New Year means news and many expectations, and this also applies when it comes to science: for 2025 the expectations in the scientific field are very highwith potential significant impacts for society and technological innovation. Among the areas from which great innovations and satisfactions are expected are above all the space sector, but also that of fusion energy and neuroscience.
Space: exploration continues
“We will send spacecraft even closer to the Sun“. NASA announced it a few days ago in its latest post on its X profile (formerly Twitter), together with another objective: to lay the foundations for exploring the Moon and Mars as soon as possible.
In any case, before humans set foot on our satellite again there will be landers from private companies (Japanese iSpace and Texan Intuitive Machines) and NASA (Lunar Payload Services program) to land on the lunar surface.
NASA, despite delays and date shifts, still plans to accelerate with Artemis program to bring its astronauts to our satellite as soon as possible (for now the moon landing is expected to take place near the lunar south polea region of great scientific interest due to the presence of water ice).
But not just Luna: there is a lot of evidence for the mission PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) with which NASA intends to study the crown and the solar wind using a constellation of four small satellites.
Another NASA project is that of SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer), which intends to create a spectral map of the skycollecting data on over 450 million galaxies and more than 100 million stars in the Milky Way. The project would like to explore the origins of the universe and search for elements such as water and carbon dioxide in our galaxy.
Is PUNCH That SPHEREx they will share the launch on a rocket Falcon 9with takeoff scheduled for February 27, 2025.
And at the end of the year it will be the turn of SMILE (Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer), joint mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) which aims to study the interaction between the solar wind and the Earth’s magnetosphererecording images and important data to delve deeper into these processes. The launch of the Vega-C rocket will take place from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
Astronomy and astrophysics: aTechnical data on the Einstein Telescope have been obtained
The first are expected in 2025 technical data (detailed information and specifications that will outline the definitive characteristics of the project) on the highly anticipated Einstein Telescopea latest generation observatory of gravitational waves produced by cosmic phenomena (such as mergers of black holes or neutron stars) that will be built in Europe. In particular, Sardinia and the Netherlands have applied to host it.
The project aims to study the primordial universetest the relativity of the great German genius and probe dark matter. For its completion, however, we will have to wait at least ten years (it is scheduled for 2035).
Another piece of good news could instead come from overseas: if everything goes according to plan, the revolutionary Vera C. Rubin Observatorythan with his Simonyi Survey Telescope it is designed to make a dynamic, detailed map of the night sky and reveal details about its formation and evolution. By doing so, it will create a catalog of billions of celestial objects.
Above all, it will be essential for understanding the role of dark energy in the expansion of the universe, measuring the motion of galaxies and mapping their distributions (it will provide detailed data on gravitational lensesa method for studying the distribution of dark matter).
The Observatory will open new frontiers in astronomy, allowing scientists from around the world to study the universe in ways never seen before. But it will also be a joy for all fans, because the extraordinary images it will produce will be shared with the public.
Nuclear energy: fusion research continues
2025 could also mark significant progress in research on nuclear fusionbringing closer the possibility of a clean and practically inexhaustible energy source.
Already in the past year there have been two important records, with the European experimental leader Jet (during an experiment it generated 69 megajoules of energy in 5 seconds, using only 0.2 milligrams of fuel) and the KStar from South Korea (he managed to maintain a temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius for 48 seconds, surpassing his previous record of 30 seconds), and expectations for the year that has just begun are truly high.
Another positive aspect regarding the topic of fusion energy is that last October the European Fusion Association (EFA)an association made up of European industries that aim to accelerate the development of fusion energy. But not only that: the EFA is also committed to raising public awareness and attracting investments from public and private financing agencies, with the aim of guaranteeing energy independence for the future.
Neuroscience
By Neuralink – which began the first human tests with i implantable chips in 2024 with the aim of helping people with motor disabilities or serious neurological diseases – there has been a lot of talk about this over the past year. In this sense, 2025 looks promising, as China plans to start testing new brain-computer interfaces soon.
These systems could allow direct communications between brain and external devicesimproving care for people with disabilities or neurodegenerative diseases. There is also another goal, however, which is to explore the potential of cognitive enhancement for non-medical applications, such as education or productivity, which we will know more about in the coming months.
