In 2023, Russia, India and the European Space Agency will launch space missions involving the Moon. The expeditions follow NASA’s recent Artemis I program.
These studies follow NASA’s recent Artemis I program. Artemis I, aboard the spacecraft S?LS-Orion, designed to take humans to the Moon and later to Mars, is the first step in a long-term space exploration project.
In 2023, Russia, India and the European Space Agency will launch space missions involving the Moon. The exploration work follows the Artemis I program, recently organized by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
Artemis I, aboard the spacecraft SLS-Orion designed to take humans to the Moon and later to Mars, is the first step in a long-term space exploration project.
WHICH COUNTRIES ARE PLANNING A JOURNEY TO THE MOON?
India plans to launch the Chandrayaan 3 program to explore the lunar surface in June 2023. India first reached the Moon with Chandrayaan 1 in 2008.
Russia aims to launch its planned Luna 25 mission to collect samples from the Moon’s south pole in July 2023.
SpaceX plans to take Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa and eight other passengers on the DearMoon journey around the Moon in late 2023. This will be the first mission of the Starship vehicle, which can carry 100 people.
NASA’s next Moon mission, called Artemis II, will launch in 2024. This will be followed by a mission called Artemis III, where the first woman and first black man to land on the Moon is planned in 2025 or 2026.
Thus, after NASA’s last Apollo missions in 1972, humans will walk on the Moon for the first time. NASA announced that it will use the Space X Starship vehicle for this mission.
China has also announced plans to establish a joint base on the Moon with Russia by 2035, but the timeline has not been disclosed.
WHY GO TO THE MOON AGAIN?
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics astronomer Dr. McDowell; He says the goal of space powers like the US, Russia and China is to establish bases on the Moon for astronauts to live:
“The moon is used as a stepping stone to reach places like Mars. The moon is a great place to test space technologies.”
Space project manager at the University of Portsmouth in England, Dr. Lucinda King says launching a spacecraft from the Moon requires less fuel than launching it from Earth. She adds that a fuel source has been discovered on the Moon.
“It is known that there is water at the south pole of the Moon. It can be broken down into hydrogen and oxygen, which can be used to refuel the ship for the journey to Mars and elsewhere.
“That’s one reason why the rush to get to the moon is to lay claim to the water there.”
WHAT OTHER SPACE MISSIONS ARE PLANNED IN 2023?
NASA will launch the Psyche spacecraft in the summer of 2023 to explore an asteroid called 16 Psyche, thought to be the remnant of an ancient planet in the Solar System.
The European Space Agency (ESA), supported by 22 European countries, plans to launch the Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer (JUICE) in April 2023.
The instrument will search for signs of life in water ice, which is thought to be below the surface of Jupiter’s three moons, Ganymede, Callistro and Europa.
ESA will not use Russian rockets to orbit the Euclidean space telescope next year, to protest Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Instead, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will be used.
ESA also stopped working with Russia on the ExoMars mission, where it will send a rover to Mars, delaying the launch until 2028.
China plans to place a telescope called Xuntian into low Earth orbit in December 2023 to map distant stars and black holes.
China has already landed probes on the Moon and Mars, has created a scientific research station in space called Tiangong.
McDowell says humanity’s interest in Mars and beyond has emerged in recent years. He states that countries like China and India have become space powers in recent years alongside the US, Russia and Europe.
“Governments say ‘we don’t want our country to be left behind if the future is moving in this direction’.”