2017 was a banner year for space flight and exploration with 84 successful new launches and the continuation of several high-profile missions. Notable missions included -
- The dramatic end of the Cassini mission at Saturn,
- The awe-inspiring images and scientific data from Juno at Jupiter,
- Several SpaceX Falcon 9 launches with easy-looking booster landings,
- Cargo and crew missions to the International Space Station,
- Large number of communications, research, astronomy and Earth-observation satellites,
- The first visitor (an asteroid) from outside the solar system,
- Several successful launches by China and India,
- The non-stop discovery of new asteroids, exoplanets, blackholes and gravitational waves.
Here is a synopsis of space missions to look forward to in 2018, with an emphasis on deep-space missions -
New Missions for 2018
Mission |
TARGET |
Description |
Launch Date |
Arrival Date |
Chandrayaan-2 |
Moon |
India’s 2nd mission to the Moon with orbiter, lander, and rover |
Mar 2018 |
Mar 2018 |
BepiColombo |
Mercury |
The European Space Agency (ESA) mission to Mercury. Two orbiters. |
Oct 2018 |
Dec 2025 |
InSight |
Mars |
NASA Mars lander |
May 2018 |
Nov 2018 |
Parker Solar Probe |
Sun Orbit |
NASA’s mission to study the Sun’s upper atmosphere, approaching within just 8.5 solar radii of the “surface”
|
Jul –Aug, 2018 |
Dec 2018 |
Chang’e 4 |
Moon |
China's 2nd lunar orbiter, lander and rover.
Will include experiments to grow potatoes and hatch silkworm eggs in closed containers
|
Late 2018 |
Late 2018 |
SELENE-2 |
Moon |
Japan’s 2nd lunar orbiter, lander and rover |
Late 2018 |
Late 2018 |
SpaceX lunar tourism mission |
Moon Orbit |
Private mission to fly two space tourists around the moon aboard a SpaceX Dragon 2 spacecraft |
Late 2018 |
Late 2018 |
Google Lunar X Prize
|
Moon |
5 awarded privately-funded missions for Lunar landings of rovers. TeamIndus and Hakuto will launch in March 2018 |
2018 |
2018 |
Spacecraft that will arrive at their targets in 2018
Mission |
Target |
Description |
Launch Date |
Arrival Date |
Hayabusa2 |
Asteroid Ryugu |
Japanese mission to return samples from the asteroid
|
Dec 3, 2014 |
Jun 2018 |
OSIRIS-REx |
Asteroid Bennu |
NASA mission to return samples from the asteroid |
Sep 8, 2016 |
Aug 2018 |
New Horizons |
Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69 |
NASA spacecraft flyby of Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69 (to be named Mjölnir most likely)
(flyby of Pluto completed in July 2015)
|
Jan 19, 2006 |
Jan 1, 2019 |
Continuing Missions
Mission |
Target |
Description |
Launch Date |
Arrival Date |
Juno |
Jupiter |
Will continue observations in science orbits around Jupiter |
Aug 5, 2011 |
July 5, 2016 |
Dawn |
Ceres |
In orbit around dwarf planet Ceres
Dawn will run out of fuel in 2018, but will orbit Ceres indefinitely
|
Sep 27, 2007 |
Mar 6, 2015 |
Curiosity |
Mars |
Mars rover
Also the Opportunity rover.
And a number of spacecraft in Mars orbit — Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MAVEN, Mangalyaan, Mars Odyssey, Mars Express and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter
|
Nov 26, 2011 |
Aug 6, 2012 |
LRO |
Moon orbit |
NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Collecting data to assist future human and robotic missions. |
Jun 18, 2009 |
Jun 23, 2009 |
Hubble Space Telescope |
Near-Earth |
Hubble Space Telescope in LEO orbit
Many other space telescopes including Spitzer, Kepler and Chandra
|
Apr 24, 1990 |
Apr 25, 1990 |
ISS |
Near-Earth |
The International Space Station, space-based science research |
Nov 20 1998 |
Nov 1998 |
Voyager 1 and 2 |
Solar System and beyond |
They keep on going and going, in Inter-stellar space |
Sep 1977 |
|
Rocket Tests and Near-Earth Missions
Mission |
Description |
Launch Date |
SpaceX Falcon Heavy Test flight |
Test flight of SpaceX Falcon Heavy.
