The countries launching missions to the Moon and beyond in 2023
In 2023, Russia, India and the EuropeanSpace Agency willbelaunching missions to the Moon, and furtherintodeepspace.
This followsNasa’sArtemis I mission, whichrecently made a lunarorbit, using a spacecraftdesigned to put people back on the Moon’s surface.
Whoislaunching missions to the Moon?
India plans to launch the Chandrayaan 3 mission to the Moon in June 2023, taking a landing module and robotic rover to explore the surface. India first reached the moonin 2008 withChandrayaan 1.
Russia plans to launch its Luna 25 mission in July 2023, putting a probe on the Moon to gathersamplesfromitssouthern polar region.
SpaceX plans to takeJapanesebillionaireYusakuMaezawa and eightotherpassengers on the dearMoon voyage around the Moon in late 2023. This wouldbe the first mission for its Starshipvehicle, whichis capable of carrying 100 people.
Nasa, the United States spaceagency, plans to launch itsnext Moon mission in 2024. CalledArtemis II, itwilltakeastronauts to orbit the Moon.
The US Agency is due to launch the Artemis III mission in 2025 or 2026, landing the first woman and the first person of colour on the Moon.
It willbe the first time that people have walked on the Moon since the last of Nasa’s Apollo missions in 1972. Nasa has saiditwill use the Space X Starship for the mission.
China has announced plans withRussia to set up a joint base on the Moon by 2035, but no timeline has been drawn up for the project.
Why are nations going back to the Moon?
The US and otherspacepowerswant to set up habitable bases on the Moon
The aim of spacepowers, such as the US, Russia and China, is to set up bases on the Moon for astronauts to live in, says Dr McDowell, astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in the US.
« The Moon isbeingused as a stepping stone to places like Mars, » hesays. « It’s a great place to test out deepspace technologies. »
It alsotakesless fuel to launch a spacecraftfrom the Moon thanfromEarth to travelintodeepspace, says Dr Lucinda King, spaceproject manager at the University of Portsmouth.
And, sheadds, a fuel source has been discovered on the Moon.
The Moon’ssouthern polar regioncontains an estimated 600 billion kilograms of water ice
« It’sknownthere’s water at the south pole of the Moon, » says Dr King. « This couldbebroken down intohydrogen and oxygen, whichcouldbeused to refuelcraft for journeys to Mars and elsewhere. »
« That’s one reasonwhythere’s a rush to get back to the Moon – to stake a claim to the water there. »
Whatotherspace missions are plannedin2023?
Artist’s impression of Nasa’sPsyche probe approaching the 16 Psycheasteroid
Nasa will launch itsPsychespacecraft in summer 2023 to explore an asteroidcalled 16 Psyche, thought to be the remnant of a planetcreated in the earliestdays of the solar system.
The EuropeanSpace Agency (Esa), an organisation backed by 22 European countries, plans to launch its Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer (JUICE) in April 2023.
The probe will look for signs of life in the water icebelieved to lie under the surface of three of Jupiter’smoons – Ganymede, Callistro and Europa.
However, in protest at Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Esa will no longer use a Russian rocket to put its Euclid spacetelescopeintoorbitnextyear. It willinstead use a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
It has alsostoppedworkingwithRussia on itsExoMars mission to send a rover to Mars, delaying the launch until 2028.
China plans to put a telescopecalledXuntianintolowEarthorbit in December 2023, to map distant stars and black holes.
It has alreadylanded probes and roboticrovers on the Moon and Mars, and it has put a scientificresearch station intospace, calledTiangong.
China’sTiangong, or « Heavenly Palace », space station will carry out scientificresearch
« There’s been a vision emerging in recentyears of humanityspanning out to Mars and beyond, » says Dr McDowell.
That iswhy countries like China and India have becomespacepowers in recentyears, alongside the US, Russia and Europe, hesays.
« Theirgovernments are thinking: if that’swhat the future looks like, wedon’twantour country to beleftbehind. »
