No typical crash: this week in space

Every day, space pieces get into the earth's atmosphere. Most burn completely – or almost so – and occasionally larger fragments reach the surface and typically inject in the ocean. But the space debris that were expected this weekend was different: it was a spaceship that was specially designed for the atmospheric draw – even an atmosphere far harder than that of the earth.

Kosmos 482 was launched in 1972 as a Venus-bound probe in connection with the Venera program of the Soviet Union, which aimed to deliver to the surface of Venus. While a Venera mission was finally successful, most – including cosmos 482 – were failed. A malfunction during the start prevented it from leaving the Earth Railway, leaving the spaceship in a highly elliptical orbit and leading to its new classification under the cosmos designation. Over the decades, the atmospheric pull gradually lowered its height and, after 53 years in space, probably occurred on Saturday, May 10th, for the expected time.

The effects were expected around 6:00 a.m. UTC. Due to the uncertainty in the trajectory of the spacecraft, however, the re -entry window extended up to ten hours before or after the estimated time – and even longer after a few estimates. As a result, the impact location remained unknown. The spaceship could have landed somewhere between 52 ° north and 52 ° south and covered a huge part of the earth's surface.

The USSR spaceship, one of the oldest human objects that are still in circulation until the re-entry, was a metal ball with one meter diameter with a weight of around 500 kilograms. Although it was originally equipped with parachutes, it was highly unlikely that after decades they would not work in space and the long -dead batteries of the spacecraft. If they had not been used and the object did not dissolve through the atmospheric re-entry, it could have hit the sea with the impact power of a semi-meter width meteorite at around 250 km/h. This meant that it could have caused localized damage if it hit an populated area – but not much more. The probability of such a hit was very low: the ocean is over two thirds of the earth's surface, and large land areas are sparsely populated.

As already mentioned, the risk of serious damage was minimal – but the history of Kosmos 482 underlines the continuing importance of the management of space waste and ideally prevent as a whole. Nowadays, most missions can be launched into the earth orbit to avoid that it will become spatial writers at the end of life. Space vehicles can either be burned in a controlled re -entry or brought into a distance, safe orbit, which minimizes the risk of earth and circulation such as satellites and other space. Although malfunctions will always occur, international prevention efforts could reduce the risk and enable humanity to concentrate on cleaning the considerable debris that we have already left to circle our planet.

The plan includes an additional 1 billion US dollars that are intended for the development of missions with occupation missions on Moon and Mars -but it is at costs for broad cuts in other NASA programs. The projects that are expected include the Mars sample return mission that was recently handed over to private contractors as well as the SLS vehicle (Space Launch System) and the Orion spaceship. Although both were originally designed to bring astronauts to the moon, they are now canceled after the first landing as part of the Artemis program, despite the enormous investments that have been made over the years. The Lunar Gateway station of NASA, which circle the moon as part of the Artemis architecture, is also expected after the proposed budget.

Scientific initiatives are expected to take the main burden of the cuts, including unmetable space missions and geosciences, such as satellite-based climate surveillance. NASA's operations in the international space station are also returned, and their programs for education and science will probably also suffer.

Space Science and Advocacy organizations have expressed the alarm in a letter to the leaders of the Congress Committee and warn that the proposed cuts would affect far more than just the space agency. “The effects extend far beyond mission hardware. These cuts would have an impact on research and analysis of space science and analysis, the university departments, research institutions and NASA centers. lead the government and the industry. “

As part of the new budget, NASA is expected to prioritize the above -mentioned occupation missions on the moon and Mars. A crew -Mars mission has long been a long -time dream of Elon Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX, which has a significant impact on the current administration. NASA is currently lacking mission skills of human reviews-and no one is likely to be in the development that a significant part of the financing will go to SpaceX, which will develop the massive spaceship spaceship for this purpose. Musk has undertaken not to start Mars on Mars in 2026, but after two years of test flights, the spaceship does not yet have to achieve any earth's porbit.

With your own moon start frestructure of the NASA – SLS and Orion – In the Hackklotz, the moon missions that are outsourced are also expected. Crewed moon missions are generally considered to be a springboard for Mars missions and serve as test reasons for technologies such as resource extraction, habitat construction, vehicle operation, communication systems and energy generation. Although Musk explained a few months ago that in his opinion, moon missions are a distraction from the way to Mars, it is now clear that – with NASA is no longer able to conduct such missions independently – private companies are also entrusted to each other. The almost exclusive competitors are Musk's own SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' blue origin, which also develops a heavy rocket and crewed moon Landers.

The resilience -Lunar Lander, developed by the Japanese company ISPACE, has successfully joined the moon and is expected to try landing in about a month. The lander was developed in January on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket alongside Blue Ghost, another private moonlander, developed by the American company Firefly. While Firefly chose a faster trajectory to the moon and reached a successful landing until March, ISPACE chose a longer, more fuel -efficient path that gradually expanded its orbit around the earth before he caught the moon.

Last week, Resilience's trajectory crossed the moon's orbit, and the Lander fired its engine for about nine minutes to slow down and be captured by the gravity of the moon. Although the company has not published any specific details about the intended orbit, it was announced that the landing against June 5 – or shortly afterwards – is displayed in the central region of Mare Frigoris (“Sea of ​​Cold”) on the northern part of the nearby of the moon.

With a weight of around 340 kilograms at Landing, the Resilience Lander has a number of scientific instruments and experiments from Japanese universities and companies. The most fascinating payload is persistent, an autonomous five-kilogram mondro, which was developed by the European Department of ISPACE. Tenacious was developed to explore the area, take pictures and collect samples from the moon floor. These samples are officially sold to NASA as part of NASA contracts with companies that develop tools and technologies for the moon sampling collection. Despite the transfer of ownership, the rehearsals remain on the moon for the time being and are nowhere to be transported physically. The rover will also place a miniature model of a house on the moon surface, which was designed by a Swedish artist.

This will be the second attempt by ISPACE on a moon landing. The first, in April 2023, should become the world's first private spaceship to reach a soft lunar landing – four years after the crash of Israel's Beroset Lander. However, the mission ended with the failure when the spaceship fell during its last descent, probably due to a computer disorder. ISPACE plans to start his next country in 2026, followed by another in 2027. The company was recently selected by the Japanese space agency Jaxa to develop a moon orbit satellite, the ice deposits-a significant step towards the exception of water and oxygen for future lunar missions.