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3 predictions for the future of space exploration — including your own trips

Alejandra Marquez Janse

Mary Louise Kelly

Tinbete Ermyas

Peggy Whitson says more widely available space tourism is realistic. Axiom Space hide caption

Peggy Whitson says more widely available space tourism is realistic.

If you've ever traveled somewhere that left you so enthralled that you wanted to go back over and over, then you get how Peggy Whitson feels about space.

She is a seasoned astronaut who has multiple achievements under her belt: She was the first woman to command the International Space Station, and in 2017 broke the record for most cumulative days in space of any American and female astronaut, with a count of 665.

Whitson retired from NASA nearly five years ago, but last month, at age 63, she packed up the necklace she wore on her wedding day, zipped her spacesuit one more time, and took flight in a SpaceX capsule as commander of the Ax-2 mission. It was sponsored by a private company, Axiom Space, where she now works as the director of human spaceflight. Three paying crew members traveled with her.

After returning to Earth, Whitson spoke with All Things Considered host Mary Louise Kelly and shared a few thoughts about the future of space exploration.

This interview has been edited slightly for clarity and brevity.

The Ax-2 crew in a training session. The group, composed of Whitson (far left) and three paying costumers, spent nine days in space last month. Axiom Space hide caption

The Ax-2 crew in a training session. The group, composed of Whitson (far left) and three paying costumers, spent nine days in space last month.

1. Space exploration will be a mix of public and private money

If you look at even the NASA missions returning to the moon, lots of different private space companies are involved in that process. And that includes Axiom Space, for instance, who are building the spacesuits that will be used by the NASA astronauts as they step on the moon again. So it's exciting to be part of this changing philosophy of space and the efforts of commercial companies like Axiom Space. We intend to build the first commercial space station initially attached to the International Space Station, but to undock before the space station is decommissioned.

I think it's a worldwide relationship between different companies and peoples, and that's what makes it such a special time to be a part of the [Ax-2] mission, because [space exploration] is changing flavor and it's exciting because there are going to be many more opportunities in the future.

The Ax-2 crew returns to Earth. Could this be you one day? Axiom Space hide caption

2. More people will be able to go to space

Obviously some of it will take time to make it not cost-prohibitive, but the fact that we are taking those initial steps is really important now. If you look back at commercial aviation and how that occurred and the development of that process, you know, it also started off to be only a few people could be involved and then later more and more, and so now it's pretty commonplace. I like to think that we're doing some of the same steps in commercial spaceflight now.

3. The goals depend on the person — and the country — that's traveling

Well, the objective of the mission is slightly different, obviously. My personal roles and responsibilities of taking care of the crew and ensuring their safety obviously are very similar. But our objectives were, we had one private astronaut, John Shoffner, who was trying to develop science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) outreach products for educators in the future, as well as doing research. And then we had two government sponsored astronauts from Saudi Arabia – the first female Saudi Arabian to fly in space and go to the International Space Station – and the second male to arrive.

SpaceX mission returns from space station with ex-NASA astronaut, 3 paying customers

So the objectives of the crew weren't all that much different necessarily than a NASA mission, which is outreach and scientific investigations, but these were with the specific goals of expanding outreach in specific areas for Saudi – which hadn't had a person in space for 40 years – and, you know, to inspire their youth as well as inspiring the youth in the United States.

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Ramin Skibba

Here’s a Sneak Peek at the Far-Out Future of Space Travel

From Star Trek–like medical scanners to concepts for off-planet agriculture like in The Expanse , science fiction has often inspired actual research at NASA and other space agencies. This week, researchers are meeting at a virtual conference for the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program to brainstorm and investigate sci-fi-like ideas, some of which may very well shape the missions of the next 20 years.

A drone helicopter hopping about a Martian crater or a lunar rover that maps moon ice might have seemed far-fetched a decade ago, but the copter actually flew earlier this year, and the rover is in the planning stages. Now the conference organizers have solicited proposals for more exploratory projects, a few of which the agency might eventually fund. “We invest in long-term, far-out technologies, and most of them probably won’t work. The ones that do might change everything. It’s high risk, high payoff, almost like a venture capital investment portfolio,” says Jason Derleth, the NIAC program executive.

The program isn’t focused on incremental developments but instead seeks game-changing technologies, ones that are 10 times better than the state of the art, Derleth says. He likens it to the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which also explores extremely speculative concepts but developed the precursor to the modern internet, among other innovations.

The annual conference , which continues through Thursday, September 23, is publicly viewable on NIAC’s livestream . Some of the proposals discussed so far—such as for new ways to launch foldable space stations or astronaut habitats, or to extract resources from other worlds—revolve around the understanding that, for lengthy space voyages, you have to make the most of every rocket launch.

The next generation of space travelers will need resources for survival, for protective structures, and to fuel the journey further or return home. “This leaves us with two options: Take everything with us, like if you were going on a hiking trip in the desert. Or find new and creative ways to use whatever is already there,” says Amelia Greig, an aerospace engineer at University of Texas at El Paso, who presented at the conference on Tuesday.

To aid creative reuse of lunar resources, Greig and her colleagues propose a technology called ablative arc mining, which would slurp up water ice and the kinds of metals that could be used as building materials. “It’s like using controlled lightning bolts to mine the moon,” she said during her presentation. Her concept describes a van-sized moon crawler—named after the Jawa sandcrawlers of Star Wars —that picks a spot, and then places a ringed device that it carries on its front end parallel to the ground. Electric arcs zap across the ring, which can be made as large as a meter in diameter, ripping particles from the moon’s surface. Those particles, now charged, can then be moved and sorted by the machine’s electromagnetic fields. That way, rather than scoping just one resource, a single piece of equipment could fill one container with water, another with oxygen attached to other elements, and others with silicon, aluminum, or other metal particles.

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David Gilbert

An artistic representation of the ablative arc mining system deployed into a crater near the lunar south pole.

But, like all early concepts, it faces practical challenges that would have to be overcome: In this case, the moon’s dusty environment could cause problems by getting stuck in the machinery, which would have to be made dust-proof. To hunt for water ice, the crawlers also will have to trundle into permanently shadowed craters, which contain water at about 6 percent by mass but are extremely cold and dark. The crawlers’ electronics would have to be designed to operate in those rugged conditions and with a non-solar power source. It also would be tough for any astronaut to oversee them, though they could monitor the mining from the crater’s rim. NASA estimates that permanent lunar settlements will need around 10,000 kilograms of water per year. That would require at least 20 of these kinds of crawlers roving about, gradually collecting those supplies, unless this technology was supplemented with something else. For now, Greig just hopes to test a smaller demonstration version of the crawler in a few years.

Space mining projects have also prompted ethical questions. For example, scientists and others have raised concerns about lunar mining permanently changing the look of the moon in the night sky. But Greig points out that ablative arc mining wouldn’t look like the environmentally harmful pit mines on Earth; the mining region could be spread out, making some craters only slightly deeper. And as for sustainability issues, she says, “there’s enough water to last human settlements hundreds of years.”

Stop-motion representation of the arc mining process on the lunar surface.

As a potential launching point for moon-goers and expeditions to deep space, NASA has proposed a space station orbiting the moon called the Lunar Gateway . But Zachary Manchester, a roboticist at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, argues that the limited size of rockets allows few options for launching large structures for a lunar station. “If you want something that’s bigger than a rocket fairing, which is at most a few meters, it has to get launched in multiple rockets and assembled in orbit, like the International Space Station . Or it has to somehow get scrunched up into that rocket and then somehow expand out,” Manchester says.

At a session Wednesday, he and Jeffrey Lipton, a mechanical engineer at the University of Washington, proposed a space station that would fit into that confined space. Then, once deployed, it would unfold autonomously, like origami, into a full-sized structure, some 150 times bigger than its folded size. Preliminary designs involve a many-jointed structure made of titanium, aluminum, or another metal.

Since future astronauts will likely be on-station for a while, it would need to rotate to generate artificial gravity to avoid the deleterious health effects of prolonged periods in zero-G. But humans are sensitive to spinning; no one wants to live on a merry-go-round. “If you try to build a rotating space habitat, the only way to do it without making people motion-sick is to spin at up to two revolutions per minute,” Manchester says. To produce Earth-like gravity, such a space station needs to be a kilometer across, he argues. Yet squishing such a massive structure into a tiny space until it’s deployed poses a significant engineering challenge. In addition, to make their idea a reality, Manchester and Lipton ultimately need to figure out how to make the unfolding process not get jammed, despite the structure’s thousands of links and joints.

An artist's illustration of the Lunar Gateway in orbit around the moon.

Like packing for the biggest road trip ever, NASA will face similar challenges when fitting everything needed for moon or Mars structures onto rockets. To lighten the load, some scientists have suggested using Martian rocks as material for 3D-printing parts of structures. (A simulated lunar regolith is currently being test-printed aboard the International Space Station.) But Lynn Rothschild, an astrobiologist at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, has a completely different idea: making structures out of mushrooms—or “mycotecture,” as she calls it. “The humble mushroom can provide an unbelievable building material. It’s completely natural, compostable, and the ultimate green building,” Rothschild says.

Although fungi could be used to grow the material for actual bricks and mortar that astronauts could use for construction, the best kind of space habitat would be assembled before they even arrive. Her team’s proposal involves launching a lander that would include plastic scaffolding and fungal mycelia, white filaments that make the root structure of fungi. (Like yeasts, mycelia can survive for a while without being fed.) The scaffolding would be a lattice of square hollow plastic cells, stitched into layers to make the shape of the final structure. On Mars, it would inflate to perhaps the size of a garage. Using water and oxygen—at least some of which would likely have been sourced or generated on Mars—the fungi would grow along those stitches and fill the cells, eventually turning a tent-like structure into a full-fledged building.

For strength and protection from space radiation, Rothschild thinks some kind of dark fungi could do the trick. “Black fungi—they make you say ‘Blecch,’ they look kind of disgusting. But the black pigment tends to protect from radiation, protecting the fungi and the people inside the habitat,” Rothschild says. She hopes to send a prototype to the International Space Station in the next few years.

Unlike the moon, Mars was once friendly to life . So Rothschild is designing the scaffolding to prevent any chance of renegade fungi escaping beyond the astronauts’ structures. (The last thing NASA wants is for a search for life on other worlds to turn up something that actually came from Earth .) In her team’s design, the fungi are essentially “double-bagged,” with an extra layer in the plastic lattice to ensure they all stay in.

To address those issues, space agencies have “planetary protection” experts like Moogega Cooper, supervisor of the Biotechnology and Planetary Protection Group at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, who spoke at the NIAC conference. “Anywhere you are possibly interacting with liquid water that is inherent to the place, your exploring would definitely catch our attention. Where you find water you may find life,” she says. The United States is one of the original signatories of the Outer Space Treaty, which requires that every space agency or company that wants to send a mission to an alien world make sure the spacecraft and all the equipment aboard are sterilized.

While the NIAC program has a budget of just $8.5 million per year, it supports many exploratory projects. A few of the ideas presented at this week’s conference could go on to the next level, or could get picked up by other agencies or private companies, as in the case of an earlier proposal to propel a smartphone-sized spacecraft to another stellar system with lasers, which inspired Breakthrough Starshot, a privately funded enterprise. Among a few of the topics on the menu for the rest of Wednesday and Thursday: multiple presentations about moon-based radio telescopes , as well as one about personal rovers for astronauts (since Artemis astronauts will be carrying 220-pound packs) and one about planting mushrooms in space regolith to make a more Earth-like growing soil.

