This Year's Hot Scientific Destination Is the Moon, Apparently

The amenities on board a research vessel might not be in the same league as, say, those on a luxury cruise ship, but scientific expeditions do get to some memorable destinations. From Svalbard to Rapa Nui, scientific researchers have visited some of the most stunning places on the planet…for science. And based on missions and studies that have recently been announced, the latest in-demand destination is a little further afield — as in, “in orbit around the planet Earth.”

That’s among the big takeaways from a recent article at Engadget by Cheyenne Macdonald. Macdonald observed that an upcoming launch scheduled for later this month would, if all goes according to plan, be the third trip to the Moon humanity will have embarked upon this year.

That’s the Intuitive Machines 2 mission, currently scheduled to head into space on or after February 26, 2025. The same rocket carrying this lander will also convey a second, unrelated, lunar device into space: Lunar Trailblazer, which NASA states will “study the form, abundance, and distribution of lunar water and its relation to geology.”

These missions to the Moon are far from the only ones making the trek into orbit. Engadget’s analysis of the upcoming months points to everything from private scientific missions to a potential Blue Orbit jaunt to the Moon as events that could be on the calendar.

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Spaceflight is often dependent on a host of mechanical and environmental conditions, making predictions too far in advance a fraught pursuit. Still, there are plenty more scientific expeditions that could head towards a lunar destination later this year, including the European Space Agency’s Lunar Pathfinder. Our planet’s moon isn’t the only moon that upcoming missions will explore, either: the ESA’s Hera mission is scheduled to pass the Martian moon Deimos next month.