Japan draws plans to build research center on moon

[Kshasty]

Japan is developing a program to build a scientific research base on the moon, Yomiuri Shimbun reported on Wednesday.

The Japanese government plans to invest some 200 billion yen ($2.2 bln) on lunar research up to 2020, and will include robots operating on the moon's surface, according to the news agency.

Japan's strategy for exploring the moon's surface will be carried out in two phases. The first phase of sending a mobile robot to the moon is to be completed by 2015. The robot is to send video images of the surface as well as conduct seismographic research on the moon's composition.

The following five years, according to the program, the Japanese plan to build a scientific research center on the moon's South Pole in order to study the surface within a 100-kilometer radius. The station will be able to produce its own electricity and take surface samples. Some samples will then be sent back to Earth for further study.

http://en.rian.ru/science/20100526/159163432.html

[madrchsod]

1. the united states should have a base on the moon today.

[Phoonzang]

2. Yes...it's rather depressing. We've wasted the last 30 years

orbiting the Earth studying the effects of weightlessness on insects.

Ok, there was more to it than that, but still...we should have done more.

[byronius]

3. Perhaps if it was packaged as some sort of reality -TV show.

I don't accept or understand avaricious gluttony as a national creed. But that's kinda who half of us are.

[DavidDvorkin]

4. This is exciting news

It's a great application for Japan's robot expertise.