When the SpaceX Dragon capsule Endeavour successfully lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on May 30, it marked not only the return of human access to space from American soil, but it was also a fitting “launch” of what could be the most significant decade in the history of space exploration.
After well over a decade of gradual progress, we seem poised to surpass the achievements of the Apollo program and initiate a permanent human presence on the Moon, Mars, and elsewhere in the solar system.
As the SpaceX launch to ISS showed, the 2020s will be driven by new models for space development and exploration. NASA will team with industrial and international partners. NASA’s Commercial Crew Program selected Boeing and SpaceX to build vehicles to fly to and from the ISS.
When Boeing reaches the ISS within the next year, NASA will have two separate and independent systems of reaching low Earth orbit. Never before has the space agency had that level of redundancy.
Meanwhile, NASA continues to develop the Artemis program with the goal of returning humanity to the moon and preparing for sending astronauts to Mars in the 2030s. Work is progressing on the backbone of this program, the SLS launch vehicle and the Orion crew vehicle. All of the elements are coming together at Kennedy Space Center for a 2021 launch that will demonstrate lunar orbit and return.
In addition, building on the success of the commercial crew program, NASA recently launched a similar program to develop the Artemis Human Landing System. Three teams — SpaceX, Dynetics and a partnership of Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper Labs — were chosen to compete to build lunar landers to bring women and men to the lunar surface by the middle of this decade.
Robotic exploration will also continue in the 2020s as well. In a few weeks, NASA’s Perseverance rover will be launched to Mars where it will search for signs of past life. This rover will also play a significant role in preparing for human missions to Mars in the 2030s, as it will carry MOXIE (Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment) that will utilize the carbon dioxide atmosphere of Mars to produce a small amount of oxygen.
This will be the first in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) experiment to investigate whether humans will be able to “live off the land” on Mars. This mission will also mark the first time that we take to the skies of the Red Planet.
Perseverance will carry a helicopter/drone called Ingenuity. If successful, it will be the first aircraft to fly on Mars and will be a valuable test to see if human explorers will be able to utilize drones as they explore the martian surface.
The United States is not alone in its interest in Mars. Both China and the United Arab Emirates will be launching robotic missions to Mars this year and over the next four years, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Indian Space Agency (ISRO) will also be launching robotic missions. The world is going to Mars.
The moon and Mars are not our only areas of interest. Our understanding of the universe will be dramatically enhanced when the James Webb Space Telescope is launched in 2021. This will be the largest space telescope ever launched and it will observe worlds around other stars in our galaxy and investigate the origins of the universe, potentially transforming our understanding of the universe. We are entering another “golden age” of astronomy.
The significant technical investments in years past have been critical in setting the stage for the upcoming decades of space exploration, but there is another factor that could prove to be equally critical to success.
There are few government activities in the United States that are not polarized by partisan politics. However, there is strong bipartisan and public support for comprehensive and sustainable space exploration activities, possibly more so than ever before.
This unity of purpose can not only help assure a consistent and sustainable progress in the exploration of space, but also serve as a symbol of what can be accomplished when we work together. This is particularly important in a world that has been ravaged by pandemic, social unrest, and economic downturn. A united and international commitment to space exploration must play a role in healing and uniting the world.
Chris Carberry is CEO of Explore Mars, a Connecticut-based nonprofit space advocacy organization.
