[앵커]
Following last year’s, it is expected that humankind’s various space exploration will continue in the new year.
A rocket to prepare for a manned exploration of Mars, which can only be seen in science-fiction movies, is launched, and the first asteroid impact test is scheduled to be conducted, so interest is already gathering.
Correspondent Kim Young-man.
[기자]
This year too, mankind’s challenges toward space continue.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) plans to launch the next-generation large rocket ‘Space Launch System’, which has been developed with the purpose of manned exploration of Mars in mind, in mid-March or April.
This rocket will carry a manned capsule for lunar orbital flight and fly into space to perform a lunar return flight mission.
The ‘Starship’, which is being developed as a Mars exploration spacecraft by SpaceX, a private space company, will also go on its first orbital test flight as early as March.
Blue Origin, led by Jeff Bezos, will launch its first orbital rocket, the New Glen, later this year.
In addition, the first human experiment to change the orbit of an asteroid is being conducted in outer space.
NASA’s ‘Double Asteroid Orbital Correction Experiment’ spacecraft launched in November last year will collide with the satellite of the asteroid Didymos at a speed of 6.6 km/s at a distance of 11 million km from Earth at the end of September.
Moon exploration is also actively underway.
Russia is planning to launch the lunar probe ‘Luna 25’ in the second half of this year. If successful, it will return to the moon for the first time in 46 years since 1976, and will be the first to explore the lunar Antarctica.
NASA is also conducting the ‘Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment’ mission to check whether water can be secured on the moon by landing an ice mining vessel in Antarctica in December.
India re-attempts an unsuccessful lunar landing in the summer of 2019.
In addition, China is planning to complete the space station Tiangong, which has been built in orbit, within this year.
This is Yonhap News, Kim Young-man. (ymkim@yna.co.kr)
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