But if science ever rested on its laurels, we might never have made it this far. thereupon in mind, what does 2021 have future for humanity’s pursuit of space exploration?
Well, the solution is sort of tons . to start with, within the early months of next year, three spacecraft on individual Mars exploration missions – Mars 2020, Tianwen-1 and Hope – are ready to enter the Red Planet’s orbit. The United Arab Emirates’ Hope orbiter is scheduled to succeed in by February 9 while NASA’s Perseverance rover plan to land on Mars’ surface on February 18. The Chinese lander is scheduled to arrive in late April.
The Perseverance mission is especially unique therein it is not just martian rock samples that NASA is looking to gather . The rover also houses a small helicopter named Ingenuity which, once Persevearance lands, will begin making short test flights into the Martian skies. this may mark the primary time a rotorcraft will flee on an extraterrestrial planet.
Later in May, the astronauts that SpaceX’s vessel flew to the ISS will return before a second SpaceX Crew Dragon mission with another four astronauts will make their thanks to the orbiting station. The second batch of astronauts, just like the first one, also will spend six months aboard the ISS.