Top 10 highlights of world aerospace in 2022

2021 was an extraordinary year in human space history: countries around the world carried out a total of 145 rocket launches, the year with the most launches in history.

In 2022, global space exploration is expected to not only set a new record in the number of launches, but will also usher in a series of difficult and major missions.
Today, let’s take a look at the major aerospace events worth looking forward to in 2022!

Part 1

China's Tiangong space station is completed: opening a new era of manned space flight

Over the past 20 years, the International Space Station has been the only space station for mankind and the only platform for international manned spaceflight to remain in orbit for a long time. However, on April 29, 2021, the Tianhe core module of the Chinese space station was successfully launched into space, which means that China has officially started the construction of the space station.

Schematic diagram of China's space station (Photo source: China Manned Spaceflight)

my country plans to send three main modules, four manned spacecraft and four cargo spacecraft into space through 11 launch missions and build the Tiangong space station, which is expected to be completed in 2022. This means that human manned spaceflight will achieve the situation where two major space stations are in orbit at the same time, and both are expected to operate until after 2030.

At the same time, the international manned space industry will also usher in a series of achievements: China, the United States and Russia will successively launch new-generation manned spacecraft and rockets; the "Lunar Gateway" space station in the Artemis lunar program will begin construction; the commercial space station will enter the substantive development stage, and various space tourism plans will flourish... All this means that from 2022, various human manned space records will be gradually refreshed, and even usher in an era of explosive development.

Part 2

First batch of space pictures to be sent back: James Webb opens "eyes of deep space"

On December 25, 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope, the most expensive spacecraft in history, was successfully launched. It was the result of 25 years of investment from 20 countries and the concerted efforts of tens of thousands of scientists. Its total budget has exceeded 10 billion US dollars. Considering that its mass is only 6.5 tons, this means that its unit price is more than 10,000 yuan per gram, which is more than 20 times the unit price of gold. Its top technologies will focus on searching for the first infrared rays produced after the Big Bang, revealing the secrets of the universe more than 13 billion years ago and finding the origin of the world.

Although Webb is expensive, it is expensive for a reason: the area of ​​Webb's lens (25.4 square meters) is much larger than its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope (4.5 square meters), so it must first fold 18 mirrors and then unfold them after entering space. At the same time, it also carries five layers of huge heat shields (sun umbrellas) less than the thickness of a hair to isolate the heat, hiding at the Sun-Earth Lagrange point 2 1.5 million kilometers away from the earth. This series of operations must be successful at one time because it cannot return to the earth for repairs.

The James Webb Space Telescope has been successfully deployed (Image source: NASA)

After more than ten days of travel, Webb's most important parasol and 18 lenses have been successfully opened. After the orbital maneuver and on-orbit debugging, it will release the first batch of imaging pictures in about 6 months. It is undoubtedly the most powerful pair of "deep space eyes" of mankind. Webb's journey was very smooth, not only saving a lot of propellant, but also has the potential to work for about 20 years. It can be foreseen that it will greatly promote human cognition of the universe.

Part 3

Restarting the Moon Landing Era: First Flight of the Space Launch System and Orion Spacecraft

From the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, which achieved the first lunar landing, to now, 50 years later, human space technology has achieved leapfrog development. Currently, several major space powers plan to return to the moon and achieve manned lunar landing in the next decade. Among them, the Artemis program and the joint construction of the International Lunar Research Station by China and Russia will be two important forces.

In addition, countries have also launched aerospace projects such as heavy-duty lunar rockets, new-generation manned spacecraft and lunar landers, and human, financial and technical resources have been rapidly gathered.

It is worth noting that the Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft combination, which is currently in the leading position, will make its debut in 2022, completing an unmanned lunar exploration test mission of "multiple satellites in one launch" around the moon.

Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft (Image source: NASA)

This super group has spent a huge amount of money of 40 billion US dollars in the past decade. Their debut will surely become an important node in the journey of mankind returning to the moon, and it will also sound the clarion call for major aerospace forces to sprint to the moon.

Part 4

Starship complete rocket first flight: Can commercial rockets revolutionize the future of manned spaceflight?

SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corporation) is well-known for its rocket engines and various rocket recovery technologies, and its most important project is the combination of Starship and Super Falcon rockets, with the goal of achieving highly difficult technologies such as fully recoverable rockets, 100-person manned spaceflight, deep space exploration, planetary landing and return. In the past three years, SpaceX has been using the "test until explosion" technology development method that completely subverts the traditional aerospace development thinking. By continuously blowing up more than a dozen prototypes, it has achieved rapid iterative development of Starship technology.

In 2021, the first Starship and Super Falcon rocket combination was assembled and tested, but due to technical details and delayed environmental assessments by regulatory agencies, it failed to launch smoothly. It is expected to conduct its first flight test in March 2022. If the test goes well, the Starship will carry customers on a trip around the moon.

The Starship assembly that has been assembled and tested (Source: SpaceX)

According to the book data, Starship can carry hundreds of passengers, and its propulsion and transportation capabilities even exceed the new generation of moon rockets currently developed by countries around the world. It also has the ability to land and explore the moon (NASA has already obtained a contract) and Mars (future plan), and its prospects are unlimited.

