2023-12-30 05:40:00
In terms of space news, 2024 promises to be prolific to say the least. After a year 2023 punctuated by the sending of several unmanned missions to the Moon, the discovery of new clues of life on Mars by the Perseverance rover, the first tests of SpaceX’s Starship super rocket and the spectacular images of the universe provided by NASA’s James Webb super telescope, the coming months hold new major events for space exploration, with a new stage of the Artemis program, the inaugural flight of Ariane 6, the next developments of Starship or a new planetary defense exercise. Overview of the missions expected this year.
Artemis 2: a manned flight around the Moon for NASA
The most anticipated event is probably the launch of the Artemis 2 manned mission around the Moon. Expected at the end of the year, with NASA having to validate several preparatory stages upstream, the next phase of the flagship program of the American space agency must take four astronauts to fly over the Moon aboard the Orion capsule which caps the new rocket NASA’s giant SLS. This will be the first manned trip to the celestial body in more than fifty years and the last Apollo mission. The crew is made up of three Americans, including astronaut Christina Koch, and a Canadian. The objective of this ten-day mission is to test the Orion spacecraft before the next stage of the Artemis 3 program expected in 2025 or 2026: the return of man to the Moon.
To listen
Artemis mission to the Moon: preparation for future trips to Mars, believes Jean-François Clervoy
00:09:21
Chang’e-6: China once again targets the far side of the Moon
The Moon will also be at the crossroads of Chinese ambitions with the Chang’e-6 mission, expected in the second quarter. Four years after Chang’e-5, which consisted of bringing samples of lunar soil back to Earth, Beijing will attempt to reproduce this feat, but this time on the far side of the Moon. This would be an unprecedented feat which would symbolize the renewal of Chinese space power, 5 years after becoming the first country to place a rover at the south pole of the star, and an additional step before sending a man to the Moon at the end of the decade, the ultimate objective of the Chinese program.
To listen
Space: China attempts its first round-trip flight to the Moon
00:01:16
SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission launches
Scheduled for last March, the mission Polaris Dawn de SpaceX was late. It is now expected in the first quarter of 2024. This private mission will send four civilian astronauts to travel to a maximum orbit of 1,200 kilometers around the Earth aboard a Crew Dragon capsule, and for the first time, carry out an outing outside of the ship dressed in spacesuits.
To listen
WE’LL TELL YOU ABOUT IT – Space tourism, a fantasy since the 1950s
00:03:37
The Starship rocket’s race against time
After two first attempts punctuated by explosions, SpaceX will once again be a major player in the news with the next tests of its Starship megarocket which is supposed to transport NASA astronauts for its return missions to the Moon from 2025. For the moment, the development of the machine is not fast enough to meet the objectives of the American agency. The first flight in the spring ended in a gigantic explosion when the two stages of the rocket separated. During the second test in late November, both stages exploded shortly after separation. Ultimately, Elon Musk hopes to make Starship the preferred vessel to reach Mars and any destination in the Solar System.
To listen
SpaceX: the doubts that remain after the first flight of the Starship rocket
00:01:26
Launch of the Ariane 6 rocket
Delayed by four years, the inauguration of the Ariane 6 rocket could finally take place in the summer of 2024. This launch raises a lot of expectations for Europe, which hopes to regain its space autonomy in the face of American competition while its predecessor Ariane 5 had established itself as the champion of the deployment of telecommunications satellites. The challenges are immense for this new rocket which will have to prove its reliability and its ability to ramp up to put the Old Continent back on the map of space conquest.
To listen
348. Ariane 5 is retiring, will Ariane 6 be up to the task?
00:19:01
Hera planetary defense mission
Two and a half years after the launch of the DART mission, a unique planetary defense mission aimed at testing the kinetic impactor method to deflect the trajectory of an asteroid, the second phase of the program is due to open in the coming months with the Hera mission, the objective of which will be to analyze to what extent the NASA probe succeeded in modifying the route of the asteroid Didymos, with which it collided in September 2022. Led by the Space Agency European, the Hera mission must be launched in October 2024 to collect data on the surface of the asteroid at the end of 2026.
To listen
Mission Dart: 3 questions to David Fossé, deputy editor-in-chief of the magazine “Ciel et Espace”
00:05:10
NASA attacks Europa, Jupiter’s icy moon
One year after the European Space Agency, it is NASA’s turn to head towards Jupiter with the Europa Clipper mission which is due to launch this fall on a journey of more than 2 billion kilometers towards the Europe satellite. The purpose of the mission will be to determine the habitability of this small moon of Jupiter, where scientists detected an ocean of liquid water about a hundred kilometers deep under its icy crust in 2016.
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