this file for good.
Exactly What Is This Mysterious Planet X?
The main part of the Kuiper Belt begins at Neptune’s orbit. Credit: NASA.
Theoretical planets beyond Neptune’s orbit are collectively referred to as “Planet X” by astronomers. Planet X is the name astronomers have given to the planet we have yet to discover and, hence, have not given a name to. In mathematics, the letter “X” denotes the unknown. When its existence was first hypothesized via calculations, Pluto was given the designation “Planet X.”
Modern discussions about Planet X often center on a hypothetical planet 9 that forms near the solar system’s rim. It would be situated in the Kuiper Belt, which is the region of the solar system beyond the planet Neptune. If its existence is verified, it will likely be a gas giant planet like Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, according to the most current speculations.
From Whence Did the Idea That There Could Be a Ninth Planet Emerge?
In the 19th century, in 1846, this idea emerged when scientists noticed quirks in Uranus’s orbit. Some scientists believe that the existence of a ninth planet, whose gravity would disrupt Uranus’s orbit, is the only possible explanation for these anomalies. Ultimately, it was Clyde Tombaugh’s 1930 discovery of Pluto that prompted the hunt for Planet X. However, Pluto’s mass is essentially inadequate to be responsible for the anomalies found in the velocity of Uranus. There are still many who believe the existence of a Planet 9 is an open mystery.
Is Nibiru Perhaps the Solar System’s Ninth Planet?
The idea that Nibiru is the name of a planet has no validity in science and is instead based on a mythological figure from Babylonian literature. The proponents of this idea argue that Nibiru is a star whose orbit is too eccentric for astronomers to have identified it yet and, hence, is a planet. Once every 3,600 years, this planet would get close enough to Earth to trigger natural calamities like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. According to this idea, species extinctions throughout Earth’s history could have been triggered by these major catastrophes.
It was predicted that the world would end in December 2012, when the planet Nibiru would cross Earth’s path and collide with it. In the most recent instance, a fresh collision was reported on September 23, 2017, showing how often this forecast gets revived. Since this ridiculous hypothesis has been spread so extensively, NASA has issued a denial to put a stop to it once and for all. So, if some scientists believe in the existence of Planet X (the ninth planet), then Nibiru is only a myth.
Planet 9, Planet X, the Planet Goes by So Many Names
Since the 19th century, several explanations for the existence of a ninth planet have been proposed. Clyde Tombaugh, an astronomer, went on the hunt for Planet X in 1930, but he found Pluto instead. Around 2003, the fictitious planet Nibiru was proposed as an explanation for the existence of a ninth planet in our solar system. Planets beyond Neptune’s orbit are collectively referred to as “Planet X.
According to the hypothesis, the Sun would form a binary system with a hypothetical star named Nemesis. That is, they would share a single center of gravity with one another. The scientific community has generally disregarded this notion since they feel that if such a star existed, it would have been discovered by now.
Planet X: Myth or Reality?
The possibility that a ninth, undiscovered planet is developing near the solar system’s rim is a concept that continues to enchant many scientists today. The likes of Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin stand out among them. These two scientists, together with their colleagues, are diligently following the progress of this obscure star. In 2016, researchers concluded that an invisible planet nearly 10 times heavier than the Earth impacted the unusually elliptical orbits of 6 Kuiper Belt objects.
In 2022, a research added more supporting evidence to this notion, which was published in the scientific journal Nature. In addition to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, the authors postulate the existence of a fifth gaseous planet.
According to others, a planetary system similar to our own can be achieved by adopting a model of solar system creation that includes five gas planets rather than four.
Where exactly this planet is situated and whether or not it is still in existence are both open questions.
Even if all we have to go on for Planet X at this point are a few hints as to its existence, the discussion continues. While some researchers believe this to be nothing more than an urban legend and that no planet of this type could pass unnoticed, others believe it has some basis in truth and helps explain the present solar system structure.
One of the main issues throughout the Cold War was the race to the Moon, which the Soviets and Americans clashed in a race that led one of them to the Moon in July 1969. From 1957 through 1969, the Cold War’s focus was mostly on the race to conquer space. It’s where the US and the USSR squared off in a heated technical duel, with both sides looking to prove their mettle. After the launch of Sputnik-1, the first artificial satellite, in 1957, the focus shifted to human missions and the goal of landing a man on the Moon.
Before the 1950s, interstellar travel was more science fiction than reality. The notion of transporting an item or a man beyond the atmosphere was not a priority for the Russian or American governments, even if Wernher von Braun collaborated with Walt Disney in the United States to publicize and propagate his ideas of space conquest. However, military engineers on both sides, particularly those specializing in ballistics, were giving this idea significant thought.
V2 missiles give the necessary boost
V2
During WWII, Nazi scientists created a brand-new kind of missile known as the V2. They were employed to bomb London towards the conclusion of the war, and their rocket propulsion made them particularly effective. This revolutionary technique allowed for the destruction of the enemy at a great distance (350 kilometers), at high speed (Mach 3.5), and without the need for airplanes.
The Cold War’s armaments competition prompted massive expenditures in research, including this promising new area. The V2s did get attention from both the East and the West. Wernher von Braun, the Nazi engineer who developed the V2, later joined the SS and the American army, and it was he who, together with Walt Disney, educated the American public about space.
The Sputnik 1 satellite, a world first
Despite some lag in the nuclear industry, it is the USSR that has made the greatest use of this innovation. In the 1950s, it began the development of an ICBM that could deliver an atomic weapon. The A-bomb is much larger than the H-bomb. They were dropped from an aircraft over Japan. That’s why it was such an ambitious project: to create a missile with an intercontinental range (a few thousand kilometers as opposed to the V2’s 350) and the ability to deliver a payload weighing several tons. The Ukrainian engineer Sergei Korolev, who was rescued from the gulag during World War II for his expertise in aeronautics, was given the task of leading the project.
He was granted permission to construct a tiny satellite and attempt to launch it into orbit after seeing the potential of such a rocket and sharing von Braun’s passion for space exploration. Korolev’s rocket design is a step in the right direction. While it had its share of problems during the first testing, it eventually worked well enough to launch Sputnik-1 into orbit on October 4, 1957. What started as a side project has become a significant technical and symbolic achievement, marking the crossing of a new boundary in the human environment. A little unit broadcasts a radio signal—just a beep—that anybody, anywhere may use to verify the Soviets’ claims.
The Sputnik 2 satellite and the dog Laika in space
This is a genuine embarrassment for the United States. This Soviet triumph has serious military implications, but it also severely undermines American faith in its technical dominance. The political power of the symbol is not to be underestimated, as the Soviet Union has always credited its success to the unique character of its own government. Therefore, in the United States, a crew has been assembled to be ready for the first launch. On the other hand, Sputnik-2 was launched by the Soviet Union on November 3, 1957. To further prove the Soviet Union’s progress, it carries a dog by the name of Laika. But unfortunately, the animal does not make it, and Russia is not quite ready to launch a human into orbit just yet.
Explorer-1, the first U.S. satellite
Despite the pressing need, the United States did not want to engage with former Nazi engineer Wernher von Braun, who was developing medium-range missiles, for obvious grounds of public perception. The official Vanguard project had initially failed, but on January 31, 1958, Braun’s crew was given the green light to attempt again with the Explorer-1 launch. It made the identification of the Van Allen radiation belt possible. Wernher von Braun, together with his rival Serguei Korolev, would thereafter play pivotal roles in the conquest of space. The USSR, on the other hand, decided to keep his identity a closely guarded state secret, so he would never get the same praise as his American counterpart.
The Luna to the Moon program
The U.S. eventually caught up and started investing in the long run. With this in mind, at the close of 1958, Eisenhower established NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration). However, with the help of its Luna program, the Soviet Union goes on to become the undisputed leader in space exploration in the years that follow. Leaving Earth’s orbit and heading for the Moon, spacecraft Luna-1 took off on January 2, 1959. The Luna-2 spacecraft successfully landed on Earth’s satellite on September 13. After more than a month of searching, Luna-3 has finally revealed the Moon’s secret side to Earth.
It sends pictures with an uneven face superimposed on the real one. The Russians are encouraged by their accomplishments and decide to restart the Sputnik program, which aims to launch a man into space. Multiple launches occur, each time with a dog on board; unlike Laka, most of the dogs survive the trip back to Earth’s atmosphere. The United States is opposed to the Sputnik program and favors the Mercury program instead. Also in January 1961, thanks to these advancements, a chimpanzee named Ham was sent into space.
So the Americans go to the Russians and plot to get back at them by launching the first human into space. On April 12, 1961, however, the Soviet Union surpassed them with the launch of Yuri Gagarin on Vostok-1 from the Tyuratam spaceport. At an average height of 250 km, he flew in orbit around the Earth for 1 hour and 48 minutes. The Soviet Union continues to bolster its reputation for excellence in space exploration. As a response, on May 5, the Americans sent Alan Shepard into space, although at a far lower height and for a much shorter duration (15 minutes only).
The American Apollo program’s inception
This was the beginning of the Apollo project, which Kennedy first declared on May 25, 1961, when he said that an American would walk on the Moon by the end of the decade. The Gemini program ran concurrently, enabling a number of experiments in human spaceflight to be conducted in low Earth orbit. The Soviet Union kept working on the Luna project. In a nutshell, the race between the two nations to put a man on the Moon is the ultimate prize.
Therefore, all of 1960 was spent working towards this ultimate goal. There were as many phases to the programming as there were events. It took John Glenn about five hours and twenty minutes to complete three orbits of the Earth on February 20, 1962. In December of that year, thanks to the Mariner program, a U.S. satellite came within a few hundred miles of Venus. The Mariner-4 probe makes its way through Mars in July 1965. On March 18, 1965, the Soviet Union successfully completed its first spacewalk with Alexei Leonov. A few months later, in the context of the Gemini program, the Americans accomplished an identical feat.
The American Apollo program speeds things up significantly. There are three distinct stages of the curriculum. The first, which spanned 1960–1968, included equipment testing during pilotless flights. Since it was Wernher von Braun’s crew that created the Saturn V rocket, their contribution was crucial. During this time, Wernher von Braun oversaw the Mercury program, which allowed for piloted test flights.
Apollo 1 was the first mission of the second phase, but it was cut short on January 27, 1967, when a fire broke out during a mock launch, killing all seven men on board. Dramatically postponing the project, the mission’s failure adds more time to the process, since the capsule has to be redesigned. The first inhabited mission of the program, Apollo 7, did not take place until October 11, 1968. The testing lasted for 10 days, during which time the ship stayed in Earth’s orbit.
The Americans and the conquest of the Moon
When Apollo 8 successfully places a crew into lunar orbit in December 1968, the United States makes significant progress relative to the Soviet Union. Within the following six months, Apollo 9 and 10 successfully piloted mission scenarios for a potential lunar landing. On July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 lifts off from Cape Canaveral with astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin on board, marking the beginning of the third phase.
His Eagle capsule touched down in the “Sea of Tranquility” on July 20. On July 21, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin made history by walking on the Moon for the first time. The astronaut would have subsequently made the now-famous statement, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” after the successful landing. As a result, the United States now had the upper hand in its rivalry with the Soviet Union.
Moving toward Soviet-American collaboration
This was a decisive advantage, since Apollo 12 through 17 all accomplished the same thing (with the exception of Apollo 13, which was derailed by technical difficulties), but the Russians never stepped foot on the Moon. In addition, the setting of Détente (the thawing of relations between the superpowers) no longer justified such costly missions (the Apollo program cost the United States billions). They canceled the last four Apollo missions as a result of the economic crises in the 1970s. In truth, man’s historic moonwalk ended the Cold War-era rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union in the race to space.
Everybody’s objectives were scaled down because of the new political reality and the high price tag that came with it. The Apollo-Soyuz collaboration represented détente despite the continued competition in unmanned exploration missions. This one began in 1972 and involved two spacecraft meeting in orbit around each other. In addition, human missions diminished in importance and were eventually confined to low-Earth orbit. The United States intended to enable frequent round trips, which was why new space shuttles had been built since 1976. The USSR, meanwhile, was placing its chances on orbital stations, as seen by Salyut, the world’s first permanently occupied space station, which was launched in 1971.
Space stations, from Mir to ISS
It was a Soviet space station that entered orbit in 1971. After their failed attempt to conquer the Moon, the Russians view this as an opportunity to reclaim space for themselves. They conduct a wide range of research and development, as well as military tests. Several space stations, including the MIR station, may be launched under the Salyut program and placed into orbit before 1986.
The Americans, not wanting to be outdone, developed Skylab. They employed parts from earlier Apollo flights to construct the station, but it suffered extensive damage when it was launched in 1973. It was inhabited for several years before facing unexpected solar activity. It decayed in the Earth’s atmosphere in 1979. In 1983, the United States planned to begin a new project; it would be the beginning of the International Space Station (ISS). In 1985, the Soviet Union launched the MIR station’s first module into space. Counting the optional ones, there would be seven. MIR was inhabited for twelve years. It was deorbited in 2001.
In the meantime, the International Space Station was launched in 1998. Countries like Russia and the United States, as well as many others, took turns working on the project. In 2011, work on the International Space Station was finally wrapped up. For their first space station, the Chinese picked this year, and they have given it the name Tiangong. For the time being, the International Space Station is still the biggest manmade object in Earth’s orbit. The facility is expected to remain operational until 2024.
Conquering Mars is the ultimate future project
The American space program has been a complete success. The American space program has not only caught up to the Soviet space program but has surpassed it. Numerous scientific and technical improvements have been made possible by the large human and financial resources used to transport men to the Moon. However, the lunar conquest was rapidly abandoned despite the economic gains and the impression this conquest had on the cultural imagination.
Although it made great strides in astronautics and expanded the bounds of possibility, the focus of the space conquest has shifted from the Moon to Mars. SpaceX fits this description; they are working on the Starship rocket to colonize Mars, but first, they want to conquer the Moon. Even though the United States hopes to train on the Moon before commencing its mission to transport humans to Mars, the details of the program are still quite hazy at this point.
Upcoming experiments: A lunar base
The Moon is currently of little interest to the world’s largest space missions. With the cancellation of the Constellation program in 2010 at Obama’s direction, even the United States has lost interest in the Moon. The main astronautical nations’ priorities have shifted in the wake of China’s successful landing of an autonomous probe on the far side of the Moon.
