The 20 best space missions of the next decade (2023)

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The 20 best space missions of the next decade? ›

Europe's JUICE Mission to Europa (and more)

In April 2023, the European Space Agency will send their Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, or JUICE, off to Jupiter. Upon entering orbit around Jupiter in 2031, JUICE will make detailed observations of the gas giant's three large ocean-bearing moons: Ganymede, Europa and Callisto.

Europe's JUICE Mission to Europa (and more)

In April 2023, the European Space Agency will send their Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, or JUICE, off to Jupiter. Upon entering orbit around Jupiter in 2031, JUICE will make detailed observations of the gas giant's three large ocean-bearing moons: Ganymede, Europa and Callisto.

The OSIRIS-REx mission will return to Earth on 24 September with samples collected from asteroid Bennu. NASA plans to launch the Psyche spacecraft, an orbiter mission that will explore the origin of planetary cores by studying the metallic asteroid 16 Psyche, in October 2023 on a Falcon Heavy launch vehicle.

And NASA officials have set their sights on April 2023 for the first crewed launch. Boeing's CST-100 Starliner spacecraft launched on an uncrewed test flight on May 19, 2022. The Starliner is expected to round out NASA's plans to hand over the task of transporting astronauts to the ISS to the private sector.

The Psyche spacecraft, part of NASA's Discovery Program, is scheduled to launch at the end of 2023 to 16 Psyche, a metallic object in the asteroid belt. 16 Psyche is 130 miles (210 km) wide, and it is made almost entirely of iron and nickel instead of ice and rock.

On April 3, 2023, NASA announced the four astronauts who will make up the crew of Artemis II, which is scheduled to launch in late 2024. The Artemis II mission will send these four astronauts on a 10-day mission that culminates in a flyby of the moon.

What is Orion? Orion is NASA's new spacecraft, built to take humans farther into space than they've ever gone before. It will carry the crew to space, provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew and provide a safe return to Earth.

In 2019, US President Donald Trump announced the launch of the most ambitious of the NASA projects – Artemis, which involves landing astronauts on the Moon, both men and women, by 2025, and the construction of a lunar base as a transit point for further colonisation of Mars.

What will happen in space in 2025? ›

The first Indian crewed spaceflight, Gaganyaan 3, is planned for 2025. China plans to launch the Tianwen-2 (ZhengHe) asteroid sample-return and comet probe and the Chang'e 6 sample-return mission. As of 2021, the mission of the Juno spacecraft orbiting Jupiter is targeted to end no later than September 2025.

NASA unveils Artemis II astronauts flying around the moon in 2024.

Scientists now consider it unlikely the universe has an end – a region where the galaxies stop or where there would be a barrier of some kind marking the end of space.

NASA's 2023 annual Breakthrough, Innovative and Game-Changing (BIG) Idea Challenge asks college students to design technologies that will support a metal production pipeline on the Moon – from extracting metal from lunar minerals to creating structures and tools.

As of 2023, SpaceX is developing the Starship system with a fully-reusable two-stage launch vehicle, intended to replace all of its other launch vehicles and spacecraft for satellite delivery and human transport—Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy and Dragon—and eventually support flights to the Moon and Mars.

First, with telescopes, then with satellites, then space rovers, and ultimately with manned spacecraft.

The Space Launch System (SLS) Program will develop a heavy-lift launch vehicle to expand human presence to celestial destinations beyond low Earth orbit. This launch vehicle will be capable of lifting the Orion MPCV to asteroids, the moon, Lagrange points and, ultimately, to Mars.

Astronomers have discovered two new black holes that are the closest ones to Earth known, and also represent something that astronomers have never seen before. The black holes, designated Gaia BH1 and Gaia BH2, were discovered in data collected by the European Space Agency's (ESA) Gaia spacecraft.

NASA Artemis. With Artemis missions, NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon, using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before.

In December of 2021, NASA awarded three more contracts for “commercial destinations”: A team led by Nanoracks won $160 million to design its Starlab, a four-person station designed to be sent to orbit in a single launch that's now projected for 2028.

What is the 2024 NASA moon mission? ›

The mission, Artemis II, is scheduled to take place in November 2024 with the four-person crew circling the Moon but not landing on it. As part of the Artemis program, NASA aims to send astronauts to the Moon in 2025 — more than five decades after the historic Apollo missions ended in 1972.

The VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) is a lunar rover by NASA planned to be delivered to the surface of the Moon in November 2024.

Following two Artemis test missions, Artemis III, currently planned for 2025, will mark humanity's first return to the lunar surface in more than 50 years. NASA will make history by sending the first humans to explore the region near the lunar South Pole.

Rockets lifting off from Earth will depend on chemical fuels for the foreseeable future. However, once in orbit, nuclear engines could take over and provide propulsion to accelerate spacecraft through space.

NASA's Artemis program will return humans to the Moon. The first crewed flight, Artemis II, is scheduled to launch in 2024.

After the Columbia loss in 2003, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board report showed that STS was risky/unsafe, and due to the expense to make Shuttle safe, in 2004, President G.W.Bush announced (along with the VSE policy) that Shuttle would be retired in 2010 (after completing the ISS assembly).

1. Radiation. The first hazard of a human mission to Mars is also the most difficult to visualize because, well, space radiation is invisible to the human eye. Radiation is not only stealthy, but considered one of the most menacing of the five hazards.

Bengaluru: The most sophisticated and complex Mars mission has just departed Earth for the neighbouring planet. The NASA mission, called Mars 2020, consists of a rover and helicopter and was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida, at 5.20 pm Thursday, atop the rocket Atlas V-541.

