The first woman's trip to the moon and other scientific events in 2024

In 2024, NASA will launch Artemis II, a manned mission to the Moon, whose main goal is to ensure that all systems of the Orion spacecraft work as they were designed, to verify the technical capabilities necessary for humans to pass long periods in deep space, and thus obtain Knowledge needed for future tasks.

The ten-day flight will be historic, because in addition to being the return of humans to the Moon since the 1970s, it will be the first woman to ascend to the Earth's satellite: Christina Hammock Koch, a specialist in Earth affairs. Mission 1, which will be accompanied by Commander Reed Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover (all three are NASA astronauts), and Mission 2 Specialist Jeremy Hansen, from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

“For the first time in more than 50 years, these people will be the first humans to fly into the lunar vicinity. The crew includes the first women, the first person of color and the first Canadian on a lunar mission, and the four astronauts will represent the best of Humanity as they explore space for the benefit of all.” NASA Johnson Center.

The Artemis II crew will travel about 4,600 miles beyond the far side of the Moon. From this vantage point, they will be able to see the Earth and the Moon from Orion's windows. Specifically, the crew will evaluate the performance of life support systems needed to generate breathable air and remove carbon dioxide and water vapor produced when astronauts breathe, talk or exercise.

This mission is at the exit of Artemis I, on the way to the Lunar trip that NASA has arrived at the finals of 2022. This will also be the place at the sea landing in November 2024, at NASA's Kennedy Centro in Florida. , United State. The Artemis 3 mission, which seeks to return humans to the surface of the moon for exploration, depends on its success.

Other major scientific events will be as follows:

Other missions to the Earth's satellite

The Artemis 2 flight will not be the only trip that NASA will make to the Moon in 2024. In fact, at the beginning of next year, exactly on February 23, the Peregrine 1 (TO2-AB) mission is scheduled to be launched, which aims to study the Moon. The exosphere, thermal properties and hydrogen abundance in the lunar regolith (a layer of unconsolidated material found on solid rock), magnetic fields and the radiation environment.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) also hopes to reach the Moon on January 19, 2024, with the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) mission that launched on September 6 this year. Since December 25, the mission has been able to enter lunar orbit and is on its way to becoming the first Japanese mission to the surface of the moon.

China is also preparing the lunar mission, called Chang'e-6, a robotic expedition that will reach the Aitken Basin, in the South Pole, to collect samples from the far side of the moon. If the mission is successful, this will be the first time this type of sample has been obtained. By mid-year, China is expected to launch the Queqiao 2 satellite, which will allow communication between the Chang'e 6 probe and Earth.

Trips to other moons

In October, NASA's Europa Clipper mission is expected to launch and travel to Europa, one of Jupiter's moons, to investigate whether the icy moon, with its subterranean ocean, has the potential to support life. The flight distance will be 2.9 billion kilometers and it is expected to reach its destination in 2030.

Another mission planned by Japan is to explore Phobos and Deimos, the two moons of Mars. The mission, called Mars Moon Exploration (MMX), seeks to collect the first samples from the surface of these satellites, to return to Earth in 2029.

The era of supercomputers is getting stronger

Jupiter, an exascale supercomputer that can perform quintillion (trillion trillion) calculations per second, will go live early next year. Researchers will use the machine to create “digital twin” models of the human heart and brain for medical purposes and perform high-resolution simulations of the Earth's climate.

In addition to this exascale computer, Argonne National Laboratory will install two more of these machines, one in Lemont, Illinois, and another in California, which are in the final debugging phase and will simulate the effects of nuclear weapons explosions. Germany, France and Japan continue to develop this type of technology.

Greater ability to study subatomic particles

China is continuing to build the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), which it hopes will be ready by 2024. Its mission is to study neutrinos, which are hard-to-see, ubiquitous subatomic particles that play a crucial role in multiple regions. .science, but we need to know more about it.

This observatory, located about 700 meters underground in the city of Jiangmen, Guangdong Province, south China, will be 20 times larger than the current detector of this type, the Super Kamiokande in Japan.

Some neutrinos come from supernovae (star explosions), radioactive decay of Earth's rocks, feedback from the Sun, and even our planet's aurora borealis. These particles pass through our bodies every second, and may contain clues about the origin of the universe.