Japanese Lunar Mission

[Bill Thompson]

I have googled this but I cannot find the specifics. I remember there was a Japanese Lunar explorer launched several years ago that snapped the area where Apollo 16 landed. This mission was on the moon the longest and disturbed the most amount of surface area. The darkness of this disturbed surface was seen in the photos taken from the Japanese probe. Does anyone have any details about this?

[LunarOrbit]

Are you maybe thinking of the pictures taken of the Apollo 15 landings site by the US Clementine probe? I remember the FOX hoax program mentioning an upcoming Japanese mission, but I don't think it has happened yet.

[Bill Thompson]

admin said:

Are you maybe thinking of the pictures taken of the Apollo 15 landings site by the US Clementine probe? I remember the FOX hoax program mentioning an upcoming Japanese mission, but I don't think it has happened yet.

Yes, it was the Clementine mission that I remembered. And there was also supposed to be a later Japanese mission as well.

[Bob B.]

billthompson said:

And there was also supposed to be a later Japanese mission as well.

I don't know if that Japanese mission will ever launch. The following web page reports, "The SELENE launch has been postponed to the summer of 2007 due to budgetary considerations."

nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/database/MasterCatalog?sc=SELENE

[Bill Thompson]

bob said:

billthompson said:

And there was also supposed to be a later Japanese mission as well.

I don't know if that Japanese mission will every launch. The following web page reports, "The SELENE launch has been postponed to the summer of 2007 due to budgetary considerations."

nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/database/MasterCatalog?sc=SELENE

I can hear the HB's say, "it must be because NASA is afraid that it will be to detailed of the moon's surface"

[gwiz]

More about SELENE here.

At least SELENE still appears on their launch schedule. Another Japanese moon probe, Lunar-A, is also running years late. This one is intended to drop penetrometer probes from lunar orbit. In fact, the whole Japanese space programme seems to be having more than its share of problems in recent years, with a string of launch vehicle issues and satellites failing prematurely in orbit.

Edit to add links.