The second half of the year will feature several exciting launches, with the launch of the Martian Moons eXploration mission in September, Europa Clipper and Hera in October and Artemis II and VIPER to the moon in November—if everything goes as planned.
Artist’s rendering of NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft.
Artemis II is the first crewed step in this plan, with four astronauts planned to be on board during the 10-day mission.
The mission builds upon Artemis I , which sent an uncrewed capsule into orbit around the moon in late 2022.
Artemis II will put the astronauts into orbit around the moon before returning them home. It is currently planned for launch as early as November 2024 . But there is a chance it will get pushed back to 2025, depending on whether all the necessary gear, such as spacesuits and oxygen equipment, is ready .
An artist’s rendering of the VIPER rover
NASA
VIPER to search for water on the moon
VIPER , which stands for Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, is a robot the size of a golf cart that NASA will use to explore the moon’s south pole in late 2024.
This robotic mission is designed to search for volatiles , which are molecules that easily vaporize, like water and carbon dioxide, at lunar temperatures. These materials could provide resources for future human exploration on the moon.
The VIPER robot will rely on batteries, heat pipes and radiators throughout its 100-day mission , as it navigates everything from the extreme heat of lunar daylight—when temperatures can reach 224 degrees Fahrenheit (107 degrees Celsius)—to the moon’s frigid shadowed regions that can reach a mind-boggling -400 F (-240 C).
VIPER’s launch and delivery to the lunar surface is scheduled for November 2024 .
A Lunar Trailblazer instrument undergoing alignment during assembly.
NASA
Lunar Trailblazer and PRIME-1 missions
NASA has recently invested in a class of small, low-cost planetary missions called SIMPLEx , which stands for Small, Innovative Missions for PLanetary Exploration. These missions save costs by tagging along on other launches as what is called a rideshare, or secondary payload.
One example is the Lunar Trailblazer . Like VIPER, Lunar Trailblazer will look for water on the moon.
But while VIPER will land on the moon’s surface, studying a specific area near the south pole in detail, Lunar Trailblazer will orbit the moon, measuring the temperature of the surface and mapping out the locations of water molecules across the globe.
However, because it is a secondary payload, Lunar Trailblazer’s launch timing depends on the primary payload’s launch readiness. The PRIME-1 mission, scheduled for a mid-2024 launch , is Lunar Trailblazer’s ride.
PRIME-1 will drill into the moon—it’s a test run for the kind of drill that VIPER will use . But its launch date will likely depend on whether earlier launches go on time.
While Earth’s moon has many visitors—big and small, robotic and crewed—planned for 2024, Mars’ moons Phobos and Deimos will soon be getting a visitor as well. The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, has a robotic mission in development called the Martian Moon eXploration, or MMX, planned for launch around September 2024.
The spacecraft will spend three years around Mars conducting science operations to observe Phobos and Deimos. MMX will also land on Phobos’ surface and collect a sample before returning to Earth.
An artist’s conception of the Hera mission.
NASA
ESA’s Hera mission
Hera is a mission by the European Space Agency to return to the Didymos-Dimorphos asteroid system that NASA’s DART mission visited in 2022.
The kinetic impact technique smashes something into an object in order to alter its path. This could prove useful if humanity ever finds a potentially hazardous object on a collision course with Earth and needs to redirect it.
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