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Colonising Mars — Four space missions that will explore Earth’s closest neighbour to see if it can one day support human life

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Nasa">NASA</keyword>'s new <keyword id="47638" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Mars">Mars</keyword> rover, Perseverance, is set to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Thursday morning.</li><li>The rover will hunt for signs of alien life in a vast crater and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-perseverance-mars-rover-helicopter-search-for-alien-life-2020-7">test technologies</a> for future human exploration of the red planet.</li><li>NASA TV is broadcasting coverage of the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nuclear-powered-spacecraft-nasa-history-2017-3">nuclear-powered</a> robot's launch on YouTube starting at 7 a.m. ET, and you can watch live below. </li></ul><p><em><strong>Update (9:17 a.m. ET)</strong>: NASA successfully launched Perseverance and its Ingenuity drone toward Mars. Read <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-perseverance-mars-rover-launch-2020-7">our full coverage here</a> and watch a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIB3JbIIbPU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recording</a> of the agency's launch-day broadcast below.</em></p><p>On Thursday morning, NASA will launch its fifth Mars rover: a <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/news/8721/a-new-video-captures-the-science-of-nasas-perseverance-mars-rover/">robotic scientist</a> the size of an SUV. </p><p>The $2.4 billion nuclear-powered vehicle, named Perseverance (or "Percy" for short) is designed to trundle along the Martian surface, mine for signs of ancient life, capture high-quality video and audio, and collect rock and soil samples for a future rocket ride back to Earth. </p><p>In preparation for future human landings on Mars, the rover will also carry an experimental device that converts carbon dioxide from the planet's thin atmosphere into oxygen and even test <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2020-149" target="_blank" rel="noopener">samples of potential space suit material</a> to see how well they hold up against the punishing Martian environment.</p><p>And if that wasn't enough, tucked into the rover's belly <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-perseverance-mars-rover-helicopter-search-for-alien-life-2020-7">is a drone named Ingenuity</a>. If it works, it'd be the first vehicle to achieved powered flight on another world.</p><p>Perseverance is scheduled to launch at 7:50 a.m. ET on Thursday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, atop an Atlas V rocket built by United Launch Alliance.</p><p>"The #MarsPerseverance launch crew is on station. Mighty Atlas is looking good. Weather is holding at [probability of go] 80%. The board is green. Seems like a good day to go to another planet," Tory Bruno, president and CEO of ULA, <a href="https://twitter.com/torybruno/status/1288740712146665473" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tweeted</a> on Thursday morning.</p><p>The liftoff will be streamed live <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21X5lGlDOfg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">on NASA TV</a>, and you can watch via the embedded player below. The broadcast started at 7 a.m. ET.</p><h2>Perseverance is 1 of 3 mission launching to Mars this summer</h2><p>The liftoff will mark the third Mars-bound mission to begin this month. It follows the launch of the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/watch-united-arab-emirates-first-mars-mission-hope-orbiter-launch-2020-7">United Arab Emirates' Hope probe</a>, which aims to orbit Mars to chart a global map of its climate. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/3-misions-launching-to-mars-in-july-from-3-countries-2020-7">China's Tianwen-1 mission</a>, meanwhile, is expected to put a rover on Mars that will use radar to hunt for underground pockets of water and also put a spacecraft into orbit to study Mars' atmosphere. </p><p>The launches were all scheduled closely together in order to hit a critical window in Mars's orbit: The period when its path aligns most closely with that of Earth. That window comes in February 2021, which is when the <keyword id="41531" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="space">space</keyword>ships are expected to arrive at Mars. Because of fuel and weight constraints, missing the chance to launch now would have required space agencies to wait until 2022. </p><p>Perseverance is scheduled to land at Mars' Jezero Crater (below) on February 18 and will, for the first time, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-mars-perseverance-rover-seven-minutes-terror-landing-video-2020-7">record its harrowing descent to the surface</a> that NASA calls the "seven minutes of terror," so named for the amount of time engineers must wait to confirm a successful touchdown.</p><p>Jezero crater, once flooded with water, was selected after <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-announces-landing-site-for-mars-2020-rover">five years of careful study</a> by planetary scientists because its rock and clay have the potential to contain electrochemical signatures of former life.</p><p><div type="image" title="nasa mars 2020 rover landing site jezero crater labeled" height="1495" width="1865" msid="77246044" hostid="261"></div></p><p>The same features that make the Jezero crater appealing for study make it a difficult place to land a rover, however: The site's varied terrain is full of dips, ridges, and boulders. But engineers have made advances in landing technology, including the development of a <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/timeline/landing/entry-descent-landing/">more precisely timed landing parachute</a>, since NASA's last rover, Curiosity, arrived on Mars in 2012. Most recently, the agency successfully dropped its InSight lander on Mars in November 2018.</p><p>If all goes well, Perseverance will be the fifth Mars rover mission managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and also the fifth successful Mars rover landing overall (unless China's lands first). Yet another Mars rover called Rosalind Franklin — a collaboration between the European Space Agency and the Russia's Roscosmos — is scheduled to launch in 2022.</p><p><em>This story has been updated. It was originally published on July 29, 2020.</em></p>

Watch NASA launch Perseverance, the space agency's alien-hunting car-size Mars rover, to the red planet