However, in order to be ready for a future Mars colony, the United States has planned a voyage to the Moon called “Moon to Mars,” which would enable the construction of a lunar facility in the year 2034. It is expected that the first lunar colony would be possible thanks to the Artemis program (scheduled to launch in 2022). So, after more than 50 years since the previous passage during the Apollo 17 mission, humanity might make its epic return to the Moon.
The industry of space travel is booming
A number of programs have been established since the turn of the millennium to make space flight possible for regular people without requiring them to undergo the rigorous training required of astronauts. The first flight was made in 2001 during the TM-32 mission aboard a Soyuz spacecraft.
Dennis Tito, an American multimillionaire, was the first space tourist. He paid a relatively modest $20 million to spend almost a week in Earth orbit. Many private enterprises have taken the lead in developing space tourism in recent years, and this has sparked a new race to the top. It seems that three firms have the necessary resources to take the crown.
First, Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic (established in 2004) sells $250,000-per-person tickets for rides in space aircraft to an altitude of more than 80 kilometers. Then there’s Blue Origin, founded by Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos, who takes things even farther by launching its New Shepard rocket over the Kármán line (100 km) for around 15 minutes.
Nonetheless, the price is substantially greater; $28 million was bid on the trip on July 20, 2021, with Jeff Bezos and his brother Mark. On September 15, 2021, tourists were finally able to ride SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket to the Crew Dragon spacecraft for the first time. Elon Musk, CEO and co-founder of SpaceX and Tesla, has made no secret of his fascination with space, as seen by his hopes for the colonization of Mars.
TIMELINE OF SPACE EXPLORATION
June 20th, 1944, and the V2 rockets had just been launched
In the Second World War, the Nazis developed the V2 rocket, marking the beginning of humankind’s conquest of space. It is possible to launch them over 100 km into the air.
On October 4, 1957, Sputnik was successfully launched
The first man-made satellite was launched into orbit by a Soviet R-7 rocket. Sputnik, whose name translates to “co-wayfarer” in Russian, is a 58-centimeter satellite that tips the scales at 83.6 kg. The satellite is then launched into a 900-kilometer orbit around the planet. We owe this technical achievement to Serguei Korolev, who is developing an ICBM. It’s based on the fact that the Germans were responsible for making V2 possible.
For the United States, this happened smack dab in the thick of the Cold War and was a direct provocation. There would be a “race to the stars” between the two superpowers, and it all started with the launch of the little spacecraft Sputnik 1. On January 4, 1958, Sputnik 1 disintegrated upon re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.
On November 3rd, 1957, Sputnik 2 and the dog Laika were launched into space
Sputnik 2 was launched with Laika in a pressurized container one month after the first Sputnik satellite (Russian for “co-wayfarer”) was launched. The first live organism to be satellited is a little dog. Seven days later, the animal succumbs to oxygen deprivation.
First American satellite launched on January 31, 1958
It’s 10:48 p.m., and the Juno 1 rocket is finally ready to take off. The first American artificial satellite, Explorer I, weighing 14 kilograms, was launched into Earth orbit seven minutes later. America takes its turn in the conquest of space three months after the Soviet Union launched “Sputnik.”
On July 29, 1958, NASA was established
In order to beat the Soviet Union in the “space race,” President Eisenhower passed into law the creation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NASA was in charge of coordinating the world’s aerospace and space exploration efforts. The United States was taken by surprise by the launch of Sputnik-1, and this organization was established in response. President Kennedy’s Moon program announcement in 1961 set the stage for NASA’s eventual success. In 1969, both parties honored the agreement to land a man on the Moon.
December 18, 1958, the world’s first communications satellite
This is the first experimental communications satellite launched by the United States, and the news came through a press release. The Atlas rocket launches the “SCORE” gadget into orbit for a 34-day test run. It sent seven transmissions to Earth, including a speech from President Eisenhower. In 1962, the first American television programs were sent via satellite to televisions throughout Europe.
The first space probe was launched on January 2, 1959
The Soviets are the first to successfully remove an artificial object from the pull of Earth’s gravity, after multiple failed efforts on both the Russian and American sides. The Lunik 1 spacecraft came within 6,000 kilometers of the Moon, but it ended up too far away from the Moon and instead entered a Sun-orbiting track a few months later. Even so, it sometimes broadcasted its scientific information. The American probe Pioneer made the same trip two months later.
A Soviet probe lands on the Moon on September 13, 1959
While the United States was still playing catch-up, the Soviets sent Luna II (or Lunik), the first lunar probe, to the Moon). This last one hits the Moon and leaves behind a Soviet flag shaped like a football. With this probe, scientists were also able to prove that solar winds do, in fact, exist.
October 7, 1959: First photos of the far side of the Moon
The first images of the far side of the Moon that cannot be seen from Earth were captured and sent back to Earth by the Soviet spacecraft Luna-3. Later, the world learned that it was far less uniform than the other side the Moon has always shown humans.
Yuri Gagarin launches into space for the first time on April 12, 1961
He was just 27 years old, yet his feat would live on in posterity. As the first human being to launch into space, Yuri Gagarin made history. He flew for 108 minutes on the rocket Vostok 1 (Orient in Russian), during which time he completed one orbit of the Earth. As a result, the Russians may rest certain that they are winning the space race against the United States.
May 5, 1961: Alan Shepard reaches space
Alan Shepard became the first American to circle the Earth a few weeks after Yuri Gagarin’s first voyage into space. This flight took just around 15 minutes and stayed at a low altitude (sub-orbital). John Glenn, on February 2, 1962, became the first true American astronaut.
On this day in 1961, man on the Moon by the end of the decade
The United States saw Yuri Gagarin’s orbital flight as a fresh insult; therefore, they made the strategic decision to strike back in the short term by achieving a goal that would demonstrate their technical dominance over the USSR. It was President Kennedy who made the public announcement that the Western powers wanted to put a man on the Moon by the end of the decade. Mankind would set foot on the Moon on July 21, 1969, proving that the Apollo program was successful and meeting its objectives.
September 12, 1961: Our destination is the Moon
In his now-famous “We chose to go to the Moon” address, President John F. Kennedy reaffirms the American goals first declared in May. As a result, the Apollo program is given more funding and attention at a time when its goals are most lofty. As the country that launched the first satellite and later the first man into space, the United States aims to beat the Soviet Union to this milestone.
February 20, 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth
The first American to take part in a human space voyage was astronaut John Herschel Glenn. It took him 4 hours and 56 minutes aboard the “Mercury Friendship 7” spacecraft to complete three orbits of Earth, covering a total distance of 129,000 kilometers. The ocean landing was successful 65 kilometers east of the Bahamas, close to the predicted target zone established by NASA scientists. Almost a year after Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space on April 12, 1961, the United States finally accomplished a human mission.
The satellite “Telstar” was launched on July 10, 1962
Florida’s Cape Canaveral was the site of the launch of the Telstar 1 communications satellite. It was created by the American telecom giant AT&T with the intention of keeping TV and phone lines open across the two continents. As a result of “Telstar,” the first transatlantic communications satellite, European viewers could tune in to a news conference held by President Kennedy, while American viewers could tune in to an entertainment show featuring Yves Montand.
Kennedy proposed space collaboration with the USSR on September 21, 1963
John F. Kennedy suggested to the United Nations that they organize a Soviet-American mission to the Moon as the United States and the Soviet Union entered a period of détente in the Cold War. The Soviet Union gave a neutral response. To the point where the Echo C satellite represents the culmination of their joint effort.
On March 18th, 1965, the first cosmonaut was launched into space
Alexei Leonov of Russia did a spacewalk for 15 minutes while still securely attached to his spaceship. The first human to ever float in space was him. On June 3, 1965, for around 20 minutes, American Edward White succeeded him.
The Space Race‘s first fatalities occurred on January 27th, 1967
Three astronauts perished in the burning capsule on Apollo 1, the first flight of the American space program. Spacemen Virgil Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee were all trapped aboard the burning spaceship on its first flight to Earth for preliminary ground testing. Initial plans called for launching the mission in February. According to the paper, the three astronauts died by breathing in a hazardous gas; however, the report did not specify what caused the fire. Before the Apollo program’s first human flight, several changes would be made.
October 18th, 1967: Venera 4’s mission was completed
Data on Venus’s atmospheric pressure and temperature are sent by the Russian space mission. There is a 94-minute window during which data is sent. The Soviet Union first sent a “Venera” probe to Venus in 1961. The first images of the surface of Venus were sent back by Venera 9 in 1975.
On December 24th, 1968, the first humans orbited the Moon
The Apollo 8 crew travels over the Moon three days after liftoff from Cape Canaveral. Frank Borman, James A. Lowell Jr., and William A. Anders make 10 times the turn of the star to conduct experiments for the future lunar landing, marking the first time that men have left Earth’s orbit to approach the Moon. On December 27th, after a successful six-day journey, they safely returned to Earth. The United States is getting ready to launch a mission to the Moon. For the first time, they made significant inroads against the Soviet Union.
Moon mission Apollo 11 lifted off on July 16, 1969
On July 16, 1969, on a mission to the Moon, astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin, and Michael Collins took off. The Apollo 11 mission was a success on July 21, 1969, when astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to set foot on the Moon.
The first human being landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969
At 02:56:15 GMT, Neil Armstrong stepped foot on the Moon at about 109 hours, 42 minutes after launch. He then said the thing that still remains engraved in our memories: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” The world watched as Russia lost its space superiority in an event that was broadcasted across the globe.
Apollo 13’s “Houston, we have a problem” aired on April 13, 1970
When the Apollo 13 space shuttle is getting close to the Moon, an explosion occurs in the service module’s oxygen tank. The three astronauts on board are forced to immediately return to Earth once the program is terminated. During their rescue by the technical teams located in Houston, James Lovell, John Swigert, and Fred Haise took sanctuary in the LEM Aquarius. They make it to the South Pacific without any problems. Ron Howard’s 1995 film Apollo 13 dramatized the ill-fated mission of the crew of that spacecraft.
On April 17, 1970, the Apollo 13 crew successfully returned to Earth
Three American astronauts make it through the Apollo 13 mission unscathed, and they all touch down in the South Pacific without incident. Their dream journey into space was shattered four days before, 56 hours after departure, when an oxygen tank suddenly exploded at over 300,000 kilometers from Earth. The astronauts retreated to the Aquarius lunar module, which had dwindling supplies of oxygen and energy. There is a complete 180-degree turn from scientific goal failure to genuine human achievement.
On February 6, 1971, astronauts landed on the Moon and played golf
The first guy to play golf on the Moon was Alan Shepard. On January 31st, Shepard left the Apollo 14 spacecraft with Edgar D. Mitchell and Stuart A. Roosa and headed for the Moon. His “lunar walk” lasted 4 hours and 34 minutes, and he took Mitchell along for the ride. During his second walk (after 4 hours and 48 minutes), he indulges in his great enthusiasm for golf by hitting several balls near the Fra Mauro crater. In addition to Armstrong, Aldrin, Cernan, and Bean, Shepard is the fifth human to set foot on the Moon.
April 19, 1971: First manned space station
After failing to conquer the Moon, the USSR develops an orbiting station program and launches Salyut-1, the first station to host a human crew. In a pressurization disaster that occurred between June 7 and June 30, all three astronauts who inhabit the station perished. Humans occupied Salyut for a total of 813 days, and over 2,500 scientific experiments were conducted until the program was officially closed in 1986.
Mariner 9 went into orbit on November 14, 1971
After 167 days in space, the American spacecraft Mariner 9 was already in orbit around Mars. Its mission was to send back images of Earth’s surface and weather data. A catastrophic dust storm delayed the realization of photographs until January 1972, and the probe didn’t begin observing Mars’ satellites, Phobos and Deimos, until that month. Once the dusty mantle was removed, Mariner 9 would have until the end of its mission on October 27, 1972, to take over 7,000 photos. The spacecraft probably crashed into Mars’s atmosphere in 2022.
The United States sent its last lunar probe on December 11, 1972
Apollo 17 astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt, who set out on their mission on the 7th, finally landed on the Moon. A total of 74 hours, 59 minutes, and 30 seconds, or more than three days, were spent on the Moon by the crew. Apollo 17 was the final human trip to the Moon for the United States.
Pioneer 10 beginning its first orbit of Jupiter on December 3, 1973
The American Pioneer 10 probe was the first to provide data about Jupiter when it flew within 130,000 kilometers of the gas giant. The American interplanetary probe Pioneer 10 is the oldest of its kind, having been launched on March 3, 1973. In January of 1998, it vanished off the face of the Earth.
Apollo-Soyuz: a handshake in orbit, July 18, 1975
The United States and the Soviet Union hold hands in orbit to commemorate their historic first joint space mission. When the American Apollo and the Russian Soyuz spacecraft collide in orbit, astronaut Thomas Stafford and cosmonaut Alexis Leonov team up. In addition to the technological advancements, the actual revolution is political: after competing against one another for almost a decade in the race to space, the opposing forces finally came to an agreement. However, a more sophisticated level of collaboration between the United States and Russia can’t begin until the Mir orbital station is operational.
The Viking 2 probe set out toward Mars on September 9, 1975
NASA sent the Viking 2 spacecraft to Mars as part of an exploration initiative to take pictures of the Martian polar caps. The Viking 1 mission departed exactly one month before this one. The Viking project has returned hundreds of breathtaking images and other data about Mars and its moon Deimos. In 1978, the probes lost contact and were no longer transmitted.
On June 13, 1983, Pioneer 10 was launched into interplanetary space
The American probe “Pioneer 10” is the first terrestrial object to leave the solar system. Though it was only meant to operate for two years after its March 1972 launch, the probe was still sending out signals as late as January 2003. In 1973, it was the first to fly above the gas giant Jupiter; in 1983, it was the first to cross beyond Pluto’s orbit. The spacecraft was 82 times the distance from the Earth to the Sun away from us when it lost communication with us at a distance of 12.2 billion kilometers. The probe contains a gold plaque with a human description, Earth’s coordinates, and the mission’s launch date engraved on it.
February 7, 1984: Two astronauts spacewalk
To accomplish the first spacewalk without being tethered to a shuttle, two astronauts used the MMU (Manned Maneuvering Unit), essentially a rocket chair in 1984. For about five hours, astronauts Robert L. Stewart and Bruce McCandless floated in space roughly 100 meters from Challenger.
Voyager 2 passed by Uranus on January 24, 1986
The Voyager-II spacecraft stayed at a distance of 101,000 km (63,000 mi) from Uranus. Its studies shed light on the planet’s nine-ring system and its very diverse satellites, Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon. After leaving Earth in 1977, Voyager-II arrived at Saturn in August 1981 before continuing on to Uranus. They got to Neptune on August 25th, 1989. After that, it left the solar system and continued its orbit. As of now, communication is still going on.
