2022 was the year of major space achievements, crowned by the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, which is the largest telescope known to humanity and took twenty years to prepare, as a result of cooperation between the US Space Agency (NASA) and the European Space Agency.
James Webb captured the deepest and most accurate color images of the universe, using infrared rays. And that was only six months after the “telescope” reached its orbit at the “Lagrange 2” point, located at a distance of one and a half million kilometers from Earth. James Webb's surprises will not end here, as it is expected that 2023 will bring more revealing images of the secrets of the universe.
In contrast to the success of “James Webb”, the success of the “Dart” spacecraft experiment in November 2021 was to prevent the risk of the “Dimorphos” asteroid colliding with the Earth. The mission and experiment were a preemptive step and a simulation of a scenario developed by NASA to confront a possible threat related to an asteroid colliding with the Earth. In 2022, Dart was able to achieve its goal, collide with the asteroid and deflect it from its path.
The best thing is that this achievement will be followed by many other achievements on this path. In 2024, the European Space Agency will repeat the Dart experiment, and its target will be the asteroid Dimorphos, because it is located at a very far distance from Earth. The Earth cannot be endangered while efforts are being made to deal with it. With any scenario to inflict danger on it.
The past year also witnessed NASA's success in launching the largest space rocket in its history, through the "Artemis" program, which aims to return to the moon, more than half a century after the last flight to land on its surface. The "Artemis 1" missile reaches a height of 98 meters, equivalent to the height of a 32-storey building, and contains the latest missile technology systems at a cost of more than $40 billion.
The program consists of three trips to search for ways of life and stability on the surface of the moon for long periods, as well as the use of its resources in order to ensure a longer life for humanity on its surface. He discussed the possibility of the moon being a base for launching space rockets to Mars and other planets instead of launching them from Earth.
However, the “Artemis 1” flight is an unmanned flight, which will be followed by a second flight in 2023, and this time it will be inhabited, but it will orbit the moon before returning again to Earth. However, the third flight, “Artemis 3”, which will be launched in 2025, will witness the actual landing of American astronauts on the surface of the moon, and will witness the experiments necessary for humans to live long periods on the surface of the moon.
On the Arab level, 2022 witnessed the success of the United Arab Emirates in launching the space explorer “Rashid” on a mission that is the first in the Arab world and the fourth in the world to discover the moon, in a mission that is expected to end with landing on the surface of the moon in April 2023 with the aim of studying the properties of the soil on the surface of the moon.
2022 also witnessed the outbreak of controversy over the first Egyptian woman to go into space, the young Sarah Sabry, a graduate of the Faculty of Engineering at the American University in Cairo, majoring in mechatronics, who went up into space on board the “Shepherd 22” flight of the “Blue Origin” company in a 15-minute journey to become the first An analog female astronaut or the first Egyptian female space traveler.