2020 is set to be a year for increased space missions and exploration. Not since the United States and Soviet Union were engaged in a space race during the 1960s has there been this much aspiration to explore outer space. This year, the United States will begin its Artemis program, which will provide for future manned deep-space missions, the Lunar Gateway space station to orbit the Moon and a manned moon landing by 2024. The U.S. also plans to send its Mars 2020 rover sometime in July or August, when the Earth at Mars are in optimal positions for travel between the two. The mission will be the first of many designed to collect rocks for research and return them to Earth by 2030. Europe will be vital to the Artesmis missions, as it will power the Orion capsules sent into orbit. Europe also plans to send its own Exo Mars rover, which is capable of drilling for rock much deeper than the U.S.’s Mars 2020. However, the craft is currently experiencing landing problems, which could postpone the mission until 2022. By late 2020, China plans to be the third country to successfully bring lunar soil back to Earth, with the hopes of completing successful manned lunar landings in the future. Like the U.S. and Europe, China is preparing its own mars landing this year since failing previously in its 2012 partnered mission with Russia. The UAE’s Hope Mars Mission will also be launched around the same time as the others with plans to study why Mars experienced such drastic climate changes. India will attempt its second rover moon landing after failing previously. Japan is also preparing for the return of samples from its 2018 probe of Bennu, a carbon-rich asteroid that scientists believe contains materials that were once the ingredients of the solar system. Indeed, 2020 will be an exciting year for the global community of space exploration.
