2021, the year of space

In 2021, several space agencies have focused on exploring Mars

The year that is coming to an end was marked by several events that had a major impact on the international community. The coronavirus pandemic, despite having started in 2020, has remained the main theme of the year due to new mutations, the vaccination process and the detrimental effects of the virus on the global economy.

Also, the blockade in the Suez Canal in March put global trade in check. Moreover, in August we witnessed the US withdrawal from Afghanistan after two decades of military presence. Images of the Taliban seizing the Presidential Palace in Kabul swept the globe as thousands of Afghans crowded the capital's airport to escape from extremist terror.  

On the technological-digital front, there has been a boom in cryptocurrencies, while Mark Zuckerberg, father of Facebook, has created a new project: Meta, a space that seeks to explore the metaverse. Along these lines, the space sector has also seen a notable boost during 2021.

In this year, the space agencies of several countries have tried to unveil the secrets of space and thus lead the space race. In total, 100 space missions have been carried out, three of which reached Mars. In addition to exploring the Red Planet, some operations have succeeded in approaching the Sun and even space tourism has become a reality.  

On 9 February, the United Arab Emirates achieved a historic milestone: almost seven months after its launch, the Amal (Arabic for "hope") probe reached Mars orbit. The Persian Gulf country became the first Arab country and the fifth in the world to reach the Red Planet. The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre in Dubai announced the big news to the world, while Omran Sharaf, director of the 'Hope Mars Mission', acknowledged some of the difficulties of this tough operation. "The insertion into Mars orbit was the most critical and dangerous part of the mission. The probe was exposed to stresses and strains it had never faced before," Sharaf explained.

The mission director also expressed his intention to partner with other countries in this area. "For us, it was not a race. We approached space as an idea of collaboration and inclusion," the mission director added. This space cooperation began with Amal's launch, as the probe left Earth from a Japanese H-IIA rocket. The Emirati team also spent eight months in Japan to prepare for the launch. "It has been a learning process that will open the door to new missions in the future," said Fahad al-Mheiri, executive director of the UAE space agency, at the time. 

The UAE also collaborates with the United States in this area. NASA has organised a training programme with Emirati astronauts for future outer space missions. Nora al-Matrooshi was one of those selected, becoming the first Arab women astronaut. "The nation has given me unforgettable moments. My goal is to work hard to achieve historic achievements that will be forever etched in the memory of our people," al-Matrooshi wrote on her Twitter account after Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid announced her participation in the NASA programme.

'Amal' will remain in Mars' orbit for one Martian year, 687 days, in order to gather sufficient data about the planet. The UAE probe will study climate cycles, the inner atmosphere and weather phenomena such as dust storms. During its first week in orbit, the $200 million probe sent back images showing the Olympus volcano, the largest in the solar system.  

Despite the hurdles involved in such a mission, Abu Dhabi achieved its goal, establishing itself as a space power, both regionally and internationally. Before Emirates, only the United States, India, the former Soviet Union and the European Space Agency had achieved this breakthrough. Moreover, reaching Mars was a major boost for the Emirati space agency, which has begun developing an ambitious project to build a human settlement on the Red Planet by 2117. 

On the 18th of the same month, the United States landed on Mars for the first time with the Perseverance rover. The robot, launched on 30 July 2020 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (Florida), made a seven-month journey covering 500 million kilometres in order to collect data from the planet. 

Perseverance landed in a 45-kilometre-wide Martian crater known as Jezero, where it will search for signs of past microbial life. Scientists have claimed that there was once a lake there, making it "one of the most ideal places to find evidence of ancient microbial life". 

The US space agency ends the year with one of its greatest achievements in space. On 18 December, the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft, which was launched in 2018, stayed in the Sun's atmosphere for 5 hours during which it collected particles and data on the fluctuations of the magnetic field of the Solar System's great star. This historic event was considered a "giant leap" towards a better understanding of solar energy. 

"This milestone not only gives us a deeper understanding of the evolution of our Sun and its impacts on our Solar System, but everything we learn about our own star also teaches us more about stars in the rest of the universe," Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said in a statement.

NASA also bids farewell to 2021 with the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, named after the space agency's director during the development of the Apollo programme. This powerful telescope is worth 9 billion dollars and its mission is to provide answers to the big questions about the emergence of the universe after the explosion of the Big Bang.  