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>Elon Musk, the visionary head of SpaceX, has announced that he wants to land humans on Mars within the next nine years.</p><p>Speaking at the Code Conference June 1, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XXfxFx-ID8&amp;list=PLKof9YSAshgyPqlK-UUYrHfIQaOzFPSL4&amp;index=6">Musk said</a> he plans to send astronauts to the Red Planet in 2024 so they can land on its surface the following year.</p><p>"We're establishing cargo flights to Mars that people can count on," he said at the conference. "The Earth-Mars orbital rendezvous is only every 26 months, so there'll be one in 2018; there'll be another one in 2020. And I think if things go according to plan, we should be able to launch people probably in 2024 with arrival in 2025."</p><p>This <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/launchingrockets/launchwindows.html">26-month window</a> he mentions is the prime time to launch rockets to Mars, since it's when the two planets' orbits bring then tens of millions of miles closer together.</p><p>Musk's 2025 goal is more ambitious than any country's.</p><p>NASA, for example, <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/nasa-mars-mission-with-humans-plan-2016-4">wants to send humans</a> to Mars in the 2030s. <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/china-plans-mars-moon-landings-2016-4">China plans to send its first rovers</a> by 2020, but the nation hasn't announced a date for human exploration yet. Meanwhile the <a href="http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/ExoMars/ExoMars_frequently_asked_questions">European Space Agency</a> and <a href="http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/Roscosmos_Manned_Flight_to_Mars_Will_Be_Impossible_Without_Russias_Help_999.html">Roscosmos </a>(Russia's space agency) also haven't set goals for human Mars landings, but they could both likely work with NASA to get there.</p><p>There is reason to believe Musk could get it done. Each time SpaceX launches one of its rockets - and continues to <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/spacex-third-falcon-9-landing-success-2016-5">successfully land parts</a> (so the company can save millions by reusing them) - it gets one step closer to making this lofty Mars goal a more affordable-looking reality.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>"Hopefully, by the end of this year, we'll be launching <a href="http://www.spacex.com/falcon-heavy">Falcon Heavy</a>, which will be the most powerful rocket in the world by more than a factor of two," Musk said at the conference. "Falcon Heavy will be on the order of 5 million pounds of thrust on liftoff, which is about two-thirds the size of the Saturn V."</p><p>Saturn V was the rocket that took the astronauts to the moon. In a poetic twist, Musk said Falcon Heavy will even take off from the <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/launch/launch-complex39-toc.html">same launchpad</a> in Merritt Island, Florida.</p><p>That launchpad, after all, is a place for making history.</p><p>You can watch more of what Musk said at the conference in this playlist:</p><p><div></div></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-rocket-third-barge-landing-elon-musk-2016-5">SpaceX just pulled off the greatest hat trick ever</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="pvZTdzMzE6XVuL6aNY4CAoPymTCg5NU9" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Elon Musk wants to land humans on Mars within 9 years

The launch of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, scheduled to carry <keyword id="19939779" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="NASA-astronauts" source="keywords">NASA astronauts</keyword> <keyword id="21544825" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sunita-Williams" source="keywords">Sunita Williams</keyword> and Barry Wilmore to the International Space Station (ISS) was on Monday (local time) postponed after a valve glitch in the upper stage of the rocket set to propel it to space.<br /><br />Rocket company United Launch Alliance's Tom Heter III the director overseeing the launch announced the decision to delay the launch about two hours before the expected lift off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, United States.<br /><br />NASA announced on social media platform X that the problem was identified with an oxygen valve on part of ULA's Atlas 5 rocket and that the space agency, Boeing and ULA have "scrubbed the launch opportunity on May 6 for the agency's Boeing Crew Flight Test to the International Space Station due to a faulty oxygen relief valve observation on the Atlas V rocket Centaur second stage. The crew and rocket remain safe and more information will be forthcoming."<br /><br />It said that NASA astronauts Wilmore and Williams exited the Starliner spacecraft at Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida and will return to astronaut crew quarters.<br /><br />This would have marked the first human crewed flight for Starliner with Indian origin Sunita "Suni" Williams piloting the craft with fellow NASA pilot Barry "Butch" Wilmore. Boing had designed Starliner to rival the Dragon capsule of Elon Musk's SpaceX which carried out its crewed flight test in May 2020. SpaceX has handled most of NASA's crew transportation needs since then.<br /><br />However, just two hours before the scheduled launch, a valve glitch in the rocket's upper stage forced mission managers to call off the mission. It was a frustrating setback for Wilmore and Williams, both seasoned astronauts ventured to space on two previous journeys aboard NASA space shuttle and Russian Soyuz missions and had impressive backgrounds in naval aviation. The disappointment was tangible as they unstrapped from their seats, their hopes of soaring into space momentarily grounded, CBS News reported.<br /><br />Incidentally Sunita Williams has named the spacecraft "Calypso" for her love of the ocean and in reference to the ship of famed explorer <keyword id="21556039" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="jacques-cousteau" source="keywords">Jacques Cousteau</keyword>, who sailed across the world on his own ship named bearing the same name.<br /><br />Despite the setback, the seasoned duo maintained their composure, knowing that space travel demands patience and resilience. Clad in their distinctive Boeing pressure suits, Wilmore and Williams awaited news of the next launch window, ready to embark on their celestial journey at the earliest opportunity, as reported by CBS News.