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This year promises many exciting missions, including those led by private companies to the Moon, Mars and Venus. Additionally, long-awaited launches are expected to occur in 2024, such as the Starliner, Vulcan Centaur and New Glenn vehicles. Finally, of course, NASA’s Artemis II mission is expected to take astronauts into lunar orbit for the first time since the 1970s.
Check out the list of the coolest missions to follow in 2024 below.
1. Foguete Vulcan Centaur
After five years of delays, the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan Centaur rocket is finally set to fly. The long-awaited launch is scheduled for January 8 and is expected to carry samples of the ashes of actress Nichelle Nichols and other deceased members of the original cast of the Star Trek franchise, as well as series creator Gene Roddenberry, into space.
Vulcan Centaur rocket, from United Launch Alliance (Image: Reproduction/ULA)
The mission will also carry Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander, which is expected to attempt the first commercial landing on the Moon.
2. Lander Peregrine
Initially planned for December 2023, the launch of the Peregrine lunar lander, from the company Astrobotic, will fly on Vulcan Centaur to attempt a landing at a location close to Mons de Gruithuisen (ancient lunar volcanoes).
Continues after advertisingArtistic concept of the Peregrine lander on the Moon (Image: Reproduction/Astrobotic Technology)
3. Landing of the SLIM mission on the Moon
The SLIM lander, from Japan, should descend to the lunar surface on January 19th, at 12 pm Brasília time. This spacecraft was designed to land on the Moon with a margin of error of just 100 meters, surpassing more than ten times the landing accuracy of successful lunar probes to date.
The Japanese spacecraft is already in lunar orbit, preparing for the landing maneuver (the name given to the “landing” on the Moon). If successful, Japan will become the fifth country to land on the Moon, alongside the USA, Soviet Union, China and India.
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4. Chang’e 6
Sometime in 2024, China is expected to launch the Chang’e 6 mission to take several partner payloads to the Moon. The planned landing site is the South Pole-Aitken basin, on the far side of our natural satellite, or that is, the lunar face that never faces Earth.
The mission will feature international collaboration, in particular a partnership between China and Russia, who want to build a lunar research station together.
5. Polaris Dawn
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The first mission of the private Polaris program was supposed to be launched in 2023, but Polaris Dawn ended up being postponed until sometime after April 2024. Commanded by billionaire and businessman Jared Isaacman, the mission will take three crew members (in addition to Isaacman himself) to downtown Earth’s orbit.
Polaris Dawn crew; from left to right, are Anna Menon, Scott Pottet, Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis (Image: Reproduction/Polaris Program)
Polaris Dawn is the first of three missions planned for this program and will be launched on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft.
6. Ariane 6
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After the last flight of the Ariane 5 rocket in 2023, its successor Ariane 6 is ready to carry out its first mission. The European Space Agency’s (ESA) rocket has been in development for almost a decade and was scheduled to fly last December, but tests required new analysis. There is still no confirmed date for the launch, but it is expected to take place in early 2024.
The last launch of Ariane 5, now retired to make way for its successor (Image: Reproduction/ESA-CNES-Arianespace/CSG/P. Piron)
7. New Glenn
Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket will finally open, after a succession of delays since 2020. Its first mission will aim to take NASA’s Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) to study Mars’ magnetosphere.
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8. Europa Clipper
NASA will study Europa, from Jupiter, through the Europa Clipper mission, which will send an orbiter to circle the gas giant planet and explore this natural satellite. There is still no scheduled launch date, but the space agency has already carried out tests with a prototype of the spacecraft.
The Europa Clipper spacecraft prototype was evaluated by NASA in November (Image: Reproduction/NASA JPL-Caltech)
Europa is the sixth largest moon in the Solar System and there is a lot of interest in scientific research there. The reason is that the celestial body is covered by a 25 km thick layer of ice, floating on an ocean up to 150 km deep. Scientists want to know if there is a chance that some form of life exists in this water.
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9. Boeing Starliner
The first crewed test flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is expected to take place in mid-April after years of delays. The objective is to take Butch Wilmore and Suni William towards the International Space Station (ISS) to assess whether the vehicle meets all the requirements required by NASA.
Boing’s Starliner spacecraft has already suffered several setbacks since its first unmanned test in 2022 (Image: Reproduction/NASA)
This launch will take place on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket and, if everything goes well, the pair of astronauts will spend approximately eight days on the ISS.
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10. JAXA MMX
The Japanese space agency JAXA has plans to send a mission to study the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos, and bring samples of their surface to Earth. The launch has not yet been scheduled, but it should take place in September, with a new rocket called H-3, built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
Phobos, one of the moons that will receive the Martian Moons Exploration mission (Image: Reproduction/NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona)
If all goes well, the MMX probe will enter Martian orbit in 2025 and return to Earth in 2029, landing on the moon Phobos. This is the larger of the two Martian natural satellites, but it is a rock 23 km in diameter.
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11. Venus Life Finder
This will be the first private mission to Venus, led by engineer Christophe Mandy, from Rocket Lab, with the aim of searching for organic compounds in Venusian clouds. It is expected to launch on December 30th, on an Electron rocket, but there is still no certainty that the schedule will be met.
12. Artemis II
Despite many setbacks, NASA is confident that the Artemis II mission will be ready to take astronauts into orbit around the Moon in November 2024. The space agency estimates that the Orion crew module and service module will be installed on the SLS rocket later in the first quarter of 2024.
Continues after advertisingAnalysis of the heat shield of the Orion capsule, which lost more material than expected during re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere (Image: Reproduction/NASA/Skip Williams)
The tight schedule may not correspond to reality, but NASA is going to great lengths to ensure it is met. If everything goes according to plan, Artemis II will be launched after a year.
2024-01-13 22:00:00
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