Space missions saw significant success in 2023 when NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission returned an asteroid sample and India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission explored the lunar south pole. 2024 looks to be another exciting year for space exploration.
The Moon will be the focus of several new missions under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program and Artemis plan.
If all goes according to plan, the second half of the year will see a number of thrilling launches, including the Martian Moons eXploration mission in September, Europa Clipper and Hera in October, and Artemis II and VIPER to the Moon in November.
1. Europa Clipper
NASA is going to send out Europa Clipper to investigate Europa, one of Jupiter’s larger moons. Europa has an ice-covered surface and is marginally smaller than the moon of Earth. Scientists estimate that the salty ocean that Europa presumably shelters beneath its frozen surface holds more water than all of the oceans on Earth combined.
Scientists hope to find out with Europa Clipper if the seas around Europa may support extraterrestrial life.The mission intends to accomplish this by flying over Europa around 50 times in order to investigate the icy shell, surface geology, and subterranean ocean of the moon. Additionally, the expedition will search for active geysers that are erupting from Europa.
The mission’s window of opportunity to launch and complete its intended course begins on October 10, 2024, and lasts for 21 days. In 2030, the spacecraft will reach the Jupiter system after taking off on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.
2. Artemis II launch
NASA’s plan to return to the Moon is called the Artemis program, named after the Greek mythological twin sister of Apollo. For the first time since 1972, it will send people to the moon, including the first woman and person of color. Plans for a longer-term, continuous stay in space are also part of Artemis, which will help NASA be ready to send humans even farther away—to Mars.
The first crewed phase of this plan is Artemis II, which is scheduled to carry four astronauts for the duration of its 10-day mission.Artemis I, which launched an unmanned spacecraft into lunar orbit in late 2022, served as the model for this mission.
The astronauts will be launched into lunar orbit by Artemis II and then returned to Earth. Launching as early as November 2024 is the current plan. However, there is a possibility that it will be postponed until 2025, based on the readiness of all the required equipment, including oxygen masks and spacesuits.
3. VIPER to search for water on the Moon
NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER for short, is a golf cart-sized robot that will be used in late 2024 to investigate the Moon’s south pole.Launched in 2023, NASA postponed the mission to allow for additional testing of the lander equipment, which was constructed by the private company Astrobotic as part of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program.
Searching for volatiles—molecules that evaporate easily at lunar temperatures, like as carbon dioxide and water—is the goal of this robotic expedition. Future lunar exploration by humans may benefit from these elements.
Throughout its 100-day mission, the VIPER robot will depend on batteries, heat pipes, and radiators to help it navigate through everything from the intense heat of lunar daylight, where temperatures can reach 224 degrees Fahrenheit (107 degrees Celsius), to the Moon’s freezing shadowed areas, where temperatures can drop as low as an incredible -400 degrees Fahrenheit (-240 degrees Celsius).
The transport of VIPER to the lunar surface and its launch are planned for November 2024.
4. Lunar Trailblazer and PRIME-1 missions
SIMPLEx, which stands for Small, Innovative Missions for PLanetary Exploration, is a class of small, low-cost planetary missions in which NASA has lately made investments. By riding along as a secondary payload or rideshare on other launches, these missions are able to save money.
The Lunar Trailblazer is one such instance. Lunar Trailblazer will search the Moon for water, just like VIPER.
But while Lunar Trailblazer will orbit the Moon and map out the positions of water molecules worldwide, VIPER will land on the Moon’s surface and conduct in-depth research in a particular region close to the south pole.Lunar Trailblazer is expected to be operational by the beginning of 2024.
However, Lunar Trailblazer’s launch schedule is dependent on the primary payload’s launch readiness because it is a secondary payload. Lunar Trailblazer will be launched on the PRIME-1 mission in the middle of 2024.
As a trial run for the type of drill that VIPER will employ, PRIME-1 will drill into the Moon. However, whether or not previous launches proceed as planned will probably affect its debut date.
Further delays could cause PRIME-1 and Lunar Trailblazer to be delayed. An previous Commercial Lunar Payload Services mission with the same landing partner was pushed back to February 2024 at the earliest.
5. JAXA’s Martian Moon eXploration mission
Mars’ moons Phobos and Deimos will soon welcome a visitor, in addition to the numerous robotic and crewed tourists scheduled for Earth’s moon in 2024. The Martian Moon eXploration, or MMX, is a robotic project in development by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, with a launch window of around September 2024.
Determining the origin of Mars’ moons is the primary science goal of the mission. Whether Phobos and Deimos evolved from debris that was already in orbit around Mars or whether they are former asteroids that Mars captured into orbit with its gravity is a mystery to scientists.
In order to observe Phobos and Deimos, the spacecraft will conduct science operations near Mars for three years. Before leaving for Earth, MMX will land on Phobos’ surface and gather a sample.
6. ESA’s Hera mission
The European Space Agency’s Hera mission aims to revisit the Didymos-Dimorphos asteroid system, which was previously observed by NASA’s DART mission in 2022.
However, DART did more than just pass by these asteroids; it also struck one of them in order to test a planetary defense tactic known as “kinetic impact.” Dimorphos was struck by DART so forcefully that it altered its orbit.
Using the kinetic impact technique, an object is smashed against in order to change its trajectory. If mankind ever discovers a potentially dangerous object headed toward Earth and has to reroute it, this might come in handy.Hera is scheduled to launch in October 2024 and travel to Didymos and Dimorphos in late 2026, when it will conduct research on the asteroids’ physical characteristics.