<br /><br />The Atlas 5 rocket, renowned for its reliability, stood ready for its milestone 100th flight - to launch Boeing's Crew Space Transportation (CST)-100 Starliner spacecraft. The plan was that following separation from Atlas 5, Starliner engines will burn taking it the rest of the way to orbit and on to the International Space Station, according to ULA. <br /><br />The Atlas 5 had successfully launching scientific spacecraft to Mars on five different occasions, plus research investigations to the Sun, the Moon, Jupiter, the Asteroid Bennu and Pluto <br /><br />The Atlas 5 consists of two major components: a booster and Centaur, its so-called upper stage. Starliner sits on top of Centaur, which in turn rests on the booster. The booster powers everything off the launchpad. During the flight, Centaur is designed to separate from the booster, propelling Starliner into a proper orbit. Then, Starliner separates from Centaur and flies on its own.<br /><br />It has delivered US national security assets into space, launched weather observatories that all Americans depend upon and deployed commercial satellites to connect the world.<br /><br />Williams, selected as an astronaut by NASA in June 1998, has spent a total of 322 days in space on two missions and accumulated 50 hours and 40 minutes of cumulative EVA time on seven spacewalks. Williams worked with Roscosmos on its contribution to the space station and with the first Expedition crew.<br /><br />Meanwhile, 61-year-old, Wilmore has logged 178 days in space and has 25 hours and 36 minutes of time on four spacewalks.<br /><br />NASA has been waiting half a decade for Starliner to begin flying crew, and the development of Starliner was beset by years of delays, setbacks and blunders. More broadly, Boeing as a company has suffered years of scandals in its aircraft division that have tarnished the legacy aerospace giant's brand, CNN reported.<br /><br />If successful, the Crew Test Flight could queue up Boeing to begin flying routine trips to the space station on NASA's behalf. <br /><br />Boeing has already planned six manned missions for the platform over the next six years, the projected end of the ISS' operating lifespan.<br /><br />NASA plans to use both SpaceX's Dragon and Boeing's Starliner to send up astronauts at least every six months from US soil. Both Boeing and SpaceX were given the responsibility in 2014 by NASA to send commercial crew missions to the ISS.<br /><br />Boeing received over USD 4 billion in US federal funds to develop the Starliner, while SpaceX received about USD 2.6 billion.<br /><br /><b>SEE ALSO:<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/webstories/indegene-ipo-company-details-to-risk-factors-all-you-need-to-know/slidelist/109888922.cms" target="_blank"></a></b><br /><br /> <b><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/webstories/indegene-ipo-company-details-to-risk-factors-all-you-need-to-know/slidelist/109888922.cms" target="_blank">Indegene IPO: Company details to risk factors, all you need to know</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/worldwide-tablet-shipments-grow-in-q1-2024-after-two-years-of-decline/articleshow/109876390.cms" target="_blank"></a></b><br /><br /> <b><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/worldwide-tablet-shipments-grow-in-q1-2024-after-two-years-of-decline/articleshow/109876390.cms" target="_blank">Worldwide tablet shipments grow in Q1 2024 after two years of decline</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/asus-zenbook-duo-review/articleshow/109875023.cms" target="_blank"></a></b><br /><br /> <b><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/asus-zenbook-duo-review/articleshow/109875023.cms" target="_blank">Asus ZenBook Duo review – an excellent dual-screen laptop for multitaskers</a></b><br />

Planned crewed launch of Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams on Boeing's Starliner spacecraft called off

<ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-to-build-moon-station-five-years-lunar-soil-bricks-2023-4">China</a>, the US, and Russia are all <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-helping-private-companies-build-business-moon-make-lunar-billions-2023-6">aiming for the moon</a> as they develop <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-plans-three-moon-missions-after-discovering-new-lunar-mineral-2022-9">new space missions</a>.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-luna-25-crash-land-on-moon-2023-8">Russia</a> was a major contender in the first space race, but now it can't even <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-india-moon-landing-cost-cheap-compared-to-nasa-russia-2023-8">land a robot on the moon</a>.</li></ul><p>A <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-china-race-to-the-moon-photos-launches-2022-11">new space race</a> is on. China, Russia, and the US (with its international allies) are all plotting huge new moonshots.</p><p>The US and its allies have a lunar roadmap, while Russia and China are teaming up on their own plan. But both partnerships aim to build permanent, astronaut-staffed bases on the lunar surface and <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/commodities/moon-mining-space-race-helium-metals-india-chandrayaan-russia-luna-2023-8">mine the moon's resources</a> to help rocket people to Mars.</p><div type="image" title="moon astronauts artemis" height="2160" width="3840" msid="103310404" hostid="261" sizebytes="672158"></div><p>But in the "lunar gold rush," in <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-astronauts-cannot-wear-axiom-black-spacesuit-on-moon-2023-3">NASA's</a> <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/infographics/the-lunar-gold-rush-how-moon-mining-could-work">words</a>, Russia isn't as daunting a competitor as it once was.</p><p>In the first space race, the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/soviet-satellite-chinese-rocket-might-crash-in-space-2020-10">Soviet Union</a> sent the first satellite and the first humans into Earth's orbit, nailed the first-ever soft landing on the moon, and completed a total of seven successful lunar landings.</p><p>But the new Russia, since the collapse of the Soviet Union, hasn't <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/moon-missions-why-astronauts-have-not-returned-2018-7">been to the moon</a> at all. In fact, it just failed its first attempt at a lunar landing since 1976.</p><div type="image" title="surface of moon grey rocky cratered with luna 25 spacecraft piece visible in upper left corner" height="1500" width="2000" msid="103310408" hostid="261" sizebytes="224372"></div><p>Even before that failure, public statements from <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-bill-nelson-warns-china-claim-moon-territory-lunar-resources-2023-1">NASA's chief</a> indicated that he saw China, not Russia, as a competitor for lunar territory.