Space 2020: What does the future hold? (BBC Future)

Richard Hollingham

Space has not been this exciting since the 1960s.

Nasa recently launched Orion, its first new spacecraft to carry astronauts since the Space Shuttle, and is developing a massive new rocket to rival the Saturn V. Europe has landed a space probe on a comet 510 million kilometres (317 million miles) away and China is developing its next space station.

Meanwhile private companies are changing the economics of space by forging ahead with plans for human spaceflight, space tourism and even missions to Mars.

The next few years will also see the final construction of the James Webb Space Telescope – a space observatory the size of a tennis court.

So in the decade from 2020, can we look forward to a glorious new space age of Moon bases, Mars colonies and more remarkable cosmic discoveries? To try to find out, we canvassed the opinions of an expert panel for their predictions beyond 2020.

Our experts are:
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more: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150128-space-2020-what-happens-next