The Space Shuttle Challenger was destroyed 73 seconds after lift-off on STS-51-L at an altitude of 15 kilometers (49,000 ft).

A Once-in-a-Lifetime Alignment

Calculations reveal it is possible for a spacecraft launched in the late 1970s to visit all four giant outer planets, using the gravity of each planet to swing the spacecraft on to the next. This alignment occurs once every 176 years.

What will happen in 2026 in space? ›

NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which will have a field of view 100 times larger than that of the Hubble Space Telescope, is scheduled to be launched in October 2026. China plans to launch Chang'e 7 to explore the lunar south pole in late 2026.

In about 100 trillion years, the last light will go out. The bad news is that the universe is going to die a slow, aching, miserable death. The good news is that we won't be around to see it.

On average, a supernova explosion occurs about once every hundred years in the typical galaxy. About 25 to 50 supernovae are discovered each year in other galaxies, but most are too far away to be seen without a telescope.

The International Space Station will operate with all of its global partners through at least 2028. NASA announced Thursday that the United States, Japan, Canada and participating countries of the European Space Agency have committed to stay on the station through 2030.

April 8, the date of the 2024 eclipse, is just two weeks before the comet reaches perihelion, the closest point to the Sun in its orbit. On April 8, Comet Pons-Brooks will sit about 1.61 astronomical units from Earth, or nearly 150 million miles (240 million kilometers), on the opposite side of the Sun from our planet.

In April 1970, the crew of NASA's Apollo 13 mission swung around the far side of the moon at an altitude of 158 miles (254 km), putting them 248,655 miles (400,171 km) away from Earth. It's the farthest our species has ever been from our home planet.

We can't smell space directly, because our noses don't work in a vacuum. But astronauts aboard the ISS have reported that they notice a metallic aroma – like the smell of welding fumes – on the surface of their spacesuits once the airlock has re-pressurised.

After about one minute circulation effectively stops. The lack of oxygen to the brain renders you unconscious in less than 15 seconds, eventually killing you.

NASA wants to study asteroid Apophis with spacecraft fleet in 2029.

NASA and SpaceX's eighth rotational mission to the space station is planned for no earlier than February 2024. An integrated crew of four will travel to the space station aboard a SpaceX Dragon and Falcon 9 rocket. Hardware allocations for Dragon and Falcon are planned in the coming months.

What is the future of space industry? ›

This growth in the global space sector is creating opportunities for new players and new offerings for incumbent ones. 2022 was a record year for the space sector, with 186 successful rocket launches (41 more than in 2021)—the most ever,² signaling a rapid transformation of the space sector.

Voyager 1 is currently in the constellation of Ophiucus.

Well-known products that NASA claims as spinoffs include memory foam (originally named temper foam), freeze-dried food, firefighting equipment, emergency "space blankets", DustBusters, cochlear implants, LZR Racer swimsuits, and CMOS image sensors.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is America's civil space program and the global leader in space exploration.

May 17, 2023 — Astronomers have discovered an Earth-size exoplanet, or world beyond our solar system, that may be carpeted with volcanoes. Called LP 791-18 d, the planet could undergo volcanic outbursts as often as ...

MISSION PATCHES

Artemis I will be an uncrewed flight test of the Space Launch System and the Orion spacecraft around the Moon. Artemis II will be the first crewed flight test of the Space Launch System and the Orion spacecraft around the Moon.

With Starship, the California-based SpaceX is focusing on the moon for now, with a $3 billion NASA contract to land astronauts on the lunar surface as early as 2025, using the upper stage spacecraft. It will be the first moon landing by astronauts in more than 50 years.

NASA plans to launch a spacecraft, Europa Clipper, to study the moon Europa in 2024. The Chinese National Space Administration plans to launch two Interstellar Express missions in 2024 on a flyby of Jupiter and Tianwen-4 around 2029 to explore the planet and Callisto.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is training four people to live on planet Mars this summer. While the endeavor to send humans to the neighbouring planet on the part of the US space agency is not new, the four 'Martians' will be part of NASA's human exploration expedition on Mars.

What is SpaceX ultimate goal? ›

It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal of reducing space transportation costs to enable the colonization of Mars. The company manufactures the Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and Starship launch vehicles; several rocket engines; Cargo Dragon and Crew Dragon spacecraft; and Starlink communications satellites.

SpaceX is less than a month into 2023, but CEO Elon Musk's wildly ambitious goal of 100 launches in one year is already looking doable. Announced last August, Musk's 100-launch 2023 target followed goals of 52 – and then 60 – Falcon rocket launches in 2022.

The Apollo 11 spaceflight, which on July 20, 1969, achieved its goal of landing the first humans on the Moon, was arguably one of the most momentous events in 20th-century space exploration.

NASA's Magellan mission to Venus was one of the most successful deep space missions. It was the first spacecraft to image the entire surface of Venus and made several discoveries about the planet.

1: Apollo 11, a Walk on the Moon

Just 20 days after Alan Shepard orbited the Earth, President John F. Kennedy announced the mission that would be NASA's greatest achievement: America was going to the moon.

Surface. As a gas giant, Jupiter doesn't have a true surface. The planet is mostly swirling gases and liquids. While a spacecraft would have nowhere to land on Jupiter, it wouldn't be able to fly through unscathed either.

Not much is known about Pluto, the only planet that has not been visited by an explorer spacecraft, and our best image of its surface is a hazy picture taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1996. The mission will also study the surrounding Kuiper Belt, which is made up of thousands of icy, rocky objects.