Comparison of Asian national space programs to fuel future energy demands in Asia. All three main Asian space powers plan to send men to the Moon in the distant future and have already sent lunar probes. Japan was the first Asian country to launch a lunar probe. The Hiten (Japanese: "flying angel") spacecraft (known before the launch as MUSES-A), built by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science of Japan, was launched on 24 January 1990. In many ways, the mission did not go as was planned. Kaguya, the second Japanese lunar orbiter spacecraft, was launched on 14 September 2007. China launched its first lunar probe,
Explorer 35 Explorer 35 Explorer 35 (IMP-E, AIMP 2, Anchored IMP 2, Interplanetary Monitoring Platform-E) was a spin-stabilized spacecraft instrumented for interplanetary studies, at lunar distances, of the interplanetary plasma, magnetic field, energetic particles, and solar X rays. It was launched into an elliptical lunar orbit. The spin axis direction was nearly perpendicular to the ecliptic plane, and the spin rate was 25.6 rpm. Mission objectives were achieved. After successful operation for 6 years, the spacecraft was turned off on June 24, 1973. The Ames magnetometer experiment consisted of a boom-mounted triaxial fluxgate magnetometer and an electronics package. The sensors were orthogonally