Year-end 2023: A glimpse of the year’s most important space explorations

Year End 2023: As the year comes to a close, we look back at the important space developments that took place this year.

The most crucial moments of space exploration in 2023: The year has come to an end and there is no doubt that 2023 has been a very exciting one for space research. The missions launched worldwide this year have certainly increased our astronomical understanding and expanded our reach across the vast universe. 2023 is also significant for India as the country has created history with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) managing the first-ever soft landing on the moon’s south polar region. Another achievement for India was the successful launch of Aditya-L1 to Lagrangian point-1, from where it will study the Sun. As the end of the year approaches, here’s a look back at the major space developments that took place this year.

Chandrayaan-3

In August this year, India created history by becoming the first country to perform a soft landing on the south pole of the moon’s surface. With this achievement, India has joined the elite club of countries (Russia, USA and China) that have achieved a soft landing on the moon. After the soft landing, lander Vickram and rover Pragyan conducted experiments on the moon. ISRO even successfully conducted a jumping experiment with Vikram’s lander. After a fortnight of crucial experiments and sending data back to Earth, both Vikram and Pragyan parked up at the South Pole. This achievement was a testament to the technical capabilities of the Indian Space Agency.

Aditya-L1 mission

Months after the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3, ISRO launched India’s first solar mission, Aditya-L1, to study the Sun from the halo orbit around the first Lagrangian point between the Sun and Earth (L1). The L1 point is located approximately 1.5 million km from Earth. The Indian Space Agency launched the Aditya-L1 spacecraft from the Satish Dhawan Space Center, Sriharikota in September. The mission aims to investigate the physics of the solar corona and its heating mechanism, solar flares and near-Earth space weather, the coupling and dynamics of the solar atmosphere, the acceleration of the solar wind, the distribution of the solar wind and temperature anisotropy, and the to study origins of coronal mass ejections. CME).

Launch of the Euclid telescope

The European Space Agency (ESA) launched its Euclid mission in July 2023. The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying ESA’s telescope successfully took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Notably, this is the first mission that will investigate two of the universe’s greatest mysteries: dark energy and dark matter. The duration of the mission is 6 years 5 months 11 days. Euclid will create a map of the universe in space and time by studying billions of galaxies up to 10 billion light-years away, spread over more than a third of the sky.

JUICE mission to the moons of Jupiter

ESA launched its Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, Juice, in April 2023. The spacecraft will study the giant gas planet and its three large ocean-bearing moons, namely Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. The mission aims to characterize the three moons as planetary objects and potential habitats, and to study the broader Jupiter system and its complex environment.

NASA’s Psyche Mission to Metal Asteroid

Psyche’s mission aims to study a metal-rich asteroid of the same name, located in the main asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars. NASA launched the Psyche spacecraft in October 2023. Notably, this is the US space agency’s first mission to study an asteroid loaded with more metal than rock or ice. According to NASA’s statement, the Psyche mission is a journey to an asteroid, which is full of metals, orbits the sun and is located between Mars and Jupiter. The spacecraft will begin exploring the asteroid in August 2029.