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
Explorer 21 on October 13, 1965 Explorer 21 Explorer 21, also called IMP-B and Interplanetary Monitoring Platform IMP-B, was an American satellite launched as part of Explorers program. Explorer 21 as launched on 27 November 1964 on Cape Canaveral, Florida, United States, with an Delta rocket. Explorer 21 was the second satellite of the Interplanetary Monitoring Platform. Explorer 21 was a solar cell and chemical-battery powered spacecraft instrumented for interplanetary and distant magnetospheric studies of energetic particles, cosmic rays, magnetic fields, and plasmas. Each normal telemetry sequence of 81.9 s in duration consisted of 795 data bits. After every third normal sequence