The past yr saw tremendous advancements in humanity ’s capacity to explore space , and 2019 promises to be no unlike . From cryptical Kuiper Belt object and Martian probes to historic rocket launches and dare attempt to concern the Sun , here ’s what the next 12 months have in store .
New Horizons will encounter Ultima Thule
The yr 2019 will start with a boot as NASA’sNew Horizons visits Ultima Thule , a mysterious Kuiper Belt object located 4 billion sea mile ( 6.5 billion kilometers ) from the Sun . At 12:33 a.m. EST on January 1 , the spacecraft will soar preceding Ultima Thule at speeds reaching 31,500 mil per minute ( 50,700 klick per hour ) , tear as many motion-picture show as possible at resolutions between 98 to 230 feet ( 30 to 70 meters ) per picture element .
The historic snug plan of attack to Ultima Thule , also known as 2014 MU69 , will be the first ever flyby of a Kuiper Belt Object . During the flyby , we ’ll learn if Ultima Thule is a close binary system , a contact binary program ( in which two piece are affecting ) , or something else entirely . The aim , or objects , is around 19 mile in diameter ( 30 kilometers ) and on an irregular basis shaped . Using its many onboard instruments , New Horizons will also map out the objective ’s control surface geology to memorise how it formed , measure its control surface temperature , look for for signs of comet - like activity ( like thaw ice ) , among other mission objectives .
Rovers romping on the Moon
The Moon should receive at least a pair of novel robotic visitors in 2019 .
China’sChang’e 4 lander and rover , which launch on December 8 , 2018 , are expected to reach the surface of far side of the Moon on January 3 , or perhaps in the first place . The landing place internet site is the 110 - Roman mile - wide ( 180 kilometers ) Von Kármán crater , a lunar impact volcanic crater in the southern hemisphere . Because it ’ll be on the Moon ’s far side , CE-4 will communicate with Earth via China ’s Queqiao satellite , which launched in May .
If successful , the mission will involve the first gentle landing place and inspection of the Moon ’s far side , accordingto China ’s National Defense Science and Technology Bureau . The lander and six - wheeled rover will measure the temperature of the lunar Earth’s surface , analyze lunar tilt and rubble , and study cosmic ray , among other things . The missionary station will also influence whether the region is muted enough from human technological activity to build a deep - space radio scope . The commission should last for at least three months .
At some stop during the second one-half of 2019 , India will launch its own rover to the Moon as part of the Indian Space Research Organization’sGSLV - F10 / Chandrayaan-2 Mission . A six - wheeled rover will move around a landing site near the Moon ’s south celestial pole , observing the lunar surface and transmitting data back to the Earth . Above it , the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter will hoard scientific information about lunar topography , mineral , and the moon ’s practically non - existing atmosphere , while also search for polarity of H2O - ice .
And who knows , perhaps a squad participating in theLunar XPrizewill finally land a wanderer on the Moon , but we ’ll believe it when we see it .
Hayabusa2 will collect samples from the Ryugu asteroid
At some point in early 2019,hopefully in late January , Japan ’s Hayabusa2 will evoke surface samples from the Ryugu asteroid . JAXA is still render to find the consummate spot for Hayabusa2 to do its work , asflat regions on this quad rock are proving heavily to fare by .
In December 2019 , the probe will take its last sample and begin its journey back to Earth . Should all go well , it ’ll tag the first clip a probe has extracted sampling from an asteroid and returned them for analytic thinking .
Commercial crew test flights—finally
NASA’scontract with Russia stop in April , so it ’s imperative that the distance agency find another means to surrender its astronauts to quad . The individual sector is on the typesetter’s case , and 2019 promises to be the year in which the United States ultimately restitute its ability enter the International Space Station on its own — something it has n’t been capable to do since the Space Shuttle computer programme .
On January 17 , SpaceX , in cooperation with NASA ’s commercial crew program , is set to use a Falcon 9 rocket tolaunch an uncrewed Crew Dragon spacecraftto the ISS . Should this test go well , a crew mission could happen as too soon as June 18 ; NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken have been tapped for this mission .
In March , a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket will plunge Boeing ’s first CST-100 Starliner — also uncrewed — to the ISS . A subsequent crewed mental test , with Boeing astronaut Chris Ferguson and NASA astronauts Eric Boe and Nicole Mann , could happen in August , accordingto NASA .
Jeff Bezos ’s space house Blue Origin is also bear to conduct both crewed and uncrewed mission in 2019 with its New Shepard suborbital vehicle , with dates still to be determined .
