Upcoming Space Missions | Astrobites | 2024

Space Exploration:

Upcoming Space Missions Telescopic and physical space explorations by robotic spacecraft and human spaceflight are part of the future of space exploration. Both public and private organizations plan and announce near-term physical exploration missions aimed at learning new details about the Solar System.

Benefits of space exploration:

Upcoming Space Missions In The 20th century Space Race caused a significant shift in the amount of money allocated to space exploration. The race to accomplish the first spaceflight between the Soviet Union and the United States propelled space exploration in the latter half of the 20th century. National governments and the commercial sector are currently funding space exploration once more. This time, though, their goals are to utilize space’s resources and save human life from calamitous catastrophes.

Colonize outer space:

There has been a claim made that space colonization is a way to guarantee human civilization’s survival in the event of a planetary catastrophe. Humans can spread out across other worlds thanks to colonization, which raises the probability that they will survive a planetary catastrophe. The prospective acquisition of extra resources through space mining has the potential to enhance human capabilities and yield significant benefits for civilization. By making use of these resources and relocating highly polluting companies to space, it may be possible to lower emissions on Earth and eventually discover cleaner energy sources. The main obstacles to space colonization are technological and financial ones.Upcoming Space Missions.In an effort to lower the total cost of space travel and, consequently, space colonization, numerous commercial enterprises are striving to improve the efficiency of space flight. SpaceX, having launched the reusable Falcon 9, has taken the lead in this movement for efficient exploration.

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In 2024, a number of fascinating space missions with a variety of goals, including investigating planetary atmospheres and moons and asteroids, are scheduled to launch. These are the main forthcoming missions:

Uncrewed missions:

• The Upcoming Space Missions October 2024: Europa Clipper NASA’s mission will investigate Jupiter’s moon Europa with the goal of determining whether or not a subterranean ocean that could support life is hidden under its frozen surface.​
• Hera Mission: Set for October 2024 This European Space Agency mission will go to the asteroid Didymos and its moon Dimorphos in order to test techniques for deflecting potentially hazardous asteroids and to examine the impact experiment conducted by NASA in 2022.​
• August 2024: ESCAPADE Two tiny spacecraft will investigate the way that Mars’ atmosphere exits into space. The mission is slated to take off on Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket on its maiden flight.​
• Late in 2024, India’s ISRO will launch an orbiter named Shukrayaan to explore Venus, with a particular emphasis on the planet’s surface and atmosphere.
• Venus Life Finder (December 2024): A probe created by MIT and RocketLab will look for organic chemicals in Venus’ atmosphere in an effort to determine whether the planet is habitable.​
• On September 5, 2024, and December 2, 2024, BepiColombo will flyby. This year, ESA’s BepiColombo will approach Mercury twice, bringing it closer to its intended orbit for in-depth investigation.​
• Moon Missions: A number of commercial lunar payload services (CLPS) missions as well as NASA’s VIPER rover, which is scheduled to explore the lunar south pole in search of water ice, are planned.​
• PLATO:The European Space Agency is developing the Planetary Transits and Oscillations of Stars (PLATO) space telescope, which is scheduled for launch in 2026.[28] The mission objectives are to find and characterize rocky extrasolar planets near yellow dwarf stars (like the Sun), red dwarf stars, and subgiant stars, as well as to search for planetary transits over up to one million stars. The project focuses on Earth-like planets where liquid water can exist in the habitable zone surrounding Sun-like stars.

2025

• NASA’s Psyche Mission This spacecraft is slated to launch in 2023 and arrive to the metal-rich asteroid Psyche in 2025. Its investigation of the asteroid—which might represent the exposed core of a planetesimal—will provide light on the elements that go into the formation of planets.

• NASA’s Dragonfly The largest moon of Saturn, Titan, will be visited by a rotorcraft lander mission scheduled to launch in 2025. It will investigate the moon’s surface chemistry and atmosphere while looking for indications of life.
• The goal of NASA’s Artemis program is to bring people back to the Moon for the first time since the 1972 Apollo missions. The first female and person of color to set foot on the moon will be among the astronauts landing on the moon during the 2025 Artemis III mission. The South Pole of the Moon is a goal for this mission because it may contain water ice deposits that could aid in future lunar exploration and possibly be utilized to create rocket fuel.​

2026

• NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return an effort to return samples from the surface of Mars by NASA and the European Space Agency. Several spacecraft will be involved in this ambitious project, which aims to retrieve samples gathered by NASA’s Perseverance rover.​
• Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, or JUICE (ESA) – Launched in 2023, JUICE will arrive at Jupiter in 2031 and perform extensive studies of its moons Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa, concentrating on their potential to harbor life

2027

• The NASA Lucy Mission — With flybys scheduled for 2027, Lucy, which was launched in 2021, will carry out its mission to investigate Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids. These asteroids are thought to be remnants of the primordial solar system.

2028

• NASA’s VERITAS: This mission will circle Venus in order to map its surface and investigate its geology, particularly any historical volcanic activity that may provide clues to the planet’s changing climate.​
• NASA’s DAVINCI+ :DAVINCI+, a different Venus mission scheduled for 2028, will send a probe into Venus’ thick atmosphere to measure its composition, providing more insight into the planet’s surface and atmosphere.

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2030 and Beyond

• NASA’s Mars Ice Mapper This mission, which is scheduled for the early 2030s, will survey the subsurface ice of Mars in order to identify potential sites for future human landings.​

Conclusion:

In conclusion, Upcoming Space Missions the future years are poised to witness a series of milestone space missions that will deepen our understanding of the solar system. Important programs like NASA’s Artemis III, which will launch a new era of lunar exploration in 2025, will bring people back to the Moon, and the Psyche mission will investigate a special asteroid that is rich in metals. The first Martian soil samples could be returned by the Mars Sample Return mission, which is scheduled for 2026 and would greatly advance planetary science. In addition, NASA’s Dragonfly mission will examine Titan’s surface and atmosphere in an effort to find signs of life, while ESA’s JUICE mission will study Jupiter’s icy moons. These missions are essential preparation for further human exploration, which may involve trips to Mars.​Here Are Tge List Of Upcoming Space Missions.