Sky & Telescope - July 2019 - 32

THE MOON: THE NEXT FIVE YEARS

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by Monica Young & Terri Dubé

ALMOST 50 YEARS AGO, humans landed on the Moon. Soon, we are due to
return. NASA, Russia's Roscosmos, and the China National Space Administration (CNSA) are all building up to a long-term human presence on or near the
Moon. The European Space Agency, as well as space agencies in India, South
Korea, and Japan are also ramping up robotic lunar exploration. Meanwhile,
a plethora of commercial missions aim to send orbiters, landers, rovers, and
even tourists to the Moon, in a private space boom jump-started by Google's
Lunar XPRIZE, NASA partnerships, and good old-fashioned entrepreneurship.
Delays will no doubt hound some of these missions, and not all of them
will be successful. Nevertheless, here are some of the missions to the Moon
that we expect to see over the course of the next ﬁve years, including their
preliminary launch dates and, where applicable, planned landing sites.

to the

Moon
Orbiters

Landers

Feb. 17, 2007
(Entered orbit: June 27
and July 17, 2011)
ORGANIZATION: NASA (U.S.)
LAUNCH:

LunaH Map
(via EM 1)

Omotenashi
(via SLS EM 1)

XL 1

LAUNCH: 2020
ORGANIZATION:

LAUNCH: 2020
ORGANIZATION: JAXA (Japan)
LANDING SITE: On western limb

Masten Space
Systems (U.S.)
LANDING SITE: Aristarchus Crater

Arizona State
University (U.S.)

Lunar Flashlight
(via EM 1)

June 18, 2009
(Entered orbit: June 23, 2009)
ORGANIZATION: NASA

LAUNCH: 2020
ORGANIZATION:

LAUNCH: 2021
ORGANIZATION: Astrobotic (U.S.)
LANDING SITE: Lacus Mortis

Longjiang 2**

Lunar IceCube
(via EM 1)

Luna 25

LAUNCH:

May 20, 2018
(Entered orbit: May 25, 2018)
ORGANIZATION: Harbin University
of Technology (China)
LAUNCH:

Queqiao**
May 20, 2018
(Entered orbit: June 14, 2018)
ORGANIZATION: CNSA (China)
LAUNCH:

Hakuto-R Mission 1
LAUNCH: 2020
ORGANIZATION:

ispace

(Japan)

Morehead State
University (U.S.)

LAUNCH: 2020
ORGANIZATION:

NASA

Korea Pathﬁnder
Lunar Orbiter
LAUNCH: Dec. 2020
ORGANIZATION: Korea

LAUNCH: 2023
ORGANIZATION:

Roscosmos

be revised
to include crewed lunar landing

LUNIR
(via EM 1)
LAUNCH: 2020
ORGANIZATION:

Lockheed Martin

Orbiters
& Landers
LAUNCH: Late 2019
ORGANIZATION: CNSA
LANDING SITE: Near

Mons Rümker

EM 2
NASA

dearMoon
LAUNCH: 2023
ORGANIZATION:

LAUNCH: 2024
ORGANIZATION: Roscosmos
LANDING SITE: Near south pole

Chang'e 3**

ALINA

Dec. 1, 2013
(Landed: Dec. 14, 2013)
ORGANIZATION: CNSA
LANDING SITE: Mare Imbrium

LAUNCH: 2020
ORGANIZATION:

LAUNCH:

Chang'e 4**
LAUNCH: Dec. 7, 2018
(Landed: Jan. 3, 2019)
ORGANIZATION: CNSA
LANDING SITE: Statio Tianhe,
inside Von Kármán Crater

PTScientists

(Germany)
LANDING SITE:

Taurus-Littrow

Valley

Hakuto-R Mission 2
LAUNCH: 2021
ORGANIZATION: ispace
LANDING SITE: Lacus Mortis

Chang'e 5

(U.S.)
LAUNCH: 2022
ORGANIZATION:

Luna 27

Landers
& Rovers

Luna 26

LAUNCH: 2024
ORGANIZATION: NASA
STATUS: Mission may

NASA

LAUNCH: 2021- 2022
ORGANIZATION: JAXA
LANDING SITE: Mare Tranquillitatis

Aerospace

Exploration Mission 1
(EM 1)
LAUNCH: 2020
ORGANIZATION:

Smart Lander for
Investigating the Moon
(SLIM)

Research Institute

(Russia)

Flyby

Peregrine

LAUNCH: 2021
ORGANIZATION: Roscosmos
LANDING SITE: Near south pole

EM 3

32

(tentative landing site shown)

Lunar Reconnaissance
Orbiter**

LAUNCH: 2021
ORGANIZATION:

SpaceX (U.S.)

Orbiters
& Landers
& Rovers

Chang'e 6

Chandrayaan 2

Chang'e 7

LAUNCH: 2023-2024
ORGANIZATION: CNSA
LANDING SITE: TBD,

LAUNCH: 2019
ORGANIZATION:

LAUNCH: 2023
ORGANIZATION: CNSA
LANDING SITE: TBD,

could be lunar
farside or south pole

J U LY 2 0 1 9 * S K Y & T E L E S C O P E

Indian Space
Research Organisation
LANDING SITE: Near
lunar south pole

likely south pole

M O O N : N ASA GS FC / A R IZO N A STATE U N I V E R S IT Y; S PACECR A F T
ICO N S: V ECTO R PO CK E T / ISTO CK / G E T T Y IM AG ES PLUS; ASTRO N AU T ICO N : A R TE M KOV YA ZIN / THE N O U N PRO JECT; RO CK E T
ICO N : MIS BA H U L M U N IR / THE N O U N PRO JECT

Artemis P1 and P2**
Sky & Telescope - July 2019

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