Heading into 2021 may seem daunting for a number of reasons. Across the globe, the climate is reaching a tipping point, with Antarctic ice caps melting and wildfires raging in Australia. After the UK tragically reached the milestone of 100,000 Covid-19 related deaths in January, you wouldn’t be blamed for feeling apprehensive about the year to come.
There are, however, many reasons to be hopeful. 2021 is set to be an extraordinary year for science and technology, with a myriad of noteworthy plans in the research pipeline.
The Fight Against Climate Change
The battle against climate change is reaching a pivotal turning point. With newly-elected President Joe Biden’s promise to re-join the Paris climate agreement, our fight against global warming gains a little more ammunition.
The scheduled United Nations climate conference in November will mark a momentous day for the struggle against global warming. Held in Glasgow, nations across the world will meet to make new pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The EU and China have made ambitious commitments to reach carbon neutrality by 2050-60, with many scientists hoping the US will match this promise.
Mission Vaccination
The Covid-19 vaccines provide a glimmer of hope after a deeply challenging year. With the roll-out of the Pfizer–BioNTech, Oxford AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines well underway, scientists hope that the effectiveness of these injections will soon be clear. Over 9 million first vaccines have now been distributed in the UK (at time of writing), though a second dose is required for full efficacy.
By the beginning of February, it is hoped that even more vaccines will be available internationally, with the company Johnson & Johnson in the final clinical trial stages of their own vaccine. This vaccine, recently shown to have 66% efficacy, only requires a single dose and is easy to store, meaning it will have major implications for the battle against the pandemic in developing nations.
Exploring the Red Planet
This month, a trio of spacecraft are on a 175 million km voyage to the Red Planet. The United Arab Emirates’ “Hope Probe” is expected to reach Mars’ orbit on 9 February, making history as the first Arab interplanetary mission to Mars. Just a day later, China’s six-wheeled Tianwen-1 Mars rover will touch down on Martian soil and will use 13 instruments to look for signs of water and life.
Later this month, NASA’s Perseverance rover is also set to land on the Red Planet’s surface. Its goals are to determine if life on Mars is fact or fiction, as well as to study the climate and geology of the planet prior to human exploration.
Starliner Space Travel
If a trip to Mars sounds slightly too far from home, how about a holiday to the International Space Station (ISS)? Following in the footsteps of SpaceX, aerospace giant, Boeing, are developing a private spacecraft known as the Starliner capsule. This reusable craft is hoped to take astronauts to and from the ISS, with the next test flight occurring this spring. Its previous attempt to reach the ISS in December 2019 failed, so all eyes will be on the next test mission to see if Boeing’s progress can make private space exploration a reality.
Boaty McBoatface: the first voyage
After reaching meme status in 2016, the state-of-the-art polar research ship “Boaty McBoatface”, now known as RRS Sir David Attenborough, is set to make its first voyage to Antarctica in November 2021. The vessel is designed to withstand the extreme environment while performing scientific studies on sea ice and climate.
Professor Jane Francis, director of the British Antarctic Survey, told the BBC, “the great ice sheets, such as Antarctica, are melting in a warming world. The RRS Sir David Attenborough is going to allow us to get right up to the edge of the ice sheets, to deploy its new technologies, to really understand what’s going on.”
