WASHINGTON Japan has its eyes on the moon, with two new partnerships designed to advance the country's lunar goals.<\/p>\n
The nation signed on as a partner to NASA's Artemis program, although the details of that partnership have not yet been specified. A representative of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) also spoke yesterday (Oct. 22) at the International Astronautical Congress held here about a potential partnership with India's space agency on another lunar mission.<\/p>\n
\"It's not easy to succeed in our mission,\" Ryo Hirasawa of JAXA said during a presentation. \"We decided to go together with ISRO,\" he added, referring to the agency's Indian counterpart. The two space agencies are embarking on a Phase A study of such a mission's feasibility.<\/p>\n
Related: Tiny Satellites Launch From Space Station (Photos)<\/p>\n
But right now, the pair would aim for a launch around 2023. Japan would provide the rocket and rover, Hirasawa said, while India would provide the lander. The mission would last for about six months and target a constantly sunlit region near the moon's south pole. There, the mission would investigate water, preparing for later missions in which JAXA would like to use ice as rocket fuel.<\/p>\n
In particular, the rover would be equipped with a drill that could reach about 5 feet (1.5 meters) into the lunar rock. After drilling, the rover would heat up that material, and by measuring changes in the sample's mass, identify volatiles found in the rock.<\/p>\n
Hirasawa also touched on a cubesat lander dubbed OMOTENASHI, which JAXA hopes to launch with NASA's first Artemis mission, according to a full paper submitted to the congress. The cubesat, which would fly in 2020, would be Japan's first lunar lander.<\/p>\n
The OMOTENASHI project likely makes up part of the cooperation with NASA that the Japanese prime minister's office announced on Twitter on Oct. 18. \"The program aims at maintaining a space station orbiting the moon, manned [sic] exploration of the lunar surface and other undertakings, and Mars and other destinations are also in our sights,\" the minister's office wrote.<\/p>\n
The \"space station orbiting the moon\" is a reference to NASA's planned Gateway, a maneuverable spacecraft in long-term orbit around the moon that would serve as a way station for science experiments and human explorers. (The artist's depiction accompanying the prime minister's office's tweet also references Gateway.)<\/p>\n
NASA has been openly recruiting international partners for the Gateway in particular. Canada signed on to provide a robotically operated arm, Canadarm3, that will be the successor of the International Space Station's robotic arm.<\/p>\n
In the paper supporting Hirasawa's presentation, he and his co-authors included a graphic for JAXA's vision of international cooperation at the moon. In that diagram, in which only a handful of components include country labels, JAXA is listed as a provider of human landing services that would ferry astronauts from the Gateway to the surface of the moon.<\/p>\n
Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com<\/a> or follow her @meghanbartels. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n See the article here:<\/p>\n Japan Sets Sights on Moon with NASA and India - Space.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" WASHINGTON Japan has its eyes on the moon, with two new partnerships designed to advance the country's lunar goals. The nation signed on as a partner to NASA's Artemis program, although the details of that partnership have not yet been specified. A representative of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) also spoke yesterday (Oct. Continue reading