The shuttle Challenger exploded on January 28th, 1986
The American space shuttle “Challenger” disintegrated into fragments 1 minute and 13 seconds after liftoff at 11:38 a.m. There were witnesses to the accident at Cape Canaveral, and millions more saw it on television. Sadly, the Challenger’s seven astronauts—including two women—were all killed in the blast. According to NASA’s study, the disaster was caused by the joint of one of the auxiliary thrusters breaking.
The Russian space station Mir was launched on February 20th, 1986
The core of the Russian space station Mir (which means “Peace”) was launched into orbit by a Proton rocket at a height of 350 kilometers. The 2.20-meter-diameter sphere weighed 21 tons. As of then, it was only waiting for modules to be connected to it. On March 13, 1986, humanity’s first mission to the “Mir” was launched. But the equipment obsolescence and the station’s prohibitive cost to maintain led to its demolition in 2001.
The planet Venus was discovered on May 4, 1989
The U.S. scientific exploration of Venus was assisted by the shuttle Atlantis, which propelled the American Magellan probe. Almost a year after it was sent into orbit, it was the first to provide a detailed map of Earth’s surface. After two years, it offered a map of 98% of the Earth using its radar to highlight the various volcanoes throughout the globe. Before it was destroyed in Venus’s atmosphere in 1994, the probe was used to explore the planet’s gravity. Learning about Venus’s geology and drawing parallels to our own planet was made possible by the Magellan expedition.
On April 24, 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope was sent into space
As a tribute to the late scientist Edwin Hubble, the space shuttle Discovery launched a telescope bearing his name into deep space. The first photographs that were sent to the scientists were a huge letdown. The primary mirror of the orbital telescope was flawed, resulting in very low picture quality.
In 1993, a crew of astronomers on the shuttle Endeavour were hopefully able to fix this flaw and make the system even better. There would be a series of subsequent missions to repair and upgrade this powerful orbiting observatory. Important findings made possible by these missions improve our understanding of how the cosmos works.
On August 28, 1993, Galileo discovered an asteroid with a moon orbiting it
On its approach to Jupiter, the American spacecraft Galileo found the first moon of an asteroid. A small satellite, just one kilometer in diameter, orbits the asteroid at a distance of around 100 kilometers from the surface. The asteroid measures 58 kilometers in length and 23 kilometers in width. Dactyl is a reference to a Greek god who ruled over Mount Ida.
On March 14, 1995, a Russian space shuttle carried an American astronaut
From Russia’s Baikonur spaceport first thing in the morning, astronaut Norman Earl Thagard takes off on the Soyuz TM-21 “Hurricane” rocket. For the first time ever, an American has flown on a Russian space mission. It is Thagart’s and his crewmates’ hope to make it to the Mir space station. Following 115 days in space, they have returned to Earth.
June 29, 1995: Assembly of Mir and Atlantis
Atlantis, a shuttle from the United States, arrived at the Russian space station Mir twenty years after Apollo and Soyuz first met. 395 kilometers above the ground, Vladimir Dezhurov and Robert Hoot Gibson did a handshake in a moment that went down in history. A total of ten astronauts share the spaceship until July 4 of the same year. The launch of international space cooperation and the building of a shared station called Alpha began with this gathering.
Incident at the Mir Space Station on June 25th, 1997
The Progress supply ship and the Russian space station Mir, whose core component was launched in February 1986, have been involved in a collision. Two Russians and an American astronaut work together to plug the leak and restore power. Due to the station’s many problems and the exorbitant expense of keeping it operational, the Russians made the decision to blow it up in March of 2001.
October 29, 1998: John Glenn returns to service
To begin a new mission aboard the shuttle Discovery, the 77-year-old man who was the first American in space in February 1962 prepared to lift off. He carried out experiments on the effects of ageing in space. After 9 days and 134 orbits around the Earth, John Glenn returned.
The Columbia space shuttle exploded on February 1, 2003
After 16 days in orbit, the shuttle Columbia was lost from NASA’s radar when it re-entered Earth’s atmosphere. Over Dallas, there are white streaks in the sky. There were seven fatalities; six Americans and an Israeli astronaut. A flaw in the heat shield has been discovered after extensive testing.
Launch of the Spitzer Space Telescope, 25 August 2003
NASA has launched its biggest infrared space telescope into orbit. The American astronomer who inspired its name is Albert Spitzer. Because of its superior sensitivity to infrared light, it can identify objects in the furthest reaches of the universe. Since infrared light cannot reach ground-based telescopes due to Earth’s atmosphere, it was crucial to launch such equipment into space.
The IRAS and ISO satellites were also able to examine star formation since they were launched before it. In fact, after stars are produced, they stay in a cloud state where they are completely hidden from view. Infrared radiation, however, may be used to pinpoint their location.
On October 15, 2003, China successfully launched its first cosmonaut
Yang Liwei, also known as a taikonaut, became the first Chinese cosmonaut after a 21-hour mission. After completing fourteen orbits of the planet, the Shenzhou V spacecraft returns to Earth and makes an emergency landing in a large Chinese plain. Forty years after the Soviet Union and the United States, China joins their ranks as the third nation with access to outer space.
July 1, 2004: Exploration of Saturn
Finally, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft arrived at Saturn. Since its 1997 launch, it had traveled a long way to reach its current orbit, and during that time it had supplied some valuable data, especially on Jupiter. The probe’s objective was to learn more about Saturn and its surroundings by analyzing its rings, moons, and other features.
Cassini, which investigated Saturn and its moons, and Huygens, which examined Titan’s atmosphere, made up the spacecraft. Two modules broke apart in December 2004. On January 14, 2005, as scheduled, the Huygens module entered Titan’s atmosphere at a depth of 65,000 km as Cassini drew near. By the end of 2008, the mission was complete.
On July 4, 2005, the Deep Impact spacecraft collided with the Tempel 1 asteroid
A month after its launch in January, NASA’s Deep Impact space mission successfully impacted comet Tempel 1 at a speed of 37,000 kilometers per hour, as predicted. This results in a massive crater and a cloud of dust. The Deep Impact probe’s goal is to study the comet’s interior composition by analyzing the ejected debris, crater surface, and impact results. Researchers are hoping to fill in some gaps in their understanding of how our solar system came to be.
Titan was first seen by the Huygens spacecraft on January 14, 2005
In 1997, NASA launched the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft into space. The mission’s goal was to investigate Saturn and its moons. The Cassini orbiter has resumed its survey of Saturn’s moons while the Huygens probe has touched down on Titan. The mission, which had already been extended twice due to its overwhelming success, finally ended in 2017.
The last Space Shuttle launch occurred on July 8, 2011
The US’s Atlantis was the last space shuttle to launch to the ISS. Once the shuttles retired, conventional launchers were to take their place.
On November 12th, 2014, a probe touched down on the comet’s surface
Using the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko as a target, the European space probe Rosetta deployed a miniature lander called Philae on the comet’s surface. It studied the comet’s structure and soil composition. The Ariane 5 rocket successfully launched Rosetta in 2004.
The New Horizons mission flew past Pluto on July 14, 2015
The American spacecraft New Horizons was launched in 2006 to investigate Pluto and its satellites. In 2015, it completed its mission and moved on to investigate other planets in our solar system.
The first lunar landing on the Moon’s dark side occurred on January 3, 2019
The Chinese spacecraft Chang’e 4, which was launched on December 7th, 2018, completed an orbit of the Moon on December 13th. The Chinese lander landed on the far side of the Moon on January 3, 2019. The Yutu 2 rover was dropped off to study this part of the Moon.
May 30, 2020: First manned space flight by a private company
Elon Musk’s SpaceX is the first private business to be contracted by NASA to transport humans to the International Space Station (ISS). Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, the mission’s protagonists, used SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket to successfully lift off. The Dragon V2 (or Crew Dragon) capsule separated from the rocket’s first stage and continued on its way to the ISS. U.S. President Trump was there at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to see the launch.
When oxygen was synthesized on Mars on April 20, 2021
As part of NASA’s Mars exploration program, the Perseverance rover successfully converted carbon dioxide into oxygen on April 20, 2021. This marks a first in the annals of space exploration: the creation of oxygen on a distant world.
The CO samples collected from Mars’s atmosphere, (which is 96% carbon dioxide) made this procedure feasible. Five grams of oxygen were produced during the reaction, which was enough for an average person to breathe for around ten minutes and make tiny amounts of rocket fuel.
The Ariane 5 rocket carrying the James Webb Space Telescope lifted off from Kourou. A space telescope of this magnitude has never been attempted before. It was a joint effort between NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency that resulted in the James Webb Space Telescope.
Asteroids are potentially catastrophic objects of various sizes in our solar system. In spite of how remote the possibility of an asteroid crashing into Earth is, it is still a very real threat. In the neighborhood of 180,000 tons of dust and meteorites fall to Earth each year. These objects tend to be quite diminutive. On the other hand, a massive asteroid may pose a danger to Earth. NASA and other space organizations keep an eye on the paths of some huge objects in case they collide with Earth. Both Apophis and Bennu, asteroids that will pass close to Earth in 2029, fit this description. Even though their paths don’t seem dangerous right now, the planets’ gravitational pull might alter their paths and lead to a collision in the future.
What is an asteroid?
An impression of the asteroid belt. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
An asteroid is a celestial object with an orbit around a star. Made of metals and rocks, they testify to the birth of our solar system. Asteroids, it is widely believed, are stony debris that failed to coalesce into planets.
These came from the main asteroid belt, which is the region of the solar system between Mars and Jupiter and includes hundreds of thousands of asteroids. Scientists believe that Jupiter’s gravity has stopped a planet from forming in this region. It follows that the asteroids represent the unborn planet’s embryos.
These chunks of rock are now circling the Sun in an area known as the asteroid belt. However, sometimes the gravity of a planet like Mars or Jupiter may cause them to detour from their original path. Once they break off from their original orbit, they are classified as NEOs because they have the potential to enter Earth’s orbit.
The most well-known asteroids
Ceres, the first asteroid ever discovered, was found by Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi in 1801. Since this discovery, astronomers’ attention has shifted away from monitoring asteroids and toward the study of planets and stars. However, asteroids provide insight into the early history of Earth and the Solar System. However, although the vast majority of these aliens maintain their anonymity and quietly develop in their orbit, others are well-recognized and have names. Sometimes scientists would follow them around and watch them from every possible vantage point.
Asteroid Apophis
The asteroid Apophis was first seen in 2004, and its journey has been meticulously tracked ever since. The closer it gets to Earth in its orbit, the more likely it will crash into our planet. Fear and debate are fueled by this possibility, despite NASA’s comforting findings that nixed it years ago.
It’s not a slutty stone, and with good reason. At 1,150 feet (350 meters) in diameter and 27 million tons in mass (30 million US ton), the asteroid is a formidable presence in the solar system. In 2021, it came within 10.5 million mi (17 million km) of Earth (44 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon). Nothing about it posed any kind of danger from this far out. Its future passing has long caused concern among experts. In fact, in 2029, Apophis will be significantly closer to Earth thanks to its orbit, passing within 20,000 mi (32,000 km or one-tenth of the distance between Earth and the Moon) of our planet. To rephrase, it will make a close pass between the Earth and a few geostationary satellites.
However, NASA has told us that a collision is not possible, contrary to the dire predictions of certain periodicals. An American government organization has concluded that this asteroid poses no threat to Earth during the next 100 years.
Asteroid 2001 FO32
Asteroid 2001 FO32
Astronomers were able to get a good look at the strange asteroid 2001 FO32 on March 22, 2021, when it passed within 1.25 million mi (2 million km) of Earth. This asteroid’s unusual quality is its velocity.
The asteroid 2001 FO32 was reportedly the race leader because it was “faster than most asteroids,” as stated by NASA, as reported by the publication Sciences et Avenir. At 79,500 mi/h (128,000 km/h), it was adding about 0.6 miles every second to its total distance traveled. Having a diameter of 0.35 mi (550 m), it was too small to be seen from Earth without a telescope.
Comet 2020 VT4
It is not always possible to predict which asteroids will be seen before they approach the Earth. Some of these asteroids are too near to the Sun for scientists to spot in advance of their arrival. In 2020, asteroid 2020 VT4 made a surprise flyby approximately 235 mi (380 km) over the Pacific Ocean, causing widespread damage. This indicates that it made its way between Earth and a group of geostationary satellites. The distance of VT4 from Earth’s surface is the closest of any passing asteroid.
If this object had impacted Earth, it would not have posed any threat to mankind due to its modest size.
The Little Prince, or Asteroid B612
It’s likely that one of the most well-known asteroids is B612 from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Little Prince. Some readers could suspect that the author has just made up this heavenly body. Still, it does exist, or at least nearly does. The German astronomer who discovered the asteroid in 1906 gave it the designation 612 (without the B). A second asteroid, 46610 Besixdouze, was found on October 15, 1993, and was named after the Little Prince.
Asteroid Bennu
Bennu, found in 1999, is one of the asteroids considered a “danger” to Earth, despite the fact that the probability of a collision remaining at its current level is very low.
After dancing around the asteroid for two years, the Osiris-Rex mission was able to gather surface samples for a NASA investigation. The asteroid measures 1650 ft (500 m) in diameter. In 2023, we’ll bring those samples back to Earth for analysis.
After analyzing its predicted path, NASA determined that the probability of this asteroid colliding with Earth was less than 0.057%. Scientists from NASA have concluded that there is a 99.94% likelihood that Bennu is NOT on an impact trajectory.
NASA warns that if the asteroid’s track changes and it comes closer to Earth, the threat will increase. This is possible if the object enters a region where the Earth’s gravity alters its path. Scientists have estimated that this may happen in 2135. That would put the crash in the year 2182. It is predicted that the crater will be between 3 and 6 mi (5 and 10 km) in diameter.
Which asteroid threatens Earth?
When the Apophis asteroid was discovered in 2004, scientists were alarmed by predictions that it would collide with Earth in 2029. The asteroid is around 1,150 ft (350 m) in length. Despite the many alarmist headlines released in different media, it turns out that these worries are unjustified, since the asteroid’s course rules out any collision with Earth over the next 100 years.
NASA has been keeping a tight check on this asteroid ever since the scare, and it seems like it will come within touching distance of Earth, making it visible to the naked eye. We have a spectacular show in store for us, but there is no end of the world in sight.