Payload = Tesla roadster. www.dailykos.com/...
|
Jan 2018 |
SpaceX Crewed Dragon 2 spacecraft |
SpaceX crewed mission with Dragon spacecraft to the ISS |
Aug 2018 |
Boeing Starliner |
Unmanned flight to the ISS |
3Q 2018 |
Other Launch Vehicles |
Blue Origin, Orbital, Virgin Galactic, Sierra Nevada (Dream Chaser crewed spacecraft), Stratolaunch, and ULA will all feature tests of new launch vehicles in 2018 |
2018 |
ICESat-2 |
ICESat-2 (Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite 2) satellite for measuring polar ice sheets and land/ocean/lakes topography and vegetation characteristics using lasers. The first ICESat satellite operated from Jan 2003 to Feb 2010.
|
2018 |
Space Telescopes
Mission |
Description |
Launch Date |
TESS |
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), a NASA space telescope to search for exoplanets using the transit method |
Mar 20, 2018 |
CHEOPS |
CHaracterising ExOPlanets Satellite, a European space telescope for the study of the formation of extrasolar planets |
Late 2018 |
Planned Missions that will not take place in 2018
Mission |
Target |
Description |
NEW Launch Date |
JWST |
Near-Earth orbit |
James Webb Space Telescope, the high-profile successor to the Hubble space telescope |
Spring 2019 |
Solar Orbiter (SolO) |
Sun |
ESA spacecraft to study the Sun's heliosphere, its poles, and solar wind |
Feb 2019 |
SpaceX Dragon 2 spacecraft to Mars |
Mars |
SpaceX Dragon 2 spacecraft to Mars, private mission |
2019-2020 |
SLS |
Moon |
NASA’s huge new rocket, the Space Launch System (), is scheduled to launch for the first time. It will send the Orion spacecraft on a three-week mission around the Moon. |
? |
Missions Not Listed
There are plenty of other near-Earth missions slated for 2018 — of communications, research and Earth observation satellites not listed in this article. In addition, observation and study of inter-stellar space, exoplanets, galaxies, nebulae, stars, dark matter, gravitational waves and black-holes using space and ground based telescopes will continue, with new and more capable instruments.
Here are videos of some of the planned missions for 2018 —
Mars InSight Mission
The InSight mission will place a stationary lander equipped with a seismometer and heat transfer probe on the surface of Mars to study the planet's early geological evolution.
Curiosity
OSIRIS-REx-2
Chandrayan-2
TeamIndus
Chang’e 4
BepiColombo
Parker Solar Probe
TESS
ICESat-2
SpaceX Dragon 2
Falcon Heavy Rocket
Here is an animation of the Falcon Heavy flight, made over two years ago -
Blue Origin New Glenn Rocket
Payload Carrying Capacity
ORBIT |
SpaceX Falcon Heavy |
Blue Origin New Glenn |
SLS 1 |
LEO (~1,000 km) |
63,800 kg |
45,000 |
70,000 |
GTO (~35,786 km) |
26,700 kg |
13,000 |
|
Mars |
16,800 kg |
|
28,000 (to Earth escape orbit) |
Why Go To Mars? And other Planets and Moons.
Wanderers, a wonderful short science fiction film by Erik Wernquist. The film is a (speculative) vision of our humanity's future expansion into the Solar System (with voice-over borrowed from Carl Sagan!)
References
- 2017 in spaceflight — en.wikipedia.org/...
- 2018 in spaceflight — en.wikipedia.org/...
- The vehicles that will take you to space — www.washingtonpost.com/…
- Why Go To Mars? And other Planets and Moons. — www.dailykos.com/…
- NASA Selects Concept Missions to Saturn's Moon Titan and Comet 67P — www.dailykos.com/...