New York Times’ Michael Roston, a senior staff editor in the science department, reports that 2024 will be the year of the “Lunar Traffic Jam.” He reported that “Three missions attempted to land on the moon in 2023. Only one, Chandrayaan-3 from India, succeeded. Four additional missions — and perhaps even more — will also try to complete a lunar landing in 2024:”

• “SLIM, a Japanese mission, should be the first lunar landing attempt of 2024, on Jan. 20. The small, experimental spacecraft launched in September and is already orbiting the moon.
• “Two other missions come from private companies, with NASA as their primary customer. Astrobotic, a Pittsburgh company, will launch its Peregrine lunar lander on Jan. 8, which could attempt to set down near the Ocean of Storms on the moon’s near side in February. Intuitive Machines of Houston will send its own lander toward the moon’s south pole as early as mid-February.
• “China is also planning its fourth moon landing. Chang’e-6 could head toward the moon’s far side in May, gathering samples of moon rock and dust to bring to Earth for study.

“Other missions are more tentative. The Japanese company Ispace, which crashed its first lander last year, could make a second attempt late this year. And Intuitive Machines has ambitions of sending two more NASA-sponsored missions to the moon in 2024.”

I wonder if we’ll need traffic circles… oh yeah, I think the lunar orbits will substitute for a while… hopefully.