What are dangerous asteroids?
Objects that pass through Earth’s orbit, known as near-Earth objects (NEOs), are often mentioned while discussing the dangers posed by falling asteroids. Based on their size and orbital distance from Earth, several of these asteroids pose a threat to our home planet. If an asteroid with an absolute magnitude, or brightness, of less than 22 passes within 0.05 au (4.64 million mi or 7.48 million km) of Earth, it is classified as potentially hazardous. The brighter an object is, the smaller its absolute magnitude value. The bigger the asteroid, the lighter it reflects, hence the brighter it seems.
The likelihood of encountering an object big enough to pose a threat to humanity is low but not zero. The extinction of the dinosaurs occurred 66 million years ago as a result of a catastrophe of this sort.
Since we now have means of avoiding collisions, this danger may be mitigated to some extent. But what would we do if it turned out that a massive asteroid was about to smash into Earth sometime in the next decade? So, what do we have at our disposal?
Evacuating the affected region is now regarded as the only viable option. But what if the danger is much more than that? Planetary defense initiatives are currently researching and developing methods to properly detect potentially hazardous asteroids and deflect them.
The asteroid that wiped off the dinosaurs
Many ideas have been proposed to explain the rapid extinction of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago, with new versions being introduced on a regular basis to account for new findings. One popular theory is that the stunning crater of Chicxulub in the Mexican state of Yucatán was produced by the impact of an asteroid or an asteroid fragment. It would have set off a chain reaction leading to a severe disaster, wiping out numerous animal and plant species, maybe even the non-avian dinosaurs.
The 112 mi (180 km) wide Chicxulub crater was created by an asteroid, but no one knows for sure which one. A report from 2007 in Nature implicates an asteroid with the designation 298 Baptistina. However, this finding has not been accepted universally by the scientific community.
The Deccan Traps, which are volcanic landforms in India, are the focus of the second leading hypothesis that attempts to account for this extinction event by releasing massive amounts of gas into the atmosphere. This time it wasn’t triggered by meteorites; instead, the extinction of the dinosaurs was likely precipitated by a period of massive volcanic eruptions that disrupted the global climate.
How to observe an asteroid?
A number of factors, including the asteroid’s size and distance from the Sun, determine whether or not we can see it. When certain asteroids approach so close to Earth, we may see them with the naked eye.
In other cases, you’ll need binoculars or a telescope to see the spectacle.
The inquisitive may now use a NASA-created online tool to track the motions of several asteroids and comets. You’ll be able to watch for aliens if they ever arrive.
The biggest asteroid in the universe
With a diameter of 587 mi (946 km), Ceres is the biggest main-belt asteroid. In addition, it is the tiniest of the dwarf planets in our solar system. The size of the asteroid that generated the massive Chicxulub crater is believed to be about 7.
This Kuiper belt object is the next one in line after Neptune. A diameter of 775 mi (1,250 km) has been calculated. Larger objects, like Eris, have since been discovered in the Kuiper belt, and these objects are now considered to be dwarf planets. There are a lot of big objects in this faraway region, and studying them is challenging for a number of reasons, not the least of which is their great distance.
The distinction between asteroids and meteorites
The term “asteroid” refers to any astronomical body circling a star that is composed mostly of rock and metal. As a result of course corrections, these objects sometimes approach Earth. A meteorite is an asteroid rock that has survived its fall into Earth’s atmosphere. As a result of the data they provide on the asteroids they came from, these meteorites are of great scientific significance.
Was NASA on the Moon? Of course, most people — including myself — will respond in that manner. However, some critics question if Apollo 11 really landed on the Moon. We provide reasons why the “Moon hoax” idea is false. The theory of a “Moon landing conspiracy” has been popular since a 2001 documentary aired on the American television channel Fox TV. It claims that NASA manufactured the whole event for media impact in an effort to persuade the Russians and the rest of the world at the same time of their dominance in space. The photographs and video recordings made by the astronauts are allegedly full of proof of this fraud, according to skeptics supporting this hoax. But how credible is the whole argument?
Is the whole Moon landing just fake?
Even though the Moon landing remains one of the most impressive and successful feats in the history of human spaceflight, this very fact has been called into question more and more recently.
A “documentary” and its consequences
In a reenacted environment, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin practiced the lunar landing. Credit: NASA.
The program “Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon” that was shown on February 15, 2001, by the American television network Fox-TV served as both the catalyst and the culmination of the campaign started by certain “skeptics.” In it, self-proclaimed experts attempt to demonstrate that the Moon landing could not have occurred and that all images and media stories are consequently faked based on supposed faults and hints in NASA photographs and interviews.
The creators of the idea claim that NASA simply lacked the technological capacity to carry out such a landing in the 1960s. The whole event was just fabricated in order to win the “race to the Moon”; Hollywood had plenty of acceptable backgrounds.
Contradictory evidence is abounding
View of the Eagle lander that has just been detached from the command module. Credit: NASA and KSC.
NASA and independent astronomers responded to the claims and categorically and unambiguously denied the purported “proof” before the episode ever aired. The majority of critics’ claims were just the result of poor research or ignorance of the lunar surface’s basic characteristics.
For instance, Bill Kaysing, one of the most persuasive proponents of a lunar landing conspiracy, said that NASA scientists had estimated the likelihood of a successful lunar landing at 0.017 percent, making it improbable that the project would really be implemented. However, even though these estimates could have been popular during the early stages of the Apollo program, various analyses carried out in the middle of the 1960s anticipated a success rate of at least 90%. Kaysing, of course, keeps this information private.
Persistent and long-lasting
Unmistakable evidence: The lowest portion of the Apollo 11 lander is still in place on the Moon. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft captured this in 2009. Credit: NASA
However, despite the evident ridiculousness of their claims, the “skeptics” were still able to unnerve at least some of the American public, which did not lessen the effectiveness of the “conspiracy theory.” The “Moon Hoax” theme persisted, especially in the USA, where more and more books and websites about it were produced.
These notions, which had long ago been disproven as illogical, were even spread in Europe, where they are genuinely taken seriously. The media businesses acquired the “documentary” from Fox and aired it on their networks many times, unmodified and often without any commentary.
The issue was ultimately brought up in court in the USA, where Bill Kaysing even charged NASA with purposefully causing the Apollo 1 catastrophe in an effort to silence any dissidents inside its own ranks. Jim Lovell, the commander of the Apollo 13 mission, was outraged by these ridiculous claims and referred to Kaysing as a maniac; Kaysing then filed a defamation suit against Lovell. But the presiding judge decided not to hear the case after the first hearing of the evidence.
Shadows and starry skies
The “indications” of a forgery put forward in the Fox documentary and the books of the “moon landing skeptics” can, in principle, be summarized as a handful of phenomena. Here, we’ve laid out the most important arguments for and against the Moon landing conspiracy theories.
The direction, duration, and form of the shadows in the NASA astronaut images are among the pillars of the doubters’ case. Kaysing argued that the pictures had to have been shot in a studio rather than on the Moon.
Shadow direction argument
These rock crystals have a crystal character that is easily discernible, however, this is not true of all of them. Credit: Ngsoft/pixabay
The shadows cast by various items and individuals on the surface of the Moon do not run parallel in the photos, and their lengths vary. The shadows of both astronauts seem to be leaning toward one another in the photo of Armstrong and Aldrin hoisting the American flag, and Aldrin’s shadow is also longer. Skeptics claim that this is a blatant indication that the “studio” employed various light sources.
Answer: This argument fails to take into account fundamental principles of perspective and vanishing point distortion. Every time parallel lines are shown in a picture, a photograph, or other two-dimensional media, they seem to converge on a three-dimensional surface. This idea may also be seen in action on Earth, such as while seeing a road heading in its direction.
The shadows of Aldrin and Armstrong are similarly distorted. The fact that the ground is not level but somewhat undulating accounts for the variations in the length of the shadows. A slope visually shortens a shadow on a sloping plane while optically lengthening it. There is a tiny drop between where Armstrong is standing and the modest elevation in front of him.
Each rise would have had numerous shadows if the photos had really been shot in a studio with various light sources; this effect may be seen, for instance, at a soccer stadium when a game is played under floodlights: Each player is encircled by four shadows.
Shadow depth argument
On the lunar surface, Buzz Aldrin exits the lunar lander. Credit: NASA and KSC
Why are the places that are under darkness still so brilliant if there is actually just one source of light, the sun, and no air to disperse the light? While Aldrin departs the LEM, for instance, why is he so easily visible when the ladder ought to be in deep shadow?
In response, this reasoning fails to take into account the fact that the lunar surface is extremely reflective due to its brightness and abundant microglass. As a result, it bounces the sunlight that strikes it back in its direction, illuminating the shadows.
Starry sky argument
This picture of the ISS space station also doesn’t show any stars. Credit: NASA
None of the NASA photos show any stars in the sky. But they ought to be present.
Answer: Although the skeptics’ main argument is the simplest to disprove, it is often raised. The photographic method is to blame for the alleged absence of stars: On the sun-lit, dazzling surface of the Moon, the astronauts recorded the happenings. They had to choose a short exposure time and a narrow aperture in order to make sure that these photographs weren’t overexposed. The stars, which were just extremely dim in comparison to the high-reflecting surface, were simply too faint for this exposure period.
Other conspiracy theories
Aldrin is seen next to the US flag. Credit: NASA and KSC
Waving flag argument
The American flag is another long-time favorite of conspiracy theorists: In certain TV scenes, the flag seems to be blown by a breeze or wind, and in photographs at least, it still exhibits unmistakable waves. However, because the Moon has no atmosphere, there is no wind.
Answer: If one carefully examines the TV records, they reveal that the flag only waves when a straight astronaut positions himself at its stalk. The vibrations produced by slamming the stem into the lunar surface are longer lasting than they would be on Earth because of the absence of an atmosphere.
The alleged ripples in the still photographs are not caused by the flag moving in waves, but rather by a setup error: The astronauts were unable to completely extend the pole that distributes the top of the flag widely, causing the flag fabric to hang down in folds rather than being taut. Later, NASA was so taken with the “natural” appearance of this folding that the crossbar was purposefully cut shorter on all following Apollo flights.
Moon dust argument
The time Aldrin spent on the surface was brief. Credit: NASA and KSC
Although the “Eagle’s” touchdown created dust, the landing module’s foot pads are absolutely dust-free.
Answer: Because the Moon lacks an atmosphere, there is also no drag, which on Earth causes the whirled-up dust to hover for a very long period until it ultimately settles. On the Moon, the dust does not go far before falling back to Earth in a ballistic arc. As a result, the landing’s dust was blown away from the module and did not physically rest on the lander’s feet.
Footprints argument
The lunar rovers’ tracks and the astronauts’ footprints are both very distinct and crisply detailed. But without water, dust is unable to leave these traces.
Yes, it is true. if the dust has very few grains. This is also conceivable with Moon dust, just as an impression is plainly discernible even in perfectly dry flour.
Backgrounds and crosshairs
Many different things can be argued about when it comes to photography techniques and hints of supposed retouching.
Crosshairs argument
In order to make it easier to determine the magnitude of the things being shot in the future, crosshairs were included in the cameras’ design. But how else can this be explained, if not by shoddy post-processing, since in some images the crosshairs are hidden by items in the frame?
On the one hand, cameras with crosshairs might have been utilized in research right away, thus, even a hoax wouldn’t have required a second application of such crosshairs.
Second, these occlusions seem to always occur when a crosshair is close to a starkly white or brilliant item. Printers and photographers are aware of the “bleeding” effect: The thin black line seems to vanish because the white region is brighter than the black area on the film material. Using a camera, one may easily recreate this phenomenon on Earth.
Identical backgrounds
The same background, the mountains, and their placement appear in two NASA footages that were supposedly filmed three days and a few miles apart. Was this scene perhaps staged using a studio background? Similar patterns may be seen in two photographs, where the landing module is sometimes visible in the foreground and other times it is not.
Answer: The first “argument” once again stems from the filmmakers’ shoddy research: They did not directly copy both segments from NASA, but rather from another documentary where it was wrongly claimed that they were both filmed three days apart. This error may have been resolved with a quick NASA study. The sequences were captured during a lunar outing at roughly the same location and three minutes apart, as the astronauts’ accompanying voice remarks further demonstrate.
On the other hand, physical effects are the reason the landing module seems to be “missing” in the pictures: Since the Moon lacks an atmosphere, it also lacks a feature that allows humans to estimate distances on Earth—the blurring of landforms or objects as they get closer to the viewer. Even if a shot is taken a few meters in front of the lander and another a few meters behind it, the mountains in the distance that seem to be so near are really kilometers distant and consequently scarcely alter.
Micrometeorites, radiation, and weak computers
Voyager 1 is now traveling across interstellar space after leaving our solar system. Credit: NASA/ESA, G. Bacon (STScI)
Was the Apollo mission technically possible?
The onboard computer of the Apollo lander module was incapable of controlling the lunar landing and had less processing capability than the microprocessor in a contemporary washing machine. Even the construction of such a compact but capable onboard computer was not possible in the 1960s due to the lack of computer technology.
Answer: While there were no current microprocessors in use in the 1960s, there were microchips that could do basic arithmetic calculations. Supercomputers on the ground handled a large portion of the intricate calculations required for navigation. A modest memory was adequate to temporarily retain the outcomes of the ground computations for the remainder of the navigation, leaving just a very small portion of the navigation to be handled by the onboard computer.
Radiation argument
Lunar landscape as seen via the lander Eagle’s window. Credit: NASA and KSC.
The Van Allen radiation band surrounding Earth, in particular, exposed the Apollo missions to lethal radiation without any safeguards. According to Kaysing, if the astronauts had really gone to the Moon, the radiation would have been so intense that they would have either died from radiation poisoning or suffered serious radiation damage.
The Apollo astronauts needed nearly an hour to get through the Van Allen belt, in response. The dosimeters indicate that they got a radiation dosage of roughly one SEM during the procedure.
Only at levels of 100 and more than 300 SEM may radiation illness or even death occurs.
However, if a solar storm had happened while the journey was in progress, the cosmic radiation would have considerably risen. But happily, for NASA and the crew, there were no significant radiation bursts or plasma ejections throughout the lunar trip since the sun stayed quiet.
Meteorites argument
Inadequate shielding prevented the spacecraft from withstanding the continual barrage of micrometeorites. Therefore, if the spacecraft had really been launched, thousands of holes would have been carried away.
Answer: Despite having a relatively little mass, micrometeorites are quite quick. Therefore, they may be stopped by even a small covering of metal. Such micrometeorite defense layers were included in both the spacecraft and the crew’s spacesuits.