“All of the concepts that are awarded are pushing the edge of our understanding, and they really allow us to take science fiction and make it science fact,” Cooper says.

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The future of spaceflight—from orbital vacations to humans on Mars

NASA aims to travel to the moon again—and beyond. Here’s a look at the 21st-century race to send humans into space.

Welcome to the 21st-century space race, one that could potentially lead to 10-minute space vacations, orbiting space hotels , and humans on Mars. Now, instead of warring superpowers battling for dominance in orbit, private companies are competing to make space travel easier and more affordable. This year, SpaceX achieved a major milestone— launching humans to the International Space Station (ISS) from the United States —but additional goalposts are on the star-studded horizon.

Private spaceflight

Private spaceflight is not a new concept . In the United States, commercial companies played a role in the aerospace industry right from the start: Since the 1960s, NASA has relied on private contractors to build spacecraft for every major human spaceflight program, starting with Project Mercury and continuing until the present.

Today, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program is expanding on the agency’s relationship with private companies. Through it, NASA is relying on SpaceX and Boeing to build spacecraft capable of carrying humans into orbit. Once those vehicles are built, both companies retain ownership and control of the craft, and NASA can send astronauts into space for a fraction of the cost of a seat on Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft.

SpaceX, which established a new paradigm by developing reusable rockets , has been running regular cargo resupply missions to the International Space Station since 2012. And in May 2020, the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft carried NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the ISS , becoming the first crewed mission to launch from the United States in nearly a decade. The mission, called Demo-2, is scheduled to return to Earth in August. Boeing is currently developing its Starliner spacecraft and hopes to begin carrying astronauts to the ISS in 2021.

Other companies, such as Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic , are specializing in sub-orbital space tourism. Test launch video from inside the cabin of Blue Origin’s New Shepard shows off breathtaking views of our planet and a relatively calm journey for its first passenger, a test dummy cleverly dubbed “Mannequin Skywalker.” Virgin Galactic is running test flights on its sub-orbital spaceplane , which will offer paying customers roughly six minutes of weightlessness during its journey through Earth’s atmosphere.

With these and other spacecraft in the pipeline, countless dreams of zero-gravity somersaults could soon become a reality—at least for passengers able to pay the hefty sums for the experience.

Early U.S. Spaceflight

Looking to the moon

Moon missions are essential to the exploration of more distant worlds. After a long hiatus from the lunar neighborhood, NASA is again setting its sights on Earth’s nearest celestial neighbor with an ambitious plan to place a space station in lunar orbit sometime in the next decade. Sooner, though, the agency’s Artemis program , a sister to the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s, is aiming to put the first woman (and the next man) on the lunar surface by 2024.

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Extended lunar stays build the experience and expertise needed for the long-term space missions required to visit other planets. As well, the moon may also be used as a forward base of operations from which humans learn how to replenish essential supplies, such as rocket fuel and oxygen, by creating them from local material.

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Such skills are crucial for the future expansion of human presence into deeper space, which demands more independence from Earth-based resources. And although humans have visited the moon before, the cratered sphere still harbors its own scientific mysteries to be explored—including the presence and extent of water ice near the moon's south pole, which is one of the top target destinations for space exploration .

NASA is also enlisting the private sector to help it reach the moon. It has awarded three contracts to private companies working on developing human-rated lunar landers—including both Blue Origin and SpaceX. But the backbone of the Artemis program relies on a brand new, state-of-the-art spacecraft called Orion .

Archival Photos of Spaceflight

Currently being built and tested, Orion—like Crew Dragon and Starliner—is a space capsule similar to the spacecraft of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs, as well as Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft. But the Orion capsule is larger and can accommodate a four-person crew. And even though it has a somewhat retro design, the capsule concept is considered to be safer and more reliable than NASA’s space shuttle—a revolutionary vehicle for its time, but one that couldn’t fly beyond Earth’s orbit and suffered catastrophic failures.

Capsules, on the other hand, offer launch-abort capabilities that can protect astronauts in case of a rocket malfunction. And, their weight and design mean they can also travel beyond Earth’s immediate neighborhood, potentially ferrying humans to the moon, Mars, and beyond.

A new era in spaceflight

By moving into orbit with its Commercial Crew Program and partnering with private companies to reach the lunar surface, NASA hopes to change the economics of spaceflight by increasing competition and driving down costs. If space travel truly does become cheaper and more accessible, it’s possible that private citizens will routinely visit space and gaze upon our blue, watery home world—either from space capsules, space stations, or even space hotels like the inflatable habitats Bigelow Aerospace intends to build .

The United States isn’t the only country with its eyes on the sky. Russia regularly launches humans to the International Space Station aboard its Soyuz spacecraft. China is planning a large, multi-module space station capable of housing three taikonauts, and has already launched two orbiting test vehicles—Tiangong-1 and Tiangong-2, both of which safely burned up in the Earth’s atmosphere after several years in space.

Now, more than a dozen countries have the ability to launch rockets into Earth orbit. A half-dozen space agencies have designed spacecraft that shed the shackles of Earth’s gravity and traveled to the moon or Mars. And if all goes well, the United Arab Emirates will join that list in the summer of 2020 when its Hope spacecraft heads to the red planet . While there are no plans yet to send humans to Mars, these missions—and the discoveries that will come out of them—may help pave the way.

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Future of space travel: What will it be like?

More than 60 years have passed since the first human space flight, but the future of space travel is still being written since only about 600 people have been in orbit so far. For most people willing to experience space travel, this wish remains an unattainable dream. But let’s remember that cars, planes, and trains, available to everyone today, seemed a fantasy once. So will space tourism ever be a reality? It already is. More than that, it has been around for 20 years. Orbital Today will shortly remind you of the story and try to look into the future of space travel.

How it all started

A 37-year-old American English and biology teacher Sharon McAuliffe could become the first space tourist, on winning the “Teacher in Space” competition in 1984. By that time, US astronauts had made 55 successful space flights, and their safe return to Earth had become commonplace. to increase public’s interest in the industry and demonstrate space flight reliability, NASA decided to send the first civilian into space. But it all ended in tragedy. On 28th January 1986, 73 seconds after launch, the Challenger’s fuel tank exploded, killing all seven crew members, including McAuliffe. The practice of sending amateurs into space has been abandoned for many years, and the space tourism future was put on hold.

The second attempt took place in April 2001. American businessman Dan Tito paid Space Adventures a whopping $20 million for a seat on a Russian Soyuz rocket to go to the ISS. The journey lasted ten days, eight of which Tito spent at the station in zero gravity at an altitude of 400km from the Earth in the company of professional astronauts. From 2002 to 2009, another 7 millionaires and billionaires followed his example, but after that, no one wanted to part with a significant sum for years.

The tipping point occurred in the summer of 2021 when private aerospace companies Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin sent their first tourists into space, and while these flights were suborbital, they still determined the future of space tourism trends.

Unlike the $20 million eight-day trip to the ISS, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson’s companies offer to spend only three minutes in zero gravity, but the fare is also way lower – $200,000. At the same time, Virgin VSS Unity flight takes 2.5 hours, and Blue Origin New Shepard’s – 11 minutes. This time difference is explained by different launch technologies. Virgin uses an air-launch system (similar to an aeroplane), while Blue Origin uses a classic vertical rocket launch. One thing these two have in common is that both offer to enjoy the view of Earth and starts from space, through panoramic windows from a height of more than 60km.

Virgin has made only one tourist launch so far, while Blue Origin carried out three. The pricing policy has fully justified itself. Seats in the suborbital shuttles of both companies are sold out several years in advance.

As the era of suborbital flights officially began, the interest in orbital flights rekindled. Unwilling to lag behind its main competitors, in September 2021, Space X hastened to launch the first Inspiration 4 orbital mission. The mission implied that four tourists stay on the Crew Dragon ship in orbit for three days. Following in Elon Musk’s footsteps, the Russian Soyuz MS 20 delivered Japanese billionaire Yusaka Maezawa and his assistant to the ISS. This marked an important milestone for space tourism in the future.

What is the future of space tourism?

A study by Northern Sky Research (NSR) analysts suggests that over the next 10 years, about 60,000 passengers will go into space, and the total income from space tourism will be about 20 billion US dollars. What will the future of space travel look like?

Suborbital transportation

Private companies will continue to improve suborbital flight technologies, reducing their cost and improving the quality. However, despite this, interest in suborbital tourism is unlikely to last long due to limited supply. The Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic spacecraft can carry a maximum of six people (including two Virgin pilots) and offer only three minutes in zero gravity. Besides, the ships do not cross the Karman line (100km), beyond which real space begins. However, there is hope.

Experts believe that future space travel technology will be able to replace long air flights. In 2020, SpaceX announced its Starship rocket currently in development will be able to take up to 100 passengers on board and deliver them from one continent to another in less than an hour. More specifically, a 15-hour flight to Shanghai from New York on Starship will take only 40 minutes. If Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic follow the same path, while providing adequate service costs, the demand for suborbital flights will grow steadily.

Orbital vacation

As more companies consider space tourism, orbital vacations will become one of the future space tourism trends. Orbital infrastructure for recreation, including hotels in orbit and on the moon, could become profitable. Interest in the ISS in this regard is already reemerging. In addition, Orion Span and Blue Origin are developing luxury space hotel concepts called Aurora Station and Orbital Reef . Of course, vacations in space are still far away, but many tourists can already visit space themed hotels on Earth. The best of them are located in China, the USA, Canada, and Switzerland.

Will space tourism ever be affordable?

No doubt, only multi millionaires can afford such trips today. Paying 200 thousand dollars for 3 minutes in weightlessness or 20 million for 8 days in space is not something everyone can easily afford. A century ago, ordinary people could hardly pay for a ticket across the Atlantic, and flying on planes was even more expensive. Today, such trips no longer surprise anyone. Once space tourism becomes mainstream, it will also have a positive impact on many socio-economic processes on Earth: job creation, development of new energy infrastructure based on solar energy, etc. This will increase the scale of opportunity and innovation, boost competition, and ultimately make space travel available for ordinary citizens.

Is space tourism a good idea after all?

Every industry has positive and negative aspects, and space travel is no exception. Despite the prospects and benefits, this industry calls for careful risk assessment. Let’s take a look at the main facts about future space travel.

1. High expenses

Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic flights require huge investments in infrastructure and technology that are not paying off at this stage. How much does it cost for space tourism? It is difficult to say, but the costs are in the tens of billions. In fact, these are very expensive toys of billionaires. Of course, they can afford such a luxury at the expense of other, highly profitable businesses, but imagine if this money was spent on more pressing issues, i.e., fighting poverty, hunger, medicine, etc.

2. Passenger health

While astronauts take years to prepare for flights, private individuals will fly with minimal instruction. However, heavy workloads and zero-gravity conditions greatly affect health. According to a recent study involving British astronaut Tim Peake , space travel causes more than a third of astronauts to experience temporary anemia due to the destruction of large numbers of red blood cells. While astronauts remain in a state of weightlessness, this does not cause any problems, but the symptoms appear on Earth, under the influence of gravity. This threatens not only the development of space tourism but also the idea of ​​colonising planets since it creates an increased risk for passengers experiencing conditions exacerbated by anemia. Here, we are, first of all, talking about cardiovascular pathologies, which, according to WHO, top the list of common diseases. In other words, you need to be not only rich but absolutely healthy to fly into space. The combination of these factors significantly reduces the number of potential space tourism customers.