</p><p>"We better watch out that they don't get to a place on the moon under the guise of scientific research. And it is not beyond the realm of possibility that they say, 'Keep out, we're here, this is our territory,'" Bill Nelson, NASA's administrator, previously told <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/01/01/we-better-watch-out-nasa-boss-sounds-alarm-on-chinese-moon-ambitions-00075803">Politico</a>.</p><p>Indeed, in recent years China has successfully landed robotic moon missions, as well as <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-space-station-nears-completion-sharpens-us-china-space-rivalry-2022-5">completed its own small space station</a> in Earth's orbit and flown astronauts to and from it. The nation seems to be making steady progress toward its space goals, which include sending humans to the moon and Mars, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/12/science/china-space-moon-mars.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The New York Times</a> has reported.</p><div type="image" title="China rover dark side of the moon" height="1800" width="1800" msid="103310412" hostid="261" sizebytes="96290"></div><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russian-inspector-satellite-chasing-secret-us-military-satellite-cat-mouse-2023-4">Russia</a>, meanwhile, is floundering. Photos of the space efforts of the US, China, and Russia reveal how far behind the former space power has fallen.</p><h2>NASA photographed the Russian moon lander's likely crash site</h2><p>The uncrewed Luna-25 lander was supposed to touch down in <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-scientist-microbial-life-hiding-on-moon-south-pole-2023-6">the moon's south pole region</a>.</p><div type="image" title="rocket launching into cloudy blue skies" height="1500" width="1999" msid="103310415" hostid="261" sizebytes="142642"></div><p>That would have made Russia the first country to reach the area, which is rich in water-ice and therefore a key strategic position in the race for lunar territory. Such a momentous first would have asserted Russia as a considerable competitor in the great return to the moon.</p><p>But instead, on August 20, the spacecraft mis-fired its engines, pushed itself onto an unplanned path, and "ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the lunar surface," according to a Google translation of the mission <a href="https://iki.cosmos.ru/missions/luna-25">webpage</a>.</p><p>Three days later, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/india-moon-rover-to-collect-first-samples-lunar-south-pole-2023-8">India stuck the landing with its own robot</a> and claimed first nation to the moon's south-pole region.</p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-moon-crater-could-be-russia-luna-25-crash-site-2023-9">NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spotted what may be the gravesite of Luna-25</a>. Its photos, below, reveal a new crater that probably came from the Russian lander crashing into the moon.</p><div type="image" title="gif alternating between two images of the grey rocky lunar surface showing the appearance of a new crater" height="1300" width="1300" msid="103310417" hostid="261" sizebytes="123556"></div><h2>NASA and China have both flown successful moon missions recently</h2><p>The kickoff stages of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-launching-artemis-mega-rocket-orion-spaceship-around-the-moon-2022-8">NASA's new moon program, called Artemis</a>, are in full swing. The agency built fresh hardware — a new rocket called the Space Launch System and its new Orion spaceship — and flew it around the moon for the first time last year.</p><div type="image" title="spaceship with nasa logo in black space with moon and earth in distance" height="1536" width="2048" msid="103310420" hostid="261" sizebytes="98922"></div><p>NASA is on track to add humans on the next flight. Then, on a third flight, NASA plans to offload the astronauts onto a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/history-of-russia-space-chief-elon-musk-spacex-rivalry-tweets-2022-3">SpaceX</a> Starship, which should lower them to the surface of the moon for the first human landing there since 1972. </p><p>China's space agency, the China National Space Administration, isn't flying human-rated spacecraft around the moon yet. But it currently has <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/moon-cube-discovered-by-chinese-rover-is-just-a-rock-2022-1">a rover on the far side of the moon</a>, and one of its moon missions brought lunar samples to Earth in 2020.</p><div type="image" title="shiny golden orb with tiny rocks inside hangs in a blue box on display" height="1500" width="1999" msid="103310422" hostid="261" sizebytes="114892"></div><p>Further, NASA and China both <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-to-attempt-mars-rover-landing-2021-5">landed rovers on Mars</a> in 2021. Russia is far behind after its moon crash.</p><div type="image" title="china mars rover zhurong" height="1800" width="2400" msid="103310424" hostid="261" sizebytes="162656"></div><p>"The consequences of the Luna-25 catastrophe are enormous," Sergei Markov, a pro-Kremlin political analyst, told the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-moon-luna25-spacecraft-mission-33c9884c907998f06bf9562be6d47445" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AP</a>.</p><p>"It raises doubts about Russia's claims of a great power status in the eyes of the global community. Many would decide that Russia can't fulfill its ambitions either in Ukraine or on the moon because it lives not by its modest current capability but rather fantasies about its great past," he said.</p><h2>The US and China are innovating, while Russia's space tech ages</h2><div type="image" title="orange space launch system rocket stands upright against blue sky" height="1666" width="2222" msid="103310427" hostid="261" sizebytes="98384"></div><p>After the Luna-25 failure, Roscosmos chief Yuri Borisov acknowledged that the new space race is not like the old one.</p><p>"We have to essentially master all the technologies all over again — of course, at a new technical level," Borisov told Russian state media, according to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/22/world/russia-luna-25-chandrayaan-3-global-space-race-scn/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CNN</a>.