Conclusion
The actions of the Moon landing deniers are terrifying in two ways: In addition to the space that such theories obtain in the media without response, numerous comparable Internet sites and book releases make pseudoscientific claims that mostly avoid debate.
Even while the documentary’s creators instruct the audience to “make up your own opinion based on all the facts” at the outset, the spectator regrettably does not obtain this precise information throughout the program. The purportedly damning images or video clips are often shown and discussed.
The arguments put forward by NASA or other objective astronomers, as outlined below, do not, however, find much room. When compared to the in-depth interviews with doubters, the remarks of NASA officials are at most brief, noncommittal, and dismissive, which must create the impression that NASA has nothing to really contradict or may even have something to conceal.
In reality, NASA doesn’t generally reply to many charges since it doesn’t have to because it doesn’t take the doubters seriously. Because the plethora of images, videos, and background information that the space agency has provided online, among other things, speaks a language that is really adequately clear and disproves many arguments on its own.
Dissemination without reflection
Nevertheless, people who see such material without a lot of background information might sometimes get confused. especially when it is broadcast on apparently legitimate TV channels. The viewers’ confidence is exploited to provide a platform to a loud but doubtful minority.
The Apollo astronauts were on the Moon, and the “Eagle” truly landed. Certainly, one may debate the wisdom or folly of human space flight, particularly the Moon landing, but at least this fact is undeniable among the worldwide scientific community.
50 years ago, in December 1968, mankind made history by going outside of Earth’s low orbit for the first time and reach an extraterrestrial body. The Apollo 8 crew became the first humans to orbit the Moon, allowing them to glimpse Earthrise over the lunar terrain and see the far side of our satellite for the first time. NASA began a historic and exceedingly risky mission on December 21, 1968. Astronauts left the protective confines of Earth’s orbit for the first time and explored the immensity of space. And the first Moon landing in July of 1969 was made possible by the Apollo 8 mission to the Moon.
Fifty years after its completion, the Apollo 8 mission remains a thrilling chapter in the human exploration of space.
Competition: Moon
Bankruptcies, bad luck, and unfortunate events
At first, NASA intended Apollo 8 to be a pretty routine test trip in Earth orbit, during which they would put the new lunar module through its paces. After all, this was the deciding factor in whether or not a lunar landing would be possible.
Accidents keep piling up
The Apollo lunar module during a test in Earth’s orbit – it was not ready in time for Apollo 8. Credit: NASA.
However, in the summer of 1968, everything changed. The Grumman Corporation’s design for NASA’s landing module was incomplete at first, and then problems started piling up: cables were connected improperly or caused short circuits, components were broken, and the nozzles that were meant to lift the module off the lunar surface didn’t work. In a short amount of time, it became apparent that the module would not be completed in time for the December launch of Apollo 8.
The Saturn V’s progress has been discouraging as well; it’s the only rocket capable of lifting the lunar module, the command capsule, and three astronauts into orbit. In April of 1968, during a second unmanned test, the rocket began vibrating so strongly that it ruptured several of the cables. Consequently, two of the rocket’s five engines go out prematurely, and the craft just barely reaches orbit. Then, the failure occurs during the third and final firing stage of the lunar mission. The signs for Saturn V’s human missions are not good.
Take on the Soviets in a race
U.S. space officials are also concerned that the Soviet Union is close to launching the country’s first human mission to the Moon. In September of 1968, the unmanned spacecraft Zond 5 completed its first orbit of the Moon. Soviet engineers have begun designing and testing a rocket designed for human trips called the Soyuz. There are hints that a cosmonaut may be doing a test journey toward the Moon soon.
NASA is now under significant time constraints. As far as we can tell, the Soviet Union is much ahead of the United States in the space race. They sent the first satellite into orbit with Sputnik, and cosmonaut Yuri Gargarin went into space before any American astronaut. This is a humiliating setback for the United States, which likes to see itself as the leader of the free world. Consequently, the race to the Moon must be won at whatever cost.
Is Kennedy’s programme tipping?
US President John F. Kennedy at Rice University Stadium in Houston during his famous “Moon Speech”.
It is also crucial to fulfilling John F. Kennedy’s pledge. In a speech delivered in Texas in September 1962, Kennedy said that a human would walk on the Moon before the end of the decade. “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” Since then, NASA and its subcontractors have devoted massive resources to meeting this deadline, creating space capsules, docking methods, and rockets at breakneck speed and putting them through their paces in both human and unmanned trips around Earth.
However, by the summer of 1968, the whole Apollo program was in danger of being delayed. Despite all this, would the Soviets end up being ahead of the Americans?
How Apollo 8 became a lunar mission
Originally planned for Apollo 9, but then preferred to Apollo 8: James Lovell, William Anders and Frank Borman.
Time to make a decision
On this day in 1968, Apollo 9’s soon-to-be commander, Frank Borman, is in California running the ship’s Command Module through its last testing. This former Air Force pilot is no stranger to space travel; in 1965, he and James Lovell spent two weeks in a Gemini spacecraft orbiting the Earth. They plan to return to Earth orbit in early 1969 with a third guy, space rookie William Anders.
An insane scheme
The problem is that NASA officials in Houston have just canceled Borman’s scheduled trip, and he has no idea about it. Since the lunar module will not be completed in time for the December trip, a choice must be made. The Americans asked “Should we risk having the Soviets beat us to the Moon and missing Kennedy’s objective by delaying Apollo 8 and all following flights?” Or do you take an unusual risk even for the still young NASA?
As a NASA engineer, George Low has a seemingly insane plan: Apollo 8 should be launched without the landing module, bypassing Earth orbit entirely and heading straight for the Moon. The spaceship would next enter a lunar orbit and begin circling the Moon. The rationale for this is that while waiting for the lunar module, the crew could practice the required flying maneuvers. These are still simply conceptual at this point, existing solely on paper and in the thoughts of engineers. It’s also uncharted terrain for space travelers to establish contact with one another across such vast distances. A lunar orbit with Apollo 8 would offer the chance to test all this – and to beat the Soviets.
“Have you gone mad?”
Credit: NASA
But are astronauts and technology up to the task? Low keeps NASA Director James Webb in the dark about the Apollo team’s preparations for launch by having them surreptitiously figure out the required course adjustments and maneuvers and inspect the state of the rocket and space capsules. They conclude that by December 1968, the Apollo 8 spacecraft would have had advanced enough technology to make a trip to the Moon and even a spin into lunar orbit.
Now, all that remains is to persuade NASA’s upper management to go along with this strategy. As for Low’s relationship with Thomas Paine, the deputy director, there are no major issues. James Webb, who is now in Europe for a conference, may be an exception. Those that answer Paine’s appeal are less than enthusiastic. According to Andrew Chaikin’s “A Man on the Moon,” “Webb shouted down the transatlantic telephone line: ‘Have you gone mad?’”
To be fair, Webb is not completely incorrect. The strategy makes sense and is technically possible, but it’s also very dangerous. In the event of a problem with the command module, the astronauts would be stranded in space without the Lunar Module to rescue them. And not a single Apollo module had ever been crew-tested; suddenly they were all set to go for the Moon.
This makes it official
In spite of these worries, a middle ground was found: In a news conference held on August 19, 1968, NASA revealed that the Apollo 8 mission would proceed without the lunar module and with a new crew consisting of Borman, Lovell, and Anders. It seems highly probable that the two veteran Gemini astronauts will be able to complete this challenging first voyage.
Where the flight will go, however, NASA initially leaves in the dark. After all, the Soviet Union must not be given advance notice. The first human flight of an Apollo shuttle, Apollo 7, took place in October 1968, and it was then, the mission profile of Apollo 8 was finally decided. The test flight of Apollo 7 was a success, with the Saturn 1B rocket successfully lifting the command capsule into orbit and the propulsion nozzles on the capsule working as expected.
It’s finally time for Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the Moon.
First humans to orbit Moon
Goodbye, planet Earth
It’s the morning of the Apollo 8 launch, December 21, 1968. The Saturn V rocket, assembled on Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, soars into the sky. This 110-meter-tall monster is the most powerful rocket ever constructed. This, however, is the day when the Saturn V is put to the ultimate test, as astronauts will be placing their lives in the rocket’s hands for the first time.
The launch
Saturn V, Apollo 8 launch.
The Saturn V’s fuel tanks were refilled with liquid oxygen, kerosene, and liquid hydrogen for many hours the night before. Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders, all astronauts, entered the spaceship at roughly five o’clock that morning. The astronauts must now put their faith in the rocket and the Apollo capsule’s onboard computer, both of which are quite rudimentary in comparison to what we have today.
The Saturn V’s engines start roaring to life at 7:51 a.m. local time. Even at a distance of 10 kilometers, the launch’s noise and vibrations are powerful enough to break the glass. The first combustion stage consumes 20 tons of fuel per second, or over two million liters, in only 2.5 minutes of operation as the rocket slowly, almost reluctantly, lifts off the ground.
However, the rocket’s force can only lift the space capsule 65 kilometers into the air. Then the five engines of the rocket’s second stage take over, followed by the third stage’s thrusters. The latter is what propels the Apollo spacecraft (composed of a command capsule and a service module) into low Earth orbit, at an altitude of around 190 kilometers.
Destination: the Moon
Since Apollo 7 and numerous Gemini flights have already reached Earth orbit, the three Apollo astronauts have not yet mapped out any new terrain. It takes Borman, Lovell, and Anders two orbits around the planet to double-check everything. The next step is to relight the third rocket stage, which will propel the spacecraft out of Earth’s orbit and onto the Moon.
It’s a critical time; if the burn stage’s ignition fails now, the lunar mission will be a failure, and the astronauts will stay in orbit. A mistimed or delayed ignition may throw a spaceship off track. But all goes according to plan, and two hours, 47 minutes, and 37 seconds after liftoff, the Apollo capsule is propelled by its engines and begins a steady, gradual acceleration away from the gravitational pull of Earth. The engines were turned off for the last time at 5 minutes and 18 seconds, putting Apollo 8 on a direct track to the Moon.
Approaching to the Moon
The historical moment
One of the first images of the Earth from outside the Earth’s orbit taken from Apollo 8.
It’s a big deal: Apollo astronauts Borman, Lovell, and Anders became the first people to ever gaze upon Earth from space. As their ship speeds away from the planet, Earth becomes a tiny blue dot on the command module’s display.
In one of the first space TV broadcasts, astronauts attempt to describe this incredible scene to viewers on Earth. The clouds that float above the Earth and are described by them as white bands and swirls also seem to be the color scheme they use to represent the planet itself. Jim Lovell told Anders, “Mike, here’s what I can’t stop imagining: I’m a lone space traveler from another planet, looking down at Earth for the first time. Whether or not I would assume there were people living there.”
Drawn to the Moon by its gravity
View over Mare Tranquillitatis, taken from Apollo 8.
A few times later, the astronauts pass another significant milestone as their spaceship exits the gravitational pull of Earth and enters the Moon’s gravitational field. It’s the first time that humans have made it this far. At this point, 326,400 km from Earth and 62,000 km from the Moon, the astronauts, and their spaceship are being drawn toward it. Therefore, Apollo 8’s speed in flight keeps increasing.
On their way to the Moon, the astronauts won’t be able to view it since the Moon would be right in front of them and the command module’s side windows are too tiny. Since they have no way of knowing whether or not the path is true or whether or not their flight is being tracked by the ground station, they have no choice but to trust on faith alone. The United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, and a number of ships in the Indian and Pacific Oceans all contribute to this effort.
Here, on the Moon’s dark side
Apollo 8, Frank Borman, during an orbit around the Moon.
The Apollo 8 crew reached the Moon early on December 24, 1968. But now they must do a tricky maneuver: they must slow down Apollo’s trajectory and swing it into lunar orbit. To slow down enough, they run the engines in reverse for around four minutes.
The challenge is that this ignition has to occur on the far side of the Moon when radio communication with Earth is down. At this point, not even NASA’s ground personnel can assist the astronauts. As an added safety measure, the spacecraft stays on the dark side of Earth’s satellite until just before the last braking maneuver. As a result, the astronauts are essentially flying blind. However, everything goes well, and Apollo 8’s engines bring its speed to slightly under 6,000 kilometers per hour. With its current velocity, the spacecraft can be captured by the Moon’s gravity and guided into orbit.
After a long and perilous journey, the three Apollo astronauts arrived…
Borman, Lovell, and Anders’ primary focus now that they are in lunar orbit is to observe and photographically map the lunar surface. They are the first people to observe the Moon’s dark side and the closest humans have ever been to the Moon’s surface, at a distance of around 100 kilometers.
At first, Jim Lovell tries to relay his thoughts about the lunar surface to mission control: “Almost entirely devoid of hue, the Moon is a uniform gray. It resembles plaster or slightly grey beach sand. There is a great deal of specificity in view. All of the craters are circular in shape. Numerous examples exist, including some that occurred quite recently. It seems that meteorites or other projectiles may have damaged several of them, particularly the spherical ones.”
Unfortunately, Earth’s satellite is, on the whole, a very underwhelming sight. The landscape is flat and gloomy, with no striking landmarks such as mountains or canyons. Quite differently from how Stanley Kubrick’s soon-to-be-released film, “2001: A Space Odyssey,” portrayed it.
Making of a legendary photograph
Anders peered out the window during the third orbit and beheld a scene that has never been seen before: Earth rising over the drab lunar surface, bathed in blue light. “Oh my God, look at that sight, too!” he cries. Borman, who is busily rotating the Apollo spacecraft, gasps in surprise. The Earth is rising!” exclaims Anders.
Anders quickly swaps the black-and-white film in his camera for color so he may record the majesty of the Earth as it rises. Yes, it does work. Apollo 8’s “Earthrise” remains one of the world’s most iconic photographs. Anders later reflects, “It was the most gorgeous one I had ever seen — and absolutely unexpected.” While in lunar orbit, I had a revelation: “The most fascinating part of the voyage was viewing Earth from the Moon.”
Inspirational Christmas message
In the Christmas Eve live TV broadcast the astronauts transmit to Earth, Jim Lovell gives a similar account: “It’s terrible to be so far from civilization on the Moon’s surface. A sense of gratitude for Earth and everything we have here is sparked. From this vantage point, Earth seems like a magnificent paradise in the middle of empty space.” In the minutes that follow, the astronauts elaborate more on their first reactions to the lunar surface and the way that sunlight and shadows interact with the otherwise featureless landscape.