Opportunity Rover, won’t you please call home?
NASA ’s chance scouter has been silent since June 10 , whena global - scale of measurement debris stormknocked the probe into ahibernation modefrom which it has n’t been able-bodied to awake .
commission controllers have been listening for the roamer over a wide range of times and frequencies using the Deep Space connection ( DNS ) Radio Science Receiver , but to no avail . NASA will keep trying with its “ sweep and beeps ” in the coming weeks and month , but should chance fail to bespeak home , mission controllers might have to finally and regretfully hold the 15 - yr mission over .
InSightful drilling on Mars
The Opportunity intelligence is sad , but at leastCuriosity is still chug along . There ’s also NASA ’s InSight to consider , which landed on Mars in previous November . The stationary probe should start drill into the Martian surface in late January or early February .
InSight squad members willfinish deploy the seismometer in Januaryand monitor lizard for marsquakes . Around this clock time , the probe will use its automatic sleeve to setup the heat investigation . The function of the mission is to enhance our reason of wandering formation and the interior geology of Mars . To that end , InSight will utilize its instrument to measure seismic activity , temperature , and air imperativeness .
Swooping spacecraft
Get ready for more and more picturesque photos of Jupiter and the Sun , good manners of the Juno probe and the Parker Solar Probe .
NASA ’s Juno spacecraft is scheduled for more perijove in 2019 — a perijove being an object ’s close orbital approach to Jupiter ’s center . Juno ’s eighteenth perijove will happen on February 17 and its 19th on April 6 . Juno has already providedextraordinarily elaborate shots of Jupiter ’s cloudtops , but the probe is getting increasingly nigh to the imperial natural gas heavyweight .
Meanwhile , theParker Solar Probewill stay on on its historical , yet ultimately doomed , mission to “ impact the Sun . ” Its 2d and third perihelions — the degree at which it ’s faithful to the Sun during its orbit — are schedule for April 4 and September 1 . On December 26 , the Parker probe will get its second gravity assistance from Venus . These flybys will leave in of import new data about the Sun , such as the nature of its corona and its power to boil out solar storm .
Commemorations for the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing
July 16 , 2019 will be the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing . Expect tons of sensitive coverage in coming month .
A number of events have been scheduled to commemorate this historic milepost , includingApollopalooza 2019(a celebration at the Rockies Air and Space Museum in Denver ) , theApollo Celebration Galaat the Kennedy Space Center , and theSummer Moon Festivalin Wapakoneta , Ohio . Also , the U.S. tidy sum will releaseApollo 50th anniversary commemorative coinson January 24 , which look pretty awesome .
Launch of CHEOPS space telescope
The European Space Agency is planning to found theCHEOPS space telescopeat some tip in October or November . Once in orbit , this quad - based telescope will hunt for extrasolar planet , particularly those in the Earth - to - Neptune range in terms of size .
CHEOPS will swipe off from a Soyuz arugula , and finalise into an orbit about 430 international mile ( 700 ) kilometers above Earth . CHEOPS will use the test - and - rightful theodolite method acting of detection , scanning star topology for signs of exoplanets passing in front of them . CHEOPS was originally supposed to found in 2015 , so this is long delinquent .
Celestial eye candy
For you sky watchers out there , 2019 will feature some interesting astronomic phenomena .
Atotal lunar occultation on January 21will be visible to observer in North America , South America , the eastern Pacific Ocean , the western Atlantic Ocean , and extreme portions of Europe and Africa . On July 2 , atotal solar eclipsewill be seeable to observer in parts of the southerly Pacific Ocean , central Chile , and key Argentina .
Three full supermoonswill happen in 2019 : on January 21 , February 19 , and March 21 . Supermoons chance when the Moon is at its airless approach to Earth , make it look slimly larger and brighter than common .
Jupiter will beat opposition , or its closest access to Earth , on June 10 , at which prison term it ’ll look big and vivid . Uranus willdo the sameon October 27 .
On November 11 , we ’ll seea rare transit of Mercury across the Sun . This does n’t find very often , and wo n’t occur again until 2039 . By applying an okay solar filter to a scope , amateur astronomers will be able to see the tiny bleak phonograph recording of Mercury move across the backdrop of the Sun . This passage will be seeable to observers in eastern North America , Mexico , Central America , South America , and parts of Europe , the Middle East , and Africa .
AstronomyISROLunar roversmars explorationNASAScienceYear In Review
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