Let's start the year with something optimistic.
2018 will see a raft of space missions that highlight the international nature of present-day space exploration. First up is Chandrayaan 2, India's follow-up to its groundbreaking lunar mission launched in 2008. While its predecessor was an orbiter, Chandrayaan 2 will comprise an orbiter, lander and rover developed by the country's space agency, ISRO. The mission is currently slated to launch on a GSLV rocket from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh around March.
2018 should be the year Elon Musk's private launch company SpaceX lofts one of the most powerful rockets ever built: the Falcon Heavy. In December, Mr Musk tweeted tantalising photos of the huge vehicle under assembly at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The heavy-lift rocket consists of two of the company's existing Falcon 9 boosters strapped to a central core stage. The 70m-long leviathan has been designed to launch payloads up to 57 metric tonnes into space, allowing SpaceX to move into new satellite launch markets and - eventually - loft astronauts beyond Earth orbit.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-41972290
Rhys Taylor
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year Dr Rhysy. We appear poised to enjoy some significant space launches and exploration which is never a bad thing. I suspect that Osiris-Rex will be this year's rockstar mission.
What about astronomy ? An image of the event horizon of Sag A* from EHT , Gaia DR (2). Anything else you're particularly looking forward to ?
Adam Synergy That's a good question Mr Synergy. I really hope Gaia is going to make one of those "hmmm, that's funny..." discoveries, but we may have to wait a while for that, sooo much data !
ReplyDeleteI don't know what there schedule is like, but I'm looking forward to future development with the SKA pathfinders ASKAP, MeeKAT and APERTIF. It's the things which have an unknown discovery potential that most excite me.
But personally I think the highlight is going to be the first Falcon Heavy flight launching a Roadster into space. It's gonna be just like Star Trek Voyager !
vignette.wikia.nocookie.net
Adam Synergy Rhys Taylor Happy New Year to you guys! It´s still not clear yet, if we obtain EHT pics this year, maybe in 2019, it depends on the quality of data.
ReplyDeleteHi Vladimir Pecha EHT data-wrangling is certainly a big complicated job but I'm optimistic that we'll get an image this year, in fact I'm gonna say May-June. Feel free to point at this comment and laugh in 6 months time if I turn out to be hopelessly wrong.
ReplyDeleteI'd also be optimistic on a first EHT image this year. But I wouldn't expect it to be any good for a fair few years yet.
ReplyDeleteAnd looking very slightly further ahead, 1st January 2019 should see New Horizons at its next target...