The three men on board the Apollo spacecraft then begin the ritualistic end to their live broadcast as they near the day-night limit of Earth’s satellite “The Moon dawn is rapidly coming. Finally, the Apollo 8 crew would want to relay a message to everyone back on Earth,” Anders says. Then he jumps into the opening of the biblical account of creation: “God created the universe and everything in it in the beginning. And all the land was barren and empty, and there was night over all the oceans. When God commanded, “Let there be light,” the Holy Spirit dove into the ocean. And finally, the Sun came out. Then God decided the light was good and built a barrier between it and the darkness.”
The reading from the account of creation is then continued by Lovell and Borman. And from the crew of Apollo 8: “We finish now with a good night, good luck, Merry Christmas, and God bless you all — all of you on the good Earth,” Borman says at the end of the 29-minute transmission. From the orbit of an extraterrestrial celestial body, a billion people across the planet may see and hear this Christmas greeting.
Let’s go down to Earth
Tension-filled seconds after the Moon
The crew of Apollo 8 gets ready to return to Earth while the rest of humanity sleeps in on Christmas Day, 1968. As the spacecraft completes its tenth and last lunar orbit, another critical maneuver—the spacecraft’s acceleration—is quickly approaching.
As we bid farewell to Earth’s satellite
View into the control center of the Apollo missions – here at Apollo 9.
This move must likewise be carried out on the far side of the Moon, away from Earth, leaving Borman, Lovell, and Anders to fend for themselves once again. Apollo 8’s engines fired just after midnight on December 25. After roughly three minutes, the spacecraft had gained enough speed to break free of the Moon’s gravitational influence.
Meanwhile, down at NASA’s Houston control center, everyone is on edge as they wait for Apollo’s first sign of life after the radio silence. In order for Apollo 8 to successfully return to Earth, radio contact must be established at the precise moment planned in advance.
After departing lunar orbit, the astronauts return to Earth’s protective zone eleven hours later. Their ship is suddenly being drawn to Earth at a frantic rate. The crew and spacecraft won’t face their next challenge until they re-enter Earth’s atmosphere.
The Apollo astronauts had already jettisoned the service module, at a distance of fewer than 3,000 kilometers from Earth’s surface, not long before. The control capsule is the only one still heading home. If the capsule malfunctions and crashes into Earth’s atmosphere, for example, all three astronauts would be killed. The oxygen and power in the capsule will run out just before the touchdown.
The Apollo spacecraft slows down as it hits the gas shell of Earth’s upper atmosphere at a height of 122 kilometers. When the capsule’s heat shield reaches 2,800 degrees Fahrenheit, it generates an ionized plasma. From outside, the astronauts notice a dazzling light that they initially think to be dawn.
Apollo 8 lands back on Earth
After landing on December 27, 1968: Apollo capsule aboard the USS Yorktown.
Forces of up to six grams are exerted on Borman, Lovell, and Anders as the Apollo spacecraft flies through the atmosphere, its bright heat shield illuminating the night sky. They say that after almost a week in zero gravity, they feel like an elephant is resting on their chest.
Fortunately, this stress doesn’t endure forever; the braking parachutes deploy and the capsule slows to subsonic speeds before long. Once the final few kilometers are reached, the Apollo spacecraft touches down on the ocean’s surface.
As of 5:51 a.m. EST on December 27 (13:51 GMT), the Apollo astronauts have safely returned to Earth. Their spacecraft crashes into the Pacific Ocean, but it is upside down when it first makes contact with the water. The three of them are being thrashed about by the powerful surf while hanging upside down in their harnesses. However, the capsule righted itself after a few minutes, and the hatch was opened by American combat swimmers. The three Moon explorers return to Earth and take their first deep breaths of sea air after a week of breathing “canned air.”
What Apollo 8 left behind
The Apollo 8 crew not only became the first humans to reach the Moon but also changed the course of space travel forever. Approximately six months after their mission, Apollo 11 successfully landed on the Moon for the first time. The path paved by Borman, Lovell, and Anders was eventually followed by Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins. The three men on Apollo 8 captured the first photographs of the lunar surface from such a close range. Therefore, NASA was able to choose an appropriate landing location for Apollo 11.
Apollo 8 was an important stride for humanity since it was the first time humans ventured into deep space, even though it is generally eclipsed and replaced by Apollo 11 nowadays. In addition, the first lunar landing in July 1969 would not have been feasible without Apollo 8.
It’s been decades since humans last visited the Moon, but that could change soon. That’s because several space organizations have recently announced plans to send humans to the Moon, and unlike previous trips, they want to really settle there. The plan is to set up bases on the Moon’s surface and in orbit around it. However, what may these lunar outposts really resemble? Where will they acquire the supplies they need?
Apollo 11‘s first lunar landing was 50 years ago, marking a major milestone in human spaceflight. The next logical step would be to begin lunar colonization. Due to the fact that the Moon still contains valuable resources like helium-3 and rare metals, it also serves as a crucial staging area for missions to Mars and beyond.
Thus, there has been a resurgence in the Moon Race. This time around, material economic and geopolitical objectives are at the forefront, rather than political considerations. Major space powers and private enterprises are developing ideas and technology for future lunar orbits and surface stations.
The long-fictionalized “Moon Base Alpha” is therefore taking on more concrete shape, and may become a reality within the next 20 to 30 years.
Why do we want to go back to the Moon?
Eugene Cernan, Apollo 17 astronaut, with lunar rover – he and Harrison Schmitt were the last men on the Moon in 1972.
New beginnings on the Moon
Humans have only ever stepped foot on the Moon, yet it is the first and only extraterrestrial celestial body we have ever explored. When Apollo 11 landed on the Moon for the first time in July 1969, people all across the globe applauded in response. At the time, many people thought that we would soon have outposts on the Moon and possibly colonies on Mars.
The Moon takes a back seat
But the excitement didn’t last long, and in 1972 the United States government abruptly scrapped the Apollo program once again, after only six landings and a total of twelve astronauts. All three remaining missions were scrapped. After the United States and the Soviet Union won the historic and politically significant race to the Moon, many American leaders, including President Richard Nixon, decided that further space exploration was no longer a priority.
The Moon and its exploration have been put on the back burner since then. Few orbiter probes remain in Earth’s satellite orbit, but the information they provide from afar is invaluable. However, landings have not occurred for decades, not even with unmanned probes. That all changed in 2013 when the Chinese spacecraft Chang’e 3 and the lunar rover Hutu touched down on the Moon for the first time in four decades. The first two unmanned missions to the far side of the Moon—Chang’e 4 and Hutu 2—landed in January 2019. Even still, no one has set foot on the Moon since 1972.
Alluring raw materials
However, in the meanwhile, there is activity once again in terms of lunar missions, as many space agencies and commercial organizations have revealed plans to send people to the Moon in the near future. However, the current objective is a lengthier, and probably even permanent, human presence aboard Earth’s satellite, in contrast to the flying visits of the Apollo missions.
Another deviation from the Apollo period is that the stakes are now material, economic, and technological benefits rather than a race of political systems. One reason to go to the Moon is all the precious metals and minerals it contains, including iridium. Due mostly to meteorite impacts, they have collected in the lunar regolith. Desire may also be sparked by helium-3, an exceptionally uncommon isotope of the noble gas helium. We’ll need it for things like coolants, measuring devices, and potential fusion reactor coolants, and the Moon has just what we need. Several corporations have declared their future plans for “Moon mining.”
The significance of Moon
In addition, the Moon’s strategic value lies in the fact that it might be used as a launching pad for human trips to Mars and beyond due to the much reduced rocket fuel needs afforded by the Moon’s low gravity. Telescopes and other observatories might potentially help boost space exploration efforts from the Moon. This is because, in particular, the far side of the Moon provides complete protection from any terrestrial disturbance.
Finally, the potential for profit from well-heeled space travelers is exciting. Elon Musk, the creator of SpaceX, revealed his company’s first lunar tourist in 2018: Japanese tycoon Yusaku Maezawa, who paid millions of dollars for passage for himself and a large group of friends on SpaceX’s first voyage to the Moon in 2017. In 2023, we want to achieve lunar orbit.
Thus, the Moon is now again a very appealing vacation spot.
Moon Village and Lunar Gateway
The European Space Agency (ESA) is preparing to build a full-scale lunar village that will serve as a research and business hub. Image: ESA
New Moon missions are in the works
When will the world learn the truth about the space countries’ bold new Moon programs? It seemed to be getting serious after 10 years of lofty intentions that never materialized. The United States, the European Union, China, and Russia are all planning missions over the next several years to be ready for the eventual return of humans to the Moon and the eventual establishment of a lunar outpost.
Everyone living in their own “Moon Village”
Jan Wörner, the head of the European Space Agency, proposed the idea of a Moon Village in 2016. This would be a multi-national outpost on Earth’s satellite, available for any and all uses. Her goal is to set up shop on the Moon permanently. Science and fundamental research, economic operations like raw material extraction, and even tourism might all be conducted by participants at this permanent lunar outpost.
Robots and autonomous rovers might launch the first phases of construction for this lunar outpost, with human astronauts joining in later. One major benefit of this plan is that it may be launched with very few resources. A number of nations are currently making preparations to send modest land missions, so that’s where we can begin. Afterwards, bigger initiatives might be built upon that foundation and include worldwide collaboration. As such, the lunar town has the potential to serve as the ISS’s successor, although one that is located on the Moon rather than in Earth’s orbit.
America: We’re here to stay this time
In December 2017, the United States issued a directive making a trip back to the Moon and subsequent trips to Mars a top priority for the American space program. Rather than just leaving our mark this time, we want to lay the groundwork for future exploration of Mars and beyond.
We are taking cutting-edge technology and systems to the Moon in order to study previously inaccessible regions, said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. We want to settle on the Moon this time, unlike Apollo. Our next giant step into space will be taken after that.
Lunar Gateway
In the 2020s, NASA hopes to realize its goal of constructing a lunar “gateway,” or space station in lunar orbit. Because of this gateway, we will be able to establish a strong foothold in cislunar space and more effectively investigate the Moon and its potential benefits. From there, we want to launch manned missions to the lunar surface.
In the same way that the ISS was built in increments, this next orbiting outpost will also be composed of modular components. The parts will be sent into orbit by NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) and carried there aboard the Orion spacecraft. The core propulsion and supply portion of the station might be placed in lunar orbit really soon. In 2024, astronauts will have access to the first module that doubles as a home and lab. Once that happens, personnel may stay at the station for 30 or 60 days at a time to do their jobs.
Assisted landing by a private party
NASA is hoping to recruit commercial enterprises to help with the trip from the ISS to the Moon’s surface. Six businesses are competing in a tender announced at the end of 2018 under the NextSTEP initiative. The objective is to design a method that can transport, land, and return to the space station from the lunar surface.
In terms of requirements for future landing modules, durability and reusability are high on the list. In contrast to the Apollo lander modules, whose whole underpinnings were left on the Moon and are still there today, future landers will be entirely reusable. After that, they’ll be refueled either on the ground or in space. According to NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, we aim to return humans to the lunar surface within the next decade, but this time we want to do it sustainably.
How would a Moon base look like?
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) vision for a Moon base.
Lunar selters made of lava rock and regolith igloos
Those who choose to settle on the Moon in the future will be met with a harsh and perhaps lethal environment. As a matter of fact, the Moon is not exactly a warm and fuzzy location to spend some time. There is no magnetic field, no atmosphere to shield you from the elements, and no oxygen. Those who choose to remain on Earth’s surface are unprotected from the Sun’s radiation, the solar wind, and the meteorite showers. Simultaneously, there are dramatic shifts in temperature: If the Sun is out, everything will get to be around 120 degrees. Temperatures, on the other hand, dip to a chilly minus 170 degrees in the shadow and on starry evenings.
Therefore, the primary function of a lunar base is to offer shelter from these dangerous conditions. I mean, how? Obviously, an inflatable dome like the one seen in “The Martian,” a science fiction novel and film, would not be sufficient for a lunar outpost. A shield from radiation or meteors could not be created with this. Astronauts need sturdy walls in their lunar habitat if they are going to be able to stay there for an extended period of time.
Living and working in lunar lava caves
Lava caverns, which are found naturally on the Moon, might be used as a safe haven. Underground craters and tubes were formed by the Moon’s early volcanic activity. In 2017, scientists found a massive lava tunnel in the lunar Ocean of Storms (Oceanus Procellarum). It stretches for 31 miles (50 km) and is up to 3300 feet in height and width, providing enough room for an entire lunar metropolis. A hole with a diameter of around 165 feet (50 m) provides access to the surface.
Lava caverns near the Moon’s polar area, though, might be an even better fit. This is due to the presence of water ice, which may be used to provide both potable water and fuel for the astronauts. Philolaus crater, an impact crater of 44 miles (70 km) in size at 72 degrees north latitude, has been mapped and explored by scientists, and many spots inside it have been identified as promising candidates. Multiple shadowy crevices on the crater floor suggest the presence of lava caverns.
Moon bricks from the solar oven
We may also use Moon dust to construct the requisite defensive fortifications. DLR (German Aerospace Center) scientists in Cologne are already hard at work on a plan to fire regolith into a Moon block. They are focusing sunlight into a powerful beam using curved mirrors. The thin layer of volcanic grains used as a regolith mimic is heated to temperatures of over 1,000 degrees using this method.
Extreme heat causes the material to sinter, which means the granules adhere together and create a solid layer. Layer by layer, like a 3D printer, solid components may be created from regolith. Already, with today’s technology, we have access to a substance approximately as stable as gypsum. However, with more improvement, lunar regolith might be made into a construction material with the strength of concrete.
However, even with their solar 3D printer, it still takes the team around five hours to manufacture a single regolith building block. It would take around 10,000 of these bricks to create a protective shell around a lunar igloo. Months would pass before it could be accomplished. However, if many sintering plants were to be run in parallel on the lunar surface, the process may be sped up.
3D printing with regolith sludge
Together with the British firm Monolite, ESA researchers are researching an alternative method. First, a slurry is made by combining the regolith mimic with a magnesium oxide solution. This allows the document to be printed out. The business uses a binding salt to turn the substance into a stone-like solid, turning it from a liquid into “ink” for solid creations.
With this technique, the team can print and complete 6.5 feet (2 m) of material in an hour. If the next-generation design can achieve 11.5 feet (3.50 m) per hour, a whole skyscraper might be constructed in one week. Regolith material is used to make each block, which results in each one weighing 1.5 metric tons and featuring many holes throughout. It has not yet been determined, however, whether the building method would hold up in the lunar vacuum and dramatic temperature swings.