3. Environmental impact

A rocket burns hundreds of tons of fuel to overcome the Earth’s gravity and leave the atmosphere. Of course, humanity is inventing ever-more environmentally friendly fuels, but emissions in the upper atmosphere still destroy the ozone layer and provoke global warming. And although the level of emissions from rockets is less than 1% compared with cars, the development of space tourism will inevitably lead to a significant increase in the number of rocket launches, which means an increase in environmental impact risk.

In addition, emissions are not the only problem with a rocket launch . While technology does not yet allow a full transition to a reusable rocket, there remains a high risk of an uncontrolled fall of the first stages to Earth, spills and fuel leaks during transportation, which inevitably destroys the environment.

And yet, despite all cons, the future of space exploration looks quite promising. Rapid technology development can no longer be stopped. In another 5-10 years, getting from London to Sydney by a rocket in half an hour or spending a vacation in orbit could become as commonplace as ordering a taxi or a hotel room today.

Emma joined the team in 2020 as an Editorial Assistant. She is currently on an internship with us while going through her further education. She is enthusiastic about Science and about Space in particular.

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What’s next in space

The moon, private space travel, and the wider solar system will all have major missions over the next 12 months.

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We’re going back to the moon—again—in 2023. Multiple uncrewed landings are planned for the next 12 months, spurred on by a renewed effort in the US to return humans to the lunar surface later this decade. Both private space companies and national agencies are set to make the 240,000-mile trek to our celestial neighbor, where they will test landing capabilities, look for usable water ice , and more.

Previous years were “all about Mars,” says Jill Stuart, a space policy expert from the London School of Economics in the UK. “Now we’ve shifted back to the moon.”

That is not all 2023 has in store. We’re also likely to see significant strides made in private human spaceflight, including the first-ever commercial spacewalk, compelling missions heading out into—or back from—other solar system destinations, and new rockets set to take flight.

Here’s what the next year has lined up for space.

Moon landings

A lunar lander will already be on its way when 2023 begins. Launched in December on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, the private spacecraft Hakuto-R, developed by Japanese firm ispace , is on a four-month journey to reach the moon , where it will deploy rovers built by the space agencies of Japan and the United Arab Emirates, among other goals. If successful, Hakuto-R could become the first private mission to land on the moon in March.

We say “could” because two private landers from the US—one from the firm Astrobotic and the other from Intuitive Machines, called Peregrine and Nova-C, respectively—are also set to reach the moon around the same time. Both are NASA-backed missions with various instruments on board to study the lunar environment, part of the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payloads Services program, which aims to spur commercial interest in the moon ahead of human missions planned for later this decade under its Artemis program.

The first part of that program, Artemis I, saw an uncrewed Orion spacecraft launch to the moon on NASA’s giant new Space Launch System rocket in November 2022. While the next Artemis mission, a crewed flight around the moon, is not planned until 2024, these next 12 months will lay important groundwork for Artemis by studying the moon’s surface and even looking for water ice that could be a potential target for future human missions, among other goals. “The moon is getting a lot more attention than it has done for many years,” says Jon Cowart, a former NASA human spaceflight manager now at the Aerospace Corporation in the US.

Intuitive Machines has a second lunar landing planned in 2023. Also on the books are landings from the space agencies of India and Japan, with Chandrayaan-3 and SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) , respectively. India hopes to launch in August 2023. It will be the country’s second attempt—the first crash-landed on the moon in 2019. A date for SLIM, which will test precision landing on the moon, has not yet been set. Russia reportedly has plans for the moon in 2023 too with its Luna-25 lander, but the status of the mission is unclear.

Private space travel

Since May 2020, SpaceX has been using its Crew Dragon spacecraft to ferry astronauts to space, some to the International Space Station (ISS) under contract with NASA and others on private missions. But SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission , currently slated for March 2023, will be a big new step.

Four commercial astronauts, including billionaire Jared Isaacman, who is paying for the flight and also funded SpaceX’s first all-private human spaceflight in 2021, will target a maximum orbit of 1,200 kilometers, higher than any human spacecraft since the Apollo missions. And in a first for commercial human spaceflight, the crew will don spacesuits and venture outside the spacecraft.

“Polaris Dawn is really exciting,” says Laura Forczyk from the space consulting firm Astralytical. “My understanding is that the entire vehicle will be evacuated. Everybody is going to at least stick their heads out.”

The mission may help NASA decide whether a future Crew Dragon mission could be used to service the Hubble Space Telescope, a capability that the agency has been investigating with SpaceX. “We’ll have some idea whether it’s feasible,” says Forczyk.

Two more private missions using Crew Dragon—Axiom-2 and Axiom-3—are planned to head for the ISS in 2023, as well as two NASA flights using Crew Dragon. A competing vehicle from the US firm Boeing is also set to launch with crew for the first time in April 2023, following multiple delays .

Meanwhile, we wait to see if Jeff Bezos’s company Blue Origin will be allowed to launch with humans again. The company has been grounded following an uncrewed launch failure in September 2022. Another private spaceflight pioneer, Virgin Galactic, has been relatively quiet since it launched its founder Sir Richard Branson into space in July 2021. 

All these developments in commercial human spaceflight may be overshadowed by the first orbital flight attempt of SpaceX’s massive and reusable Starship rocket, which was undergoing launchpad tests earlier this month and should launch in 2023, if not by the end of 2022.

If successful, the rocket, which would surpass NASA’s Space Launch System as the largest rocket to make it to orbit, could transform our exploration of space . “The ability to take more mass up opens up new opportunities,” says Uma Bruegman, an expert in space strategies at the Aerospace Corporation. That could include, one day, human missions to Mars—or beyond. But there’s a long way to go yet. “It’s definitely an important year [for Starship],” says Cowart. “They’ve got a lot to do.” One of its nearer-term goals will be preparing for the moon—NASA chose Starship’s upper stage as the initial lunar lander for the Artemis program.

Into the solar system

Moons of the solar system’s biggest planet are also on the agenda next year. April 2023 will see a gripping new mission launch from the European Space Agency (ESA) called JUICE, for “Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer.” Scheduled to arrive in orbit at Jupiter in 2031, the spacecraft will perform detailed studies of the Jovian moons Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa, all of which are thought to harbor oceans that could contain life beneath their icy surfaces.

“It’s the first mission that’s fundamentally focused on the icy moons,” says Mark McCaughrean, senior advisor for science and exploration at ESA. “We now know these icy moons have very deep water oceans, and they could have the conditions for life to have developed.”

JUICE will map these oceans with radar instruments, but McCaughrean says it will also be able to look for possible biosignatures on the surface of Europa’s ice, which could rain down from plumes ejected into space from its subsurface ocean.

Later in 2023, ESA is scheduled to see another major mission launch: its Euclid telescope, which was switched from a Russian rocket to a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The telescope will probe the “dark universe,” observing billions of galaxies over a third of the sky to better understand dark matter and dark energy in the cosmos.

In October, NASA should launch a significant science mission of its own when Psyche takes flight following a delay from 2022. The spacecraft will head to 16 Psyche, an unusual metal-rich asteroid that has never been seen up close.

A number of other intriguing developments are expected in 2023. NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission is scheduled to return to Earth in September with pieces of an asteroid called Bennu, which could offer new insight into the structure and formation of the solar system. Amazon aims to send up the first satellites for Project Kuiper in early 2023, the start of a 3,000-satellite orbiting communications network it hopes will rival SpaceX’s Starlink constellation. And several new rockets are set to launch, including the United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket (it will carry Astrobotic’s moon lander and some of Amazon's satellites) and possibly Blue Origin’s large New Glenn rocket. Both are heavy-lift rockets that could take many satellites into space.

“There’s a huge swathe of activity,” says Cowart. “I’m very excited about this year.”

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3 predictions for the future of space exploration — including your own trips

If you've ever traveled somewhere that left you so enthralled that you wanted to go back over and over, then you get how Peggy Whitson feels about space.

She is a seasoned astronaut who has multiple achievements under her belt: She was the first woman to command the International Space Station, and in 2017 broke the record for most cumulative days in space of any American and female astronaut, with a count of 665.

Whitson retired from NASA nearly five years ago, but last month, at age 63, she packed up the necklace she wore on her wedding day, zipped her spacesuit one more time, and took flight in a SpaceX capsule as commander of the Ax-2 mission. It was sponsored by a private company, Axiom Space, where she now works as the director of human spaceflight. Three paying crew members traveled with her.

After returning to Earth, Whitson spoke with All Things Considered host Mary Louise Kelly and shared a few thoughts about the future of space exploration.

This interview has been edited slightly for clarity and brevity.

1. Space exploration will be a mix of public and private money

If you look at even the NASA missions returning to the moon, lots of different private space companies are involved in that process. And that includes Axiom Space, for instance, who are building the spacesuits that will be used by the NASA astronauts as they step on the moon again. So it's exciting to be part of this changing philosophy of space and the efforts of commercial companies like Axiom Space. We intend to build the first commercial space station initially attached to the International Space Station, but to undock before the space station is decommissioned.

I think it's a worldwide relationship between different companies and peoples, and that's what makes it such a special time to be a part of the [Ax-2] mission, because [space exploration] is changing flavor and it's exciting because there are going to be many more opportunities in the future.

2. More people will be able to go to space

Obviously some of it will take time to make it not cost-prohibitive, but the fact that we are taking those initial steps is really important now. If you look back at commercial aviation and how that occurred and the development of that process, you know, it also started off to be only a few people could be involved and then later more and more, and so now it's pretty commonplace. I like to think that we're doing some of the same steps in commercial spaceflight now.

3. The goals depend on the person — and the country — that's traveling

Well, the objective of the mission is slightly different, obviously. My personal roles and responsibilities of taking care of the crew and ensuring their safety obviously are very similar. But our objectives were, we had one private astronaut, John Shoffner, who was trying to develop science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) outreach products for educators in the future, as well as doing research. And then we had two government sponsored astronauts from Saudi Arabia – the first female Saudi Arabian to fly in space and go to the International Space Station – and the second male to arrive.

So the objectives of the crew weren't all that much different necessarily than a NASA mission, which is outreach and scientific investigations, but these were with the specific goals of expanding outreach in specific areas for Saudi – which hadn't had a person in space for 40 years – and, you know, to inspire their youth as well as inspiring the youth in the United States.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

The view to 2030

“if you don’t think you’re going fast enough, you’re not”, more on the future of space.

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Look out below: What will happen to the space debris in orbit?

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Large LEO satellite constellations: Will it be different this time?

The next normal explores the future of grocery, college, video entertainment, and more., latest editions of the next normal, the future of biotech: ai-driven drug discovery, could this be a glimpse into life in the 2030s, the future of video entertainment: immersive, gamified, and diverse.

3 predictions for the future of space exploration — including your own trips

If you've ever traveled somewhere that left you so enthralled that you wanted to go back over and over, then you get how Peggy Whitson feels about space.

She is a seasoned astronaut who has multiple achievements under her belt: She was the first woman to command the International Space Station, and in 2017 broke the record for most cumulative days in space of any American and female astronaut, with a count of 665.

