In 2021, the number of launches was exceptional: 145 (against 114 the previous year), including that of the Starship rocket, from Elon Musk’s SpaceX company. She took Thomas Pesquet to the ISS, the international space station, of which he became the first French captain.
Another unmissable event, the removal of two rovers on Mars, the American “Perseverance” on February 18, and the Chinese “Zhurong” on May 22, and even of an American helicopter, “Ingenuity”, the first object flying on another. planet than Earth. All are responsible for knowing if there has been life on the red planet, and to compare its history to that of Earth.
Flights planned for around 2040 at the earliest, because the difficulties are numerous (78 million km on average from the earth, against 300,000 for the Earth-Moon distance). 9 months the one-way trip, compared to 3 days for the Moon which becomes, in comparison, a walk in the park!
And, in 2021, these are also probes sent to Mercury, Jupiter and certain asteroids!
Two weeks after launch, @NASAWebb has hit its next biggest milestone: the mirrors have completed deployment and the next-generation telescope has taken its final form.
Next up for Webb? Five months of alignment and calibration before we start getting images: pic.twitter.com/BOj5O1HS37
– NASA (@NASA) January 8, 2022
Last event of the year, and world premiere, the James Webb Space Telescope, launched on December 25, is a formidable time machine. It will allow astronauts to advance in understanding the origins of the universe!
“This new telescope, which is about 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, will discover a region of the past of our existence, and its resolution will also study planets revolving around other suns with, possibly, the presence of water and oxygen. ”
Jean-François Clervoy, astronautto franceinfo
If we saw, in the 1960s, the competition for the conquest of space between the Soviets (Sputnik and Gagarin) and the Americans (Apollo program), it seems today that the Chinese have become major players, and want to make room for it. Recently, China also has its own space station and has, in its sights, a permanent lunar station, which could be a starting point for Mars!
“The Chinese want to show their power and have achieved a great first by landing a rover that rolls on the hidden surface of the Moon, the one we never see from Earth“highlighted Jean-François Clervoy.
In 2021, space has also become a field of private conquest, with the birth of the space tourism market. Jeff Bezos, with Blue Origin or Richard Branson, with Virgin Galactic, paved the way for tourist flights at an altitude of 100 kilometers, for a few minutes of weightlessness and $ 300,000. Elon Musk, he offers a moon ride in his rocket (a Japanese has already reserved his place for hundreds of millions of dollars). A stay in a lunar village to admire a clear Earth is not to be excluded.
However, to taste the joys of weightlessness, there is also a solution for less than 6,000 euros, aboard the Airbus zero G, a unique experience, but also a contribution to the costs of training astronauts!
Listen to the full interview with Jean-François Clervoy