Catenary arch igloo design
A plan for the next ESA lunar outpost already exists, even though the building material has not been agreed upon. British superstar architect Norman Foster and his team designed it. The mathematical-physical theory of the catenary arch was adhered to in order to make the lunar dwellings as stable as possible. Arches are very stable because their shape, a parabola, takes the route of least energy.
In this way, the homes on the Moon seem more like igloos than like regular residences. They too are a hybrid of tube and dome shapes. The inflated inner shell serves as the structural base for these Moon igloos. This is the outline, which the robots are currently covering with regolith bricks from the outside. Each habitation module on the Moon will have enough room for four people and shield them from cosmic rays, meteorites, and temperature swings.
Water and oxygen
Both the Moon’s South Pole (left) and North Pole (right) have ice deposits (turquoise) in craters. Credit: NASA
Raw material sources: crater ice and regolith
Assuming the lunar base is complete and ready for its first residents. Then, at the very least, there’s the issue of getting fuel, water, oxygen, and food to the astronauts. It would be impractical and prohibitively costly to transport all of these materials from the Earth. Therefore, it is evident that a lunar colony, in order to exist, must make use of on-site resources.
Ice from the lunar craters
The most straightforward answer concerns the provision of water: if future lunar outposts are constructed in the polar regions of Earth’s satellite, sufficient water ice will be found there. In 2010, data from India’s Chandrayaan-1 lunar spacecraft indicated that there are ice layers a 3.2 ft (1 m) deep in the craters near the lunar north pole. Present evidence suggests there may be roughly 10 billion metric tons of water at each pole.
However, the exact amount and composition of the ice found in the lunar dust have not been determined. To this end, the possibility of obtaining potable water from ice remains open. In the next several years, this will be answered by a number of robotic lunar missions. To be fair, the needs of a lunar outpost wouldn’t be very high at first: NASA suggests that a crew of four may get by on just a few dozens of metric tons of water each year.
Water from the crater ice might be collected using solar energy. Using parabolic reflectors, the radiation may be focused and directed to evaporate the ice only in the parts that were shielded by the foil. In the event that this water vapor is dispersed and cooled once again, it condenses into potable water. Alternatively, robotic excavators may harvest ice, which could subsequently be melted or evaporated in stationary solar furnaces.
Regolith as a raw material supplier
Water could be retrieved from the regolith on the Moon even if there were no ice formations. This is because, as was recently discovered by spectrometer data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, water is bonded to the rock as hydroxyl (OH) practically everywhere on the lunar surface. This trapped water is also located away from the lunar poles, making it a more accommodating site for a lunar outpost than the polar craters.
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center scientist William Farrell says that after being blasted by the solar wind, every rock on the Moon has the potential to generate water. According to the findings of his group, this bound water is produced by a chemical process in the regolith. Oxygen-containing minerals in lunar rock have their connections broken by the solar wind’s intense energy. Since reactive oxygen radicals are created, they may “grab” hydrogen from their surroundings to form hydroxyl.
Oxygen and water from the lunar soil
How, therefore, might this potentially hydrous rock be mined for potable water? Again, researchers showed that solar heat was crucial on a mock journey to Hawaii. At temperatures of around 900 degrees Fahrenheit, the regolith-like volcanic dust began to shine. Furthermore, passing hydrogen or methane across it causes it to react with the oxygen in the regolith to produce water. NASA estimates that 119 grams of water may be recovered from one kilogram of the most abundant lunar mineral, ilmenite (FeTiO3).
As a useful byproduct, the astronauts’ breathing air’s oxygen may be extracted from the regolith using this method. When water vapor is produced during heating, it must be separated back into its original hydrogen and oxygen components. One kilogram of ilmenite could provide enough oxygen for 106 grams of breathing space, at least in principle. However, studies are currently being conducted to ascertain which approach is most appropriate and how oxygen and water may be created using the fewest resources and the least amount of energy.
Electricity and fuel
The Moon’s 14 days long nights might hamper solar power generation. Credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.
Generating power on the Moon
A lunar outpost needs its own power plant if its inhabitants are to survive. Electricity is essential for astronauts because it powers their heaters, lights, and other electronic gear. They should be able to use local resources to produce fuel for the landing shuttles and lunar vehicles.
Electricity from the Sun
Sunlight is a simple and effective way to get energy. Photovoltaic systems have a long history of usage in space exploration, and the Moon is a suitable location for them. The catch is, however: Since one lunar day is equivalent to 29 Earth days, the Moon is always in the dark for two weeks when the Sun isn’t available to provide energy. Aside from that, the Earth sometimes shuts out the Sun for a few hours during solar eclipses, which happen several times a year.
Scientists, however, have come up with answers for this as well: Aidan Cowley of the European Space Agency says that throughout the day, there is sufficient solar energy to split water into its component parts of hydrogen and oxygen. We could convert these gases back into water and use them to generate energy when the Moon was asleep. In theory, this might work by having fuel cells soak up sunlight throughout the day and then churn out power after the Sun goes down.
In a perfect world, hydrogen, oxygen, and the resultant water would all be recycled indefinitely inside this system, forming a closed cycle. The only other component needed is sunshine. According to David Bents of the Glenn Research Center, who studied these regenerative fuel cells for NASA a few years ago, if nothing breaks or wears out, this may operate indefinitely without having to be recharged.
Moon as a gas station
Among the many resources needed for space flight, fuel is one of the heaviest and most vital. As of now, it constitutes the vast majority of the total launch mass of a rocket, and thus, a significant proportion of the associated launch expenses. A lunar outpost would have to generate its own fuel to be cost-effective.
In addition, a lunar outpost is seen as crucial by space organizations as preparation for Mars and beyond. For this reason, NASA’s lunar orbiting station Lunar Gateway will, in the long run, serve as a refueling station for space trips. After all, space probes won’t have to struggle against Earth’s gravity to lift their entire fuel load into space if they only do it in lunar orbit. Concepts for such “refueling stations” in lunar orbit are already being developed by a number of academic organizations and businesses.
Even if these filling stations are built, the issue of where to get gasoline for them remains. Once again, the regolith of the Moon is being seen as the best option. It contains the ingredients for a standard rocket fuel, hydrogen, and oxygen, and can be extracted using the Sun’s heat. The upper burn stage of the Saturn V, the Atlas 5, and the engines of the space shuttles have all employed liquid oxygen and hydrogen. However, this fuel combination is also used by cutting-edge rockets like the European Ariane 5 rocket.
What is the source of the food on the Moon?
A Mars greenhouse is seen in this artist concept. Using a hydroponic method, plants are being grown with the aid of red, blue, and green LED light strips. Image credit: SAIC
Plants grown in the Moon
That remains the issue of sustenance for the lunar colonists of the future. For a long time, astronauts (including those living on the ISS) have needed to rely on supplies sent all the way from Earth. But the logistics and prices of a lunar colony would not allow for something that is currently difficult and costly in Earth orbit. Because of this, it is essential that the lunar station’s personnel generate as much as possible inside the facility itself.
Vegetables cultivated on lunar soil
Vegetables and fruits, at least, could make this simpler than previously believed. Plants were successfully grown by Dutch researchers in 2016 using lunar and Martian soil replicas. The difficulty is that the regolith has almost no nutrition since it lacks organic components due to the absence of life on the Moon. However, the astronauts’ own waste products, like urine or leftover food, might make up for the lack of these organic ingredients.
To secure the success of their culture experiment, Wieger Wamelink and his colleagues sent in soil microorganisms from Earth to further enrich their synthetic lunar regolith with such organic material. They then planted a variety of vegetables and grains including tomatoes, peas, rye, radishes, leeks, spinach, lettuce, cress, quinoa, and chives. The end result was that plant life flourished in the artificial lunar soil. About half as much biomass was created as on Earth, but there was still plenty to harvest.
Orbit and Antarctica are being used for test crops
On the International Space Station, astronauts are attempting a new approach. Since 2015, the station has included a miniature greenhouse. Plants are nourished by a nutrient solution and grown in a calcareous mineral mass. Bright red, blue, and green LEDs light up the entire object. The ISS crew has already gotten their hands on fresh lettuce thanks to this “veggie” technology. A completely autonomous automated plant-growing system is the next step. More than 180 sensors monitor the soil, air, and water supplies separately and adjust the flow as needed.
Plant growth on the Moon is being tested again in the Antarctic. The EDEN-ISS greenhouse container has been stationed in the Antarctic since the beginning of 2018, around 1300 feet (400 m) from the German Neumayer III research station. Plants like lettuce, radishes, and cucumbers thrive here because the system is comparable to the one used on the space station. Scientists working in the Arctic have already harvested their first crop, which they have consumed with great gusto.
Gioia Massa, a NASA researcher, notes that the farther and longer people go from Earth, the more important it is to be able to produce plants for food, for processing the atmosphere, and for psychology. So, plant life is crucial to any future extended space missions.
It’s a matter of compromises
The people of the future lunar outpost, however, will need more than just lettuce and cucumbers to sustain themselves. Unfortunately, supplies of food will still need to be sent in from Earth. Therefore, a trip back to the Moon and the construction of a lunar station will not be a cheap luxury. What ultimately matters is whether or not the benefits and insights acquired are worth these expenses.
Because Europa, Jupiter’s moon, is thought to conceal an ocean of liquid water under its icy cover, it may be home to intelligent life from outside our solar system. Europa is perhaps more intriguing than any other moon in the galaxy. The frigid moon may be more habitable than previously believed. Europa, the ice moon, seems frigid and frightening at first view. However, it is misleading. Because there is a massive ocean of liquid water under its crust, providing possible conditions for life. Scientists have been slowly digging into the question of whether or not life exists on Europa in recent years. The outcome of which might be unexpected.
Ocean below Europa’s ice
This might be what it looks like when water vapor and water shoot out from the ice and form springs on Europa. (K. Retherford/SWRI/NASA/ESA)
Jovian satellite Europa is strangely beautiful, with a network of furrows that stretch for miles over its icy surface. These furrows resemble the cracks in a painting. However, this stunning scenery comes at a high cost, since no form of life could survive the -240°F (-150°C) temperatures, solid ice crust, and complete absence of air.
A secret habitat
According to the results, Europa likely has lakes underneath its frozen surface. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)
However, at depths of 6 to 9 miles (10 to 15 km), a whole other universe opens up. Here lies a vast ocean of salt water that wraps around Europa and is likely to be at least 60 miles (100 km) deep. This ocean may hold twice as much water as all the seas on Earth combined.
Again, details about this watery supermassive planet were gleaned through Galileo probe magnetic field data. Because it also picked up telltale abnormalities in Jupiter’s magnetic field surrounding Europa, the kind of disturbances usually caused by motions of conductive fluid. A magma ocean is unlikely on Europa since the moon is entirely covered in ice and, unlike Io, has no solid crust to keep the heat in. A subglacial sea of liquid salt water, on the other hand, would be conductive but also allow ice crusts to exist.
Since Europa is Jupiter’s second-most inner moon, powerful tidal forces are at play there. (NASA)
The key question, though, is: what exactly is it that keeps the water liquid under the ice in Europa? Tidal forces from Jupiter are a likely cause. Europa’s orbit is very elliptical and somewhat eccentric around its host planet. Because of this, the strength of Jupiter’s gravitational attraction varies throughout the orbit. Thus, the interior of Europa varies according to how squeezed it is by Jupiter at a given moment.
There is a little elliptical deformation of the whole moon when Jupiter is near enough to cause the ice, water, and rock on the side facing it to rise. However, when Europa migrates away from Jupiter, its form once again becomes roughly spherical. These continuous motions produce heat through subsurface friction, which may be sufficient to maintain a liquid water layer under the ice of Europa.
Europa’s cracks and their meaning
When did the cracks start taking on such a peculiar form?
This colorized Galileo satellite picture shows that the ice crust is fractured along many directions. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)
Europa’s ice crust is so stiff that it cannot adapt to the movement and fissures caused by the subglacial ocean’s continual ups and downs. Images taken by the Galileo spacecraft reveal a fascinating pattern of elongated trenches and furrows formed by these fissures. Water from the ocean rises to the surface at these fissures regularly and solidifies, thus, causing the darker hue of the lines.
Mysterious directional shifts in the fractures
But there’s something off about these lines. It’s unclear why these fractures have changed direction over time. Since Jupiter’s moon rotates in a tidal lock with the planet, the tidal pressures are always exerted in the same direction. Then why are the cracks not constantly forming in the same direction?
There are theoretically three potential causes: To begin, Europa’s icy crust may revolve a little faster than the rest of the moon. As a result, Jupiter’s tidal forces would gradually shift the crust’s orientation relative to the planet over time. Another idea is that, like Earth’s axis of rotation, Europa’s is somewhat inclined relative to its orbital motion. As a result, Europa would wobble more over time, and its crustal areas would alternately begin to draw closer to Jupiter.
A third prospect is that the fractures are scattered at random and that their direction is not related to lunar activities but could be related to local weak points in the ice sheet.
Europa’s wobbling axis
But this crust hypothesis came up on the losing end, with the models based on this scenario consistently failing to reproduce Europa’s usual cracking pattern. However, if the simulations were modified in a way that Europa’s axis swung back and forth by around 1 degree over time, the results would get quite similar to the fracture pattern seen in the ice crust, suggesting that the wobbling axis is more likely the reason for the directional changes in Europa’s fractures and ridges. Even a little axial tilt (or obliquity) accounts for a lot of this current phenomenon on Europa.
Liquid water under Europa’s ice sheet
What maintains the ocean’s fluidity on Europa? Sloshing water, or even subsea volcanoes. It’s from NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The usual breaking pattern of the ice crust may have been caused by Europa’s mild tumbling, which may also have led to the creation of a subglacial ocean. That’s because the heating impact of tidal forces can be amplified even by tiny variations in Europa’s orientation with regard to Jupiter.
Some scientists think that the subglacial ocean in Europa is continually sloshing back and forth under the unyielding crust due to the ice moon’s wobbling. Instead of being relatively motionless, the water would be marked by powerful currents. Also, the energy released by the motion of the water might be enough to keep Europa’s ocean liquid. Thus, the liquid water on Europa could be heated by the ocean itself, not by the surface or the subsurface. But, this is still only a theory at this point.
