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Japan launches its first lunar orbiter |
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Written by Derek Kessler on
Friday, 14 September 2007
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 After a numerous delays, The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has launched its first lunar orbiter, marking the latest move in a renewed international race to explore the moon. JAXA is calling the Kaguya project the most ambitious mission to the moon since the Apollo flights, the last of which was more than three decades ago. The $479 million mission is also known as SELENE, or SELenological and ENgineering Explorer. The rocket carrying the three-ton orbiteroff the tiny Japanese island of Tanegashima, about 1,000 km south of Tokyo, at 10:31 AM on Friday (9:31 PM ET Thursday).
The lunar orbiter separated from the rocket in space above Chile about 45 minutes after liftoff. Kaguya has a 380,000 kilometer voyage before it reaches the moon, where it will enter an orbit at an altitude of 60 miles and deploy two smaller satellites in polar orbits. Like many previous lunar exploration missions, researchers back on Earth will use the data collected by Kaguya to study the origina and evolution of the moon.
This week's liftoff marked Japan's latest move in a new the new moon exploration race with China, India and the United States. "If we succeed in this program, we will be able to prove that Japan has the technology," said mission scientist Tatsuaki Okada. JAXA has said it hopes to send astronauts to the moon by 2025, although Japan has yet to attempt a manned spaceflight.
In addition to its scientific instruments, Kaguya is carrying a high-definition television camera that in addition to studying the surface of the moon will capture video of the Earth "rising" from the moon's horizon. Kaguya will orbit the moon for about a year until it runs out of fuel. Yesterday's launch occurred four years behind schedule, due to a series of rocket failures and technical glithces, though this launch went off without a hitch.
China has plans to launch a lunar orbiter called Chang'e 1 by the end of this year. It will take three-dimensional images of the moons surface. China is also aiming to land an unmanned vehicle on the moon by 2010. India is planning its first unmanned mission to orbit the moon for launch in 2008, powered by a locally built rocket. It is also discussing sending a person to the moon by 2020. The United States plans to launch a lunar orbiter next year. And yesterday Google and the X Prize foundation announced an ambitious $30 miliion contest to send a privately-built rover to the moon, they are confident that the prize will be claimed by 2012.
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