Humans and robots are scheduled to travel to the Moon in 2024 – 01/04/2024 – Science

This year will be of the Moon – and of the moons. In addition to several unmanned missions to our natural satellite, 2024 could end with the first human trip to the lunar vicinity since the end of the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. Additionally, two countries aspire to dispatch probes to explore the moons of Mars and Jupiter.

Of all the launches planned for the next 12 months, the most uncertain is that of Artemis 2, a historic mission that will take four astronauts on a ten-day journey around the edge of the Moon. The crew, made up of Americans Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Canadian Jeremy Hansen, are already training for the excursion, which will be conducted aboard an Orion capsule, powered by the SLS rocket.

Both had a successful unmanned test in 2022, paving the way for crewed flight. It was necessary to rescue equipment used in this inaugural mission for use in the second flight, which made the challenge of preparing the launch for 2024 greater. But NASA says that, so far, things are moving according to schedule for a launch starting in November of this new year.

It is, however, an ambition. If there are delays between now and then, it is quite possible that the historic return of humans to deep space, after lunar missions conducted between 1968 and 1972, will be delayed until 2025.

In parallel, there is a race to get everything ready for the Artemis 3 mission, which in theory should take a crew to the lunar surface. NASA’s calendar puts this mission at the end of 2025, but independent assessments suggest it is more likely to be delayed by two years, to 2027.

The two major obstacles are the development of new space suits (under the responsibility of the company Axiom) and the vehicle that will take astronauts to the surface (under the responsibility of SpaceX).

Elon Musk’s company is working as fast as it can on its Starship vehicle, which has carried out two only partially successful launches in 2023, but needs to achieve high reliability before it can fulfill its role in the Artemis program.

It is the most powerful rocket ever developed, and the company will have to demonstrate not only that it flies satisfactorily, but that it can be refueled in orbit and is capable of surviving re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. The year 2024 will undoubtedly see progress in this direction, not least because there is beginning to be a rush among Americans – the Chinese space program promises to place astronauts on the lunar soil before 2030.

THE MOON FOR ROBOTS

Until we can take people to the surface of the Moon, we have to make do with robots. And 2024 will be an electrifying year for lunar exploration using probes.

One of the candidates to land this year is Slim, a small module developed by Jaxa (Japanese space agency) to demonstrate high precision landing. Launched in 2023, it will make an attempt to descend to lunar soil on January 19.

In the meantime, the first two “carts” hired by NASA from space startups should also take the path to the Moon.

The Peregrine module, from the company Astrobotic, should depart on January 8th, driven by the first launch of the Vulcan, a new rocket from the American company United Launch Alliance (ULA).

Nova-C, from the company Intuitive Machines, leaves on the 13th, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9, and should get there first, to attempt landing between the 19th and 21st. Peregrine will spend a month in orbit before to head towards the floor.

In addition to Japanese and Americans, there will also be a Chinese presence on the Moon.

In May, the Chang’e 6 mission departs, which promises another unprecedented and historic achievement: the return of samples from the far side of the Moon, which cannot be viewed here from Earth. Everything has to be successful: after all, the Chinese were already the first to land on the far side, with Chang’e 4, and successfully returned samples from the near hemisphere, with Chang’e 5. The new mission will combine the two successes in one.

OTHER MOONS

The year will also be marked by the beginning of two fascinating interplanetary journeys. Japan and the US are almost ready to launch unmanned spacecraft to explore the moons of Mars and Jupiter, respectively.

MMX (Martian Moons eXploration) will carry out a complete mapping of the two small natural Martian satellites, Phobos and Deimos, and will bring a sample of the largest of them for analysis by laboratories on Earth.

It is a very ambitious mission, but Jaxa has experience with similar projects, having successfully conducted the Hayabusa and Hayabusa2 probes to collect samples from asteroids and bring them to Earth. Phobos is not very different from an asteroid, which makes the challenge almost equivalent. The departure should take place in September, with an arrival on Mars in 2025 and a return to Earth in 2029.

The most ambitious project, however, is NASA’s. The Europa Clipper, developed by JPL (the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory), comes at a cost of US$5 billion.

Powered by a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, it will make a long journey. Leaving in October 2024, it will arrive at Jupiter in April 2030. After entering its orbit, it must make successive flybys of Europa, the intriguing Jovian moon that has an ocean of liquid water beneath its ice crust – one of the most promising places of the Solar System for the search for extraterrestrial life. What will she find there? We’ll have to wait to find out. But the great adventure begins now.