</p><p>So far, that doesn't seem to be happening. Russia's launch systems date back to the 1960s and have started to show their age with <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/soyuz-capsule-leak-russia-possible-rescue-mission-3-astronauts-space-station">leaks</a> and other issues in recent years.</p><div type="image" title="two giant green scaffolded arms raise up toward a standing rocket to support it with blue sky in the background" height="1439" width="1919" msid="103310429" hostid="261" sizebytes="164206"></div><p>With all this in mind, Ars Technica's space editor, Eric Berger, <a href="https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/08/putin-wanted-to-make-russia-great-again-in-space-heres-why-he-failed/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dubbed</a> the Luna-25 failure a "death knell" for President Vladimir Putin's civil space program. Berger cited other underlying issues that are stifling Russia's space ambitions, like budget cuts, quality control, and corruption.</p><p>Meanwhile, China has built its own space station, developed spaceships to take astronauts there, and nursed a thriving landscape of space startup companies, one of which recently <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-beats-spacex-blue-origin-orbit-methane-rocket-2023-7">launched the world's first methane-fueled rocket</a> to orbit.</p><div type="image" title="China said it's sending a new batch of astronauts in the coming days to space station Tiangong as it nears completion. Here, students watch a televised lecture by three astronauts currently on Tiangong on March 23, 2022." height="2490" width="3320" msid="103310430" hostid="261" sizebytes="440974"></div><p>In the US, NASA is working with an array of private companies, including SpaceX and Blue Origin, to upgrade everything from rockets and spaceships to moon landers and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-evaluating-proposals-for-private-space-stations-2021-9">space stations</a>.</p><h2>More and more, Russia is on its own</h2><p>The European Space Agency was originally a collaborator on the Luna-25 mission, providing a camera for landing operations. But ESA backed out after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, asking Roscosmos to remove the camera from the spacecraft and saying it would not participate in the ensuing missions, Luna-26 and Luna-27.</p><p>Western sanctions have harmed Russia's space program in other ways, limiting its access to high-quality microchips, the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-moon-luna25-spacecraft-mission-33c9884c907998f06bf9562be6d47445" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AP</a> reported.</p><p>So far, Russia's attempt to prove its 21st-century deep-space prowess has fallen short.</p><p>As Victoria Samson, the Washington office director for the Secure World Foundation, a nonprofit that promotes peaceful space exploration, told <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/22/world/russia-luna-25-chandrayaan-3-global-space-race-scn/index.html">CNN</a>: "Russia's Cold War legacy will be just that — a legacy — unless they can actually do this themselves."</p>

Russia dominated the first space race, but now it can't even land on the moon. Photos show the US and China are way ahead.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Seven countries signed on to <keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Nasa">NASA</keyword>'s new <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-details-of-artemis-missions-astronauts-return-to-moon-2020-9">Artemis</a> Accords on Tuesday: Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.</li><li>The <keyword id="9233364" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Artemis-Accords">Artemis Accords</keyword> establish basic rules for <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-tests-artemis-spacesuits-underwater-for-moon-2020-9">exploring the moon</a>, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-spacex-tesla-starman-space-launch-first-martian-flyby-2020-10">Mars</a>, asteroids, and comets — rules like: be peaceful, help astronauts in distress, share scientific data, and mine space resources sustainably.</li><li><keyword id="1334" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="China">China</keyword> and <keyword id="6358826" type="LOCATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Russia">Russia</keyword> are not on board yet. NASA seems to be courting Russia, but is legally prohibited from working with China.</li><li>NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said that more countries were "anxious" to sign on, possibly by the end of 2020.</li></ul><p>NASA is preparing to build a permanent base on the moon and, eventually, send astronauts to Mars — a feat it can't accomplish alone.</p><p>The agency gained seven allies for future deep-space exploration on Tuesday, when the US signed a new agreement with Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.</p><p>The <keyword id="244551" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Artemis">Artemis</keyword> Accords, named for NASA's moon-and-Mars-bound human-spaceflight program, lay out some general rules for nations to follow as they join the effort: be peaceful, work together, and don't leave behind junk that will cause problems for future space missions.</p><div type="image" title="base camp" height="735" width="981" msid="78646192" hostid="261"></div><p>"This is the beginning of, I think, what is going to be an amazing opportunity to explore the moon and go on to Mars with the broadest, most diverse coalition in the history of humankind," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine told reporters in a briefing on the announcement.</p><p>"We're establishing what the rules and the norms of behavior are as we do this, so that we can preserve space and make sure that when we do explore, we're doing it with peaceful purposes, we're doing it with transparency and clarity to avoid any kind of misperceptions and any kind of conflict."</p><p>The Artemis program, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-details-of-artemis-missions-astronauts-return-to-moon-2020-9">as NASA has laid out in a $28 billion proposal</a>, would launch an uncrewed mission around the moon in 2021, followed by a crewed moon flyby in 2023, then a lunar landing in 2024. </p><p>Then NASA plans to build a permanent moon-orbiting base called the Gateway, similar to the International Space Station that orbits Earth. From there, the agency hopes to build a base on the lunar surface, where it can mine the resources required to fly the first astronauts to Mars.