If Starship can achieve the expected low cost and large passenger capacity, humans will be very close to the era of low-cost commercial spaceflight.

Part.5

Hitting a dangerous asteroid: the first space defense in human history

The meteorite theory of the extinction of dinosaurs and the Tunguska explosion theory have made humans always worried about the "visit" of extraterrestrial bodies. This is not groundless worry. If a seemingly "tiny" asteroid of a kilometer in space hits the earth, it is enough to cause the earth's climate rhythm to completely collapse, destroy a large number of species, and directly threaten the future of mankind. If it is hit by a larger asteroid, the consequences will be disastrous. Therefore, guarding against dangerous celestial bodies that pose a potential threat to the earth is undoubtedly a topic that human spaceflight must face.

On November 24, 2021, humanity's first asteroid impact diversion experiment "DART" was successfully launched. It will impact Dimorphos, a smaller asteroid in the binary asteroid system Didymos, and then evaluate the impact of the impact on the asteroid's orbit.

DART will achieve the first space defense in human history (Source: NASA)

As early as the departure, the orbit has been carefully designed, and the collision time is expected to be September 26, 2022. By then, not only will the small satellites it carries record the entire process, but major telescopes on Earth will also be pointed at them to watch this spectacular "space fireworks".

Although the target asteroid is only 170 meters in diameter, it is already a giant compared to DART. Even if DART hits it accurately and explodes completely, it can only change its speed by 0.4 mm/s, which is really like "an ant trying to shake a tree". However, in the space environment, any orbital impact will accumulate, that is, "a small mistake can lead to a big mistake". But everyone can rest assured that scientists have carefully studied it and no matter how the collision changes the asteroid's course, it will not threaten the Earth.

Part 6

Revealing more secrets, the strongest Mars exploration team in history announces the latest results

In 2020, humans sent out an unprecedented Mars exploration lineup. China, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates all launched Mars probes, which successfully arrived on Mars in 2021. Among them, China's "Tianwen-1" is the first successful probe to achieve "orbiting, landing, and patrolling" in a single mission; NASA's "Perseverance" is the most advanced probe in history, carrying the first Mars helicopter "Ingenuity".

Currently, if orbiters are included, the number of human probes working on Mars and in Martian orbit has increased to 11, from China, the United States, Europe/Russia, India and the UAE.

China's Zhurong and the United States' Perseverance/Ingenuity represent the highest level of human exploration of Mars (Source: CNSA/NASA)

In 2021, after the two major Mars probes of China and the United States landed, they spent a lot of time on engineering verification, testing and collecting scientific data. For example, Tianwen-1 carried 13 scientific payloads as a whole, 7 of which were on the orbiter above Mars and 6 on the Zhurong Mars rover that landed on the surface of Mars. They have five major scientific research goals, mainly involving the study of the Martian space environment, surface morphology, soil surface structure, etc., which will bring first-hand information on Mars to the Chinese scientific research community.

At present, the measured data of the Mars Ion and Neutral Particle Analyzer carried by Tianwen-1 has contributed to my country's first research results on the radial evolution of the interplanetary solar wind, which were published in the Journal of Earth and Planetary Physics. In 2022, more data will be interpreted by scientists one by one. This will be one of the most important scientific achievements in the history of human exploration of Mars and will greatly enhance human understanding of Mars.

Part 7

Targeting the space gold mine, the Spirit sets out for the solar system's super treasure

Human survival and development are inseparable from various precious resources on Earth, especially non-renewable resources. Their value is self-evident, and many conflicts have broken out over this reason in history. However, outside the Earth, the amount of these resources is beyond imagination, and one of them is metal resources.
If the goal is to obtain metal resources, 16 Psyche in the asteroid belt would be a perfect choice. It is composed almost entirely of iron, nickel, gold and other elements, very similar to the core of a rocky planet, and is likely to contain more rare metals. It weighs 2.7 quadrillion tons, far more than the 2 billion tons of iron ore that humans use each year, enough for humans to use for tens of millions of years, and can be said to be an "infinite" resource to some extent.

The Psyche probe will reveal a world full of treasures to us (Image source: NASA)

It is expected that on August 1, 2022, NASA will use the Falcon Heavy rocket to launch the Psyche probe to this mysterious asteroid and unveil its veil. Although this mission is not a true "space mining", it is already a standard "space prospecting". In the future, perhaps humans will no longer be troubled by the lack of resources, because almost all resources in the universe are "infinite", as long as human spaceflight has the ability to bring them back.

Part 8

Mars "Pigeon King" sprints to the finish line, will Europe and Russia miss the window for Mars exploration again?
The window for Mars exploration only comes once every 26 months, which is not easy. In July 2020, China, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates all seized the precious opportunity, but the second ExoMars mission, which Europe and Russia had been planning for a long time, missed the opportunity again.

The mission's rover was named "Rosalind Franklin" as early as 2019 when it was ambitiously preparing for launch, in memory of this female scientist who made great contributions in the field of DNA and virus research. This also shows that one of the core missions of the rover is to search for water, organic matter and potential life on Mars, which effectively complements the exploration missions of other rovers.

