The most anticipated space missions planned for 2024!

The year 2023 is proving important for space missionswith the mission Osiris Rex NASA returns a sample of an asteroid and the mission Chandrayaan-3 India is exploring the south pole of the moon. It seems that 2024 will be another An exciting year for space explorationmainly to the Moon, our closest neighbour.

CLPS missions

Commercial Payload Service (CLPS) Task Series. NASA, A variety of instruments must be brought to the Moon. These missions are built and launched by several private companies contracted by NASA. This program is part of the Artemis Initiative to continue human exploration of the Moon.

One of the main goals of CLPS It is to explore the possibilities of using lunar resources as fuel, therefore, some of the CLPS-1 (Peregrine) instruments were designed Evaluation of the amount of hydrogen on the moon's surface.

Human exploration of the Moon is expected to take a small step forward, perhaps in November 2024, when Artemis 2 will orbit the Moon for several days.

Launching… launching… taking off CLPs-2 It is scheduled to be held in early January 2024, and There are 4 missions planned to be launched throughout the year. One of the astronauts on board will be a woman, and she will definitely be one Giant leap In what has, until now, been an exclusively male exploration of our closest neighbours.

Trailblazer and Chang E6

Continuing the lunar theme,… Trailblazer mission NASA intends to travel to the moon to find out where water is located. Is it trapped within the rock as part of the mineral structure, or is it deposited as ice on the surface of the rock?

Trailblazer launch It is scheduled for the first quarter of 2024, but the exact date has not been confirmed. It's a small task, Part of the Artemis program for human lunar exploration.

The other planned release is Chang'e 6, the last Chinese mission to the moon Which is scheduled to be held in May 2024 and aims to return materials to Earth. The difference with this mission is that it aims to collect material from the far side of the Moon, in the Aitken Basin at the South Pole.. This area is believed to have an abundance of frozen water and it is possible Water source for human visitors.

Hera and Europa Clipper mission

In September 2022, NASA's DART mission found a planet The system consists of two asteroids called Didymos and DemorphosWhich collided with another asteroid. The effect had a purpose: To see if such a collision could deflect the asteroid off its pathGoal Essential if the Earth is ever the target of direct impact From the approaching asteroid.

Two years later, the European Space Agency's Hera mission will be launched to visit the same pair of asteroids, just to measure the impact of Dart's previous impact.

At the time of collision, Dimorphos' orbit around Didymos became 33 minutes fasterThis is an important movement that showed that the asteroid's path can be deviated. The Hera mission will launch in October 2024It will run its course at the end of 2026, where it will study Physical properties of asteroids.

But what remains unknown, at least until Hera's arrival in 2026, is just that The effectiveness of the effect. Hera will be responsible for investigating in detail and her findings will help in this Determine Earth's planetary defense protocol.

Another launch occurs around the same time that Hera was NASA's primary mission Europe ClipperWhat Intended to reach the icy moon of Jupiter, called Europa. This mission has been highly anticipated since Galileo's mission It showed for the first time images of the icy surface Europe at the end of the nineties.

The Europa Clipper will pass through Europe between 40 and 50 times. Capture detailed images of the surface and monitor the satellite Searching for ice pillars and analyzing whether the moon has suitable conditions for them Continuation of life.

The mission will investigate whether Europa's ocean is salty And whether the basic components of life, such as carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur, exist. Unfortunately, we will have to wait until 2030 No notes will be transferred.