MILAN — Leaders of major space agencies stated grand plans for the near future at a major congress here in northern Italy, while noting concerns regarding Earth and the space environment.
Representatives of the European Space Agency (ESA), NASA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and China National Space Administration took turns on stage Sunday (Oct. 14) at the 2024 International Astronautical Congress (IAC) here.
Head of ESA Josef Aschbacher stated that his agency had garnered more than 100 signatories to its Zero Debris Charters, which sets out principles for space debris mitigation.
Aschbacher also discussed the Hera spacecraft, which launched last week and is now on its way to the asteroid Dimorphos, the target smashed by NASA’s DART asteroid deflection test two years ago.
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“Our question is, in terms of planetary safety and defense, what would we need to do in order to help our planet, to help humankind not to be impacted by such an asteroid?” Aschbacher said.
Looking beyond this, Aschbacher said that ESA will also be launching the Ramses mission as part of its planetary defense initiatives. This will be a stripped-down version of the Hera spacecraft that will be sent to study the near-Earth asteroid Apophis, which is due to make a close approach to Earth on April 13, 2029.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson took his turn to highlight the successful SpaceX Starship flight and booster landing test a day earlier, while adding that the agency is preparing for its return to the moon.
“We’re going to a different part of the moon in a different way, with new partners in order to learn how to live in that environment, how to create, how to invent, how to do all of the things that we have to do to go all the way to Mars,” Nelson said.
He added that the crewed Artemis 2 mission is scheduled for September next year, with the Artemis 3 landing a year later, in late 2026. However, earlier reports suggest these timelines may slip.
Nelson also received applause for his reflection on his space shuttle mission in 1986. “As I orbited the Earth, I did not see religious division, I did not see racial division, and I did not see political division. What I saw as I orbited the Earth was that we are all in this together. We are all citizens of planet…
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