japan's Kayuga probe set to launch this friday

[watermelony2k]

destination moon:

http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/070912_techwed_kaguyamoon.html

Fly us to the moon

After launch, Kaguya is expected to orbit Earth about 2.5 times before beginning the five-day trek to the moon, Sobue said.

The spacecraft is designed to enter into a polar lunar orbit, and then deploy the RSAT and VRAD microsatellite before ultimately settling into a 62-mile (100-kilometer) high orbit around the moon. The probe's one-year science mission should begin in earnest after a three-month checkout period, Sobue said.

Kaguya is the first of series of new spacecraft bound for the moon over the next two years.

China plans to launch its first moon shot Chang'e-1 sometime later this year, with NASA's LRO and India's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft set to fly in 2008. Japan also plans to follow Kaguya's flight with more ambitious missions under the SELENE banner, JAXA officials said.

 

[Brent]

wow, seems Japan is set on a mission for a moon base as well

competition? I sure hope so

 

[Mark de Vries]

I'm so used to month-long journeys to Mars, that I was surprised to find that Kayuga should be in orbit around the moon befopre the end of next week. Should be fun to see how everything goes!

 

[TheMasterOfOrion]

Brent said:
wow, seems Japan is set on a mission for a moon base as well

competition? I sure hope so

They have great robotic missions, some really great technology but Japan still has a lot of work to do if they want some Japanese salaryman walking on the Moon anytime soon. JAXA (NASDA) has no manned vessel, the Japanese mini-shuttle crashed and H-2 launcher suffered from a string of failures.

Also with the issue of North Korean, the Japanese space agancy is under pressure to put less money into exploration and more money into developing and launching military spy satellites.

 

[watermelony2k]

Mark de Vries said:
I'm so used to month-long journeys to Mars, that I was surprised to find that Kayuga should be in orbit around the moon befopre the end of next week. Should be fun to see how everything goes!

even more surprising since European Space Agency's SMART-1 took a few months to reach the moon

 

[Outpost4]

And New Horizons passed the orbit of the Moon in less than a day. It all a matter of F=MA and where you put your priorities.

 

[TheMasterOfOrion]

The Japanese just lifted off, it's reported that everything is going well.

watermelony2k said:

even more surprising since European Space Agency's SMART-1 took a few months to reach the moon

It used an Ion engine, hopefully NASA's Dawn-mission will be doing the same in a few weeks and flying off to the Asteroid belt

 

[TheMasterOfOrion]

So far so good for Kaguya, its going to map the Moons topography and gravitational forces. The spacecraft has also got a HD Tv cam, so you can re-watch that Apollo Earthrise in high definition

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched the Lunar Orbit Explorer "KAGUYA" (SELENE) by the H-IIA Launch Vehicle No. 13 (H-IIA F13) at 10:31:01 a.m. on September 14, 2007 (Japan Standard Time, JST) from the Tanegashima Space Center.
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=25405
The launch vehicle flew smoothly, and, at about 45 minutes and 34 seconds after liftoff, the separation of the KAGUYA was confirmed.

 

[flux_29]

Mabye it'll prove once and for all if the apollo flights really landed on the moon.