As 2025 begins, a thrilling array of space missions await humanity, making the new year a landmark year for space exploration.
Over the next 12 months, the spotlight will be on several ambitious projects. January and February will see attempts to land on the moon.
The highly anticipated launch of SpaceX’s Starship megarocket, and the collection of samples from a near-Earth asteroid, among other projects.
Let’s take a look at some of the most exciting and surprising space missions lined up for this year.
Two attempts to land on the moon.
Texas-based Firefly Aerospace will launch “Ghost Riders in the Sky” in mid-January, hoping to send a lunar lander with 10 NASA payloads.
According to Live Science, the mission will head to Mons Lateral, a volcanic feature that was formed by a volcanic eruption on the natural satellite 3 billion years ago.
Blue Ghost 1 will operate during the daylight hours of one lunar day, which is about 14 Earth days.
It will embark on a journey that will collect data about the moon’s regolith, or rocky surface, and how that rock interacts with the solar wind and Earth’s magnetic field. Towards the end of the mission, it will also take pictures of the lunar sunset and collect data on how the surface of the moon changes during the evening.
As for Texas-based Intuitive Machine, they hope to land their IM-2 spacecraft south of the moon in February. The purpose of this mission is to measure the volatile or sensitive chemical compounds of natural satellites using a drill and a mass spectrometer.
The spacecraft will also carry the Lunar Trailblazer, a small satellite designed to map water deposits on the Moon to help NASA select and identify future landing sites for its Artemis mission.
Juno to spin to death in Jupiter
NASA’s Juno spacecraft has been diligently studying Jupiter and its moons since 2016. The mission was previously extended but will finally take its last breath in September 2025 as the spacecraft is set to orbit the gas giant.
It can only survive if it escapes Jupiter’s intense radiation.
According to the mission plan, Juno’s orbit will gradually decrease and allow itself to be pulled into Jupiter’s gravity and its dense clouds.
The final push will last about 5.5 days and will ensure that the spacecraft and terrestrial bacteria traveling with it do not accidentally contaminate Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, one of the best places in our solar system. One is considered. Find extraterrestrial life with our scientists.
Taking samples from near-Earth asteroids
China is preparing for a mission to retrieve fragments of a near-Earth asteroid, return the sample to Earth, and then locate a comet in space.
The Tianwen-2 spacecraft, which is scheduled to launch in May 2025, will rendezvous with 469219 Kamo Ileva.
The spacecraft will conduct remote sensing observations to assess potential landing sites before attempting to collect samples from the rock. The samples will then be transferred to Earth and then it will use the planet’s gravity to propel itself on a seven-year deep space mission that will take it to the main belt comet 311P/PANSTARRS in the 2030s.