</p><div type="image" title="mars astronaut" height="2569" width="2500" msid="78646195" hostid="261"></div><p>All of this will require international and commercial partners.</p><p>With the Artemis Accords, NASA hopes to ensure that none of these partners ruin space for everyone else. The agreement builds on the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, translating its ideas into the new era of <keyword id="718929" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Space-exploration">space exploration</keyword>.</p><p>"If you want to join the Artemis journey, nations must abide by the Outer Space Treaty and other norms of behavior that will lead to a more peaceful, safe, and prosperous future in space exploration — not just for NASA and its partners, but for all of humanity to enjoy," Mike Gold, acting associate administrator for NASA's Office of International and Interagency Relations, said in the briefing.</p><p>Bridenstine promised the accords would onboard new countries in the near future. But for now, two major spacefaring nations — China and Russia — are notably absent from this new coalition.</p><h2>Principles for deep-space exploration</h2><p>The new accords detail 10 main principles which signatories agree to follow:</p><ol><li><strong>Peace. </strong>Cooperative activities under the Artemis Accords should be "exclusively for peaceful purposes."</li><li><strong>Transparency. </strong>Participating nations should share their policies and plans for space exploration, as well as any scientific information they obtain from activities under the accords.</li><li><strong>Interoperability. </strong>Space-based infrastructure should be designed so that everybody can integrate their technology to fit it — like an "iPhone for space," where anybody can design an app or hardware that easily plugs in, Bridenstine said. </li><li><strong>Emergency assistance. </strong>Participating nations agree to help astronauts in distress. </li><li><strong>Registration of space objects. </strong>New spacecraft under the accords should be registered  </li><li><strong>Release of scientific data. </strong>Participating nations should share scientific data obtained during activities under the accords with the public and the international scientific community.</li><li><strong>Preserving outer space heritage. </strong>Participants should preserve historically significant landing sites, spacecraft, and other artifacts.</li><li><strong>Space resources. </strong>Participants should extract and use space resources (like water on the moon or minerals on asteroids) safely and sustainably. Further, mining on a celestial body (like the moon) does not mean you own that body.</li><li><strong>Deconfliction of space activities. </strong>Participants should avoid harming or interfering with each other's use of outer space, and they should establish "safety zones" for activities that could be harmful.</li><li><strong>Orbital debris.</strong> Participants should avoid creating new debris in orbit by disposing of defunct spacecraft and avoiding collisions or spacecraft otherwise breaking apart.</li></ol><p>The document is available in full on <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/specials/artemis-accords/index.html">NASA's website</a>.</p><p>Though private companies will not sign onto the Artemis Accords, Bridenstine said, they will be beholden to the agreement if their governments sign on.</p><p>"There's a lot of pressure that can be brought to bear on countries that choose to be part of the Artemis program, but then don't play by the rules," Bridenstine said. "I guess ultimately they could be asked to leave the Artemis program, but I would hope that they would come to a better resolution than that before it gets that far."</p><h2>China is prohibited, and Russia is holding back</h2><div type="image" title="china astronauts" height="1586" width="2400" msid="78646199" hostid="261"></div><p>NASA is proceeding, at least for now, without China and Russia — home to two of the world's most robust space programs.</p><p>China's absence was a given. NASA has been unable to collaborate or coordinate with China ever since Congress <a href="https://www.congress.gov/112/plaws/publ10/PLAW-112publ10.htm">banned</a> the agency from doing so in 2011.</p><p>In Russia's case, it's less clear.</p><p>Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin described NASA's moon-base plans as "too US-centric" in a meeting of the International Astronautical Congress on Monday, adding that "Russia is likely to refrain from participating in it on a large scale." </p><div type="image" title="dmitry rogozon roscosmos russia space" height="3487" width="2315" msid="78646201" hostid="261"></div><p>"The most important thing here would be to base this program on the principles of international cooperation which were used in order to fly the ISS program," Rogozin said, according to <a href="https://spacenews.com/russia-skeptical-about-participating-in-lunar-gateway/">SpaceNews</a>.</p><p>In fact, NASA is using the same intergovernmental legal framework that it used for the ISS, Bridenstine said in a <a href="https://blogs.nasa.gov/bridenstine/2020/10/12/statement-on-international-exploration/">statement</a> responding to Rogozin's comments.</p><p>Bridenstine also pointed to the Artemis Accords' clause on interoperability, which would ensure that future lunar-exploration infrastructure is easy for Russian technology to plug into.</p><p>"I don't think that there's any reason to think that we're not inclusive enough. In fact, what we're trying to do is create the most inclusive, most transparent path to the moon," he told reporters.</p><p>Gold said that more nations would join the accords soon, possibly by the end of the year. It seems unlikely that Russia or China will be in that group.</p><p>"There are many other nations that are not only interested in the Artemis Accords, but anxious to sign the Artemis Accords," Bridenstine said. "But countries all around the world have to go through their own interagency processes to be able to sign onto the accords. These first eight countries are the ones that were able to get through the interagency process the quickest."</p>

China and Russia haven't signed on to NASA's new plan to unify how humanity explores space

