Home ›› 26 Nov 2022 ›› Opinion
Two of the biggest-ever space projects began their journey of discovery this summer. In July, the James Webb Space Telescope sent its first images back to Earth. Then in late August, the Space Launch System rocket and Orion module were readied for the maiden, uncrewed test flight of the Artemis programme.
But as these landmark missions take their first steps, their successors are already lining up. Over the last decade, NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) programme has funded research into novel space tech that encourages inventors to take advantage of new technologies and break away from the traditional ideas of what a spacecraft should be.
At the same time, an ever-increasing number of new spacefaring nations and private companies are taking chances on new ideas. With results ranging from the innovative to the outright bizarre, here we take a look at what the spacecraft of tomorrow might look like.
A new epoch of spaceflight is upon us. Here, we explore the next generation of spacecraft that will take us to parts of our Solar System that we’ve never seen before. On 19 April 2021, the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Scout became the first spacecraft to make a controlled powered flight on the surface of another planet. The drone-like rotorcraft hitched a ride aboard Perseverance, NASA’s most-advanced rover that’s armed with heavy robot arms, instruments and power-hungry ovens that can bake and analyse soil samples. Conversely, Ingenuity, which only has a mass of 1.8kg, carries just two cameras.
For what it lacked in instrumentation, Ingenuity made up for in range. While Perseverance had to spend weeks skirting around the outside of a boulder-strewn field, Ingenuity flew over it in minutes and was able to scout the path ahead. With such proof of potential, there’s no doubt that while Ingenuity might have been the first such flight, it won’t be the last.
Even before Ingenuity launched, NASA was already planning on sending its successor, Dragonfly, to Saturn’s moon, Titan, in 2027. This moon is simultaneously incredibly familiar and totally alien. Like our planet, it has a nitrogen-rich atmosphere at an Earth-like pressure, while the terrain is shaped by mountains and liquid lakes. Only it’s -180ºC. Instead of rock, the mountains are ice, and the lakes are filled not with water, but liquid methane and ethane. Hydrocarbons such as these are thought to have formed the building blocks of life here on Earth. Could they have done so on Titan as well?
To have a chance of answering these questions, Dragonfly will have significantly more scientific power than its Martian predecessor. The increased lift of its eight rotors, combined with Titan’s thick atmosphere and low gravity of 1.4m/s2, means that Dragonfly can have a mass of 450kg – enough to carry a heavy radio thermal generator and still have a significant science payload.
Dragonfly will have spectrometers to analyse both the atmosphere and soil, as well as meteorological sensors and the all-important cameras. These will help the craft to navigate as it flies for more than 175km across TItan’s surface – double the distance of all the Martian rovers combined – in just 2.7 years.
Science Focus
