Japanese Lunar Exploration Program the LUNAR-A mission, and a small data relay satellite. SELENE-3 aims to return about 100 grams of samples from the Moon surface. It will be launched around 2020. However, due to financial issues JAXA is currently facing, this mission may be merged into the option-3 of SELENE-X. SELENE-X will be launched in the late 2010s, in view of Japan’s participation in Humans Lunar Activities foreseen. The SELENE-X may perform either of the following demonstrations: There are other options under study, and will be determined after the international exploration strategy has been clarified. MELOS (Mars Exploration with Lander-Orbiter Synergy) is a
Antoniadi (lunar crater) unusually flat and smooth, with the central peak being the only notable feature. The floor outside the inner ring is much rougher in texture. The most notable crater on the interior floor lies across the eastern edge of the southern inner ring range. The bottom of Antoniadi crater is measured—by using the laser altimeter (LALT) instrument on board the Japanese Selenological and Engineering Explorer (SELENE) satellite—to be the lowest point on the moon (provisionally named Point Trieste after the Bathysphere Trieste that was the first vehicle to descend to the world's deepest point) and rests 9 kilometers (more than 5.5