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="6360701" type="DEFINITION" weightage="60" keywordseo="spacex">SpaceX</keyword> is about to launch its first people into orbit, an experimental flight of its new <keyword id="3150656" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="crew-dragon">Crew Dragon</keyword> spaceship.</li><li><keyword id="73998" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="astronauts">Astronauts</keyword> Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will pilot the mission, called <keyword id="9071626" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="demo-2">Demo-2</keyword>, but their safety is not all that's at stake for <keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Nasa">NASA</keyword> and SpaceX.</li><li>SpaceX has big plans for lunar and Mars exploration, yet needs to show it can fly crewed missions before it can hope to achieve its grandest goals.</li><li>NASA, meanwhile, wants to resurrect crewed US spaceflight for the first time in nearly a decade.</li><li>The flight also represents a path for NASA to fully staff the International Space Station, end Russia's spaceflight monopoly, and do the space-based research in support of future moon and Mars missions. </li></ul><p>Elon Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 with the hope of inspiring Mars exploration. These days, though, SpaceX is working toward flying people <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/yusaku-maezawa-zozo-ceo-resigns-sells-yahoo-spacex-starship-flight-2019-9">around the moon</a> and later <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-spacex-blue-origin-design-lunar-landers-2020-5">land some on the surface</a>, then moving on to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mars-colonization-human-survival-radiation-food-biosphere-2018-4">establish Martian cities</a>, drop <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-plans-1-million-people-to-mars-by-2050-2020-1">a million settlers</a> there, and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-jeff-bezos-space-mars-colonies-spacex-blue-origin-2019-6">back up the human race</a>.</p><p>But if SpaceX is to have any hope of achieving such grand visions, the rocket company must first prove it can safely launch people to and from <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/earth-moon-distance-edge-of-outer-space-2018-5">low-Earth orbit</a> — a stepping stone to all deep-space destinations.</p><p><div type="image" title="spacex crew dragon spaceship falcon 9 rocket demo2 demo 2 mission hangar kennedy space center ksc EYgh5jaWsAEBant" height="2048" width="1365" msid="75878360" hostid="261"></div>This makes the stakes of SpaceX's next rocket launch, a mission called Demo-2, so high. If weather, hardware, and other factors cooperate, the company's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-astronaut-suni-williams-on-spacex-boeing-spaceships-2018-6">Crew Dragon spaceship</a> will lift off on May 27 at 4:33 p.m. ET — and mark SpaceX's first mission with passengers in the company's 18-year history.</p><p>But it's not just SpaceX with so much of its future plans on the line.</p><p>NASA is entrusting SpaceX with the lives of two of its most experienced astronauts: Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley. The duo will <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-spaceship-docking-video-game-simulator-international-space-station-2020-5">pilot Crew Dragon</a> on a roughly 110-day mission.</p><p>Through its larger <keyword id="1046834" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Commercial-Crew-program">Commercial Crew Program</keyword> — which lets companies lead the development, construction, launch, and operation of spacecraft — the space agency has also <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/content/commercial-crew-program-the-essentials" target="_blank" rel="noopener">invested more than $3.14 billion</a> in SpaceX to create its new spaceflight capability. NASA has sunk an additional $4.8 billion into <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/boeing-cst-100-starliner-spaceship-orbital-flight-test-mission-rescue-2019-12">Boeing's CST-100 Starliner spaceship</a> system, too.</p><p>But, as with SpaceX, the launch of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-boeing-nasa-commercial-crew-program-launch-astronauts-2020-1">Demo-2 represents so much more</a> — and it's a big reason why both NASA and the rocket company are pressing to launch the mission <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-spacex-astronaut-rocket-launch-demo2-mission-essential-coronavirus-pandemic-2020-5">in spite of the coronavirus pandemic</a>.</p><p>Here are some of the biggest things at stake.</p><h2>The first crewed space mission from the US in almost 9 years</h2><p><div type="image" title="space shuttle atlantis sts135 july 2011 copyright dave mosher" height="829" width="1105" msid="75878362" hostid="261"></div></p><p>NASA launched its final space shuttle, Atlantis, in July 2011. After that mission — the 133rd successful flight of the program — the space agency retired its entire fleet of 100-ton orbiters.</p><p>Since then, no American rocket and spaceship system has launched astronauts into space, including from US soil.</p><p>SpaceX's Demo-2 mission, if successful, would be the first to resurrect US crewed spaceflight — and provide NASA astronauts a path to space from American soil.</p><p>"This is a new generation, a new era in human spaceflight," Jim Bridenstine, NASA's administrator, said during <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-nasa-astronauts-demo2-mission-press-briefings-video-youtube-2011-2020-5">a press briefing</a> on May 1.</p><h2>The end of Russia's human-spaceflight monopoly</h2><p><div type="image" title="soyuz ms 11 rocket launch kazakhstan expedition 58 AP_18337431728260" height="2040" width="3000" msid="75878366" hostid="261"></div></p><p>The US and Russia have cooperated in space since the 1970s, starting with the Apollo-Soyuz test program. So when NASA retired the space shuttle, the agency had at least one path to orbit: Russia's Soyuz spacecraft. (China has <keyword id="1313914" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="spaceships">spaceships</keyword>, but NASA <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-china-collaboration-illegal-2015-10">can't collaborate</a> with that nation without special permission from Congress.)</p><p>However, Russia has used its spaceflight monopoly to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-buying-russian-soyuz-seats-2019-2017-1">charge more and more per round-trip ticket</a> for each NASA astronaut. The cost has risen from about $21 million in 2008 (before the shuttle retired) to <a href="https://spacenews.com/nasa-signs-deal-for-additional-soyuz-seat/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">more than $90 million per seat</a> on a planned October 2020 flight.