The Rosalind Franklin is finally about to be launched (Source: ESA)

Previously, the launch of the Rosalind Franklin was postponed twice due to funding issues and design changes, and was postponed again in 2020 due to the pandemic and test schedule. In September 2022, the Earth will once again have the best window for exploring Mars, and the Rosalind Franklin will combine the European Space Agency's deep space cruise technology and the Russian lander technology to launch another attempt. Whether it can seize the opportunity and launch on schedule this time remains to be seen.

Part 9

Multiple rockets make their first flight: China, the United States, Russia, Europe and Japan all see a major expansion in launch vehicles

Launch vehicles are the cornerstone of space development. As the needs for space launches become increasingly complex, major rocket families are also expanding rapidly.

For the rocket industry of several countries, the following new developments are expected in 2022: China's Long March series has welcomed new members such as Long March 5/5B/6/7/7A/8/11 in recent years, and some key new models under development (Long March 6A/8R/9, new manned rockets) will also see major progress in 2022; Russia is developing the Angara series, and it is expected to test-fly the main Angara A5 and A1.2 rockets again in 2022; the United States will undergo a major change, with the Atlas and Delta targets directly retired, gradually replaced by the Vulcan rocket, which will make its maiden flight in 2022, and the heavy-duty rocket space launch system will also make its maiden flight to the moon; Japan will usher in the maiden flight of the new generation H3 rocket in 2022; the new generation Ariane 6 rocket, developed by the European Space Agency with an investment of nearly 4 billion euros, will also challenge its maiden flight.

Artist's rendering of the ESA Ariane 6 rocket (Source: ESA)

In addition to the major national aerospace teams, commercial rocket companies have also sprung up. In addition to the popular SpaceX Falcon series rockets, 2022 will also see the first flights of multiple commercial rockets. For example, Blue Origin's long-awaited "New Glenn" heavy-lift rocket will directly compete with the capabilities of the Falcon Heavy rocket. In addition, several commercial rocket companies in the United States have announced that they will make their own rockets for the first time in 2022.

In another commercial space battlefield, Chinese private rocket companies will also face competition for the first launch of an all-liquid propellant rocket.

Part 10

Hidden concerns in the golden age of spaceflight: Space junk may become the biggest issue

Today is the golden age of commercial spaceflight, but while it is rapidly promoting and applying space technology, it is also causing considerable problems. For example, Starlink has built a large-scale network of nearly 2,000 satellites in just two years, which not only caused trouble for astronomical observations on Earth, but also forced multiple satellites to change their orbits several times to avoid collisions, and even caused the Tiangong Space Station to avoid collisions twice. The long-term plan for Starlink is tens of thousands of satellites, far beyond the current initial stage.

Space traffic is becoming increasingly busy and dangerous (Image source: ESA)

The low-orbit satellite Internet, a red ocean market with unlimited "money" prospects, is attracting a large number of hardcore players to join. Amazon, Samsung, Airbus, OneNet, StarNet, etc. will all have huge networking plans. If all of these become reality, it means that we will welcome up to 100,000 satellites in the future. In addition, a large number of commercial rockets are also constantly launching various payloads into space, but many payloads have extremely limited scientific research significance and will soon become space junk. In the future, we will face more and more frequent manned space missions, and we will also face more and more space junk. How to discuss a set of reasonable space development rules and strictly enforce them may be one of the biggest issues in the future development of human spaceflight.

Last words

In 2021, human spaceflight achieved historic rapid development, and this glory will continue in 2022. We are gradually opening the door to the era of great spaceflight and working hard for humans to become a "trans-planetary species." But we also need to realize that the rapid development of the space industry and the peaceful and orderly use of space are issues that require proper cooperation among multiple countries. The increasingly busy space requires more wisdom and collaboration from humans.

Space is the best platform for mankind to practice the concept of "a community with a shared future".

References:

【1】“Tianhe core module successfully launched. Why does China want to build its own space station?”, http://www.xinhuanet.com/sikepro/20210429/28d65fc260914ac8a63e5ab4d9552d8d/c.html, Xinhuanet.

【2】《2022 in spaceflight》, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_in_spaceflight#Expected_maiden_flights, Wikipedia.

【3】"JWST (James Webb Space Telescope)", https://directory.eoportal.org/web/eoportal/satellite-missions/j/jwst.

【4】"Starship", https://www.spacex.com/vehicles/starship/.

【5】"Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) Mission", https://www.nasa.gov/planetarydefense/dart.

【6】"Psyche", https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/psyche.

【7】"Exomars 2022 rover", https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Exploration/ExoMars/ExoMars_2022_rover.

【8】Zhang, AB, Kong, LG, Li, WY, Li, L., Tang, BB, Rong, ZJ, Wei, Y., Ma, JJ, Zhang, YT, ... and Wang, Chi. (2022). Tianwen-1 MINPA observations in the solar wind. Earth Planet. Phys., 6(1), 1–9. http://doi.org/10.26464/epp2022014.

Produced by: Science Popularization China

Production: Space Craft Beer

Produced by: Computer Network Information Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences (The images with source in this article have been authorized)

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