Whitson retired from NASA nearly five years ago, but last month, at age 63, she packed up the necklace she wore on her wedding day, zipped her spacesuit one more time, and took flight in a SpaceX capsule as commander of the Ax-2 mission. It was sponsored by a private company, Axiom Space, where she now works as the director of human spaceflight. Three paying crew members traveled with her.

After returning to Earth, Whitson spoke with All Things Considered host Mary Louise Kelly and shared a few thoughts about the future of space exploration.

This interview has been edited slightly for clarity and brevity.

1. Space exploration will be a mix of public and private money

If you look at even the NASA missions returning to the moon, lots of different private space companies are involved in that process. And that includes Axiom Space, for instance, who are building the spacesuits that will be used by the NASA astronauts as they step on the moon again. So it's exciting to be part of this changing philosophy of space and the efforts of commercial companies like Axiom Space. We intend to build the first commercial space station initially attached to the International Space Station, but to undock before the space station is decommissioned.

I think it's a worldwide relationship between different companies and peoples, and that's what makes it such a special time to be a part of the [Ax-2] mission, because [space exploration] is changing flavor and it's exciting because there are going to be many more opportunities in the future.

2. More people will be able to go to space

Obviously some of it will take time to make it not cost-prohibitive, but the fact that we are taking those initial steps is really important now. If you look back at commercial aviation and how that occurred and the development of that process, you know, it also started off to be only a few people could be involved and then later more and more, and so now it's pretty commonplace. I like to think that we're doing some of the same steps in commercial spaceflight now.

3. The goals depend on the person — and the country — that's traveling

Well, the objective of the mission is slightly different, obviously. My personal roles and responsibilities of taking care of the crew and ensuring their safety obviously are very similar. But our objectives were, we had one private astronaut, John Shoffner, who was trying to develop science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) outreach products for educators in the future, as well as doing research. And then we had two government sponsored astronauts from Saudi Arabia – the first female Saudi Arabian to fly in space and go to the International Space Station – and the second male to arrive.

So the objectives of the crew weren't all that much different necessarily than a NASA mission, which is outreach and scientific investigations, but these were with the specific goals of expanding outreach in specific areas for Saudi – which hadn't had a person in space for 40 years – and, you know, to inspire their youth as well as inspiring the youth in the United States.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Exploring Mars Together

NASA is reimagining the future of Mars exploration, driving new scientific discoveries, and preparing for humans on Mars.

Fascination with the Red Planet began with early astronomers in ancient Egypt. The Babylonians and the Greeks tracked the motion of the planet, while Galileo made the first telescope observations of Mars. Even today, when we look into the night sky and see the pale red dot above us, it inspires us to wonder about this nearby world.

NASA is reimagining the future of Mars exploration, driving new scientific discoveries, and preparing for humans on Mars. NASA’s Mars Exploration Program will focus the next two decades on its science-driven systemic approach on these strategic goals: exploring for potential life, understanding the geology and climate of Mars, and preparation for human exploration.

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NASA’s Mars Exploration Program is focusing on its future - delivering profound scientific investigation with a new strategic paradigm designed to send lower-cost, high-science-value missions and payloads to Mars at a higher frequency.

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Mars Exploration Program

The Mars Exploration Program is a science-driven program that seeks to understand whether Mars was, is, or can be, a habitable world.

The Future of Mars Plan 2023-2043

How We Explore Mars

To discover the possibilities for life on Mars, NASA uses science-driven robotic missions enabling us to explore Mars in ways we never have before.

Mars 2020: Perseverance Rover

The Mars 2020 mission Perseverance rover is the first step of a roundtrip journey to return Mars samples to Earth. (2020-present)

Mars Sample Return

NASA and ESA are planning ways to bring the first samples of Mars material back to Earth for detailed study. (Launching NET 2027)

Curiosity Rover

Curiosity is investigating Mars to determine whether the Red Planet ever was habitable to microbial life. (2011-present)

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

MRO explores the planet's atmosphere and terrain from orbit. It is also a crucial communications hub.

Mars News and Features

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What the next 20 years of space travel could achieve — from the Moon to mankind on Mars

Sci-fi writer stephen baxter imagines how technology will develop in the 2020s and 2030s, as the human colonisation of other planets begins.

In March 2019, the US Vice President Mike Pence publicly challenges Nasa to mount a crewed return to the Moon before the end of 2024. This would be the last year of a second term for President Trump – it’s an echo of President Kennedy’s call for a Moon landing before the end of the 1960s, which led to the Apollo programme.

The Nasa of the 2020s is not the young and nimble organisation of 1960. However, the challenge is accepted. In fact, Nasa, with its overseas partners, has already begun the development of new lunar technology.

This depends on a heavy-lift launcher called the Space Launch System , which is a rival to the Saturn V; an Apollo-like spacecraft being developed with the Europeans; and the Lunar Gateway , a space station in lunar orbit, from which astronauts could descend to the surface.

All that is missing is a lander, a new Lunar Module. But the private company Blue Origin steps up to the plate, with a design it has been developing since 2016. And so the first lunar mission since Apollo launches in late 2024.

The Moon’s first tragedy

By now, however, the decade of the Moon is in full swing. Visits from automated landers and rovers have been launched by a variety of countries, including the Europeans, Japan, India and – most ambitiously – China, which attempts sample-return flights.

Still, it is believed that the majority of humankind watch or listen on 13 November 2024 – just inside Pence’s deadline – as Nasa astronauts Jeff Krauss and Kaui Pukui begin their cautious descent towards the Mare Imbrium, the first lunar crew since Apollo 17.

In the year 2029, 60 years after Apollo 11, a Chinese crew lands on the surface, respectfully close to the site of the 2024 US landing attempt.

The Pence mission had always been premature. Krauss and Pukui were not the first to land on the Moon, but, six years after their disastrous descent, they are the first to be buried there.

Mission to Mars

It’s in the 2030s that humans finally land on Mars – using a technology strategy already decades old.

Back in 1990 a team of engineers led by Robert Zubrin presented Nasa with a new plan to get people to Mars, called “Mars Direct”. The core of it was a scheme to manufacture rocket fuel on Mars, by using the Red Planet’s carbon dioxide air to make methane. Removing the need to carry the propellant for a return journey all the way to Mars reduces the mission size and cuts costs.

The mission unfolds across several launch windows. First, an uncrewed Earth Return Vehicle (ERV) is sent to Mars, along with an automated factory for manufacturing the methane propellant. The stratagem is designed for safety. The human crew do not launch until their return ship is safely on Mars and fuelled up.

The arrival of humans

At last, on 4 April 2038, a crew drawn from four nations – the US, Russia, China, and the European Federation – travelling in a ship assembled at Lagrange Station in Earth orbit, lands on Mars. Zubrin lives to see his vision fulfilled.

The landing site is in the Ares Vallis, close to the remains of Nasa’s Pathfinder probe. This echoes the achievement of Apollo 12 on the Moon in 1969, which had tested navigation techniques by landing within walking distance of an inert Surveyor probe. It is necessary for the ERV and lander to touch down close to each other – and Pathfinder is as good a marker to aim for as any.

There are other objectives, such as in examining the behaviour of materials. But just as reaching the Surveyor was a mission highlight for the Apollo astronauts, it is a cultural feat to visit the monument. A shot of mission commander Martha Ono cradling Pathfinder’s tiny Sojourner rover in her arms is the most forwarded post in social media history.

Space archaeologists, however, howl with anguish.

The new space race: Designs of the future The Moon bases In the 1970s, the apparent lack of water in Apollo Moon rock samples had been a grave disappointment. Water could have been cracked into hydrogen and oxygen to supply breathable air and rocket fuel. Without water, the Moon was much less interesting a destination. But by 2020 extensive water deposits had already been discovered in wide areas of the Moon, in the form of hydroxyl compounds. And in 2028 a dramatic discovery by the Chinese of easily accessible water-ice in the shadows of the lunar north pole suddenly revived old optimism. By the 2030s, astronauts from many nations have reached the Moon. And colonies have quickly developed – extracting metals and other materials for various purposes, including the manufacture of heavy components of habitats and Mars ships. The endless, unshielded sunlight is an obvious energy resource. The principles of outer space law are still upheld: you can exploit lunar resources, but there is no sovereignty. No nation owns the Moon. The colonists are happy. The spaceplanes In the early days of space exploration, expensive launchers such as the Saturn V were thrown away after one use. A true spaceplane would take off unassisted from a runway, reach orbit, then return to land. The major issue is that such a craft can’t carry all its own fuel, and the oxidiser to burn that fuel. A jet must collect oxygen from the air, but if the craft itself is travelling faster than sound, the intake of air creates drag. In 2025 the first true spaceplane flies. Skylon’s engine works like a conventional jet up to five times the speed of sound, at which point the engine switches to an internal liquid oxygen supply. True space tourism briefly blossoms, before becoming deeply unfashionable in a new age of climate management. Robotic exploration Two large, expensive and elderly probes finally reach Jupiter in the 2030s: Nasa’s Europa Clipper, set in orbit around Jupiter to make multiple flybys of the potentially life-bearing moon Europa; and ESA’s Juice, the Jupiter icy moons explorer. The probes are magnificent and return good science. But having been designed and built before 2020, they now seem too big, too heavy and frustratingly dumb – in contrast to a new generation of small, smart probes being sent out to explore the asteroid belt and beyond.

Read the rest of Stephen Baxter’s predictions in the August issue of ‘ BBC Science Focus ’ magazine, £4.99, on sale tomorrow

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Tomorrow’s Cosmos: What Will Space Look Like in 100 Years

By: Author Valerie Forgeard

Posted on October 30, 2023

Categories Society

In 1903, the Wright Brothers took to the skies for the first time, and a mere 66 years later, humans walked on the Moon.

If the past century has taught us anything, it’s that our progress in the realm of space is not linear but exponential.

As we stand on the precipice of new frontiers—armed with increasingly sophisticated spacecraft, the burgeoning field of artificial intelligence, and a growing interest in deep space exploration—we can’t help but wonder:

What will space look like a century from now? Will we be vacationing on Mars? finding new homes in distant galaxies, or even communicating with intelligent life forms? And how will ongoing issues like climate change influence this stellar journey?

Let’s venture into a future sculpted by technological prowess, human curiosity, and the indomitable laws of physics.

Key Takeaways

• The possibility of encountering extraterrestrial life and communicating with aliens is increasing with advancements in technology and understanding of extraterrestrial ecosystems.
• Space travel and exploration will continue to evolve, with advancements in technology and milestones paving the way for future advancements.
• Future space travel predictions include interstellar tourism, faster-than-light travel, and self-repairing spacecraft, promising thrilling possibilities.
• Space technology advancements will revolutionize both space travel and life on Earth, with advancements in interstellar communication, AI-driven spacecraft, and sustainable habitats.

Predictions for Extra-Terrestrial Life in the Next Century

You’re probably wondering if we’ll finally encounter extra-terrestrial life in the next century, aren’t you? With advancements in technology and our understanding of extraterrestrial ecosystems, it’s becoming increasingly likely.

Astrobiologists are working tirelessly to understand how life could exist beyond our planet. As we continue to explore distant planets and moons, who knows what we might find?

There’s a whole universe out there just waiting to be discovered. The search for alien communication is already underway with projects like SETI and Breakthrough Listen.

In the next 100 years, we may not only detect signs of alien life but also decode their signals. Imagine that – us having an intergalactic conversation! It’s all very exciting, isn’t it?

