Global Space Missions: 2023 & 2024

Mission

Features

OSIRIS-REx
(NASA)

• It studied the asteroid Bennu.
• It returned a sample from Bennu which is is thought to be a “time capsule” from the birth of our solar system.

Psyche
(NASA)

• Aim is to explore the origin of planetary cores.
• Psyche is believed to have a high metal content.

Shenzhou 16

(China)

• Send 3 humans to Tiangong space station.
• It created a world record with 17 humans in orbit, 6 aboard Tiangong and 11 on the ISS.

Chandrayaan-3
(ISRO)

• It made a soft landing on the Moon.
• India became the 4^th country in the world to soft-land a spacecraft on the Moon.
• 1^st spacecraft to land near the South Pole of the Moon.

Aditya L1
(ISRO)

• It is India’s 1^st mission to study the Sun and space weather.
• It will travel around 1.5 million kilometres away from the planet to the 1^st Lagrange point, or L1, between the Sun and the Earth.

Mission

Objectives

Key points

NASA

Europa Clipper

To explore Europa, Jupiter’s moon.

It will study the icy shell, its surface’s geology and its subsurface ocean and will also look for active geysers.

Artemis II

To send 4 humans to the Moon for 10 days.

It includes the 1^st woman and the 1^st person of colour to the moon.

VIPER

To survey water at the south pole of the Moon.

Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, a robot the size of a golf cart to search for volatiles.

Lunar Trailblazer and PRIME-1

To look for water on the Moon with PRIME-1 to drill into the Moon.

It will orbit the Moon, measuring the temperature of the surface and mapping out the locations of water molecules across the globe.

JAXA (Japan Space Agency)

MMX

To study the Mars moon, Phobos and Deimos.

MMX stands for Martian Moon eXploration.

ESA (European Space Agency)

Hera

To study to the Didymos-Dimorphos asteroid system.

It will study physical properties of the asteroids.