The possibility of life on Europa
Organisms under the ice
If water exists as a liquid on Europa, then there might be life on this icy moon of Jupiter. But there is more to it when it comes to subglacial lakes or seas. For thriving and reproducing, most organisms need either light or air, or at least certain gases. That’s why, for a long time, it was believed that the subterranean lakes of Antarctica were fairly unfriendly to life. But that didn’t turn out to be true.
Proof of life on Lake Vostok
A perspective image of the ice surface of Lake Vostok. (Michael Studinger / Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory)
Lake Vostok, the biggest subglacial lake in the Antarctic on Earth has always been frozen solid. Having been covered by ice almost 2 miles (3 km) thick for the last 15 million years, its waters have been cut off from the surface. No light can make it through this ice sheet, the air pressure is very high, and food is probably in short supply. It’s undeniable that species on Earth that call Lake Vostok home must thrive under very harsh circumstances.
No samples of the lake’s liquid had been obtained due to concerns about contamination, so it was unclear whether or not there were organisms living in the waters of Vostok. However, in recent years, scientists have drilled just above the water level, collecting the first samples of frozen lake water from the boundary layer. This layer forms when the lake water freezes at the points of contact with the glacier ice and then collects on the underside of that glacier ice.
Incredible variety
The samples at depths of around 11,700 to 11,900 ft (3,550 to 3,600 m) came from the ice formed by the lake water and when the samples were studied, the scientists deciphered the DNA and RNA sequences frozen in the ice to discover the kind of species living in the Lake Vostok.
What they uncovered instead of an area devoid of diversity was the DNA of thousands of species living in impossible conditions. 94% of the species were bacteria, while the remaining 6% were either fungus or archaea, a unique class of single-celled creatures. This finding has forever changed our view of what is and isn’t deemed liveable.
Evidence of higher life
Future autonomous diving robots may help us learn more about the ecosystem of Lake Vostok, and potentially Europa as well. (NASA / JPL-Caltech)
What’s more, the investigations also uncovered the fact that many of the bacterial species detected in the ice are generally found in close connection with multicellular creatures. They are parasites and commensals that inhabit fish and other marine organisms such as crabs and worms. Some of the DNA samples could have even originated from these higher species.
This leads to the conclusion that there may be some complex organisms than single cells living in Lake Vostok which also suggests that life may exist on Europa’s cold surface if terrestrial creatures have colonized such purportedly hostile and severe habitats on Earth.
Europa’s ice crust is vital for possibility of life
Is it blocking life or safeguarding it?
Jupiter’s moon Europa has an ice cover that is 3,300 ft (1 km) thick, and it has a crucial role in the search for life on this icy moon. The ice cover serves as a blanket, protecting the subglacial ocean from the deadly cold of space and the lethal effects of radiation. As an added bonus, the ice crust, together with the rocky core, is likely the primary source of chemical building blocks for life. This is due to the coating of chemical compounds left on the surface of Europa’s ice sheet by meteorite strikes, radiation, and particles from Jupiter and the solar wind.
Does Europa have oxygen?
Those fissures in the ice are a hint that the crust of Europa regularly tears open and becomes permeable. (NASA/JPL)
When this radiation splits the water molecules in the ice, this in theory should release oxygen into Europa’s atmosphere. These gases and liquids can as well reach the ocean below if the ice sheet is thin enough to allow them to escape through its countless fractures. Yet, this thick ice crust can still be detrimental to life. And Europa’s ice crust is not precisely a thin sheet, being at least 6 miles (10 km) in thickness.
Recent models showed that enough oxygen could make its way down to the subglacial water from the glacier surface, and it is simply a matter of how long it would take. This is because tidal pressures on Europa could be causing the ice crust to shift and break apart on a regular basis, sending new, frozen ice to the top while pushing other sections of the surface layer deeper into the underwater ocean.
The upheaval in Europa
Numerous new bulges and seams can be seen all throughout Europa’s surface, proving that similar upheaval processes are still happening right now. In theory, oxygen was once restricted to the atmosphere’s outermost layers in Europa. But the simulations reveal that free oxygen might have been mixed in over the full thickness of the ice crust during the span of around 1 to 2 billion years of irradiation and upheaval.
Meanwhile, similar to the underside of ice floes in our terrestrial (surface) seas, a persistent, quicker interchange of thawing and freezing happens at the boundary layer between water and ice on Europa’s icy crust. In as short as half a million years enough oxygen might have been dissolved in Europa’s ocean water during this exchange at the ice-water interface to provide minimum oxygen saturation for life.
Getting ready for life
This amount of oxygen would support life on Earth for even the smallest crustaceans. In under 12 million years, oxygen levels in Europa’s atmosphere may have risen to match those of our seas, making breathing comfortable for even the biggest aerobic organisms. If Europa had started out without oxygen for 1 or 2 billion years, that may have been the perfect amount of time for life to evolve there since this is similar to the history of Earth.
The chemically hostile oxygen wasn’t there when the original building blocks of life developed on Earth. Circumstances altered and the increasing oxygen content of the atmosphere produced the conditions for the genesis of higher life forms only after the earliest single-celled creatures had existed. The water under Europa to possibly have enough oxygen to allow for the formation of even bigger life forms is, therefore, not inconceivable.
Lakes under Europa’s ice
Chaos Terrain for clues
To what extent the ice on Europa can be penetrated is a key aspect of the survival of any life on Jupiter’s moon. Europa’s icy shell may be more permeable than previously assumed. Images taken by the Galileo probe reveal strange landscapes on Europa such as uneven ridges, cracks, and plains that appear jumbled. This topography is called “Chaos Terrain.” The planets Mars and Mercury, as well as the dwarf planet Pluto, all have Chaos Terrains.
Scientists find the ice sheet mechanisms remarkably similar to those structures. This is because similar processes occur on glaciers and ice shelves that sit above subglacial volcanoes.
Caves under Europa’s ice
It is hypothesized that Europa may have subsurface lakes, like ice-filled caverns that sit about midway between the surface and the ocean. There are many cracks in the rough topography of the Chaos Terrain formations above the lakes, which might enable abundant oxygen and organic substances to infiltrate the waters in these shallow caves in the ice.
However, this may also mean that these subglacial lakes of Europa may support life. As time goes on, these tunnels might eventually burst apart due to massive fractures in the ice, allowing for a passageway to the ocean below. Even though Europa has a strong crust, scientists can now see that it may be home to enormous shallow lakes that facilitate “mixing.” This mechanism of mixing has the potential to improve the habitability of Europa’s ocean.
Connection to the ocean under the ice
Springs of water
Image data from the Hubble Space Telescope revealed that water vapor is coming from Europa’s south pole, sometimes in gigantic springs that reach heights of over 125 miles (200 km), providing more proof of a connection between Europa’s surface and its subglacial ocean.
A blue glow
The map above depicts the area where water vapor was found over the southernmost part of Europa. (Credits: NASA/ESA/L. Roth/SWRI/University of Cologne)
The spectrometer on the Hubble telescope picked up the faint light of excited oxygen and hydrogen atoms near the pole of Europa. In most cases, this is brought on by the disintegration of water molecules in response to a magnetic field. That implies that water vapor is present on Europa but at very low temperatures.
The moon Enceladus of Saturn is reported to experience a similar phenomenon. Geysers that are currently active here also send clouds of steam, ice, and dust hurtling into the void. However, only water vapor was found on Europa; whether the springs also include ice and dust particles is still unknown. Also, the origin of these springs remains unknown.
Connection to a hidden ocean
But do these openings reach the ocean under Europa’s ice crust? Or they might be created in the ice as a result of frictional stress close to the surface. In that case, there would be no need to delve into the subglacial ocean to learn more about its composition.
The water vapor auroras always appear when Jupiter’s moon is at the farthest point in its eccentric orbit. This phenomenon is likely caused by Jupiter’s tremendous gravitational pull and its tidal forces. Scientists believe that the large fractures and fissures on Europa’s ice are stretched farther away from the planet, allowing water vapor to escape. But as Europa returns to its orbit around Jupiter, the planet’s gravity squeezes the moon, causing the fractures to close.
Water vapor escaping near Europa’s south pole reinforces its status as a top contender for life in the Solar System.
Europa’s subglacial ocean may provide favorable circumstances for the emergence of life, if it were connected to the surface.
Chemical reactions taking place in the ice of Europa
A dynamic surface
There are possibly more than simply an ocean and lakes full of liquid water under Europa’s ice crust: Deep under the ice, the chemical reactions could be occurring at a remarkable rate between the frozen objects. This is thought to be invaluable. For one thing, at -305°F to -225°F (-187°C to -143°C), chemical processes just cannot take place on their own and extra energy would be required for them to happen.
Jupiter as an energy supplier
The areas where chemical substances have altered the ice are highlighted in false color. Acids and salts are seen in red. (NASA/JPL)
In theory, Jupiter provides one such energy supply. There is a steady release of radiation and energetic particles into the atmosphere through its radiation belts. If they were to land on Europa, they would set off chemical reactions. Nonetheless, these particles often only go down a few millimeters into the ice. For this reason, it was widely believed that considerable chemical activity could not have persisted in the depths of Europa’s ice crust.
However, this extra energy is actually still achievable without radiation and particle flow from Jupiter. Scientists conducted experiments in a high-vacuum room cooled to 50 to 100 Kelvin (minus 223° to minus 173°C) by spraying water vapor and sulfur dioxide gas onto mirrors. Instantaneously, the vapors froze into solid ice. Previous satellite observations have confirmed the presence of sulfur in Europa’s ice, most likely from the ice volcanoes on Jupiter’s moon Io but also from Europa’s subglacial ocean. However, what happened to this sulfur thereafter was a mystery.
The -280°F reaction
Do chemical processes take place on Europe’s ice cap? (NASA/JPL)
The scientists then observed the changes in the reaction chamber using infrared spectroscopy. Despite the subzero temperatures, the sulfur dioxide nevertheless managed to react with the water molecules, resulting in the formation of positive and negative ions. This reaction occurred very instantly at a temperature of -225°F (-143°C). After around half a day to a day at -280°F (-173°C), the reaction reached saturation.
A day may not seem like a little amount of time, but now compare it to the age of Europa, 4.5 billion years. After all, the process in the laboratory surprisingly transformed around 30% of the sulfur dioxide. What’s more, the positive and negative ions formed in this reaction readily combined with other molecules, triggering even other reactions.
What if the crust were more dynamic than we realized?
After this, they added carbon dioxide to the mixture to see whether the process would still occur in carbon dioxide ice, simulating the circumstances on Europa. This also froze up instantly on the mirrors while not halting the continuing reaction. If the frozen carbon dioxide had prevented the reaction this whole theory would have failed.
This, however, implies that Europa’s ice, and maybe the ice of other frozen moons like Ganymede and Callisto, may be chemically active. This means the sulfur dioxide under the surface of Europa is possibly interacting and forming chemical compounds, paving the way for the possibility of life.
Tonight, the DART spacecraft from NASA ended its mission and successfully hit an asteroid. The 540-foot (165-meter) wide asteroid moon Dimorphos was the intended target of the DART probe’s autonomous navigation system. The force of the collision should have been enough to decrease the fragment’s orbital period around Didymos by around 1 percent. As of this moment, only telescope observations can confirm or deny this theory.
This is only a practice run before the big thing: If an asteroid ever threatened Earth, the most promising solution would be a kinetic deflector, which would involve deflecting the asteroid with a massive unmanned space probe. However, it has to strike its target early enough, fast enough, and at the appropriate angle for its impact pulse to send the asteroid far enough out of its orbit for it to miss Earth.
DART’s approach and successful impact
The DART probe collides with the asteroid moon Dimorphos, altering its course.
NASA’s DART mission has now demonstrated that this is possible, even when the asteroid in question is 6.8 million miles (11 million kilometers) from Earth and cannot be seen with ground telescopes. DART arrived Friday night at the 2560-foot (780-meter) asteroid Didymos and its 540-foot (165-meter) moon Dimorphos after a ten-month journey. When the spacecraft was 56,000 miles (90,000 kilometers) from its target, the photos taken by DART’s onboard camera were analyzed by the probe’s autonomous navigation system, which distinguished the two asteroids from each other and headed for the actual target, Dimorphos.
Just after midnight, the moment had come: The DART spacecraft sped at an estimated 14,000 miles (22,500 kilometers) per hour toward its target asteroid and slammed into it. The navigation camera captured the last moments before the DART crashed into Dimorphos, revealing a close-up picture of the asteroid’s surface littered with gritty rubble. NASA scientists now know that they can successfully bring a spacecraft to collide with a rather minor celestial body with precision.
Dimorphos was deflected by how much?
The final photo of the Dimorphos asteroid from the DART camera before the probe collided with the asteroid. (Image: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL)
Even though the DART spacecraft is only around 1,260 pounds (570 kilograms) in weight and the asteroid Dimorphos weighs roughly five billion kilograms, the velocity of the collision and the rebound of the ejected rock should be enough to nudge the asteroid slightly off of its orbit. An asteroid’s course can be drastically altered with even a little increase or decrease in its speed.
Telescopic studies over the next several weeks will indicate whether or not the collision of DART altered the course of the asteroid Dimorphos. The orbital period of Dimorphos can be tracked from Earth by observing the pair’s brightness as Dimorphos passes in front of its bigger parent asteroid. Based on the simulations, the collision between Dimorphos and DART should have shortened its orbit by 1%, which would have shortened its orbital period by 10 minutes.
Compact chunk or porous pile of rubble
The degree to which the rammed asteroid’s trajectory was altered is an important indicator of both the efficacy of kinetic deflection and the composition of the target asteroid. But, the stability and compactness of the target object have a significant impact on the outcome of a deflection operation. Too much porosity allows impact energy to evaporate without an influence, rendering the deflection useless, which would be critical in a crisis situation.
The LICIACube mini-satellite will provide valuable data about the DART-Dimorphos collision. LICIACube is part of the DART mission and positioned itself 15 days before the impact to photograph the crash and its immediate aftermath. This is because the asteroid’s interior may be revealed by factors like the crater’s size and composition and the kind of material that was ejected. However, it will take many weeks to receive all of the photographs due to the tiny CubeSat’s (LICIACube) restricted communication capabilities.
The European space probe HERA will revisit the asteroids in four years to investigate them further.
Validation for the actual test
The critical part of the DART mission has been accomplished with the successful “ramming test” of the asteroid Dimorphos. According to NASA’s first-ever Planetary Defense Officer Lindley Johnson, “DART’s success provides a significant addition to the essential toolbox we must have to protect Earth from a devastating impact by an asteroid.” DART has demonstrated that “we are no longer powerless to prevent this type of natural disaster.”
