2022 saw plenty of rocket launches including Artemis and from Australia. We had the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) start, producing breathtaking images, and a probe, DART crash into an asteroid.
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Here are a few things to look forward in 2023.
We'll see another mission return to Earth from an asteroid. A few years ago, Osiris-Rex went in orbit around the asteroid Bennu, which is like a loose pile of rubble rather than one solid asteroid. It went down to the surface, and using this vacuum-like cleaner hose, blew on the surface and sucked up rock and dirt from it. It has been on a return to Earth and is now scheduled to come back in September, landing in Utah.
We also have missions headed out into our Solar System.
![There will be two solar eclipses in 2023. Picture by Aubrey Gemignani/NASA There will be two solar eclipses in 2023. Picture by Aubrey Gemignani/NASA](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/bwXFZWxdusWHsaYjdHyRzz/d78e77a1-75c0-4c60-9a84-d464c52f9fce.jpg/r0_375_3072_2102_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
JUICE (the JUpiter ICy moons Explorer) is scheduled to be launched in April. JUICE will head to the large moons of Jupiter - Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa, doing multiple flybys of each. Eventually it will enter into orbit around Ganymede, the largest and most massive moon of Jupiter, bigger than even Mercury.
We also have the mission Psyche headed to study the asteroid Psyche in October. The asteroid is a huge chunk of metal, and thought to be believed to be the remnant core of an old dwarf planet that may have broken apart.
Russia is scheduled to launch Luna 25 to the south pole of the moon in July. JAXA will also launch their own mission, SLIM to the moon, landing in the later part of 2023.
India will launch Chandraayan-3, their third mission to the moon, in August. In 2019, they launched an orbiter, lander and rover. While the orbiter worked, the lander and rover did not. They are having another go, aiming to be the fifth country to operate a rover on the Moon.
MORE SPACE:
2023 will also see new companies and capsules taking people into space. SpaceX's Starship is getting close to reaching orbit. The aim is to not only successfully get into orbit, but go around the moon.
Starship is a gigantic capsule, and when ready, there are nine artists and creators scheduled to head around the moon in it.
Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa purchased all of the spots on the first flight, called dearMoon. He selected eight others who will be inspired by the views and take it into their creative work.
Boeing's Starliner should also, finally, take humans into space in another NASA taxi service.
This year we will also have two solar eclipses. On April 20, there will be a total solar eclipse that passes over Exomouth, WA as well as Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. If you are not there to see it, most of Australia will have a partial solar eclipse.
There will also be an annular, or "ring of fire" eclipse over the US, Mexico, Central America, and northern South America on October 14. If you are planning a North American trip, be sure to not miss it!
And of course, we'll get even more awesome images from JWST.
It is going to be awesome.
- Brad Tucker is an astrophysicist and cosmologist at Mt Stromlo Observatory and the National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science at the ANU.