1. NASA’s first Planetary Defence Technology to collide with small moonlet in 2022
• The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will hit an asteroid named Didymoon or Didymos Bwith a spacecraft called Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) in 2022.
• This will be the first mission which demonstrates a planetary defence technique. The asteroid is 150 m tall which orbiting a larger body called Didymos A.
• This will help in understanding the state of the asteroid system.
• The spacecraft Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) will carry an optical navigation system which captures the images.
• This will help the spacecraft to reach its target successfully.
• The DART spacecraft will use small hydrazine thrusters which utilise the electric propulsion system.
• The spacecraft will collide with the asteroid at a speed of approximately 6 kmps (km per second) and this collision will change the speed of the asteroid in its orbit by fraction of 1%.
2. Chandrayaan-2 to be launched in July
• India`s second lunar mission Chandrayaan-2 will be launched on a day between 9 and 16 July this year.
• In a release, the Indian Space Research Organisation said, Chandrayaan-2’s lander will touch down near the Moon`s south pole on 6th September.
• The National space agency said, Chandrayaan-2 will have three modules in it, an orbiter, a lander named Vikram and a rover known as Pragyan.
• Chandrayaan-2 will be launched using India`s most powerful rocket GSLV-Mark-3.
3. Amazon unveils space vision, moon lander
• Jeff Bezos, who heads both Amazon and space company Blue Origin, unveiled a lunar lander that he said would be used to transport equipment, and possibly human beings, to the south pole of the moon by 2024.
• Space agencies prepare to return humans to the moon and top engineers are racing to design a tunnel boring machine capable of digging underground colonies for the first lunar inhabitants.
• Harsh conditions on the surface of the moon mean that, once up there, humans need to be shielded from radiation and freezing temperatures in structures which maintain atmospheric pressure in a vacuum.