Japan mulls moon base
Japan took a step towards restoring faith in its space program on Saturday when it put a satellite in orbit, 15 months after its previous attempt ended in humiliating failure when the rocket had to be blown up shortly after launch.
That failure was particularly painful because it came shortly after China successfully put a man into space -- a move that Japan said at the time it had no plans to emulate.
The daily Mainichi Shimbun said on Monday a draft long-term plan being drawn up by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) includes developing a vehicle similar to the U.S. space shuttle by 2025.
Around the same time, it hopes to start constructing a research base on the moon, the paper said.
Other plans include using satellites to send information on disasters such as tsunami directly to mobile phones, it said.
An official at JAXA declined to comment on the possible contents of the plan, which is expected to be finalized by March 31, the end of Japan's fiscal year.
"However, I believe there is no change in our stance on manned space flight," he added.
Many in the space industry say Japan is unlikely to become a major player in commercial satellite launches but scientists argue the space program is important for national prestige.
Satellites launched by Japan could play a valuable regional role such as helping warn other Asian countries of tsunami, they say.
The Japanese-built H-2A rocket launched on Saturday from the tiny island of Tanegashima, 620 miles(1,000 kilometers) southwest of Tokyo, carried a dual-purpose navigation and meteorological satellite.
It was the seventh launch since the H-2A program started in in August 2001, with the only failure coming in November 2003.
The aborted mission resulted in the loss of two spy satellites intended to monitor North Korea, which earlier this month announced it had nuclear weapons and was pulling out of six-way talks aimed at ending its nuclear ambitions.
Japan's space program came under fire in the 1990s after two unsuccessful launches by the H-2 rocket, the predecessor of the H-2A.
Despite Saturday's success, Japan still has many hurdles to overcome, including bringing down the cost of launches -- Saturday's cost around 9.4 billion yen ($89 million) -- and increasing trust in the launch process as a whole.
"Desperate though it is to be a player in the space race, Japan still has a lot of catching up to do," the Asahi Shimbun said in an editorial on Monday.
But it said that with only one failure in seven launches of the H-2A, Japan's success rate is 86 percent, compared to 90 percent for the United States and 97 percent for Europe's Ariane space program, though those figures are based on more than 100 launches each.
Fonte: CNN
Os Estados Unidos, a Europa e a China já anunciaram estar interessados numa base lunar... agora é a vez do Japão juntar-se à corrida. Ainda faltam uns anos, mas é bom ver que começamos a recuperar da "paragem" que houve após a chegada à Lua.
