Last year, NASA’s Osiris-Rex probe returned safely with asteroid samples. In addition, India’s Chandrayaan 3 achieved abundant space exploration achievements, including the world’s first successful landing at the South Pole of the Moon.
Humanity’s ambitious challenge toward space is expected to continue in 2024.
On the 4th (local time), IT media BGR selected and introduced the most interesting space exploration missions of the year.
■ Peregrine Lunar Lander
The Peregrine lunar lander is scheduled to launch next week. (Photo = Astrobotic)
American space exploration company Astrobotic’s unmanned lunar lander Peregrine is preparing to land on the lunar surface this month. Peregrine was originally scheduled to launch in 2023, but was postponed to early this year.
If all work goes smoothly, launch is scheduled for the 8th of next week.
If the Peregrine lander succeeds in landing on the moon this time, it will become the first American lander to land on the lunar surface since the Apollo lunar exploration program about 50 years ago.
The Peregrine lander will carry more than 20 payloads from a variety of government and private organizations to the Moon and will be the first spacecraft to study the Gruithuisen Dome region on the lunar surface.
■ Artemis 2
ESA is supplying service modules to the Orion capsule carrying out the Artemis mission. (Source = Lockheed Martin)
The manned lunar probe ‘Artemis 2’ is scheduled to be launched in November this year. In this mission, Artemis 2 will carry four astronauts and fly to space 400,000 km away from Earth, then orbit the moon and return to Earth. The space travel period is about 10 days.
During the lunar orbit flight, astronauts plan to take various pictures of the Earth and practice for Artemis 3, which will land humans on the moon in 2025.
■ Jupiter’s moon ‘Europa’ probe ‘Clipper’
Jupiter’s satellite Europa has long been of interest to scientists as it is known that there is a high possibility that life exists in the ocean beneath the ice-covered surface.
Photo = NASA
The Europa probe ‘Clipper’, which NASA is developing with an investment of 5 billion dollars (6.54 trillion won), is scheduled to be launched into space on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket in October.
Clipper is equipped with cameras and spectrometers to collect high-resolution images, a radar to look under the ice layer, and thermal equipment to measure ocean water temperature. It will scan Jupiter’s surface and reveal secrets inside the satellite.
■ Japanese lunar probe ‘Slim’ attempts to land on the moon
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) small lunar probe ‘SLIM’ will take steps toward Japan’s first lunar landing this year.
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Image of Slim Rover landing on the lunar surface (Source: JAXA)
The Slim probe successfully entered lunar orbit as planned at the end of last year and is scheduled to attempt a landing on the lunar surface around the 19th. To date, the four countries that have succeeded in landing a spacecraft on the moon are Russia, the United States, China, and India. If the Slim probe succeeds in landing on the moon, Japan will become the fifth country to land on the moon.
The reason the Slim probe is attracting attention is because it is attempting the world’s first ‘pinpoint landing’ with an error distance of less than 100m. When the spacecraft lands, it is given the name ‘Moon Sniper’ because it automatically corrects the probe’s position and speed by combining the lunar surface images and map data taken by the on-board camera.
