Space in 2020: many reasons to celebrate an otherwise terrible year

Life on the surface of planet Earth in 2020 was troubling, to say the least, but above and beyond this rock is a whole outer space where many interesting things and exciting happened.

As mankind curled up to wait for the end Covid-19 pandemic and endured a constant stream of economic, political, environmental and social conflicts, SpaceX, NASA and a host of others were sending all kinds of things into space, including astronauts.

At the end of May, Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken of NASA became the first humans to take off be in orbit of American soil in nearly a decade when they mounted on a SpaceX Crew Dragon to the International Space Station as part of the Demo-2 mission. The fully modern spacecraft, complete with touch screens, was also the first new vehicle certified by NASA for the transport of astronauts since the introduction of the Space Shuttle nearly four decades ago.

The mission was technically a demonstration, but its success was followed in November by the first operational Crew Dragon flight
, carrying four astronauts to the ISS.

Robotic space explorers have also had a busy year. July was the best time to set a course for Mars for the next few years, so NASA took the opportunity, sending the Perseverance rover on its way to the Red Planet, where it will look for signs of potential life and also deploy a small helicopter to explore a little further. The UAE has launched its Hope probe to Mars, and China’s Tianwen-1 is carrying an orbiter, lander and rover in the same direction.

Along with new missions heading to space as emissaries from a locked world, a few older ones brought us samples from beyond Earth. From Japan Hayabusa2 jaws dropped in the air he had gathered after firing a special copper bullet at the asteroid Ryugu. A capsule carrying the resulting dust and pebbles landed in Australia in December, after which the sample was transported to Japan.

NASA also addressed an asteroid this year when the Osiris-Rex spaceship carried out some sort of cosmic pickpocketing of the potentially dangerous asteroid Bennu. This sample is expected to arrive on Earth in 2023.

From China Chang’e Mission 5 grabbed his own space loot by launching, landing on the moon, collecting a sample, and flipping moon rocks and soil, all in less than a month in November and December.

These missions were all started years ago and were successful in 2020. Others have been blocked by the pandemic.

The launch of the next generation of NASA The James Webb Space Telescope has been pushed back again, until 2021. Commercial space companies like Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin have continued to grow, but have yet to successfully send tourists on microgravity rides.

OneWeb, which aims to provide broadband access from low earth orbit, felt the bite of the economic recession and filed for bankruptcy as the pandemic went global. The company emerged in the second half of the year with the UK government as a new co-owner and resumed the launch of satellites to catch up with SpaceX, which has already started beta testing of its broadband constellation, Starlink.

SpaceX and Elon Musk have set other milestones in 2020 beyond achieving human spaceflight and deploying hundreds of routers in orbit. The company has launched 26 Falcon 9 rockets, a few of which have now made seven flights each. On the side, his last The prototype of the spacecraft finally made a high-altitude flight, which ended in a spectacular and explosive hard landing.

To remember, Star man, the model piloting Musk’s red Telsa since taking off atop the Falcon Heavy in early 2018, finally made a close stint through Mars.

Eyes on the sky

When humans and our robots weren’t actually traveling in space, we were very busy watching it with far more fervor than we could muster for another Zoom meeting or webinar.

It is hard to believe that in early 2020 the unusual behavior of the giant star Betelgeuse and the possibility of it becoming a supernova made our list of things to fear. Betelgeuse later turned out to be doing very well – and was easily overlooked when we turned to sanitizing groceries and finding toilet paper on the planet.

But as our dreaded and much ridiculed new normal continued, the skies became a popular distraction as several new comets have been discovered and promised to put on a show. Some sparkling, but Comet Neowise delivered the goods
in July, making itself visible even to naked sky-watchers in a display that was the best in decades. Annual meteor showers like the Perseids, Taurids and Leonids also impressed in 2020. Lucky people in parts of Africa and Asia had the opportunity to witness a “ring of fire” solar eclipse in June, and d ‘others, in a relatively small slice of South America, had glimpses of a total solar eclipse in December.

But perhaps the biggest display was the winter solstice Great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn which made itself readily visible for the first time in eight centuries to close the year. The two largest planets in the solar system appeared as nearly conjoined twins overnight, and even hobbyists with basic telescopes could distinguish Saturn’s rings and several moons from gas giants.

Looking at the planets

Professional astronomers have scanned deep space as they always do and made more exciting discoveries. They spotted evidence of water in new places on Mars, and our other next-door neighbor, Venus, has made a surprising move in ranking the worlds worth looking for signs of life.

In what has since become a controversial claim, a team of scientists have reported seeing phosphine, a by-product of living organisms, in the surprisingly pleasant cloud bridges above the uninhabitable hell that is the surface of Venus.

Astronomers have continued to show that our galaxy and the realms beyond are full of planets, including some potentially habitable Earth-like worlds. There also appears to be a second planet orbiting our nearest stellar neighbor, Proxima Centauri. New for 2020 was the standardization of citizen scientists and even artificial intelligence make such discoveries.

In true 2020 style, however, not all of them were charismatic comets and Earth’s new cousins. In an impressive but disturbing reminder of the violence present in the universe, scientists have captured the process of a distant black hole absolutely eviscerating a star
who got too close through a bit comical but above all terrifying process called spaghettification.

Yes, Virginie, this universe has no problem turning you into pasta and eating you for lunch.

And on a truly sad note, the month of December began with wild footage of the collapse of Puerto Rico’s iconic Arecibo radio observatory. For decades, the huge jungle dish has helped us better understand and explore the universe.

Sorry to end on a downer. It just seems appropriate for the year we have had. But space seen through the eyes of astronauts, scientists, and fans like me remains one of a year’s brightest silver liners that most would otherwise hope to forget.

I wouldn’t dare tempt fate by saying 2021 will be even better, but I will note that the next meteor shower is already here, with the Quadrantids expected to peak on January 2, while February will see Perseverance makes its landing on Mars.

Keep looking forward and up to the sky, and happy new year.