LUNAR-A Lunar Exploration Spacecraft
LUNAR-A was Japan’s planned first lunar exploration spacecraft, designed to study the Moon’s interior with two penetrators carrying seismometers and heat-flow probes plus a lunar-imaging camera. Development difficulties, obsolete mothership electronics, and hardened adhesives led ISAS/JAXA to cancel the project in early 2007 before launch.
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Identity
- Aliases
- LUNAR-A lunar probeLUNAR-A missionLUNAR-A penetrator mission
- Family Name
- LUNAR-A
- Full Name
- LUNAR-A Lunar Exploration Spacecraft
- Roles
- orbiterresearchtechnology_demonstrator
- Status
- canceled
- Type
- spacecraft
Details
- Description
- LUNAR-A was Japan’s planned first lunar exploration spacecraft, designed to study the Moon’s interior with two penetrators carrying seismometers and heat-flow probes plus a lunar-imaging camera. Development difficulties, obsolete mothership electronics, and hardened adhesives led ISAS/JAXA to cancel the project in early 2007 before launch.
- Operator
- Spacecraft Specs
- Launch Mass Kg
- 540
Links
Assets & Meta
- Creation Time
- August 15, 2026 at 08:00:23 UTC
- Updated Time
- August 15, 2026 at 08:28:22 UTC