2023-12-26 17:11:22
The year 2024 promises to be rich in the field of space exploration. TF1info has selected the main upcoming events for you.
Just like the year that is ending, the year 2024 promises to bring stars to our eyes! On the program for this new vintage, missions to the Moon and beyond, into deep space towards Mars, Jupiter or even the asteroid Dimorphos. But also spaceships and other rockets which will make their first flight. Not forgetting a total solar eclipse and the passage of giant comets in the vicinity of our planet. TF1info takes a quick overview of the space and astronomical events that will mark the coming new year.
A slew of missions to the Moon
The Chinese Chang’e-6 mission, scheduled to launch in May 2024, aims to make history by collecting the first lunar samples on the far side of the Moon. Fifteen kilos of French scientific equipment will be taken on board. This ambitious mission follows the success of Chang’e-5, China’s first lunar sample return mission. Before this highly anticipated launch, several missions to the Moon are planned. Astrobiotic’s Peregrine-1 mission, whose launch is scheduled for January 8, 2024, will attempt to land a robotic probe on February 23.
Before it, another private American company, Intuitive Machine, will try to land the Nova-C lander near the South Pole of the Moon, on January 19 or 21. This would be the first time that a private mission has achieved this feat. For its part, the Japanese Space Agency (Jaxa) is planning a moon landing attempt on January 20, as part of the SLIM mission, launched last September. At the end of 2024, the Japanese start-up iSpace will make a second attempt after its failure last April.
The maiden flight of the Dream Chaser spaceplane
The Dream Chaser spaceplane, developed by the American company Sierra Space, is due to make its first flight in April 2024. Launched by a Vulcan Centaur rocket from United Launch Americain (ULA), it will travel to the Space Station international (ISS). This is an uncrewed mission, which aims to test the technology. The particularity of this spacecraft is that it will return to land on Earth using a landing strip, like the American space shuttle. The Dream Chase will primarily be used to transport equipment to the ISS, but it could also be used for other missions, such as satellite deployment and scientific research.
Dream Chaser, a space plane resembling a space shuttle, developed by the private American company Sierra Space is expected to make its first flight in 2024. – SIERRA SPACE
The first manned flight of Boeing’s Starliner capsule
After encountering numerous problems, Boeing’s spacecraft, Starliner, should be ready in March with a view to a first manned flight to the International Space Station the following month, in April 2024. NASA astronauts are transported to the ISS since 2020 thanks to SpaceX vessels. But the American space agency wants to have a second service provider. After a failed flight in 2019, the Boeing capsule managed to reach the ISS in May 2022 but without a crew on board. It must now carry out a final manned test to be certified, and begin its operational flights. Starliner’s first manned flight is to take two NASA astronauts, Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams, to the ISS, where they will have to stay for about a week. The launch is to take place from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
Starliner’s first manned flight is to take two NASA astronauts, Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams, to the ISS, where they will have to stay for about a week. – BOEING
The inaugural flight of the European Ariane 6 launcher
The Ariane 6 launcher carries Europe’s hopes to guarantee its autonomous access to space, after the retirement of its big sister, Ariane 5. It must make its inaugural flight between June 15 and July 31 , with four years of delays due to the pandemic and other difficulties. The project was launched in 2014 to cope with the rise of SpaceX’s Falcon 9. Derived from Ariane 5, Ariane 6 should be half the price of its predecessor thanks to new production methods. With a backlog of 28 launches even before its first flight, the rocket, available in two versions, will serve, like Ariane 5, geostationary orbit (11.5 tonnes capacity) and low orbit (21.6 tonnes) for deploy constellations of satellites there thanks to its engine which can be restarted.
Ariane 6 during a critical test in Kourou. – P. PIRON / ArianeGroup / AFP
The maiden flight of the New Glenn rocket
Blue Origin, the space company owned by Amazon’s boss, is already taking space tourists for a few minutes into space with its New Shepard launcher. But the company founded by Jeff Bezos is also developing a heavy launcher, the New Glenn. With its 98 meters high, the rocket must be able to carry up to 45 tonnes into low orbit. This is more than double that of Falcon 9, but still less than SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy (63.8 tonnes). The first launch, scheduled for August 2024, should carry scientific equipment for NASA, as part of a mission called EscaPADE, dedicated to the study of the magnetosphere of Mars. Its observations in orbit of the Red Planet could help explain why the Martian atmosphere is so leaky. Blue Origin’s heavy launcher must also participate in NASA’s Artemis 5 mission.
