According to (CNN), Japan's
space agency announced this week that the country would put an unmanned
rover on the surface of the moon by 2018, joining an elite club of
nations who have explored Earth's satellite.
The
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), divulged the plan to an
expert panel, including members of the cabinet and the Education,
Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry on Monday.
"This
is an initial step and a lot of procedures are still ahead before the
plan is formally approved," a JAXA spokesperson told reporters.
If
it is approved, the agency will reportedly use its Epsilon solid-fuel
rocket technology to carry and deploy a SLIM probe -- the acronym stands
for "Smart Lander for Investigating Moon" -- on the surface of the
celestial body.
Japanese media estimates
that the mission will cost in the region of ¥10 billion to ¥15 billion
($83.4 million - $125 million). JAXA spokesperson Chihito Onda confirmed
to CNN that this estimate is realistic.
The
mission is expected to be used to perfect soft-landing technologies,
which could be utilized in future, manned expeditions to the moon, or
even Mars. The lander will use face recognition software found in
digital cameras, which will be repurposed to enable the craft to
recognize craters on the surface, Onda said.
The
move could be seen as Japan's attempt to play catchup to its Asian
neighbors China and India, which have both notched significant
extraterrestrial victories in recent years -- China's Yutu lunar rover outlasted expectations and India successfully put a probe into orbit around Mars the first time of asking.
In
2008 Japan put its SELENE craft -- known in Japan as Kaguya, after a
Japanese moon princess from a 10th century folk tale -- into orbit
around the moon to gather data about its surface. The data gathered by
the orbiter will also be used to calculate a suitable landing site for the rover.
JAXA has also put a probe on an asteroid, which returned to Earth in 2010.
Along
with China, the United States and the former Soviet Union are the only
other nations to have so far landed craft on the surface of the moon.