The Evolution of Space Travel and Exploration

You’ve marveled at the impressive milestones of past space explorations, from the first human-made object reaching outer space to the awe-inspiring moon landing.

Now, it’s time to dive into a thorough analysis of our current space travel technologies and how they’re revolutionizing our approach to traversing the cosmos.

Looking ahead, we’ll delve into what future predictions suggest about space travel, potentially unlocking new realms of possibility in our relentless quest for cosmic understanding and exploration.

Past Space Exploration Milestones

In your lifetime, there’s been a number of significant milestones in space exploration that have paved the way for future advancements. The space pioneers’ tireless efforts resulted in the historic moon landing, forever changing our perception of what’s achievable.

Here’s a table capturing some key moments:

These achievements aren’t just historical markers; they’re stepping stones towards an exciting cosmic frontier. As we study these past triumphs, we can better anticipate and shape space’s future evolution.

Current Space Travel Technologies

It’s astonishing to see how current technologies are revolutionizing space travel. Advancements in reusable rockets and satellite technology have paved the way for a new era.

You’re witnessing a shift towards commercialization with space tourism gaining momentum. Companies like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic are pioneering ventures that’ll soon let you vacation among the stars.

Moreover, asteroid mining isn’t just science fiction anymore. It’s becoming an attainable goal that could supply Earth with valuable resources. Imagine the wealth of minerals and water ice waiting to be extracted from these celestial bodies!

These developments aren’t merely fascinating—they’re reshaping our understanding of what’s achievable. As you journey into this exciting future, keep your eyes on the skies. The next century of space exploration promises wonders beyond imagination.

Future Space Travel Predictions

Peering into the future, you’re likely curious about what’s in store for space travel. Interstellar tourism could be more than just a sci-fi dream – think hopping between stars as easily as you’d jet off to another country today. Alien communication might not be far-off either; we’re constantly developing new ways to decode and send messages across the cosmos.

Here’s a glimpse of potential advancements:

Indeed, the future of space travel holds thrilling possibilities.

How Space Technology Will Change in 100 Years

We’ll likely see massive advancements in space technology over the next century. As an enthusiast, here’s what you should anticipate:

• Revolutionary space tourism advancements making interstellar travel more accessible.
• Interstellar communication systems that will bring us closer to far-off galaxies.
• Development of self-sustaining habitats for long-duration space missions.
• Quantum leaps in propulsion technology, allowing faster and more efficient journeys.
• Advanced AI and robotics to aid exploration and colonization efforts.

These advances aren’t just sci-fi fantasies but on the horizon. Every step forward in space tech redefines our understanding of the universe.

But it isn’t all just about reaching new frontiers. Stay tuned as we delve into how these cosmic developments could have earth-shattering impacts back home.

The Impact of Space Developments on Earth

You’re probably wondering how these celestial advancements could revolutionize life on Earth. Well, imagine this: Space tourism, once a dream, is now an achievable reality that’s poised to become commonplace in the next century. You’ll be vacationing among the stars while providing valuable scientific research data.

But space isn’t just about leisure – it’s also about law and order. Earth’s space policies must evolve to manage potential disputes and ensure sustainability of outer space activities. Regulations will need to balance commercial interests with preservation of the cosmic environment.

Future Scope of Human Settlements in Space

Imagine you’re laying the groundwork for humanity’s future in space, and the task of constructing sustainable habitats beyond our blue planet falls onto your shoulders. You’ll need to take into account not just the architectural marvels required in building these cosmic homes, but also grapple with significant life sustenance challenges.

As we delve into this exciting yet daunting prospect, let’s explore both the innovations that could make such habitats possible and confront the survival issues we’d face living light-years from Earth.

Building Space Habitats

It’s plausible that building space habitats could be a common occurrence in the next century. You might dwell in a high-tech bubble, cultivating your own food through Space Agriculture and abiding by new rules of Cosmic Governance.

Here are some aspects to consider:

• Space Agriculture : Sophisticated hydroponic systems and cutting-edge genetic engineering hold promise for farming beyond Earth’s atmosphere. However, the peculiarities of space present unique hurdles. In a low-gravity environment, for example, water becomes a rebellious element, refusing to distribute uniformly and thereby depriving plant roots of oxygen. What’s more, the lack of gravity prevents hydroponic solutions from mixing as they would on Earth, making nutrient distribution a complicated affair. Yet, researchers are not deterred. Experiments like growing lettuce in orbit have yielded results that are nothing short of encouraging.
• Cosmic Governance: Crafting a legal framework for life among the stars is an endeavor fraught with complexity. Our perceptions of extraterrestrial civilizations are still nascent and colored by our Earth-centric biases. As a result, the architecture of laws that govern interstellar coexistence must be conceived with an ethos of inclusivity and open-mindedness, shedding terrestrial prejudices.
• Energy Sources: Solar power isn’t just an Earth-bound solution; it’s a radiant candidate for fueling our celestial ambitions. However, the mechanics of harnessing and managing solar energy in space remain largely in the realm of the theoretical. Diverse and innovative solutions are under investigation, but translating these into practical, reliable energy sources is a challenge still up for grabs.
• Material Sourcing: The idea of mining asteroids or exploiting lunar soil for building materials is compelling but comes with its own set of logistical nightmares. Elements like water ice and certain plastics, which would be integral to constructing space habitats, are scarce commodities on planets like Mars. Thus, sourcing raw materials presents not just a technical but also a resource-based conundrum.
• Inter-habitat Communication Networks: In the quest to build an ‘Internet of Space,’ the devil is in the details. While creating a robust network for communication between space colonies appears to be the next logical step, the sheer scale of cosmic distances throws a wrench into the works. Designing systems capable of transmitting signals across stellar or even intergalactic gaps is a puzzle that engineers and scientists are still piecing together.

In essence, our spacefaring dreams are within sight but not within grasp. Each component—be it agriculture, governance, energy, materials, or communication—presents nuanced challenges that require multi-disciplinary solutions. But as we inch closer to becoming a spacefaring civilization, these are not just problems to solve; they’re opportunities to innovate.

Life Sustenance Challenges

Maintaining life aboard these habitats won’t be a cakewalk, given the numerous challenges we’d face in terms of food production, water supply, and air quality.

You’ll need to embrace space farming – an evolving field aimed at growing crops in non-Earth conditions. Advancements in astrobiology could provide crucial insights into maximizing crop yield and nutritional value under microgravity.

Water recycling systems would be indispensable for survival too. Air quality control would also pose a challenge. You’d need to monitor for harmful gases while ensuring sufficient oxygen generation.

As you navigate through these complexities, remember that these are not just problems to solve but opportunities for innovation that could rewrite mankind’s future relationship with outer space.

Potential Discoveries and Innovations in Astrophysics

You’ll be amazed at the potential discoveries and innovations in astrophysics that could reshape our understanding of space in the next 100 years. It’s a future where Dark Energy mysteries unravel, Gravitational Waves become well-travelled pathways, and we venture further than ever before.

• Unveiling the enigma surrounding Dark Energy
• Harnessing Gravitational Waves for exploration and communication
• Perfecting technology for interstellar travel
• Discovering new galaxies and celestial bodies with advanced telescopes
• Understanding quantum gravity to reconcile general relativity with quantum mechanics

These advancements will open up endless possibilities. Our perception of the universe will transform radically as we delve deeper into its boundless territories. This shift from theory to reality is only a glimpse of what lies ahead.

Now let’s explore how artificial intelligence plays a key role in this exciting future space exploration.

The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Future Space Exploration

Consider how artificial intelligence isn’t just shaping our lives on Earth, but it’s also set to revolutionize future explorations in the universe. Imagine AI driven spacecrafts traversing galaxies, making interstellar communication a reality.

These advanced systems won’t merely follow set paths; they’ll adapt in real-time to cosmic phenomena, ensuring the safety and success of their missions. You’re witnessing science fiction become scientific fact.

Here’s a glimpse into what you can expect:

Artificial Intelligence is your co-pilot for the next century of stellar exploration.

In 100 years, the “space” in popular conversations won’t just refer to the gap between Earth and our Moon; it will encompass a vast network of human and robotic activity stretching across the solar system and perhaps even the Milky Way.

As we grapple with Earth-bound challenges like climate change and global warming, our foray into outer space will likely serve as both an escape and a mirror, reflecting the best and worst of humanity. What remains constant is the spirit of exploration that fuels these ambitious undertakings.

Whether it’s unlocking the secrets of black holes, building towering megastructures in Earth’s orbit, or decoding radio signals from exoplanets, the next century promises to be a thrilling odyssey.

Yet, this odyssey will also pose complex ethical and practical dilemmas—from cosmic governance to the environmental impact of space travel—that will test the limits of our innovation and resilience.

One thing is for sure: the space of tomorrow will be far more entangled with our daily lives than we ever thought possible, making it not just the final frontier but an integral part of our future existence.

Frequently Asked Questions

How will the increasing space debris in orbit around earth be managed in the next century.

You’ll likely see advanced debris detection technologies developed. These will enable proactive orbital clean up methods, ensuring space remains navigable and safe from the increasing accumulation of man-made debris in orbit.

What Role Will Private Sector Companies Like Spacex and Blue Origin Play in the Future of Space Exploration?

You’ll see private sector innovation fueling the future of space exploration. Companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin will likely lead in commercialized space travel, shaping a new era in interstellar discovery and tourism.

How Might Climate Change on Earth Impact Our Ability or Need to Explore and Settle in Space in the Next Hundred Years?

As Earth’s climate changes, you’ll see a rise in climate-driven migration to space. The need for extraterrestrial agriculture will increase as we seek sustainable food sources for burgeoning off-world populations.

How Will the Laws and Regulations Concerning Space Exploration and Colonization Evolve in the Next Century?

You’ll see Space Law Evolution addressing complex issues like Extraterrestrial Sovereignty. As humanity ventures further, laws will adapt to ensure fair, sustainable exploration and colonization of space in the next century.

Will the Future Exploration of Space Create Opportunities for New Professions and if So, What Might These Be?

Absolutely, space exploration will open up new careers. You’ll see roles in extraterrestrial architecture designing space habitats and cosmic pharming developing new crops in alien environments. It’s an exciting time for job growth.

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NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine (second from left) tours the Orion test crew capsule for the Ascent Abort-2 (AA-2) test, with Orion AA-2 Crew Module Manager Dr. Jon Olansen, left, NASA Johnson Space Center Director Mark Geyer and Orion Program Manager Mark Kirasich, right, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018 at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

In the Ascent Abort-2 test , NASA will verify that the Orion spacecraft’s launch abort system can steer the capsule and astronauts inside it to safety in the event of an issue with the Space Launch System rocket when the spacecraft is under the highest aerodynamic loads it will experience during ascent for deep-space missions.

Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

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10 future space missions to look forward to

The future of space travel is looking good, and there are plenty more space missions to get excited about in the near and distant future.

Alexander McNamara

Our unquenchable thirst for space exploration and pushing the boundaries of science will see us going deeper into our Solar System and beyond for as long as humanity exists.

