Exciting Space Missions To Look Forward In 2024: From The Europa To Hera, Six Awaited Expeditions

2024 is poised to be an eventful period for space missions, particularly towards the Moon, our closest celestial companion.

With the success of NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission and India's Chandrayaan-3 mission, it can be said that this year will witness numerous thrilling launches.

Following are six space missions that will be launched in 2024:

1. Europa Clipper

This mission will explore one of the largest moons of Jupiter, Europa. It could be launched on October 10 and could last for 21 days.

Europa is slightly smaller than Earth's Moon, with a surface made of ice. Beneath its icy shell, Europa likely harbours a saltwater ocean, which scientists expect contains over twice as much water as all the oceans here on Earth combined.

This mission aims to search whether Europa's ocean could be suitable for extraterrestrial life or not.

The spacecraft will launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket and arrive at the Jupiter system in 2030.

2. Artemis II

It will put astronauts into orbit around the Moon before returning them to the Earth. The four astronauts will be on a round for 10 days. It will send humans to the Moon for the first time since 1972, including the first woman and the first person of colour. It is scheduled to be launched in November but it might get pushed back to 2025.

3. VIPER

VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) is a robot that NASA will use to explore the south pole of the Moon in November.

The purpose of sending this robot is to search for molecules that easily vaporise, like water and carbon dioxide, at lunar temperatures. The research will help in future human exploration on the Moon.

The robot will work on batteries, heat pipes and radiators on its 100-day mission.

4. Lunar Trailblazer and PRIME-1 Mission

Lunar Trailblazer will also look for water on the Moon. But while VIPER is set to touch down on the lunar surface, examining a specific region near the south pole extensively, Lunar Trailblazer will orbit the Moon, gauging surface temperature and charting the distribution of water molecules globally.

It is going to be launched at the beginning of 2024.

PRIME-1 will drill into the moon. Its launch date depends on the earlier missions to go on time.

5. JAXA Martian Moons eXploration Mission

JAXA which stands for Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, has a robotic mission called the Martian Moon eXploration (MMX) that is planning to be launched in September.

This mission aims to discover the origin of Mar's moons Phobos and Deimos. The scientists are divided over whether Phobos and Deimos were former asteroids that Mars had captured into its orbit or they were formed out of debris present in Mars' orbit.

The research will go on for three years and the MMX will come back to the Earth with samples from Phobos' surface.

6. ESA's Hera Mission

It is a mission by the European Space Agency to return to the Didymos-Dimorphos asteroid system that NASA's DART mission visited in 2022. Set to launch in October, it will reach Didymos and Dimorphos in late 2026, focusing on examining the physical characteristics of the respective asteroids.