American planetary scientists from Purdue University in Indiana listed the most important space exploration missions planned for the next 2024. Researchers shared their expectations broadcasting Speech.
One of the interesting space projects of 2024 will be the launch of NASA’s Europa Clipper to Europa, one of Jupiter’s largest moons. Europa is slightly smaller than Earth’s moon and is completely covered in ice. It is assumed that a salty ocean is hidden under its icy crust, containing twice as much water as all the oceans on our planet.
The Europa Clipper probe will help find out whether life, or at least the conditions necessary for its emergence, exist in Europa’s watery depths.
During the mission, the device will fly around Jupiter’s moon approximately 50 times. Europa Clipper will launch in October 2024 and arrive in 2030.
The second phase of the Artemis program is planned for 2024, and the ultimate goal is to send people to the Moon.
Artemis II will send four NASA astronauts to the Moon for the first time since 1972. The flight will last 10 days, during which the spacecraft with the crew will fly around the satellite and return to Earth. According to the plan, Artemis II will be launched in November 2024.
In November 2024, NASA also plans to send the innovative VIPER rover to the Moon to explore the satellite’s south pole. The robotic vehicle, about the size of a golf cart, is equipped to search for water and carbon dioxide. The mission will last 100 days, during which the rover will be exposed to temperature changes from 107 °C to -240 °C.
Along with VIPER, Lunar Trailblazer is planned to be sent to the Moon in 2024. It is an orbital module that will look for traces of water by measuring the temperature of the satellite’s surface.
Japanese space agency JAXA plans to launch the Martian Moon eXploration (MMX) robotic mission to Mars’ moons Phobos and Deimos in September 2024. The main goal of the expedition is to find out exactly how these moons were formed. They may have formed from asteroids captured by the gravity of a neighboring planet or from debris surrounding Mars.
Finally, the European Space Agency (ESA) will send the Hera probe to the Didymos-Dimorphos asteroid system in 2024. The device will reach the target by 2026 and will help study the physical properties of these celestial objects.
happened before known about preparations for the launch of the innovative Einstein space telescope to search for black holes and supernovae.