Japan on Tuesday revised the timetable for its space exploration plans to land a Japanese on the moon by the second half of the 2020s.
“Space is not just a border that gives people hope and dreams of economic society in terms of our economic security,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said at a meeting to finalize the plan.
According to the preliminary schedule of the plan, Japan intends to participate in the Artemis program, one of U.S. led initiative aimed at bringing astronauts back to the moon, bringing the first non-American to the moon.
The plan also outlines Japan’s ambitions to launch a probe to explore Mars in 2024 and find ways to generate solar power in space.
Neighboring China is also aiming to become a major space power by 2030 and also plans to land astronauts on the moon, increasing the possibility of an Asian space race.
In May, China became the second country to put a rover on Mars two years later.
After the landing of the first spaceship on the other side of the moon, his space exploration goals were announced a week after Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa returned to Earth after 12 days on board the International Space Station and became the first space tourist to travel to Earth is ISS in more than a decade.