</p><p>SpaceX's Crew Dragon, meanwhile, is projected to cost $55 million per seat, <a href="https://oig.nasa.gov/docs/IG-20-005.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to NASA's inspector general</a>. The competition should also force Roscosmos, Russia's space agency, to lower its prices. NASA would also be in a position to barter and trade seats with a human-rated SpaceX ship.</p><p>"We see a day when Russian cosmonauts can launch on American rockets," Bridenstine said on May 1. "Remember, half of the International Space Station is Russian."</p><h2>Better US access to $100 billion investment in space</h2><p><div type="image" title="international space station iss size american us football field comparison illustration nasa" height="1329" width="2657" msid="75878369" hostid="261"></div></p><p>The agency has invested about $100 billion in taxpayer dollars into the International space station, which orbits Earth from about 250 miles above the planet. NASA spends about $3 billion to $4 billion a year to maintain the floating facility, supply it with cargo, and run experiments on it.</p><p>The microgravity environment enables unique pharmaceutical, materials science, astronomical, medical, and other research. Astronauts are required to run most of the experiments, but the ISS has run a veritable skeleton crew since July 2011. That's because Soyuz can seat only three people, yet flies two NASA astronauts at most — a huge cut from the space shuttle's seven seats for astronauts.</p><p>SpaceX's Crew Dragon, by no coincidence, can fly seven people at a time. Demo-2's successful launch would represent a major step toward fully staffing the ISS — and having astronauts spending less time fixing toilets and more time running laboratory experiments.</p><p>"The International Space Station is a critical capability for the United States of America. Having access to it is also critical," Bridenstine said. "We are moving forward very rapidly with this program that is so important to our nation and, in fact, to the entire world."</p><h2>A bold new commercial market for space travel</h2><p><div type="image" title="spacex crew dragon spaceship nasa commercial crew program illustration 42878298755_a9670c6596_o" height="1296" width="2241" msid="75878371" hostid="261"></div></p><p>When NASA books a ride with SpaceX, it plans to reserve four seats for its astronauts. This leaves SpaceX able to sell the others to private astronauts or — in staid industry parlance — "spaceflight participants."</p><p>But SpaceX is already teeing up all-private space missions. NASA helped pave the way for an improved space tourism market in June, when it announced changes to use of its modules on the space station to formally support private astronauts, though at <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-international-space-station-commercialization-tourists-2019-6">a cost of $35,000 a night</a> to cover lodging, supplies, internet, and other necessities.</p><p>"The deck was stacked very much against commercial activity on the space station," Richard Garriott, an English-American entrepreneur who paid $30 million for a two-week stay on the ISS in 2008, previously told Business Insider. "Almost all of us who flew privately literally had NASA either try to talk us out of it or try to ban us at one stage or another."</p><p>In February, <a href="https://spaceadventures.com/space-adventures-announces-agreement-with-spacex-to-launch-private-citizens-on-the-crew-dragon-spacecraft/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SpaceX announced that it had sold four seats</a> through a spaceflight tourism company called Space Adventures. Then, in March, <keyword id="6355005" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="news">news</keyword> broke that Axiom Space — led in part by a former ISS mission manager at NASA — had also <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/axiom-space-private-astronaut-mission-agreement-2020-3">inked a deal with SpaceX</a>. Even <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tom-cruise-travel-elon-musks-spacex-rocket-film-space-movie-2020-5">Tom Cruise intends to fly aboard Crew Dragon</a> so he can film a new action movie on the space station.</p><h2>Fewer unknowns in a return to the moon and a leap toward Mars</h2><p><div type="image" title="nasa illustration artemis moon lunar surface landing astronaut spacesuit stepping down ladder lander rover hls eva steps apr2020" height="1687" width="3000" msid="75878373" hostid="261"></div></p><p>With its <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-artemis-moon-base-apollo-space-rocket-sls-2019-9">Artemis program</a>, NASA is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apollo-astronauts-react-nasa-trump-2024-moon-landing-plan-2019-6">pushing hard</a> to return astronauts to the lunar surface in the mid-2020s and have crews maintain a continuous presence on a base there. The agency, under the Trump administration, is also pushing for human exploration of Mars in the 2030s.</p><p>But little is known about <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mars-radiation-levels-spacex-nasa-exposure-2018-4">how the human body might fare</a> in either scenario, and the ISS provides the only space-based platform to earnestly ask those questions. Thus restoring and improving US access to it, saving on budget by improving competition, fostering commercial interest in orbit, and giving crew members more time to perform experiments would all ostensibly help.</p><p>As of right now, SpaceX's Demo-2 mission represents the most concrete step yet toward achieving that goal.</p><p>"This launch is our next step towards increasing American and human presence on board the laboratory," Kirk Shireman, who manages the space station program at NASA's Johnson Space Center, said during the press briefing on May 1. "We look forward to having this flight and then repeatable — very repeatable — and sustainable low-Earth orbit Commercial Crew <keyword id="34991" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="transportation">transportation</keyword> flights."</p>Read the original article on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-rocket-launch-nasa-astronauts-demo2-commercial-crew-mission-history-2020-5">Business Insider</a>

You Searched For "roscosmos mars 2020" and got 7 results

Colonising Mars — Four space missions that will explore Earth’s closest neighbour to see if it can one day support human life

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Russia dominated the first space race, but now it can't even land on the moon. Photos show the US and China are way ahead.

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