Japan has released an ambitious 20 year plan for its space program. It includes robotic and nanotech visits to the moon culminating in a moon landing by 2025.
MSNBC
Japan's space agency mapped out a new, ambitious plan for manned flights to the moon by 2025 as a first step to explore the solar system's far-flung planets, but said decisions about whether it would go it alone or collaborate with other nations won't be made for another decade.
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JAXA sent the plan to a government space panel for review, asking for a budget increase to roughly $2.6 billion a year, from $2 billion. By comparison, NASA's annual budget $16.2 billion.
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Over the next decade, JAXA's plan calls for scientists to develop robots and nanotechnology for surveys of the moon, and design a rocket and space vessel capable of carrying cargo and passengers. By 2015, JAXA will review whether it's ready to pour resources into manned space travel and possibly building a base on the moon. A decision to possibly to try for Mars and other planets would be made after 2025.
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JAXA officials said their hope is establish a base on the moon that could mine resources found on and under the lunar surface. An illustrated handout showed an astronaut directing an array of robots constructing the base, which would draw solar power from photovoltaic panels and explore the moon's poles for traces of water to convert to hydrogen fuel.
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Other aerospace projects include a passenger airliner that will travel at Mach 2 — or twice the speed of sound — for five-hour Tokyo-Los Angeles flights and an unmanned, hydrogen-fueled plane that can travel at Mach 5.
I wish them the best.
Tipped by: Slashdot