At 98 meters high, the New Glenn rocket should be able to carry up to 45 tonnes into low Earth orbit. – BLUE ORIGIN
BepiColombo will fly past Mercury for the 4th time
Leaving Earth in 2018, the BepiColombo mission of the European Space Agency (Esa) aims to study the composition of Mercury in order to resolve the mystery of the formation of this burned planet, the least explored of the four rocky planets of the Solar system. On September 5, 2024, the observation machine will fly over the surface of the star, at an altitude of 200 kilometers, for the fourth time. This will allow the probe to adjust its trajectory and collect valuable data, thus contributing to our understanding of this hot and enigmatic planet, which is also the smallest in the Solar System. Two more Mercury flybys are planned. In 2025, BepiColombo must enter orbit around Mercury, an extremely complex maneuver.
Before BepiColombo, only two missions from the American space agency (NASA) explored Mercury: Mariner 10 in the 1970s and Messenger, which orbited the planet from 2011 until its fuel ran out in April 2015. – ESA/ATG medialab
The launch of the European Hera mission
Dinosaurs were wiped off the face of the Earth following an asteroid collision 66 million years ago. So why not us ? If there is no imminent threat, the risk of such a cataclysm is very real, hence the need to prepare. In 2022, 11 million kilometers from Earth, a NASA vessel collided with the asteroid Dimorphos, a maneuver which made it possible to move the object by reducing its orbit. The European Hera probe, scheduled to launch in October 2024, must closely observe Dimorphos in 2027 in order to assess the consequences of the impact. The objective of the Dart and Hera missions is to provide future generations who, we know, will one day need it, with a validated, robust and coordinated plan. So that the day this risk materializes, they do not have to improvise.
Concretely, Hera’s mission will be to probe the internal structure of the object with radar, to measure the size of the impact crater and to study all the geological properties. -ESA
The launch of NASA’s Artemis 2 mission
The first mission, Artemis 1, has already sent a spacecraft around the Moon in 2022. Scheduled for launch in November 2024 (but perhaps in 2025, more likely), NASA’s Artemis 2 mission will have to do the same, but this time with a crew. Americans Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Jeremy Hansen, will be the first human beings to travel to the Moon, without landing, since the last Apollo mission in 1972. Christina Koch is the first woman to participate in a mission to the Moon. Victor Glover will be the first African-American to fly over the Earth’s natural satellite. Their mission is expected to last a total of ten days and will be broadcast live by the European Space Agency.
Americans Christina Koch (left), Victor Glover (top center) and Reid Wiseman (bottom center), as well as Canadian Jeremy Hansen (right) form the crew of the Artemis 2 mission – NASA
Two solar eclipses, one total and the other annular
Eclipses are rare phenomena. The year 2023 was marked by two solar eclipses: a hybrid eclipse in April then an annular eclipse in October. This will also be the case in 2024. A total solar eclipse is planned for Monday April 8, 2024. It will begin at 5:42 p.m. (Paris time). The maximum of the eclipse will take place at 8:17 p.m. The end of the general eclipse is scheduled for 10:52 p.m. Only residents of North America will be able to observe it with their own eyes. But it will nevertheless be possible to observe it live on the internet. The next solar eclipse is scheduled for October 2, 2024. It will be an annular eclipse. Again, it will only be visible from part of South America.
Two comets will come closest to Earth
The giant comet 12P/Pons-Brooks will pass closest to Earth in June 2024. Nicknamed “the devil’s comet” because of the shape of its hair, it should be visible to the naked eye, and offer a pretty spectacle . Let’s hope so, because the next meeting: will take place in 2095! But the ball of ice and dust that arouses the most hope is called Tsuchinshan-ATLAS (/2023 A3, its scientific name). It was spotted in February 2023, except at the time astronomers thought it was an asteroid. Subsequently, they noticed that it had a small tail and eventually designated it as a comet. And it was therefore renamed after the name of its discoverer. Its orbit will bring it close enough to the Sun and Earth that it can be seen with the naked eye. On October 12, 2024, it will be only 70 million kilometers from us.
This image shows comet ISON. -NASA/MSFC/Aaron Kingery
Please note that it is possible that certain dates indicated in this article may change during the year.
Matthieu DELACHARLERY
1703613412
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