Humans reach for the stars in 2024

In 2024, space missions will no longer be limited to low Earth orbit and the Moon. We are aiming for bigger and further goals.

From tracking Mercury to launching a new adventure to Jupiter's icy moons, space missions in 2024 are already taking big, bold steps forward.

The Moon Welcomes New Visitors

The moon has remained an attractive destination for space agencies and private companies in recent years, and 2024 is no exception.

Since January, Japan's SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) spacecraft has successfully landed, marking the first soft landing of the "Land of the Rising Sun" on the Moon.

Japan's Slim spacecraft lands on the Moon.

Compared to the historic US Apollo 11 mission, SLIM even outperformed expectations, landing just 100 meters from its target point. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said this was the most precise moon landing in the world.

Aim for bigger and further goals.

Despite landing exactly in the planned location, the SLIM spacecraft encountered an unexpected situation: The spacecraft tilted, and almost plunged headfirst into the lunar soil instead of being upright.

Despite the dire circumstances, SLIM completed its assigned scientific mission, and even continued to exceed its original mission over the next several months.

International experts admired Japan when their spacecraft showed extraordinary survival ability on the Moon, despite encountering an incident that almost no spacecraft would want.

In February, another probe built by the private company Intuitive Machines based in Houston, Texas (USA), also chose the Moon as its destination.

The ship named Odysseus successfully landed on the Moon, marking the first time the "land of the free" has returned to this place after more than half a century of waiting. But like SLIM, Odysseus encountered a problem during the landing, causing the ship to capsize.

Still, during its six-day mission, the rover sent back useful data for NASA's upcoming Artemis mission, which aims to send humans to the Moon by 2026.

The Odysseus spacecraft marks the first US return to the Moon since the historic Apollo mission (Photo: Getty).

In June, China's Chang'e 6 spacecraft achieved a breakthrough, bringing back to Earth samples from the far side (or dark side) of the Moon for the first time.

According to a report in the journal Nature, a chemical analysis of soil samples showed that there was volcanic activity in this area about 2.8 billion years ago.

In September, Chang'e 6 was spotted again at a point around the Sun called L2 , near the location of the James Webb Space Telescope. However, the Chinese space agency has not revealed its next plans for Chang'e 6.

Human footprint on Mars

2024 begins with a farewell to Ingenuity  , the Mars exploration helicopter deployed with NASA's Perseverance rover.

On Ingenuity's 72nd flight, the helicopter experienced an unexpected failure, resulting in the loss of communication with the rover. NASA confirmed that Ingenuity had crashed, and this was its last flight.

As the first vehicle to fly on another planet, Ingenuity spent nearly 1,000 days on the Red Planet conducting test flights, while also helping Perseverance navigate the Martian terrain efficiently.

Ingenuity helicopter stopped working on Mars (Photo: NASA).

This is 33 times longer than NASA originally planned for Ingenuity, which was originally designed to make just five flights, lasting a month, according to NASA.

But as of January 18, the helicopter had completed 72 flights, with its speed and altitude improving with each flight. Previously, Ingenuity had reached a height of 12 meters, a record height it had ever reached during a flight.

In July, Ingenuity's companion, the Perseverance rover, made its most important discovery yet. It successfully found and analyzed a rock containing traces of ancient bacteria.

To date, NASA is quietly preparing for a mission to bring this soil sample back to Earth for more detailed assessments.

Private Space Companies to Boom in 2024

Four years after SpaceX became the first private company to launch astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) , the company has marked another commercial milestone.

It was the first successful spacewalk (a term used to describe an astronaut's activity outside a spacecraft).

SpaceX becomes the first private company to send astronauts to the ISS.

The Polaris Dawn mission also set several other records, including the youngest astronaut ever to participate in a spacewalk (30 years old), the record for the number of people participating in the activity (4 people), as well as the record for the most people in orbit at the same time (19 people).

Sarah Gillis, a member of the crew, also became the first person to play the violin in space.

Boeing's Starliner spacecraft also successfully carried astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore to the ISS in early June for an eight-day mission.

However, a problem with the Starliner spacecraft's thruster has caused the two astronauts' return mission to Earth to be delayed several times, and is only expected to be carried out in February 2025.

The End of the Asteroid Hunting Era

Earth lost a 'galactic guardian' this year. In August, NASA said goodbye to the NEOWISE telescope after it spent more than a decade scanning the skies for asteroids that could pose a threat to Earth.

The NEOWISE telescope was shut down this year.

The NEOWISE telescope was launched in 2009 with an initial mission to study infrared light from distant cosmic objects.

When the telescope ran out of coolant, scientists turned it to observe asteroids approaching Earth. Since these asteroids also emit infrared light, NEOWISE had no trouble with its new job.

During its lifetime, NEOWISE has observed thousands of asteroids and hundreds of comets, giving scientists a more accurate sense of the dangers these space rocks pose to Earth.

The loss of the telescope leaves us somewhat in the dark, but thankfully not for long. Another 'asteroid hunter , ' the NEO Surveyor , is scheduled to launch in 2027.

New Perspective on Mercury

Mercury is the smallest and closest planet to the Sun of the eight planets in the Solar System. To this day, this small planet still holds many mysteries for mankind.

The BepiColombo spacecraft has flown past Mercury and captured the first image of the planet's south pole.

However, it won't be long before we get a full view of Mercury. In September, the BepiColombo spacecraft flew by Mercury and captured the first image of the planet's south pole.

This probe, a joint venture between Europe and Japan, took off in October 2018 and is still about two years away from arriving.

Because Mercury is so close to the Sun and its gravity, it is not easy to maneuver a spacecraft into orbit around this tiny planet.

BepiColombo is carefully making close passes of Mercury, using the planet's gravity to enter orbit. It is expected to do so successfully in November 2026.

Jupiter's moon holds the answer to life?

The Europa Clipper spacecraft will enter and exit the radiation field to avoid prolonged exposure.

NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft launched on October 14, choosing its destination as Europa, an icy moon of Jupiter.

According to experts, Europa has a liquid water ocean beneath a thick layer of ice on its surface, making it one of the leading candidates for extraterrestrial life in the Solar System.

However, there will be some differences compared to other missions. It is known that the probe will not fly directly around Europa because Jupiter's very strong magnetic field affects this operation.

Instead, the spacecraft will dip in and out of the radiation field to avoid prolonged exposure. As it approaches Europa, it will quickly collect data and then pull back to recover before continuing its flyby.