50 years have gone by since Apollo astronaut Eugene Cernan wrote his daughter's initials on
the moon's surface truly a fairy tale and now it's time to make another giant leap to put
humans back on the moon 2022 is going to be an incredible year for space
as thrilling launches and spectacular flights await humanity to explore the universe like
never before we're gonna open the eyes of the most amazing telescope ever built crash
into an asteroid intentionally and see SpaceX launch a monster new spaceship that's planned to
take us to mars welcome to fact nominal in today's video we mark the calendar for what promises to be
a magical year for space travel so strap your helmet on and buckle in it's time for liftoff
researchers estimate 17 meteors enter earth's atmosphere every day and are large enough to reach
the ground this year humanity's going to strike back the double asteroid redirection test or dart
is a test project that needs no explanation for anyone who's seen a sci-fi disaster movie in the
past few decades well slim the chances of earth taking a direct hit by a cosmic traveler are
quite real just ask the dinosaurs so nasa launched dart on November 24th 2021 and is sending it about
15 000 miles per hour on a direct collision course with an asteroid about the size of the
great pyramid the question to be answered is simple can we deflect this moonlight named
Dimorphos enough to change its path the fraction it would take to avoid a collision with earth if
that were coming dart will travel 6.8 million miles before its target practice commences and
an Italian satellite will separate from dart before the collision to get pictures and data
from the impact and its aftermath we constantly scan the skies for objects that may pose a threat
and one day that threat may be imminent we can only hope that the systems we have in place
will help redirect the cosmic missile and make it a near miss instead of an extinction event
NASA's Artemis 1 is expected to launch no earlier than may and send an Orion spacecraft to circle
the moon to make sure both the huge space launch system and Orion are ready for humans the uncrewed
craft is planned to orbit the moon for about a week as part of its month-long trip into space
and test the onboard systems and rocket for further missions missions that include humans
leaving earth orbit for the first time in 50 years following the successful Artemis 1 mission will be
Artemis 2 which was scheduled for 2024 but has now been pushed back to at least 2026.
whenever it launches it's expected to be crewed by three us and one Canadian astronaut these
space travelers will reach further from earth than any humans in history as they'll travel
around the far side of the moon if all goes well next will be the first crude moon landing
since the Apollo program and the next stop is the 140 million mile journey to mars nasa says
several years in orbit and on the moon's surface are needed before a multi-year
mission to mars launches but 2022 will see an enormous first step towards that historic day
the historic Christmas 2021 launch of the James Webb space telescope
is about to start paying huge dividends everything so far has been a smashing success
and every day is a day closer to peering back towards the beginning of space and time
the unfolding of nasa's space origami was as nerve-wracking as it was perfect the tennis court
size sunshield opened like magic and the trip to Webb's orbital point at L2 was flawless Webb's
eye has been tested and is functioning and now the microscopic mirror adjustments are underway
those 18 magical gold-plated hexagonal mirrors on Webb should be completely aligned by the end of
April and by then the 10 billion dollar spacecraft and its advanced instrumentation must be very cold
more patients will be needed as two months of instrument calibration is next but as soon as
late June we hope to see what has never before been seen by human eyes from the earliest stars
to incredibly detailed studies of our solar system and revealing infrared images of exoplanets Webb
should increase our understanding of the universe and our place in it in ways we cannot imagine
remember Artemis along with the excitement for the program launch that will put us back on the moon
and soon on mars comes nasa's space launch system only the most powerful rocket that mankind has
ever sent into space towering 23 stories above the launch pad this behemoth is taller than the
statue of liberty humans have gone back and forth from the international space station for 20 years
but the moon is a far different target getting there means going almost a thousand
times further than the ISS and needs the boost of the newest monster to reach the
24,500 miles per hour necessary for the trip and SLS is far from a finished product
the rocket is specifically designed to evolve into more powerful configurations of what it
will launch as this year and over 1100 companies worldwide have a hand in this new and exciting
rocket the rocket that will one day soon launch humans on their first journey to mars
or is it because here comes Elon Musk and SpaceX's Starship and when it launches SLS
will be relegated to second or third depending on criteria but like everything else on earth lately
geopolitical issues have put the exact date off a bit musk sent Starlink terminals to Ukraine
to assist with restoring the internet after the Russian invasion and as a thanks Moscow has made a
sport of trying to jam the terminals so Starlink bypassed the jamming and was able to get field
testing done for free but the focus was shifted for a bit and thus the delay either way enter
SpaceX's starship the largest rocket with the most payload capacity to ever be sent into space when
it actually goes into space starship stands just under 400 feet tall produces 8.8 million pounds of
thrust and can transport up to 150 tons of payload into low earth orbit for reference that's a Boeing
Dreamliner those aren't the only unique features of starship it can be reused over and over again
to take crew and cargo back and forth to the moon and even mars and while SLS carries a two
billion dollar price tag for each launch musk says starship can lift off for as little as
one million dollars even if that's wishful thinking those two numbers are light years
apart so when nasa's inspector general Paul Martin uses phrases like very poor contractor
performance core planning poor execution and billions over budget and years behind schedule
when announcing the SLS delay our greatest hope for returning to the moon may well be starship
while this is not a new mission as nasa's Juno spacecraft began orbiting Jupiter in July 2016
its life has been extended until September 2025 and another 42 orbits added to its itinerary
it amounts to a stay of execution as the craft was intended to intentionally crash
into Jupiter's atmosphere in August 2021 in June the solar-powered spacecraft will swing down
towards Jupiter's moon Ganymede after adding new data and pictures to nasa's scrapbook from
Ganymede it'll be off to europa for a series of close passes beginning on September 29th in fact
the additional orbits in Juno's mission expose it to far more danger than previously seen
especially as it gets closer to Jupiter the radiation hazards are higher so the team
wisely saved them for the mission's end and the pictures it has produced are breathtaking
from massive swirling storms at the planet's poles to creating a storm map of the world Juno
will also take closer looks at lightning that jumps between clouds in the upper atmosphere
delays and false starts are part of space missions and we may endure more of them this year
already ESA's Jupiter Icy Moon's Explorer launch has moved to April 2023 Artemis 2 is pushed back
by two years at least and starship has seen its share of delays as well and the ExoMars
project set to deliver Russia and europe's first martian rover is on hold indefinitely
because of the war in Ukraine stay tuned so what do you think about this exciting year and its
massive agenda of space missions is there one that jumps out at you that you just can't wait
to be successful tell us in the comments and as always thank you for watching Factnomenal