LIST OF UPCOMING MISSIONS ISRO AND NASA

Planned missions of NASA

Mars 2020 rover

The Curiosity rover has been a huge success. After landing on mars in 2012, the rover has lasted much longer than the original design life, and has traveled farther on mars than any robot before it. The next step is the as-yet unnamed Mars 2020 rover. As the placeholder name implies, NASA wants to launch this mission in 2020. The rover will be based on the incredibly successful design of Curiosity, but the instruments it takes along for the ride will be vastly improved.

The Mars 2020 rover will be equipped to investigate the geology of Mars with an eye toward detecting the signs of past (or present) life on the Red Planet. It will use Raman Spectroscopy and x-ray lithochemistry to identify elemental components and organic materials on Mars with much more sensitivity than Curiosity can. It may also carry an experiment to produce breathable oxygen from Mars’ predominantly carbon dioxide atmosphere. This could have major implications for future manned missions.

James Webb Space Telescope launch

We’ve been talking a lot about the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) lately — NASA has completed construction of the hardware, and is currently testing it on the ground. It has also asked astronomers to begin submitting proposals for time on the telescope after it’s online. This telescope will be much more powerful the Hubble, which has a mere 48 square feet of reflective surface compared with JWST’s 270 square feet.

The James Webb Space Telescope will be able to seem further into the infrared than Hubble, meaning it can study objects that are obscured by dust or gas. In order to avoid avoid contaminating heat, the telescope will be placed in the L2 Lagrange point with the Earth permanently between the telescope and the sun. The launch is currently on track for October of 2018.

New Horizons Kuiper Belt Extended Mission

NASA’s New Horizons mission was big news in 2015 when it reached Pluto after nearly a decade in space. It’s not over for the plucky little probe—NASA has added a Kuiper Belt Extended Mission (KEM) to the schedule. The plan is to send New Horizons onward into the Kuiper Belt to examine these frigid balls of rock and ice.

New Horizons will make a flyby of an object known as 2014 MU69 on January 1st 2019. This object is 20 or 25 miles in diameter and has an unknown composition. This will be the first time we’ve gotten a close-up look at a Kuiper Belt object (other than Pluto). Their similarities or differences could tell us a great deal.

ExoMars, part 2

Okay, the first part of ExoMars (a joint effort of the ESA and Russia’s Roscosmos) didn’t go super-well when the stationary Schiaparelli lander delivered by the Trace Gas Orbiter crashed into the surface. The second phase of ExoMars is set to launch in 2020, and hopefully it goes better. This will include a new surface platform and a rover.

The new ExoMars surface station will be used to monitor the planet’s orbit and atmospheric variables over the course of a year. Meanwhile, the rover will have an advanced exobiology module to search for signs of life. A core drill will also allow the rover to dig deep into the surface to obtain its samples. The ESA and Roscosmos expect the landing to take place in 2021.

Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission (ARRM)

There are thousands of near-Earth asteroids, and we can only learn so much about these objects from robotic exploration. Sending people to an asteroid is still outside our capabilities, but maybe we can bring part of one here. NASA’s JPL is working on a plan to visit a nearby asteroid with a probe, and bring a piece of it back.

The Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission (ARRM) is currently planned for a 2021 launch, but there’s still a lot of planning that needs to be done. The probe would land on an asteroid like 2008 EV5 and pick up a 4-meter boulder. The mission could also include an analysis of gravity deflection — testing to see if the mass of the probe and boulder can affect the orbit of the asteroid. The boulder would pose no danger to Earth if it were to get away on the return trip. The idea is that it could be deposited in orbit of the moon and astronauts could visit it at a later date in the mid 2020s.

Planned missions OF ISRO

Mission name	Expected launch	Type	Details
Chandrayaan-3	2021	Lunar lander, rover	Mission repeat of Chandrayaan-2 with lander, rover and a propulsion module to attempt soft landing of lunar surface.
Gaganyaan	2021	Crewed spacecraft	Gaganyaan ("Orbital Vehicle") is an Indian crewed orbital spacecraft (jointly made by ISRO and HAL) intended to be the basis of the Indian Human Spaceflight Programme. The spacecraft is being designed to carry three people, and a planned upgraded version will be equipped with rendezvous and docking capability.
Lunar Polar Exploration Mission	2024	Lunar lander, rover	Lunar Polar Exploration Mission is a concept mission by JAXA and ISRO to explore the south pole region of the Moon in 2024. The mission concept has not yet been formally proposed for funding and planning.
Aditya-L1	April 2020	Solar observation	Aditya-L1 is the first Indian Solar Coronagraph spacecraft mission to study solar corona in visible and near IR bands. It is expected to be launched by April 2020.
RISAT-1A	2020	Radar imaging satellite	RISAT-1A is a radar-imaging satellite. Its configuration is similar to RISAT-1. It is a land-based mission with primary application in terrain mapping and analysis of land, ocean and water surface for soil moisture.
NISAR	2022	SAR satellite	NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) is a joint project between NASA and ISRO to co-develop and launch a dual-frequency synthetic aperture radar satellite to be used for remote sensing. It is notable for being the first dual-band radar imaging satellite.[8]
Mangalyaan 2	2024	Mars orbiter	Mars Orbiter Mission 2 (MOM 2) also called Mangalyaan 2 is India's second interplanetary mission planned for launch to Mars by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in the 2021–2022 time frame. It will consist of an orbiter, and may include a lander and a rover.
Shukrayaan-1	2023	Venus orbiter	The Indian Venusian orbiter mission is a planned orbiter to Venus by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to study the atmosphere of Venus. It will be launched some time after 2020.