Here are some of the ambitious future space missions that will help us understand the very fabric of the Universe, deliver people and resources to and from Earth, and inspire the next generation of space scientists:

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)

James Webb Space Telescope: Worth the Wait (YouTube/ James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)

Operator : NASA, ESA & CSA

Launch : March 2021

Mission objectives : The telescope's four infrared instruments will search for the first galaxies formed after the Big Bang, determine how galaxies evolved, observe the formation of stars from the first stages, measure the physical and chemical properties of planetary systems, including our own Solar System, and investigate the potential for life in those systems.

What to expect : Like the Hubble Space Telescope before it, we can expect to see some magnificent images from the JWST, but at nearly seven times larger we’ll be able to see deeper into our Universe and closer at the celestial bodies in our own Solar System.

Unlike Hubble, which measures visible, near-ultraviolet and near-infrared light, JWST focuses on the mid- to long-infrared spectrum, which means it will be better able to penetrate dust and clouds to study dimmer, cooler objects.

Operating at around -230°C means the telescope’s own infrared emissions won’t affect the signal received from the target, and by orbiting around the Lagrange point 2 it will travel around the Sun at the same speed as Earth, providing a stable environment for observations.

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Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA)

Operator : ESA

Launch : 2034

Mission objectives : Following the successful test of the LISA Pathfinder mission, LISA aims to detect and measure gravitational waves produced by compact binary systems and mergers of supermassive black holes.

What to expect : Gravitational waves are the ripples in spacetime that Albert Einstein predicted in his theory of general relativity.

It took nearly 100 years for them to be confirmed by the LIGO detector here on Earth, but the LISA mission will use three satellites precisely measured around 2.5 million km apart that will be able to detect much fainter gravitational waves, with signals smaller than 20 picometres (tinier than an atom) over a million kilometres.

From this we will be able to determine more about the nature and location of black holes, as well rigorously testing Einstein’s theories.

Breakthrough Starshot

Breakthrough Starshot Animation (Full) (YouTube/Breakthrough)

Operator : Breakthrough Initiatives

Launch : Around 2036

Mission objectives : To send spacecraft to Alpha Centauri, our neighbouring star system, in a journey lasting only 20 years.

What to expect : Announced in 2016, the mission sounds like the stuff of pure sci-fi.

Breakthrough Initiatives are a group including the likes of the late Stephen Hawking and Mark Zuckerberg, and will launch 1,000 tiny light sail spacecraft called StarChips on a 4.37 light year-journey to Alpha Centauri at 15-20 per cent of the speed of light using lasers on Earth.

The mission hopes to test the possibility of ultra-fast space travel and will flyby Proxima Centauri b, an exoplanet in the habitable zone of the star system.

ExoMars 2020

Operator : ESA & Roscosmos

Launch : 2020

Mission objectives : To discover if life ever existed on Mars

What to expect : The first stage of the mission, the Trace Gas Orbiter has already arrived in orbit around the Red Planet and is on the hunt for methane and other gases, which suggest the presence of organic compounds, in the atmosphere.

Stage 2 is a rover that will land in 2020 and drill two metres under the Martian surface, before analysing samples in an on-board lab in search for organic compounds.

It is hoped that at this depth any well-preserved organic matter will be safe from the harsh radiation at the planet’s surface due to the thin atmosphere.

Prospector 1

Prospecting for Asteroid Resources - Deep Space Industries (YouTube/ DeepSpaceIndustries )

Operator : Deep Space Industries (DSi)

Launch : Sometime in the 2020s

Mission objectives : To commercially mine asteroids

What to expect : Although still far from being confirmed, DSi plans to send Prospector 1 to a nearby asteroid and assess its suitability for mining precious materials. It will then land on the asteroid, creating humanity’s first commercial base on another celestial body.

This is all in preparation for a much grander mission, which is to build a new type of spacecraft that will mine the asteroid on an industrial scale, and then bring the harvest back into Earth’s orbit.

The company hopes that by being a commercial rather than government project, they are able to reduce the total time from start to completion of the mission.

JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE)

JUICE - Exploring Jupiter’s icy Moons (YouTube/ Airbus Defence and Space )

Launch : 2022

Mission objectives : To collect detailed observations of Jupiter and three of its largest moons, Ganymede, Callisto and Europa.

What to expect : When the explorer arrives in the Jovian system in 2030, its main focus is to understand the conditions that might have led to habitable environments on Jupiter’s satellites, particularly on Ganymede.

JUICE will also provide the first subsurface sounding of Enceledus, which measures the minimal thickness of the most recently active regions.

NASA's OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission (YouTube/ NASA Goddard )

Operator : NASA

Launched : 8 September 2016

Expected return: September 2023

Mission objectives : To return a sample of rock to Earth from the asteroid Bennu.

What to expect : The ORISIS-REx mission arrived at Bennu in December 2018, and is currently spending a year analysing the asteroid for suitable sample sites. Once found, a robotic arm will spend only five seconds collecting samples before it begins its two and a half year journey back to Earth.

Scientists hope that the mission will be able to help us understand the early Solar System and the hazards and resources of near-Earth objects. They will also study the Yarkovsky effect, where the asteroid absorbs sunlight and changes its direction as it loses this energy through heat, potentially putting it on collision course with Earth.

Square Kilometer Array

Discovering the unknown: the world's largest radio telescope (YouTube/ Square Kilometre Array )

Operator : A global project with 12 member countries, headquartered in Jodrell Bank, UK

Mission objectives : To create the world’s most sensitive radio telescope, addressing a wide range of cosmic questions.

What to expect : The enormous array of dishes across the deserts of South Africa and Australia will be 50 times more sensitive than the Hubble Space Telescope, which will help test the theory of relativity by Albert Einstein , measure the effect hypothetically caused by dark energy, and discover more about the large-scale structure of the cosmos.

But this is only the first phase, which is only 10 per cent of the total size. Phase 2 will be sensitive enough for us to be able to see as far back as 300,000 years after the Big Bang and perhaps pick up faint radio signals from any potential extra-terrestrial civilisation.

The modern Space Race

Opening Space (YouTube/ Blue Origin )

Operator : Blue Origin, SpaceX and Virgin Galactic, among others

Launch : Ongoing

Mission objectives : To provide reusable space vehicles able to reliably transport people and resources to and from space.

What to expect : The modern Space Race is already going at warp speed at the moment, and barely a month goes by without SpaceX announcing the successful landing of a reusable rocket or Virgin Galactic creeping ever closer to delivering tourists into space.

The big issue is cost, as currently only eight tourists have visited space, costing between $20-40m a time, but this could be massively reduced with reusable vehicles and more efficient transport, with Virgin Galactic offering tickets for a comparatively paltry $250k.

Once this reusable technology has been perfected, it opens the way to launching manned crews to the Moon or Mars, and beyond.

Parker Solar Probe

Launched : 12 August 2018

Closest approach to the Sun: 2025

Mission objectives : To provide new data on the Sun to more accurately measure and forecast the solar wind and the effect space-weather will have for life on Earth.

What to expect : The Parker Solar Probe (formerly Solar Probe Plus) is built to with withstand the intense 1,377°C heat from the Sun as it “touches” it from within six million kilometres, seven times closer than any spacecraft before it.

Once there, it will help us answer why the Sun’s corona is hotter than the surface of the Sun and why we have solar wind. It will also travel at 200km/s, making it the fastest man-made object ever made.

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3 predictions for space tourism in 2022.

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Medium shot of young woman enjoying the view and a cup of coffee in a spaceship

Space tourism made a lot of headlines last year , from Richard Branson’s launch over New Mexico to Jeff Bezos’s first flight – and then second flight with William Shatner and third flight too – to Inspiration4 and Yusaku Maezawa’s 12 days aboard the ISS. After literal decades of waiting for space to be open to ordinary (albeit wealthy and/or celebrity) citizens, 2021 is the year that history books will likely mark as the official beginning of space tourism and greater access to space for all.

So what’s next? First flights, giant leaps, they’re all interesting and headline-grabbing – but will space tourism become commonplace in 2022?

That’s not likely based on the economics and timelines of rocket launches, but it is the case that space tourism will continue taking steps toward maturity as an industry. You likely won’t see prices come down or space hotels any time soon, but that’s need to despair that the long-awaited dream of space tourism isn’t all its cracked up to be.

I chatted with Matt Gohd, CEO of ZERO-G – the company that provides parabolic microgravity flights here on earth, and is apparently a bit of a ‘gateway drug’ for future space tourists. Here are some predictions about the future of space tourism from that conversation.

No New Customers Will Fly in 2022

MOJAVE, UNITED STATES - OCTOBER 10: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY, NO SUBJECT SPECIFIC TV BROADCAST ... [+] DOCUMENTARIES OR BOOK USE) Virgin Galactic vehicle SpaceShipTwo completes it's successful first glide flight at Mojave on October 10, 2010 over Mojave in California. (Photo by Mark Greenberg/Virgin Galactic/Getty Images)

Gohd estimates that the two main players in the suborbital space tourism game are likely booked up through 2022.

“I’m guessing Blue [Origin] is pretty well set for 2022,” estimates Gohd. “And with Virgin [Galactic] not getting back up til Q3 or later with 600-700 people with deposits before anyone can book,” purchasing a seat and flying this year will be tricky.

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Looking further into the future, “if you want to go on a flight with Elon [Musk], there’s not a lot of capacity for the next few years, and both Space Perspectives and World View [Enterprises] are looking at 2024-ish launches.”

All that said, some of the customers who will fly in 2022 put deposits down 10-15 years ago; if you have the funds to reserve your spot and only have to wait 2-3 years, that’s a pretty reasonable situation.

Experiences Will Reign Supreme

Participants enjoy the Blue Origin Space Simulator during the Amazon Re:MARS conference on robotics ... [+] and artificial intelligence at the Aria Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada on June 5, 2019. (Photo by Mark RALSTON / AFP) (Photo by MARK RALSTON/AFP via Getty Images)

Any company that can offer an unforgettable space or space-esque (in the case of ZERO-G) experience will see growth in the coming year and beyond.

“People have an increased awareness for cool experiences,” says Gohd. “The quest for experiences transcends the need for things.” Maybe it’s driven by the performative nature of social media or just a realization of what really matters after two-plus years of living through a pandemic, but this year, people are ready and willing to slap down a credit card or empty a savings account for a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

“Our scheduled flights are already filling up, including one that’s already sold out,” Gohd shares as an indication of demand. “This is the only way to feel what it’s like to be an astronaut,” he told the Miami Herald .

For many people, it may be the pinnacle of their space tourism experiences – many of the people who’ve been fortunate enough to experience space tourism through companies like Blue Origin have also flown a ZERO-G flight .

Welcome to the Soaring 20s

TOPSHOT - Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson(L), with Sirisha Bandla on his shoulders, ... [+] cheers with crew members after flying into space aboard a Virgin Galactic vessel, a voyage he described as the "experience of a lifetime" — and one he hopes will usher in an era of lucrative space tourism at Spaceport America, near Truth and Consequences, New Mexico on July 11, 2021. - "Congratulations to all our wonderful team at Virgin Galactic for 17 years of hard, hard work to get us this far," he said during a live feed as the VSS Unity spaceship glided back to Spaceport America in New Mexico.It reached a peak altitude of around 53 miles (85 kilometers) — beyond the boundary of space, according to the United States — allowing the passengers to experience weightlessness and admire the Earth's curvature.The trip proceeded without drama, and touchdown occurred at around 9:40 am Mountain Time (1540 GMT), about an hour after take-off. (Photo by Patrick T. FALLON / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)

While 2022 might not sound like much will happen from a space tourism perspective, that’s no deterrent to anyone who’s interested in the industry – as an operator or future tourist.

