All About Space guides you through the space missions and events set to fire your imagination over the coming year
2023 has been an incredible year for space exploration, with the launch of the Indian Chandrayaan-3 mission to the Moon and the 2 return of samples from the asteroid Bennu by OSIRIS-REx among the highlights. And the next 12 months are already shaping up to be equally exciting.
SAILING ON SUNSHINE WITH ACS3
The Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3) is a technology demonstration set to launch in 2024 that aims to demonstrate the viability of using starlight as a propulsion method. The ACS3 sail will deploy from a CubeSat. As photons in sunlight bounce off its mirror-like surface, they transfer a tiny amount of momentum, and thus give ACS3 a tiny push. Solar sails like ACS3, which is a nine by nine metre (29.5 by 29.5 foot) square, have to be large, as the radiation pressure they rely on imparts such a small push. By proving the usefulness of solar sails, ACS3 could make future lowcost space missions that proceed without rocket propellants a reality.
BEPICOLOMBO MAKES ITS FOURTH FLYBY OF MERCURY
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) BepiColombo launched in 2018, but the mission to Mercury is still making big news, and that will continue in 2024. The mission is a composite of the Mercury Planetary Orbiter, a three-axis spacecraft carrying 11 experiments and instruments, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter, a spinning spacecraft carrying a payload of five experiments and instruments, and will make its fourth flyby of the closest planet to the Sun on 5 September 2024.
...AND ITS FIFTH
Using its electric propulsion system, BepiColombo will then make a fifth flyby of Mercury on 2 December 2024. This will be followed by a sixth and final flyby of Mercury in January 2025, after which it will enter orbit around the tiny planet, the smallest world in the Solar System.
AXIOM SPACE AND NASA MAKE A FOURTH PRIVATE FLIGHT TO SPACE
Set to blast off no sooner than August 2024, this year should see the fourth spaceflight arranged between NASA and Axiom Space. Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) will see the SpaceX Dragon capsule carry four astronauts to the ISS, where they will stay for two weeks.
PEREGRINE WILL ARRIVE AT THE LUNAR SURFACE
Peregrine Mission One is set to launch on 24 December 2023, but its influence will be felt throughout 2024. This craft will carry a wealth of scientific payloads to the Moon. Touching down on the lunar surface at a region called Sinus Viscositatis around a month after launch, the mission’s scientific objectives are to study the lunar exosphere, the thermal p
