What’s next in space in 2023

We’re going backmost to the moon—again—in 2023. Multiple uncrewed landings are planned for the adjacent 12 months, spurred connected by a renewed effort successful the US to instrumentality humans to the lunar aboveground aboriginal this decade. Both backstage abstraction companies and nationalist agencies are acceptable to marque the 240,000-mile trek to our celestial neighbor, wherever they volition trial landing capabilities, look for usable h2o ice, and more.

Previous years were “all astir Mars,” says Jill Stuart, a abstraction argumentation adept from the London School of Economics successful the UK. “Now we’ve shifted backmost to the moon.”

That is not each 2023 has successful store. We’re besides apt to spot important strides made successful backstage quality spaceflight, including the first-ever commercialized spacewalk, compelling missions heading retired into—or backmost from—other star strategy destinations, and caller rockets acceptable to instrumentality flight.

Here’s what the adjacent twelvemonth has lined up for space.

Moon landings

A lunar lander volition already beryllium connected its mode erstwhile 2023 begins. Launched successful December connected a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, the backstage spacecraft Hakuto-R, developed by Japanese steadfast ispace, is connected a four-month travel to scope the moon, wherever it volition deploy rovers built by the abstraction agencies of Japan and the United Arab Emirates, among different goals. If successful, Hakuto-R could go the archetypal backstage ngo to onshore connected the satellite successful March.

We accidental “could” due to the fact that 2 backstage landers from the US—one from the steadfast Astrobotic and the different from Intuitive Machines, called Peregrine and Nova-C, respectively—are besides acceptable to scope the satellite astir the aforesaid time. Both are NASA-backed missions with assorted instruments connected committee to survey the lunar environment, portion of the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payloads Services program, which aims to spur commercialized involvement successful the satellite up of quality missions planned for aboriginal this decennary nether its Artemis program.

The archetypal portion of that program, Artemis I, saw an uncrewed Orion spacecraft launch to the moon connected NASA’s elephantine caller Space Launch System rocket successful November 2022. While the adjacent Artemis mission, a crewed formation astir the moon, is not planned until 2024, these adjacent 12 months volition laic important groundwork for Artemis by studying the moon’s aboveground and adjacent looking for h2o crystal that could beryllium a imaginable people for aboriginal quality missions, among different goals. “The satellite is getting a batch much attraction than it has done for galore years,” says Jon Cowart, a erstwhile NASA quality spaceflight manager present astatine the Aerospace Corporation successful the US.

Intuitive Machines has a 2nd lunar landing planned successful 2023. Also connected the books are landings from the abstraction agencies of India and Japan, with Chandrayaan-3 and SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon), respectively. India hopes to motorboat successful August 2023. It volition beryllium the country’s 2nd attempt—the archetypal crash-landed connected the moon successful 2019. A day for SLIM, which volition trial precision landing connected the moon, has not yet been set. Russia reportedly has plans for the satellite successful 2023 excessively with its Luna-25 lander, but the presumption of the ngo is unclear.

Private abstraction travel

Since May 2020, SpaceX has been utilizing its Crew Dragon spacecraft to ferry astronauts to space, immoderate to the International Space Station (ISS) nether declaration with NASA and others connected backstage missions. But SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission, presently slated for March 2023, volition beryllium a large caller step.

Four commercialized astronauts, including billionaire Jared Isaacman, who is paying for the formation and besides funded SpaceX’s first all-private quality spaceflight successful 2021, volition people a maximum orbit of 1,200 kilometers, higher than immoderate quality spacecraft since the Apollo missions. And successful a archetypal for commercialized quality spaceflight, the unit volition don spacesuits and task extracurricular the spacecraft.

“Polaris Dawn is truly exciting,” says Laura Forczyk from the abstraction consulting steadfast Astralytical. “My knowing is that the full conveyance volition beryllium evacuated. Everybody is going to astatine slightest instrumentality their heads out.”

The ngo whitethorn assistance NASA determine whether a aboriginal Crew Dragon ngo could beryllium utilized to work the Hubble Space Telescope, a capableness that the bureau has been investigating with SpaceX. “We’ll person immoderate thought whether it’s feasible,” says Forczyk.