In 2021, while much travel on Earth was suspended due to restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a lucky few were able to enjoy the first space tourism trips. On 11 July Virgin Galactic, a California-based company that offers manned suborbital spaceflight and suborbital spaceflight for science, made the first civilian trip into space. On board was entrepreneur Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, who shared the adventure with millions of people via a live video stream on YouTube. The journey lasted an hour after the SpaceShipTwo took off from a base in New Mexico and was described by Branson as "an experience of a lifetime". 

Soon after, entrepreneur and Amazon founder Jeff Benzos joined the club of tycoons with space aspirations. On 20 July, along with three other people, Benzos reached an altitude of 107 kilometres on the first manned flight of his company, Blue Origin.

In September, South African-born American entrepreneur Elon Musk's company SpaceX organised the third tourist trip into space called 'Inspiration 4'. Four people, none of them professional astronauts, orbited five and a half times around the Earth.  

But in 2021, space was not only used for tourism, but also as a film set. During the month of October, Russian film director Klim Shipenko and Russian actress Yulia Peresild spent 12 days on the International Space Station shooting scenes for the film 'The Challenge'. The two returned to Earth on 17 October in the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft.  

Just three months after the Emirati and American breakthroughs, another space breakthrough was made. This time the author was China, which successfully landed on Mars with the Zhurong robot, after being transported by the Tianwen-1 probe, named after a very old Chinese poem that translates as 'Heavenly Questions' or 'Questions to Heaven'. In May 2021, the Asian giant became the second country to land on Mars after the United States, which did so in February.  

The Zhurong robot successfully landed on Utopia Planitia, a large plain located in the planet's northern hemisphere. The site was chosen after the Tianwen probe, launched in July 2020, spent months studying the safest landing site without craters or rocks. Zhurong's job, who will stay at least 90 days on Mars, will be to study Martian geology. This was not the first time Beijing had attempted to set foot on Mars, in 2011 it tried in collaboration with Russia, but the mission failed. However, the Tianwen-1 probe did manage to send back images of places on the planet, such as the Schiaparelli crater and the Valles Marineris.

Such an important achievement has prompted the China National Space Administration (CNSA) to start drawing up new plans for Mars and the universe. After successfully landing the Chinese robot on the Red Planet, Beijing is already studying a way to send humans. 

Also, due to the US ban on China's access to the International Space Station, the CNSA is building its own station. At the end of April it launched a rocket carrying the basic infrastructure to establish the space station. Beijing hopes to complete the project by the end of 2022.

Wang Xiaojun, director of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, one of the country's state-owned aerospace companies, said during the World Space Exploration Conference held last June that the country is planning five missions to Mars. Among these operations is one scheduled for 2033 that aims to make the first manned trip. Although Elon Musk's company, SpaceX, may be ahead of China's plans, as the magnate assured in an interview in 2020 that his company will send people there in 2026. 

This shows how space has already become a new arena for the great powers on Earth to compete. If during the Cold War there was a great rivalry between the US and the USSR for the conquest of space, the current 'space race' involves Washington and Beijing.

This week China accused the US of ignoring treaty obligations governing outer space after satellites launched by Musk nearly hit the Chinese space station. "This poses a serious threat to the lives and safety of our astronauts," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian. These incidents, in addition to Beijing's anger, have provoked numerous criticisms against SpaceX on Chinese social networks, where Internet users even called for a boycott of Tesla, another of Musk's companies.  

Last November something similar happened, although this time the country that condemned the events was the United States. The State Department accused Russia of conducting a "dangerous and irresponsible" missile test that, according to spokesman Ned Prince, endangered the crew of the International Space Station (ISS). The station, which orbits about 420 km from Earth, currently has seven astronauts on board: four Americans, one German and two Russians, according to the BBC. Prince said the Russian action has generated "so far more than 1,500 pieces of traceable orbital debris and hundreds of thousands of smaller pieces of orbital debris that now threaten the interests of all nations".

However, Russia is not the first country to develop anti-satellite tests in space. The United States conducted the first one in 1959. Also, in 2019 India shot down one of its own satellites in Earth orbit with a ground-to-space missile.

For these reasons, space, rather than becoming a place for partnership, as stated by Emirati Omran Sharaf, director of the Hope Mars Mission, is likely to be the scene of new disputes between countries that already have rivalries on Earth.