Japan Planning to Travel to the Moon on 2018

As per the report of the Smithsonian news, Japan has announced its plan to visit the moon in 2018 and do a lunar exploration with its own spacecraft.

The plan was announced by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and has presented their proposal to the cabinet members of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports and Science Technology last Monday.

JAXA spokesperson said that the proposal was still in its initial stage and there are still a lot of preparations and documents to be submitted plus procedures to be done before it is finally approved.

What Japan hopes to fulfill what the other countries like the US, Russia and China have done, only a lot better.  They want to do their lunar exploration more thorough but less expensive.  With their moon lander they will have the better opportunity to do a better job in exploring the moon compared to what was done in the 1960s.

JAXA also revealed that the other moon spacecraft failed to hit the target site but with Japan's Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) they would try to aim a 100 meter proximity to the target site.

The probe will take clear pictures of the surface of the moon while descending and then access data from SELENE or the lunar orbiter Kaguya then go for the soft landing which is very difficult to do with the moon's gravity.

According to an official of JAXA, this plan still has a long way to go since there are a lot of things to accomplish before getting the Ministry's approval.  They also need the budget of around USD 84 million to USD 130 million to get approved and this is quite astonishing.

This is a serious matter for Japan as manufacturer of a beverage Otsuka has pledged to send their powdered and refreshing sports drink to the moon.