Space and Astronomy 2012

2012

2013

 * Chang'e 3: Chang'e 3 is a Chinese lunar-lander and rover scheduled for launch in 2013. It will be China's first lunar rover, part of the second phase of the Chinese lunar exploration program undertaken by the China National Space Administration (CNSA).

 * ASTRO-G: ASTRO-G (also known as VSOP-2) is a planned radio telescope satellite under development by JAXA. It is expected to be launched in fiscal year 2012 into elliptic orbit around Earth (apogee height 25,000 km, perigee height 1,000 km). Astro-G was selected in February 2006 against the competition of a proposed new X-Ray astronomy mission (NeXT) and a proposed solar sail mission to Jupiter. Funding will start from FY 2007 with a budget of 12 billion yen, around 100 million US dollars.

Featuring a 9 m diameter dish antenna to observe in 8, 22 and 43 GHz bands, it will be used in a combination of ground radio telescopes to create Very Long Baseline Interferometry. It is expected to achieve ten times higher resolution and ten times higher sensitivity than its predecessor HALCA. It was planned to be launched in 2012 but a technical difficulty of dish antenna as well as the budget constraint lead to put the development on hold for fiscal year 2010, and the launch is to be delayed no earlier than 2013.

 * Chandrayaan 2: Chandrayaan-2 is a joint lunar exploration mission proposed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Russian Federal Space Agency (RKA). The mission includes a lunar orbiter and a lunar rover made in India as well as one lander built by Russia. It might be launched in 2013 by a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV).

 * Luna-Glob (Russian Robotic Moon Mission): Luna-Glob is an unmanned mission to the Moon planned by Russia and maybe launched in 2012 by a Soyuz-Fregate rocket. Luna-Glob may include an orbiter as well as a landing module with 12 ground penetrating sensors. The largest two of them will most likely be a reuse of sensors previously built for the cancelled Japanese mission LUNAR-A. Luna-Glob will land a surface probe in South Pole-Aitken basin at the Moon's south pole, where it will search for signs of water ice.

2014

 * BepiColombo: BepiColombo is a Mercury exploration project jointly planned by Japan and the European Space Agency (ESA). Two spacecraft will be launched by a Soyuz-Fregat 2B rocket in 2013. The spacecraft will be separated at the Mercury orbit and observe Mercury for about 1 year under collaboration.

 * Google Lunar X Prize: The challenge calls for teams to compete in successfully launching, landing and operating a rover on the lunar surface. The prize awards US$20 million to the first team to land a rover on the moon that successfully roves more than 500 meters and transmits back high definition images and video.  The X Prize awards the first prize until December 31, 2012, thereafter it awards $15 million until December 31, 2014.

 *  Chinese Lunar Sample Return Mission: China plans a lunar sample return mission in 2017 using of the CZ-5/E heavy launch vehicle. Up to two kilograms of lunar samples may be returned to Earth.

BEYOND 2018

Selene-2 is a proposed Japanese moon lander as a successor to the 2007 SELENE (Kaguya) moon orbiter. The exact configuration has not yet released.

Hopefully there will be a Mars Sample Return Mission.
- Humans may return to the Moon and set up base.