2020 is going to be an exciting year in planetary exploration with missions to Mars, the Moon, and 2 sample return missions.

4 Mars missions are planned, which are scheduled to bring to Mars–3 rovers, 2 orbiters, and 1 lander.

• NASA plans to launch the Mars 2020 rover, which will include the Mars Helicopter Scout and cache samples for eventual return to Earth
• The European Space Agency has partnered with Roscosmos to launch the Rosalind Franklin rover using the Kazachok lander
• The China National Space Administration will launch its HX-1 mission, which includes an orbiter and small rover; it would be China’s first mission to another planet using its own delivery vehicle
• The United Arab Emirates will launch the Hope Mars Mission orbiter on a Japanese rocket

More detailed information about these Mars missions can be found here.

1 Moon Mission by China, which intends to launch Chang’e 5, the first sample-return mission to the Moon since Luna 24 in 1976. Chang’e 5 will use the recently developed Long March 5 heavy-lift rocket.

2 Asteroid Sample Returns:

• The NASA mission OSIRIS-REx returns from 101955 Bennu in July.
• The JAXA Hayabusa2 returns from 162173 Ryugu to Earth in December.

We will look into some of these missions in detail, such as asteroid redirects, and the plethora of Mars missions going forward as the 2020’s begins with a plethora of planetary exploration and other missions.