Japan announces lunar base plans as ESA ends Moon orbit mission

As Europe's first spacecraft to orbit the Moon completes its mission, debate over the construction of a lunar base has been reignited by an announcement from Japan that it intends to start building a base by 2030. The Japanese statement came as a surprise to many when it was ...

As Europe's first spacecraft to orbit the Moon completes its mission, debate over the construction of a lunar base has been reignited by an announcement from Japan that it intends to start building a base by 2030.

The Japanese statement came as a surprise to many when it was issued at a lunar exploration symposium by the head of Japan's lunar and planetary exploration programme, Junichiro Kawaguchi. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has not yet secured a budget for the project, but Japanese scientists are lobbying the government with this in mind.

The cost of building a lunar base is estimated to be around USD 26 billion (€20.24 billion), and any Moon base is therefore generally believed to be an international effort. 'To go to the Moon would cost so much that I don't think anyone could afford to, except possibly America,' Bruno Gardini of the European Space Agency's Aurora programme told Nature. 'The financial effort associated with it is so high that it would have to be a joint global effort,' he said.

Europe, through the European Space Agency (ESA), has invested a great deal of time and money in investigating the Moon, but has no plans for a manned Moon station. The 18-month SMART-1 mission provided over 1,000 images per week of the lunar surface, and even as the mission draws to a close, this new information is still keeping scientists busy.

Under the Aurora programme, ESA is also developing robotic technologies that could be used for missions to the Moon, Mars and asteroids.

In 2004, US President George W Bush announced plans for a lunar base, which would be used as a station from which to travel to Mars. Since then, NASA has focused on designing a new spaceship, and continues to invest in shuttle programmes and the international space station (ISS). The original timetable of building a new Crew Exploration Vehicle by 2008, and conducting an initial manned lunar mission no later than 2014, is therefore likely to be put back.

While the Moon will present a fairly hostile environment (Moon dust, no atmosphere; very little gravity; no or very little water), as well as great cost, part of the attraction for the US administration is returning to the Moon before others get there, and thus remaining at the forefront of space exploration. The Japanese announcement could therefore act as a catalyst for the US to redouble its efforts to build a lunar base.

'The new thing is China, and they've announced they're going to the Moon. The Europeans want to go; the Russians want to go; and if we don't go, maybe they'll go with the Chinese,' US Mars Institute Chairman Pascal Lee told the Washington Post in March.

Whoever reaches the Moon first in this new space race is likely to come across a number of craters created by old spacecraft sent by various different countries. SMART-1 will become the latest craft to hit the Moon, with the impact anticipated on 3 September.

SMART-1 was launched in September 2003 and reached the Moon in November 2004. Initially, its mission was planned to last only six months, but the efficiency of experimental ion engine, powered by the Sun, allowed SMART-1 to continue orbiting for a further year.

ESA describes why SMART-1 and its predecessors must eventually crash into the Moon: 'When a spacecraft orbits around the Moon, as SMART-1 does, it is doomed by the law of gravity. Tugs from the Sun, the Earth, and irregularities in the moon itself, all disturb its orbit. Sooner or later, any lunar orbiter will impact the Moon surface unless it has very big amounts of fuel left to be re-boosted and escape the lunar gravity.'

When it arrives at the Moon's surface, SMART-1 will be travelling at around two kilometres per second - significantly slower than a natural meteoroid, which would hit the Moon at 70 kilometres per second. It will create a crater of between three and 10 metres wide and one metre deep - not a great obstacle to establishing a lunar base, compared with the other challenges that lie ahead.

Countries

Japan, United States