Exploring the Solar System
Several major missions blast off – and one returns to Earth – in 2023
Of the three new explorers heading out into the Solar System this year, the showpiece is undoubtedly the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE). It will be the first time that the European Space Agency has sent a spacecraft beyond the asteroid belt, and it is bound for the three largest moons of Jupiter: Europa, Calisto and Ganymede.
All three could harbour potential subsurface oceans and there have even been plumes of water seen erupting high over Europa, which JUICE will look for during its two fly-bys of the moon. It will also make 12 passes of Calisto – home of the most densely cratered surface in the Solar System, indicating the longdead world is an ancient relic of the Solar System’s creation. However, JUICE’s primary target is the largest moon in the Solar System, Ganymede. JUICE will investigate all aspects of the moon’s geology, from its mysterious magnetic field to its thin atmosphere. The mission’s launch window is 5–25 April, arriving at Jupiter in July 2031 and entering into Ganymede’s orbit in 2034.
Later in the year, it looks set to be the autumn of asteroids, as OSIRIS-Rex returns with its payload of asteroid dust from asteroid Bennu on 24 September, followed by NASA’s Psyche spacecraft which launches for the 226km-wide asteroid of the same name in October. The metal-rich space rock is believed to have once been part of the metallic core of a planet destroyed in its infancy, giving a window into a part of the planets usually hidden from view. Tagging along for the ride are two 36kg Janus probes that will fly to two separate asteroids.
And finally, 2023 will continue the trend of renewed interest in the lunar surface as several landers funded by NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) programme prepare for their first flights. The Peregrine lander from Astrobotic aims to fly in the first quarter of 2023 and carries six mini-rovers, all built by different nations. Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C will follow soon after, heading towards the relatively unexplored lunar south pole.
CLPS was created as an offshoot of the Artemis programme, funding private companies to build lunar landers to support future human landings, and both will carry multiple NASA experiments to scout out the Moon’s surface. They will also carry payloads from commercial customers, including a legged Asagumo ‘rover’ from the British–Ukrainian company Spacebit.
Also bound for the south pole is Roscosmos’s Luna 25, which aims to analyse the composition of the lunar soil there. It is due to launch in July, 47 years after the Russian agency launched its last lunar lander.