Most promising space missions of 2024: What you need to know about them?

American planetary scientists from Purdue University in Indiana, USA, named the most important space exploration missions planned for 2024. The researchers shared their expectations in an interview with The Conversation.

One of the intriguing space projects of 2024 will be the launch of NASA's Europa Clipper mission to Europa, one of Jupiter's largest moons. Europa is slightly smaller than Earth's moon and is completely covered in ice. It is believed that beneath its ice sheet lies a salty ocean containing twice as much water as all the oceans on our planet combined.

The Europa Clipper probe should help find out whether there could be life in the deep waters of Europa, or at least favorable conditions for its appearance. During the mission, the device will orbit Jupiter's moon about 50 times. Europa Clipper will launch in October 2024 and arrive in 2030.

The second stage of the Artemis mission is planned for 2024. The ultimate goal of this mission is to land humans on the surface of the Moon. Artemis II will send four NASA astronauts to the Moon for the first time since 1972. The flight will last 10 days, during which the spacecraft with the crew will fly around the satellite and return to Earth. According to the plan, Artemis II will be launched in November 2024.

In November 2024, NASA also plans to send the innovative VIPER rover to the Moon to explore the south pole of Earth's Moon. The self-propelled device, about the size of a golf cart, is equipped to search for water and carbon dioxide. The mission will last 100 days, during which the rover will be exposed to temperature changes ranging from 107°C to -240°C.

Together with VIPER, the Lunar Trailblazer will be sent to the Moon in 2024. This is an orbital module that will look for traces of water by measuring the temperature of the satellite's surface.

The Japanese space agency JAXA plans to launch an unmanned Martian Moon eXploration (MMX) mission to Mars' moons Phobos and Deimos in September 2024. The main goal of the mission is to find out exactly how these moons formed. These could be asteroids captured by the gravity of a neighboring planet or formed from the debris surrounding Mars.

Finally, the European Space Agency (ESA) will send the Hera probe to the Didymo-Dimorph asteroid system in 2024. The device will reach its destination by 2026 and will help study the physical properties of these celestial bodies.