In 2024, the world鈥檚 space agencies are shooting for the moon. More than 10 missions are headed to Earth鈥檚 satellite, most of them intending to land on its surface and all paving the way for human lunar exploration.
鈥淚t is the year of the moon,鈥� says at the California Institute of Technology. 鈥淭he number of moon missions in 2024 is really a reflection and a realisation of the momentum from the last five years or so 鈥� it鈥檚 a big global push.鈥�
The barrage is set to begin in January, with the planned landing of Japan鈥檚 Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) craft, the country鈥檚 first lunar lander. Around the same time, a lander developed by the US company Intuitive Machines will launch. This lunar craft, along with most of the others launching in 2024, is part of NASA鈥檚 Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, in which the agency funds commercial craft going to the moon to foster future exploration and build industry partnerships.
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Over the course of the year, the CLPS missions will investigate and attempt to mine ice on the moon, test technology designed for future missions, work on how to deal with the sticky lunar dust and demonstrate a wide variety of new types of rover.
One such mission, called Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration (CADRE), will include three rovers and a base station, all operating autonomously to take measurements at different locations across the lunar surface, working from a general mission plan.
鈥淭he autonomy aboard the robots takes that high-level objective and computes what each needs to do individually to achieve that objective without any further instruction,鈥� says at NASA鈥檚 Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. If it works, this set-up could drastically boost the productivity of robots on future missions.
It isn鈥檛 just landers headed to the moon 鈥� new orbiters will also support them. The Lunar Trailblazer orbiter, which is part of the CLPS programme, will be particularly important to future human explorers, who will need to extract water from lunar ice. 鈥淭his will provide the first maps of water at the surface that are truly actionable 鈥� you land on the surface and you know if you drive left or you drive right,鈥� says Ehlmann. 鈥淥ur data will basically provide signposts that say 鈥榞o here next鈥�.鈥�
Not all of 2024鈥檚 moon missions will be sent up by NASA, of course. Along with Japan鈥檚 SLIM, orbiters are being sent from Canada, Germany and Singapore, and even the Finnish electronics company Nokia is sending a rover. In May, China plans to launch the Chang鈥檈 6 mission to return the world鈥檚 first samples from the far side of the moon.
Rounding off the year, NASA鈥檚 Artemis II mission is planned for November, along with two important flights of SpaceX鈥檚 Starship craft near the end of 2024 鈥� one an uncrewed moon landing and the other the dearMoon flight, which will send several artists on a flyby.
All of these missions 鈥� especially Artemis II, which will see four astronauts flying near the moon and back over the course of 10 days 鈥� are ramping up to increasingly sophisticated human lunar exploration in the coming decades. 鈥淪eeing the moon up close will really bring that perspective that, no kidding, it is a real and separate body in open space,鈥� says Christina Koch, one of those four astronauts. 鈥淕etting to be a part of that mission, doing something we haven鈥檛 done in over 50 years, is just absolutely phenomenal.鈥�
