Space News of the week 14/02/2021

China has successfully completed their own Mars mission, Tianwen-1, which arrived in orbit around Mars on the 10th February 2021, according to Chinese media reports.

China has become just the sixth country to get a probe to Mars, joining the United States, the Soviet Union, the European Space Agency, India and the United Arab Emirates, whose Hope orbiter made it to Mars the day prior (February 9th).

Tianwen-1's Lander-rover is also expected to land on Mars' northern hemisphere called Utopia Planitia later this May. 

China wasn't the only country to reach the red planet this week. The United Arab Emirates has also successfully reached the orbit of Mars with their spacecraft named Hope on the 9th of February, 2021. Launched July 19, 2020, atop a Japanese H-IIA rocket, it spent seven months travelling to Mars. Mission personnel on the ground could only watch what happened and hope for the best.

"This has been a remarkable journey of humanity," UAE Space Agency chairperson Sarah Al Amiri said during preparations for the orbital insertion maneuver.

United Arab Emirates became the first Arab country and the fifth country to reach Mars and the second country to successfully enter Mars’ orbit on its first try.

NASA has selected SpaceX to deliver the first two segments of the moon-orbiting Gateway space station for its upcoming Artemis program, which aims to put astronauts back on the moon. The elements will launch atop a Falcon Heavy rocket, sometime in 2024. 

The flight, which is the second to be awarded to SpaceX this week, (the first was a contract worth $98.8 million to launch NASA's SPHEREx astrophysics mission) will carry the Gateway's power and habitation modules. Launching from Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the mission will cost NASA $331.8 million and is scheduled to launch no earlier than May 2024. 

Once deposited in lunar orbit, the Gateway will serve as an outpost for astronauts and equipment heading to the moon as part of NASA's Artemis program. Roughly one-sixth the size of the International Space Station, the Gateway will support research investigations, crew, and expeditions to the lunar surface. 

 

Elon Musk wants your ideas about how to fight climate change — and he's willing to pay top dollar for them.

The billionaire SpaceX and Tesla chief and his Musk Foundation are funding a new Carbon Removal X Prize to the tune of $100 million — the richest incentive prize in history, according to X Prize officials.

The goal of the four-year contest is to further the development of technology that pulls enough heat-trapping carbon dioxide out of the air to take Earth off its disastrous warming trajectory.