While the private-sector rocketry boom will continue to fulfill an important practical need, other in-progress plans promise something much more profound in the near future: unlocking the universe’s mysteries.
First, there’s the James Webb Space Telescope, expected to launch in October 2021. A NASA, European and CSA collaboration, the space observatory will use advanced infrared technology to look up to 13.6 billion light years away. What could be seen might yield answers about how the universe — and life on Earth — came to be.
“It’s going to basically peer back almost to the beginning of time,” says CSA’s Haltigin. “We’re going to be answering some fundamental questions about the formation of the universe itself.”
The OSIRIS-REx, launched in 2016, may provide similar revelations. The spacecraft’s objective is to study the asteroid Bennu, located around 321 million kilometres from Earth, which could offer clues about our existence.
“This is a mission that’s going to allow us to understand the very beginnings of the solar system, how planets form and potentially where the building blocks of life come from,” says Haltigin, who contributed to the project. Since it arrived at Bennu in 2018, the OSIRIS-REx has been using a CSA-made laser scanner — named OLA — to conduct detailed geographical measurements of the asteroid’s surface. It will also collect samples to be returned to Earth by 2023.
Mars, the moon and the search for water
No accomplishment in the space industry is dreamed of more than putting humans on Mars. It’s likely it may not be possible for another decade, but numerous efforts are underway to realize that dream. Landing on Mars was certainly its own accomplishment for the Perseverance rover, but it’s also there to scour the planet’s topography (and gather samples to be returned in 2031) to better understand its viability for human survival.
Similarly, there are colonization-friendly projects underway like the RASSOR, an excavator capable of extracting water from extraterrestrial soil, or the Orion Spacecraft with a paired launch system powerful enough to propel payloads or astronauts into deep space.