Two much backstage missions utilizing Crew Dragon—Axiom-2 and Axiom-3—are planned to caput for the ISS successful 2023, arsenic good arsenic 2 NASA flights utilizing Crew Dragon. A competing conveyance from the US steadfast Boeing is besides acceptable to motorboat with unit for the archetypal clip successful April 2023, pursuing multiple delays.

Meanwhile, we hold to spot if Jeff Bezos’s institution Blue Origin volition beryllium allowed to motorboat with humans again. The institution has been grounded pursuing an uncrewed motorboat nonaccomplishment successful September 2022. Another backstage spaceflight pioneer, Virgin Galactic, has been comparatively quiescent since it launched its laminitis Sir Richard Branson into space successful July 2021. 

All these developments successful commercialized quality spaceflight whitethorn beryllium overshadowed by the archetypal orbital formation effort of SpaceX’s monolithic and reusable Starship rocket, which was undergoing launchpad tests earlier this period and should motorboat successful 2023, if not by the extremity of 2022.

If successful, the rocket, which would surpass NASA’s Space Launch System arsenic the largest rocket to marque it to orbit, could transform our exploration of space. “The quality to instrumentality much wide up opens up caller opportunities,” says Uma Bruegman, an adept successful abstraction strategies astatine the Aerospace Corporation. That could include, 1 day, quality missions to Mars—or beyond. But there’s a agelong mode to spell yet. “It’s decidedly an important twelvemonth [for Starship],” says Cowart. “They’ve got a batch to do.” One of its nearer-term goals volition beryllium preparing for the moon—NASA chose Starship’s precocious signifier arsenic the archetypal lunar lander for the Artemis program.

Into the star system

Moons of the star system’s biggest satellite are besides connected the docket adjacent year. April 2023 volition spot a gripping caller mission motorboat from the European Space Agency (ESA) called JUICE, for “Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer.” Scheduled to get successful orbit astatine Jupiter successful 2031, the spacecraft volition execute elaborate studies of the Jovian moons Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa, each of which are thought to harbor oceans that could incorporate beingness beneath their icy surfaces.

“It’s the archetypal ngo that’s fundamentally focused connected the icy moons,” says Mark McCaughrean, elder advisor for subject and exploration astatine ESA. “We present cognize these icy moons person precise heavy h2o oceans, and they could person the conditions for beingness to person developed.”

JUICE volition representation these oceans with radar instruments, but McCaughrean says it volition besides beryllium capable to look for imaginable biosignatures connected the aboveground of Europa’s ice, which could rainfall down from plumes ejected into abstraction from its subsurface ocean.

Later successful 2023, ESA is scheduled to spot different large ngo launch: its Euclid telescope, which was switched from a Russian rocket to a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket pursuing Russia’s penetration of Ukraine. The scope volition probe the “dark universe,” observing billions of galaxies implicit a 3rd of the entity to amended recognize acheronian substance and acheronian vigor successful the cosmos.

In October, NASA should motorboat a important subject ngo of its ain erstwhile Psyche takes flight pursuing a hold from 2022. The spacecraft volition caput to 16 Psyche, an antithetic metal-rich asteroid that has ne'er been seen up close.

A fig of different intriguing developments are expected successful 2023. NASA’s OSIRIS-REx ngo is scheduled to instrumentality to Earth successful September with pieces of an asteroid called Bennu, which could connection new insight into the operation and enactment of the star system. Amazon aims to nonstop up the archetypal satellites for Project Kuiper successful aboriginal 2023, the commencement of a 3,000-satellite orbiting communications web it hopes volition rival SpaceX’s Starlink constellation. And respective caller rockets are acceptable to launch, including the United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket (it volition transportation Astrobotic’s satellite lander and immoderate of Amazon's satellites) and perchance Blue Origin’s ample New Glenn rocket. Both are heavy-lift rockets that could instrumentality galore satellites into space.

“There’s a immense swathe of activity,” says Cowart. “I’m precise excited astir this year.”

This communicative is simply a portion of MIT Technology Review’s What’s Next series, wherever we look crossed industries, trends, and technologies to fto you cognize what to expect successful the coming year.