World beyond: Space missions to look forward to

Following two Artemis test trips, Artemis III, which is scheduled for 2026, will be humanity's first return to the lunar surface in over 50 years. Nasa will create history by sending the first humans to study the area around the lunar South Pole. (Image credit: Nasa)

Isro's Gaganyaan mission project aims to demonstrate human spaceflight capability by launching a crew of three individuals into a 400-kilometer orbit for a three-day trip and safely returning them to Earth by landing in Indian sea waters. (Image credit: Isro)

European Space Agency's ExoMars consists of two missions: the Trace Gas Orbiter, which was launched in 2016, and the Rosalind Franklin rover, which is scheduled to be launched in 2028. Together, they will investigate whether life has ever existed on Mars. (Image credit: Video grab)

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa)'s Martian Moons eXploration mission is expected to enter Mars orbit in 2025 and explore the moon Phobos. plans to collect the world's first sample return of Martian surface material containing signs of life. (Image credit: Jaxa)

Elon Musk's company SpaceX claims that reusable rockets would drive breakthroughs in space exploration by drastically lowering the cost of entering orbit. Most rockets are only used once, but SpaceX claims its Falcon launch vehicles are the first to be capable of being reused. (Image credit: Reuters)

The ESA's BepiColombo mission was launched in 2018 and seeks to reach Mercury in 2025 after a series of flybys. BepiColombo will be just the second mission in history to circle Mercury, and it will attempt to learn more about why the planet has a magnetic field and ice in its polar craters, despite being the closest planet to the Sun and experiencing temperatures of up to 430°C. (Image credit: ESA)

Four spacecraft will be involved in China’s Chang’e 6 mission, due to launch in May 2024. It aims to take rock samples from the southern hemisphere on the far side of the Moon, in an area known as the Apollo Basin, according to Space.com. (Image credit: AFP)