6 notable space science events in 2024

Japanese spacecraft successfully landed on the Moon

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) SLIM spacecraft landed on the Moon's surface on January 19, making Japan the fifth country to land a spacecraft on Earth's natural satellite, after the Soviet Union, the United States, China, and India.

Costing $120 million and weighing just 200 kg, SLIM is designed to carry out a number of scientific activities including studying the surrounding environment, the Sea of ​​Nectar area, located at 15 degrees south latitude, using a spectrometer.

Data from the device could provide information about the region's composition, shedding light on the Moon's formation and evolution.

Shortly after landing, JAXA operators discovered that the lander was upside down, meaning that the solar panels used to collect energy on board could not face the Sun.

The last time JAXA made contact with SLIM was on April 28. JAXA announced on August 26 that the SLIM lunar lander mission had officially ended after months of being unable to reestablish contact with the craft.

However, SLIM's main goal was accomplished. It was to demonstrate the ability to land on a celestial body with incredible precision. Its elliptical landing zone encircled a designated point with a distance of 100 meters, much smaller than the usual distance of several kilometers.

China launches spacecraft to collect samples from the dark side of the Moon

Chang'e 6 spacecraft took off on a Long March 5 rocket from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on Hainan Island at 4:27 p.m. on May 3, Hanoi time.

During its 53-day journey, the Chang'e 6 spacecraft headed to the South Pole-Aitken Basin (SPA) on the far side of the Moon, the side that cannot be observed from Earth.

On June 1, the lander touched down inside the Apollo Crater located in the South Pole-Aitken Basin (SPA), a 2,500-kilometer-wide impact zone on the far side of the Moon.

The lander collected nearly 2 kilograms of lunar samples using a shovel and drill. The precious sample was transferred to the launch vehicle on June 3 and docked with the orbiter a few days later.

The orbiter carrying the sample capsule returned to Earth on June 21. The Chang'e-6 lunar sample capsule landed in China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on June 25.

Initial analysis shows that the dark side sample has a more porous and void-filled structure. The new sample helps advance our understanding of several important aspects of Earth’s natural satellite, including its early evolution, the differential volcanic activity between the near and far sides, the collisional history of the inner solar system, traces of galactic activity preserved in the lunar regolith, and the composition and structure of the lunar crust and mantle.

Boeing spacecraft malfunctions after carrying astronauts to ISS

After years of delays, Boeing's Starliner successfully lifted off on an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, on June 5, carrying NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the ISS on a 25-hour flight.

Wilmore and Williams were scheduled to spend a week in orbit and return to Earth on June 13. However, during the flight, Starliner encountered a series of problems, including five helium leaks and five thruster failures in the reaction control system, forcing engineers to troubleshoot on the ground and extending the astronauts' stay on the ISS from a week to more than half a year.

In a press conference on August 24, NASA announced that after carefully assessing the situation, NASA and Boeing engineers could not agree on whether it was safe to let astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams fly back on the malfunctioning Starliner spacecraft.

As a result, they decided that the crew would stay on the ISS until February 2025, when SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft would dock with the station and carry the crew home.

Boeing's Starliner spacecraft returned to Earth without a crew on September 6, 2024, landing at White Sands Spaceport in New Mexico, USA.

First private spacewalk mission

The Crew Dragon spacecraft on the Polaris Dawn mission, the first private spacewalk mission, lifted off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 5:23 a.m. on September 10 (4:23 p.m. Hanoi time) from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC). Nine and a half minutes later, the rocket's booster returned to Earth, landing on a barge off the east coast of Florida.

Crew Dragon, carrying four astronauts, separated from the Falcon 9's upper stage about 12 minutes after launch. The spacecraft entered an elliptical orbit and, after several loops, climbed to an altitude of 1,400 kilometers (870 miles), higher than any astronaut had flown since the final Apollo mission in 1972.

After reaching a record altitude, the spacecraft descended to an altitude of 737 km. There, the ship decompressed. Mission commander, billionaire Jared Isaacman, and SpaceX employee Sarah Gillis climbed out of the capsule one by one. The spacewalk began at 5:12 p.m. on September 12, Hanoi time, lasting 1 hour and 46 minutes.

During the trip, Isaacman and Gillis conducted several experiments to test a new laser-based communications system connected to Starlink satellites and the flexibility of SpaceX's ultralight spacesuit.

The Polaris Dawn crew capsule landed in the Gulf of Mexico on September 15, ending a five-day orbital mission that was one of SpaceX’s most adventurous missions.

The mission’s success marked the first commercial spacewalk and the highest orbital altitude humans have ever flown. In addition, data from the Starlink communications system test could help develop space communications for future missions.

SpaceX successfully tests rocket 'chopsticks' system

The Starship rocket system is gradually proving the ambition of billionaire Elon Musk - CEO of aerospace company SpaceX to send people to Mars. This is the tallest (about 120 m) and most powerful rocket ever built, capable of generating nearly 8,000 tons of thrust when launched.

During the 5th Starship test launch from Starbase, Texas, at 8:25 a.m. on October 13 (8:25 p.m. Hanoi time), SpaceX reached an important milestone when it successfully recovered the Super Heavy booster stage using new "chopstick" technology.

Specifically, about 7 minutes after launch, this booster stage landed exactly near the Mechazilla launch tower and was caught by a robotic arm. Meanwhile, the Starship upper stage landed in the Indian Ocean.

"This is a historic day for engineering. It's unbelievable! On the first try, we successfully captured the Super Heavy booster back into the launch tower," said Kate Tice, SpaceX's quality systems manager.

Starship has to rely on a launch tower with a pair of chopstick-like robotic arms to return to Earth because it lacks landing legs. Removing the legs will shorten the rocket’s turnaround time and significantly reduce its weight. Every kilogram of mass saved will allow the rocket to carry more cargo into orbit.

Musk's vision is that in the future, the arm could quickly return a rocket to the launch pad — allowing it to take off again as soon as it's refueled — possibly within 30 minutes of landing.

By improving space travel, Musk hopes to build a community on Mars, turning humans into a multi-planetary species.

Efforts to harness solar power in space

Harnessing the Sun’s vast energy in space is not an impossible idea. It is a source of energy that is available all the time, unaffected by bad weather, cloud cover, time of night or season.

There are many ideas for how this could be done, but the common way it works is as follows. Satellites equipped with solar panels are launched into high-altitude orbits. The solar panels collect solar energy, convert it into microwaves, and transmit it wirelessly to Earth via a large transmitter that can be sent to a specific location on the ground with great precision. The microwaves can easily penetrate clouds and bad weather, reaching a receiving antenna on Earth. The microwaves are then converted back into electricity and fed into the grid.

For example, last year, a satellite built by engineers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) as part of the Space Solar Power Demonstrator mission delivered the first solar power from space. The mission ends in January 2024.

Iceland's sustainability initiative Transition Labs is also partnering with local energy company Reykjavik Energyt and UK-based Space Solar to develop solar power plants outside the Earth's atmosphere.

Space Solar announced in April a breakthrough in wireless power transmission technology, an important step toward realizing the idea of ​​generating solar power in space.

Japan is also preparing to transmit solar energy from space to Earth by 2025. In April, Koichi Ijichi, an adviser at the Japan Space Systems research institute, outlined a roadmap for testing small solar power plants in space, transmitting energy wirelessly from low orbit to Earth.

Accordingly, a small satellite weighing about 180 kg will transmit about 1 kW of electricity from an altitude of 400 km. If successful, this technology will contribute to solving the world's huge energy needs.