---
title: "Japan Wants to Put a Man on the Moon by 2030"
description: "To boldly go where 12 men have gone before."
date: "2017-06-30"
modified: "2017-06-30"
authors:
  - name: "Will Sabel Courtney"
    job_title: "Contributor"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/will-sabel-courtney"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/tech/12055/japan-wants-to-put-a-man-on-the-moon-by-2030"
categories:
  - "News"
tags:
  - "asteroid"
  - "Japan"
  - "jaxa"
  - "lunar"
  - "Mars"
  - "mission"
  - "moon"
  - "NASA"
  - "space"
---

# Japan Wants to Put a Man on the Moon by 2030

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/2017/06/nasa-man-on-moon.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

One of these days, Japan. On Friday, the Asian nation's space agency disclosed it's working on strategies to land a human on the moon's surface by the year 2030 or so.

A [spokesperson for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, told AFP](<https://phys.org/news/2017-06-japan-reveals-moon.html>) that the government's lunar plans were part of a grander strategy that also involved joining with NASA to build a new space station in lunar orbit around 2025, which the Japanese space agency wants to use as a springboard to launch manned missions to the surface of Earth's biggest satellite.

That space station, [which is known as the Deep Space Getaway](<https://www.space.com/37357-moon-station-electric-propulsion-tech.html>) (sounds romantic, huh?), is NASA's new intermediate step between its current mission and [its planned manned mission to Mars sometime in the next few decades](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/1980/nasas-orion-spacecraft-visits-florida-on-way-to-mars>). Previously, the American space agency had planned on using a spacecraft to lasso an asteroid and haul it into lunar orbit, at which point astronauts would land on its surface. That plan has since been canned [as part of the federal government's reallocation of NASA resources](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/3665/congress-to-nasa-forget-asteroids-lets-go-back-to-the-moon>), but NASA officials told the House of Representatives this week that many of the technologies planned for the space rock-capturing Asteroid Redirect Mission will be reappropriated for the DSG and other future missions.

Japan joins several other nations in a quest to send human beings back to the Moon's surface half a century after people first walked on its dusty face. A [Chinese official recently said it would "not take long"](<https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/07/china-prepares-moon-landing/>) until the nation gave the green-light to a manned lunar mission, which would reportedly be planned for the 2025–2030 timeframe; [Russia](<https://www.space.com/14915-russia-moon-landing-2030.html>) and [the European Space Agency](<https://discovermagazine.com/2005/nov/the-race-to-mars>) are also planning on sending people to the satellite's surface sometime in the near future. And hey, [Elon Musk will probably pop by](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/5351/elon-musk-reveals-spacexs-incredible-mars-plans>) at some point, too.

## Author
Will is the former managing editor of *RIDES Magazine* and the former online editor for *0-60 Magazine*. He has worked for *Time Out New York* and *Rolling Stone*, and was the creator of *College Cars Online*, the first automotive blog specifically targeted at college students and young professionals.

### Author social links  
[Instagram](<https://instagram.com/willsabelcourtney>)  
[Twitter](<https://twitter.com/willscourtney>)