Exploration of Jupiter Exploration of Jupiter The exploration of Jupiter has been conducted via close observations by automated spacecraft. It began with the arrival of "Pioneer 10" into the Jovian system in 1973, and, , has continued with eight further spacecraft missions. All of these missions were undertaken by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and all but two have been flybys that take detailed observations without the probe landing or entering orbit. These probes make Jupiter the most visited of the Solar System's outer planets as all missions to the outer Solar System have used Jupiter flybys to reduce fuel requirements
Japanese Lunar Exploration Program planned mission to Mars, consisting of an orbiter (MELOS-1), and a lander (MELOS-2). It would be the successor to the comet probe Suisei (PLANET-A) the Mars probe Nozomi (PLANET-B), and the Venus probe Akatsuki (PLANET-C). MELOS-1 is planned to be launched in 2018, and will also have up to four small landers. Hiten, or MUSES-A (Mu Space Engineering Satellite-A) is a technology demonstration satellite built by ISAS, launched on January 24, 1990. LUNAR-A was an ISAS mission consisting of a lunar space craft which would have carried two penetrators to the Moon, and deploy them at an altitude of 40