NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has been preparing for the launch of numerous missions in 2025.
The agency said Thursday the missions aim to conduct thorough research on the expansion of the universe, the Moon’s water and other mysteries of the universe.
Breaking Down the Missions
Some of the missions the federal laboratory will be working on include:
NASA’s SPHEREx space observatory will launch on Feb. 27 or later to study the universe, including its expansion after the Big Bang and the location of life-supporting ingredients.
The Lunar Trailblazer, which will launch in late February through the Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, is meant to study the presence of water on the Moon by conducting a detailed mapping of the Moon’s surface water.
The NASA-Indian Space Research Organisation Synthetic Aperture Radar, or NISAR, is a mission conducted by the United States and India. It aims to study the Earth’s changing surface using L-band and S-band radars.
The Sentinel-6B will launch in November to conduct studies on the Earth’s sea surface. The mission intends to gather global sea surface height measurements to enhance climate models, hurricane tracking, and understanding of El Nino and other phenomena.
The Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration, or CADRE, project will work on utilizing autonomous robots on the Moon. The technology demonstration involves multi-robot missions for future lunar missions.
Space Entanglement and Annealing Quantum Experiment, or SEAQUE, is currently on the International Space Station and is evaluating technologies that can potentially allow communication using entangled photons between two quantum systems. This test demonstration can lay the groundwork for a future global quantum network.
The Europa Clipper was launched in October and is expected to arrive at Jupiter in 2030. This mission is meant to study the possibility that the ocean under the planet’s ice shell is suitable for life.
