SpaceX may be a lot of conflicting things, but you have to admit one thing: NASA approves. So much so that it will use SpaceX as the launch company for the SPHEREx program.
The SPHEREx project is seriously cool. The name stands for Spectrophotometer for the history of the universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (you can see why it needs a nickname), and it aims to answer two big questions. First, it should help us understand how our universe has evolved. Second, it is designed to track down the common building blocks of life in the galaxy – how often do certain elements actually occur and in what combinations do they have to appear for life to take place?
Here’s some more information on it Space:
The SPHEREx instrument will be able to receive optical and near infrared light from a ghost– a mind-boggling number of sources: over 100 million stars in the Milky Way itself and over 300 million other galaxies. It will manage to address two different but equally fundamental questions in those two different areas.
All told, SPHEREx will scan across the sky and collect data in 96 different wavelengths of light. Within our Milky Way Galaxy, SPHEREx will map water and organic molecules, both of which are fundamental ingredients for life as we know it. And beyond our galaxy, it will look back to the very first moments of our universe. Scientists will be able to use its data to prioritize target observing for other future space telescope missions, including the James Webb Space Telescope and the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope.
The probe will hopefully launch in 2024, with a lift on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. The launch will still be managed by NASA, and NASA will still be in charge of all data – it just needs SpaceX as a way to lift out of the atmosphere.
With the money it had to pay to SpaceX, we’re looking at a mission that costs roughly $ 98.8 million – which seems like a lot, but it could be a small prize to discover more about the mysteries of the universe.