“We’re excited to be where we are, as well as [for] the other players in the market,” says Gohd. “Welcome to the Roaring 20s.” Perhaps soaring is a better term, all puns intended.

Once Virgin Galactic works through its backlog of reservations and Blue Origin releases pricing for their flights, the reusability and reliability of suborbital space tourism should help drive price down and hopefully make it accessible to more travelers. Additionally, many of us who can never afford a six-figure flight to space will find new and thrilling alternatives: five-figure balloon rides, and microgravity flights that come in at a cool $7,500-$8,000 per person. It sounds like a lot, but it’s within reach for any of us who stick to those savings resolutions for 2022.

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5 predictions for space in 2021

What does 2021 hold for space missions? Her Excellency Sarah Al Amiri, Chair of UAE Space Agency, looks ahead to Mars missions and sustainable spaceflight.

Her Excellency Sarah Al Amiri

What will 2021 bring for spaceflight and missions beyond Earth orbit? Sarah Al Amiri, Chair of the UAE Space Agency , reveals what she's most looking forward over the next 12 months and discusses some of the key concepts that are going to be influencing spaceflight this year, from Mars missions to sustainability.

We’re going to Mars

One prediction I can most assuredly make is that the Emirates Mars Mission will reach Mars orbit insertion on 9 February 2021. By April we’ll have pivoted from our ‘capture orbit’ to our ‘science orbit’ and by September we’ll be sharing our data stream with scientists and researchers around the world.

For the coming Martian year (about 2 Earth years), we’ll be analysing the atmospheric dynamics of Mars. We’ve got our fingers crossed for a planetary dust storm because the Hope probe is equipped to measure what stands as one of Mars’s most enigmatic phenomena.

Space is open for all, and it will open more

The Emirates signed the Artemis Accords (an international agreement of governments participating in space exploration) in 2020 and we fully expect many more nations to accede to the protocols in 2021: further clarification of the open standards, interoperability and teamwork in space systems research and space exploration.

As a key international partner and collaborator, we believe passionately in any move that helps the international community better work together on a level and cooperative playing field.

The role of governments will change

More and more private sector players are joining in space exploration and their participation is changing the landscape, as more nimble operators are exploring faster innovation methods. Instead of spending 10 to 15 years developing huge and complex platforms, innovators are deploying CubeSats and small-scale satellites.

The vitally important role of SpaceX , for instance, in NASA’s human spaceflight programme shows clearly that private sector players are not only here to stay, but are displacing more traditional models of space exploration.

Missions on a laptop are the new norm

Last year showed us that we can move away from outdated ideas of a physical ‘workplace’, with COVID-19 accelerating the modernising move to remote working. The Emirates Mars Mission was completed by a multinational team all working from home, conducting calls over Zoom.

The images many of us hold in our minds of hundreds of workstations around giant 100-metre screens are a thing of the past. The Emirates Mars Mission’s control facility is a cluster of small rooms with desks, laptops and screens. This is a clear sign of the increased agility that is transforming the sector.

Sustainable space exploration

We have a greater understanding than ever before of our planet, provided by the new data sets we have access to. Ironically, as it becomes easier to launch smaller satellites for planetary exploration, the potential proliferation of space debris and harm to the precious space environment increases.

We must not neglect our responsibilities to protect Earth’s atmosphere in the process – the tiny layer of atmosphere surrounding our planet is the only breathable atmosphere we have observed that is available to humanity.

In 2021 we will look for more innovative solutions to address space junk , such as by using a ‘vacuum-cleaner’ method, without prohibiting the development of the space industry or restricting access to space by imposing design restrictions on current spacecraft.

Her Excellency Sarah Al Amiri is the Minister of State for Advanced Technology and Chair of the UAE Space Agency. Follow her on Twitter @SarahAmiri1 .

This article originally appeared in the February 2021 issue of BBC Sky at Night Magazine.

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Scientists' predictions for the long-term future of the Voyager Golden Records will blow your mind

Buckle up, everyone, and let's take a ride on a universe-size time machine.

The future is a slippery thing, but sometimes physics can help. And while human destiny will remain ever unknown, the fate of two of our artifacts can be calculated in staggering detail.

Those artifacts are the engraved "Golden Records" strapped to NASA's twin Voyager spacecraft , which have passed into interstellar space. Although the spacecraft will likely fall silent in a few years, the records will remain. Nick Oberg, a doctoral candidate at the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute in the Netherlands, and a colleague wanted to calculate which (if any) stars the two Voyager spacecraft may encounter in the long future of our galaxy.

But the models let them forecast much, much farther into the future. Oberg presented their work at the 237th meeting of the American Astronomical Society , held virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic, on Jan. 12, where he spun a tale of the long future of the twin Voyagers and their Golden Records.

Related: Pale Blue Dot at 30: Voyager 1's iconic photo of Earth from space reveals our place in the universe

NASA launched Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 in 1977 to trek across the solar system. On each was a 12-inch (30 centimeters) large gold-plated copper disk. The brainchild of famed astronomer Carl Sagan, the Golden Records were engraved with music and photographs meant to represent Earth and its humans to any intelligent beings the spacecraft meet on their long journeys. Both spacecraft visited Jupiter and Saturn, then the twins parted ways: Voyager 1 studied Saturn's moon Titan while Voyager 2 swung past Uranus and Neptune. 

In 2012, Voyager 1 passed through the heliopause that marks the edge of the sun's solar wind and entered interstellar space; in 2018, Voyager 2 did so as well. Now, the two spacecraft are chugging through the vast outer reaches of the solar system. They continue to send signals back to Earth, updating humans about their adventures far beyond the planets, although those bulletins may cease in a few years, as the spacecraft are both running low on power .

But their journeys are far from over.

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Oberg and his colleague combined tracking the Voyagers' trajectories forward with studying the environments the spacecraft will fly through to estimate the odds of the Golden Records surviving their adventures while remaining legible. The result is a forecast that stretches beyond not just humanity's likely extinction, but also beyond the collision of the Milky Way with the neighboring Andromeda galaxy — beyond even the extinction of most stars.

Related: The Golden Record in pictures: Voyager probes' message to space explained

Milky Way sightseein

Unsurprisingly, the duo's research ambitions didn't start out quite so vast. The new research was inspired by the release of the second batch of data from the European Space Agency's spacecraft Gaia , which specializes in mapping more than a billion stars super precisely.

"Our original goal was to determine with a very high precision which stars the Voyagers might one day closely encounter using the at the time newly released Gaia catalog of stars," Oberg said during his presentation. So he and his co-author began by tracing the Voyagers' journeys to date and projecting their trajectories out into the future.

But don't get excited for any upcoming milestones. Not until about 20,000 years from now will the Voyagers pass through the Oort cloud — the shell of comets and icy rubble that orbits the sun at a distance of up to 100,000 astronomical units, or 100,000 times the average Earth-sun distance — finally waving goodbye to its solar system of origin.

"At that point for the first time the craft will begin to feel the gravitational pull of other stars more strongly than that of our own sun," Oberg said.

It's another 10,000 years before the spacecraft actually come near an alien star, specifically a red dwarf star called Ross 248. That flyby will occur about 30,000 years from now, Oberg said, although it might be a stretch to say that the spacecraft will pass by that star. "It's actually more like Ross 248 shooting past the nearly stationary Voyagers," he said.

By 500 million years from now, the solar system and the Voyagers alike will complete a full orbit through the Milky Way. There's no way to predict what will have happened on Earth's surface by then, but it's a timespan on the scale of the formation and destruction of Pangaea and other supercontinents, Oberg said.

Throughout this galactic orbit, the Voyager spacecraft will oscillate up and down, with Voyager 1 doing so more dramatically than its twin. According to these models, Voyager 1 will travel so far above the main disk of the galaxy that it will see stars at just half the density as we do.

Odds of destruction

The same difference in vertical motion will also shape the differing odds each spacecraft's Golden Record has of survival.

The records were designed to last, meant to survive perhaps a billion years in space : beneath the golden sheen is a protective aluminum casing and, below that, the engraved copper disks themselves. But to truly understand how long these objects may survive, you have to know what conditions they'll experience, and that means knowing where they will be.

Specifically, Oberg and his colleague needed to know how much time the spacecraft would spend swathed in the Milky Way's vast clouds of interstellar dust , which he called "one of the few phenomena that could actually act to damage the spacecraft."

It's a grim scenario, dust pounding into the Voyagers at a speed of a few miles or kilometers per second. "The grains will act as a steady rain that slowly chips away at the skin of the spacecraft," Oberg said. "A dust grain only one-thousandth of a millimeter across will still leave a small vaporized crater when it impacts."

Voyager 1's vertical oscillations mean that spacecraft will spend more time above and below the plane of the galaxy, where the clouds are thickest. Oberg and his colleague simulated thousands of times over the paths of the two spacecraft and their encounters with the dust clouds, modeling the damage the Golden Records would incur along the way.

That work also requires taking into consideration the possibility that a cloud's gravity might tug at one of the Voyagers' trajectories, Oberg said. "The clouds have so much mass concentrated in one place that they actually may act to bend the trajectory of the spacecraft and fling them into new orbits — sometimes much farther out, sometimes even deeper toward the galactic core."

Both Golden Records have good odds of remaining legible, since their engraved sides are tucked away against the spacecraft bodies. The outer surface of Voyager 1's record is more likely to erode away, but the information on Voyager 2's record is more likely to become illegible, Oberg said.

"The main reason for this is because the orbit that Voyager 2 is flung into is more chaotic, and it's significantly more difficult to predict with any certainty of exactly what sort of environment it's going to be flying through," he said.

But despite the onslaught and potential detours, "Both Golden Records are highly likely to survive at least partially intact for a span of over 5 billion years," Oberg said.

Related: Photos from NASA's Voyager 1 and 2 probes

After the Milky Way's end

After those 5 billion years, modeling is tricky. That's when the Milky Way is due to collide with its massive neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy , and things get messy. "The orderly spiral shape will be severely warped, and possibly destroyed entirely," Oberg said. The Voyagers will be caught up in the merger, with the details difficult to predict so far in advance.

Meanwhile, the vicarious sightseeing continues. Oberg and his colleague calculated that in this 5-billion-year model-friendly period, each of the Voyagers likely visits a star besides our sun within about 150 times the distance between Earth and the sun, or three times the distance between the sun and Pluto at the dwarf planet's most distant point.

Precisely which star that might be, however, is tricky — it may not even be a star we know today.

"While neither Voyager is likely to get particularly close to any star before the galaxies collide, the craft are likely to at least pass through the outskirts of some [star] system," Oberg said. "The very strange part is that that actually might be a system that does not yet exist, of a star that has yet to be born."

Such are the perils of working on a scale of billions of years.

From here, the Voyagers' fate depends on the conditions of the galactic merger , Oberg said.

The collision itself might kick a spacecraft out of the newly monstrous galaxy — a one in five chance, he said — although it would remain stuck in the neighborhood. If that occurs, the biggest threat to the Golden Records would become collisions with high-energy cosmic rays and the odd molecule of hot gas, Oberg said; these impacts would be rarer than the dust that characterized their damage inside the Milky Way.

Inside the combined galaxy, the Voyagers' fate would depend on how much dust is left behind by the merger; Oberg said that may well be minimal as star formation and explosion both slow, reducing the amount of dust flung into the galaxy.

