Last month, you must have heard news about the Hayabusa space probe which was sent by the Japan Space Agency (JAXA) to drill into the near-Earth asteroid Itokawa and bring back samples. This successful and important mission will tell us a lot about how the Solar System was formed and the likelihood that we may someday find another Earth-like planet to target research. In addition, Hayabusa was the first Earth-born machine to land on a celestial body and return a sample from it back to Earth. This is a great effort and an important success for JAXA, the Japan Space Program and for NASA.
You may not have heard about Kaguya. This has been another successful mission in which a JAXA lunar orbiter stationed for several months at an altitude of 60 miles and carrying a camera capable of sub-one square meter lunar surface resolution, mapped the entire surface of the moon in astonishing detail never-before seen. It also found irrefutable evidence of ALL the Apollo landings, discovered a lost Russian probe way back from the 1970’s and recovered a reflector that had been covered in dust when the Lunar Module lifted off the surface! So ……… for anyone who still adamantly refuses to believe that between the years of 1969 and 1971, twelve human astronauts set foot on the moon, well …………….
Martin Werner Zander, Smith’s Partner
マーティン・ワーナー・ザンダー
Owner, Smith’s School of English Franchise in Kotoen
That’s great! Well done Japan!
Derek
SSE Tsukaguchi