ArsTechnica looks ahead to 2018 space news:
Last year offered a mixed bag for spaceflight aficionados. The highs were very high, with SpaceX flying, landing, and reflying rockets at an unprecedented rate while finally beginning to deliver on its considerable promise. But the lows were pronounced, too, with the loss of the Cassini spacecraft in the outer Solar System and NASA's continued lack (for nearly a full year) of an administrator.
There were also delays upon delays. The ultra-expensive James Webb Space Telescope saw its launch date slip from 2018 into some time in 2019. NASA's Space Launch System rocket saw its maiden launch slip from late 2018 into 2019 and then again into 2020. The Falcon Heavy also moved to the right on the calendar, from November, then December, and finally into early 2018.
But all of those delays mean that the last couple of years of the 2010s should feature a lot of spaceflight action, and a good chunk of that will occur in the next 12 months. Looking ahead at what is to come, here are the key spaceflight milestones we're most eager to see in 2018, grouped by the approximate quarter of the year in which they might happen.
Falcon Heavy, Solar Sails, Chinese Land on the Moon, and more.
[The 'loss' of the Cassini spacecraft was a planned event. Having nearly exhausted the fuel available for orbit corrections, it was sent on a trajectory to disintegrate in Saturn's atmosphere. This, instead of running the risk of possibly landing on, and contaminating, one of Saturn's potentially habitable moons (e.g. Enceladus) --martyb].
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Sunday January 07 2018, @10:36AM (3 children)
It seems odd to be concerned about Cassini contaminating a moon when Huygens risked just that with the landing on Titan. If crashing into a moon is so bad, would it not have been better to leave Cassini in as stable and safe an orbit as available? Maybe they were thinking of avoiding contamination from the plutonium RTGs on Cassini, rather than any earthly bacteria that might somehow have survived 2 decades in space?
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Sunday January 07 2018, @11:18AM
I would like all the Saturnians to know that I was opposed to throwing nuclear devices at them, and that I for one welcome our new overlords.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday January 07 2018, @05:53PM
It was.
(Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Sunday January 07 2018, @06:13PM
https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/grand-finale/overview/ [nasa.gov]
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/analysis-nasas-cassini-probe-must-destroyed [pbs.org]
There is some discrepancy there, but more is known about Titan than when we first contaminated it, and non-water-based life [wikipedia.org] has been a subject of speculation.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]