People have the impression that Japan's lunar exploration program is somewhat outdated. At present, the human lunar exploration operation is a bit lively, China, Russia and India's lunar exploration plans have been implemented, a few are happy and a few are sad, China is following the plan step by step to success, India has also landed a lunar rover on the moon after failure, Russia returned to the moon after 50 years but failed. The United States, of course, cannot afford to be left behind, but in fact it is already somewhat outdated, and its plan to return to the moon will not be launched until next year.
Recently, it was suddenly reported that Japan's lunar rover was going to the moon, which was a bit of a surprise. Japan's space program seems to be different from that of other space powers, and it seems to be a different path, and it has also achieved remarkable achievements. Their asteroid program is said to have been successful and 1 gram of material has been retrieved from the asteroid.
It is reported that in the NASA program, Japan's "Yaoki" lunar rover is scheduled to be sent to the moon in the second half of this year. What makes people curious is that this lunar rover, called "Yaoki", is only 15 centimeters wide, 10 centimeters high, and weighs about 500 grams. Funnily enough, it is said to be inspired by a children's toy car. It's a bit strange that if it was inspired by a truck, the lunar rover would be huge.
However, the development process of this yaoki lunar rover has gone through thousands of experiments and repeated scrutiny, and it is said that "Yaki" symbolizes the indomitable enterprising spirit. Because, "八起" ** is in the Japanese proverb "七転 八起" (pronounced nanakorobiyaoki, referred to as "七転八起"), literally: fall down seven times, but also get up the eighth time. The development of the "yaoki" lunar rover is exactly like this, and it took six years and thousands of repeated experiments to succeed.
In any case, as an economic and technological power, Japan cannot afford to lag behind others in lunar exploration. It's just that this "yaoki" lunar rover is too small, what mission can it perform. Indeed, it is insignificant compared to the manned lunar landing of China and the United States, and even the creation of artificial garrisoned lunar bases. In fact, if the yaoki lunar rover successfully landed on the moon, it can only mean that they have joined the lunar exploration club, which is just the beginning.
However, with the planned moon landing in the second half of this year running out, there are concerns about whether the plan will be carried out as scheduled.