Depending on their luck with this dust, the Voyagers may be able to ride out trillions of trillions of trillions of years, long enough to cruise through a truly alien cosmos, Oberg said.

"Such a distant time is far beyond the point where stars have exhausted their fuel and star formation has ceased in its entirety in the universe," he said. "The Voyagers will be drifting through what would be, to us, a completely unrecognizable galaxy, free of so-called main-sequence stars , populated almost exclusively by black holes and stellar remnants such as a white dwarfs and neutron stars."

It's a dark future, Oberg added. "The only source of significant illumination in this epoch will be supernovas that results from the once-in-a-trillion-year collision between these stellar remnants that still populate the galaxy," he said. "Our work, found on these records, thus may bear witness to these isolated flashes in the dark."

Email Meghan Bartels at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @meghanbartels. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

China has made it to Mars .

The nation's first fully homegrown Mars mission, Tianwen-1 , arrived in orbit around the Red Planet today (Feb. 10), according to Chinese media reports.

The milestone makes China the sixth entity to get a probe to Mars, joining the United States, the Soviet Union, the European Space Agency, India and the United Arab Emirates, whose Hope orbiter made it to the Red Planet just yesterday (Feb. 9).

And today's achievement sets the stage for something even more epic a few months from now — the touchdown of Tianwen-1's lander-rover pair on a large plain in Mars' northern hemisphere called Utopia Planitia , which is expected to take place this May. (China doesn't typically publicize details of its space missions in advance, so we don't know for sure exactly when that landing will occur.)

Related: Here's what China's Tianwen-1 Mars mission will do See more: China's Tianwen-1 Mars mission in photos

Book of Mars: $22.99 at Magazines Direct

Within 148 pages, explore the mysteries of Mars. With the latest generation of rovers, landers and orbiters heading to the Red Planet, we're discovering even more of this world's secrets than ever before. Find out about its landscape and formation, discover the truth about water on Mars and the search for life, and explore the possibility that the fourth rock from the sun may one day be our next home.

An ambitious mission

China took its first crack at Mars back in November 2011, with an orbiter called Yinghuo-1 that launched with Russia's Phobos-Grunt sample-return mission . But Phobos-Grunt never made it out of Earth orbit, and Yinghuo-1 crashed and burned with the Russian probe and another tagalong, the Planetary Society's Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment.

Tianwen-1 ( which means "Questioning the Heavens" ) is a big step up from Yinghuo-1, however. For starters, this current mission is an entirely China-led affair; it was developed by the China National Space Administration (with some international collaboration) and launched atop a Chinese Long March 5 rocket on July 23, 2020.

Tianwen-1 is also far more ambitious than the earlier orbiter, which weighed a scant 254 lbs. (115 kilograms). Tianwen-1 tipped the scales at about 11,000 lbs. (5,000 kg) at launch, and it consists of an orbiter and a lander-rover duo.

These craft will take Mars' measure in a variety of ways. The orbiter, for example, will study the planet from above using a high-resolution camera, a spectrometer, a magnetometer and an ice-mapping radar instrument, among other scientific gear.

The orbiter will also relay communications from the rover, which sports an impressive scientific suite of its own. Among the rover's gear are cameras, climate and geology instruments and ground-penetrating radar, which will hunt for pockets of water beneath Mars' red dirt. 

Occupy Mars: History of robotic Red Planet missions (infographic)

"On Earth, these pockets can host thriving microbial communities, so detecting them on Mars would be an important step in our search for life on other worlds," the Planetary Society wrote in a description of the Tianwen-1 mission .

The lander, meanwhile, will serve as a platform for the rover, deploying a ramp that the wheeled vehicle will roll down onto the Martian surface. The setup is similar to the one China has used on the moon with its Chang'e 3 and Chang'e 4 rovers, the latter of which is still going strong on Earth's rocky satellite.

If the Tianwen-1 rover and lander touch down safely this May and get to work, China will become just the second nation, after the United States, to operate a spacecraft successfully on the Red Planet's surface for an appreciable amount of time. (The Soviet Union pulled off the first-ever soft touchdown on the Red Planet with its Mars 3 mission in 1971, but that lander died less than two minutes after hitting the red dirt.)

The Tianwen-1 orbiter is scheduled to operate for at least one Mars year (about 687 Earth days), and the rover's targeted lifetime is 90 Mars days, or sols (about 93 Earth days).

Bigger things to come?

Tianwen-1 will be just China's opening act at Mars, if all goes according to plan: The nation aims to haul pristine samples of Martian material back to Earth by 2030, where they can be examined in detail for potential signs of life and clues about Mars' long-ago transition from a relatively warm and wet planet to the cold desert world it is today.

NASA has similar ambitions, and the first stage of its Mars sample-return campaign is already underway. The agency's Perseverance rover will touch down inside the Red Planet's Jezero Crater next Thursday (Feb. 18), kicking off a surface mission whose top-level tasks include searching for signs of ancient Mars life and collecting and caching several dozen samples.

Perseverance's samples will be hauled home by a joint NASA-European Space Agency campaign, perhaps as early as 2031 .

So we have a lot to look forward to in the coming days and weeks, and many reasons to keep our fingers crossed for multiple successful Red Planet touchdowns.

"More countries exploring Mars and our solar system means more discoveries and opportunities for global collaboration," the Planetary Society wrote in its Tianwen-1 description. "Space exploration brings out the best in us all, and when nations work together everyone wins."

Mike Wall is the author of " Out There " (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook. 

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Meghan is a senior writer at Space.com and has more than five years' experience as a science journalist based in New York City. She joined Space.com in July 2018, with previous writing published in outlets including Newsweek and Audubon. Meghan earned an MA in science journalism from New York University and a BA in classics from Georgetown University, and in her free time she enjoys reading and visiting museums. Follow her on Twitter at @meghanbartels.

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15 Future Technologies That Could Change the Way We Travel

Posted: April 30, 2024 | Last updated: April 30, 2024

Traveling is a great experience, but few of us can imagine how technology will change the way we travel in the future.

Nobody can predict the future of travel. But we know technology will evolve, taking us to new heights or, in this case, new destinations. From self-driving vehicles, mobile apps, and space travel to augmented and virtual reality, the future looks exciting for budding travelers.

We’ve picked 15 of the most exciting, innovative ways that future technologies could change the way we travel.

1. Mobile Travel Apps

If you’re of a certain age, you may have had the unpleasant experience of trying to open a gigantic paper or laminated map inside the car to plan your destination. Those days are gone.

Travel apps have revolutionized the way we plan our journeys. Even if you don’t have an in-car SatNav, open up Google Maps on your smartphone, input your destination, and the app will get you there. Today, Airlines have apps we can use to book flights.

2. Online Travel Agencies (OTAs)

A decade ago, travel agencies were physical stores where you’d sit with a travel agent planning your trip. Today, it’s never been easier to travel anywhere in the world with 24/7 online booking platforms like Airbnb, Expedia and Booking.com.

You’re no longer at the risk of heading abroad to a half-built hotel. These platforms have reviews and ratings for all destinations.

3. Autonomous Vehicles

Even though it seems like a futuristic fantasy, self-driving cars will one day travel the roads as we sit in the back sipping cocktails or scrolling on our phones without risking other road users. Tesla is experimenting with autonomous cars, and some cities, such as San Francisco, are trialing driverless vehicles.

These cars can detect cameras and sensors and use artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to navigate the roads safely.

4. Electric and Hybrid Vehicles

The world is gradually transitioning to electric and hybrid vehicles to reduce carbon emissions and help the environment. Electric and hybrid cars create more eco-friendly and sustainable travel and reduce air pollution.

As manufacturers produce new cars, fewer fossil fuel vehicles will be on our roads over the next decade.

5. High-Speed Train Travel

High-speed “bullet trains” capable of over 370 mph may be the future of train travel. These superfast trains, so named because of the bullet-shaped nose, will run on high-speed networks like the HS2 route in China, which will extend to 50,000 kilometers by 2025. Japan is investing $9 trillion in magnetic levitation (maglev) in a 178-mile line that will link Tokyo to Nagoya in only 40 minutes.

This technology is expensive, so it may be another decade before high-speed trains become the norm.

6. Space Flights

Virgin Galactic, founded in 2004, sells space flights. The initial ticket price was for the wealthiest, starting at $200k. In 2024, prices range from $450k to $600k, depending on whether you opt for business class. The first paid tourists flew to the edge of space in August 2023.

With over 800 people paid and on the list, it could be a while before you travel into space, and you’d need a good chunk of change to do so.

7. Ride-Sharing Services

Over the last few years, we’ve witnessed the growth of smartphone apps for ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft. They are a better alternative to renting a car or hailing a taxi in the rain.

When you book a ride via an app, you know how much the ride costs, how far away the driver is, and how long you will have to wait. In addition, the service is prepaid, so no surprises.

8. Virtual Reality

Instead of waiting at an airport for hours with a canceled flight, virtual reality enables tourists to travel to any destination in the comfort of their homes. Virtual reality provides an immersive experience to enjoy the benefit of travel without the logistics and hassle. You can interact with and explore your surroundings.

One benefit is you can check if the holiday destination is one you’d physically like to visit.

9. Augmented Reality

Augmented reality (AR) is an immersive, interactive experience that combines computer-generated and real-world content. It is a multi-sensory experience for discovering travel locations spanning auditory, visual, and olfactory modalities.

The technology provides real-time information about destinations, attractions, and anything relevant. AR can help you learn about new places and navigate unknown locations.

10. Travel Sharing Platforms with User Reviews

One of the fears about traveling to new destinations is that it may fail to live up to expectations. There’s little worse than having an awful holiday. Travel-sharing platforms like TripAdvisor with user reviews help remove these concerns.

You can discover user experiences of the exact location, hotel, attractions, and tours.

11. Blockchain Technology

Blockchain technology can help with transparency and cybersecurity by storing passenger details on the blockchain. It will record identity and booking records on the decentralized blockchain (meaning no intermediaries are involved).

Technology can help reduce the increasing risk of identity theft, fraud, and data breaches. It can also help with payments by enabling P2P (peer-to-peer) transactions.

12. Biometrics

Biometrics can significantly speed up the travel process by streamlining security checking aspects, which have become more stringent over the last few years. Biometrics include facial recognition, iris, and fingerprint scanning.

The demand for physical documents and manual verification will gradually decline, and airport security will be more efficient and safer.

13. Mobile Payment Solutions

Globalized mobile payment solutions can revolutionize the travel industry. They reduce the need for cash and enhance the travel experience. One of the primary benefits is that travelers don’t have to deal with international banking and currency exchange.

They also open up digital payment options to people in countries without access to traditional banking.

14. Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial intelligence (AI) is already impacting the travel industry. Many companies have chatbots to help people gather information and book holidays. The sophisticated AI algorithms with machine learning can gather and analyze data to provide a highly personalized travel service based on user patterns.

For businesses deploying AI, it can identify demand patterns and market trends so that a travel company can promote to a ready audience.

15. Internet of Things (IoT)

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a technology that connects objects linked to the Internet with embedded devices using software, sensors, and other technologies. These could include hotel room controls, smart luggage trackers (no more lost luggage?), and other travel-related requirements.

IoT smart surveillance systems can also improve travel safety when carrying devices via IoT sensors.

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