Japan has an ambitious plan in the works, a plan that would vault them to the world’s consciousness if successful. The Japanese space agency JAXA has submitted a proposal to their Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology that would involve flying a man to the moon by 2030, in direct competition to China’s plans to do the same by 2036.

It’s also possible that Japan may want to work with China so they both achieve their goals, but either way, it will be a big deal when it happens, as Europe, Russia, and the United States have dominated space explorations since the 50s and 60s.

Preparations are set to begin for the mission by 2025, and a spokesman said this would be part of an unnamed multinational mission. Japan hopes to attract some other sponsors by contributing themselves to the project.

“LUNAR-A, will conduct Japan’s first full-fledged lunar mission,” JAXA said about LUNAR-A, an exploration satellite. “When it comes to lunar exploration, most people think about the missions conducted by the United States and the former Soviet Union. But those countries conducted only geographical research, mainly targeting the configuration of the lunar surface and rocks. LUNAR-A will directly investigate the interior of the Moon, which could provide a lot of data on the Moon’s origin and evolution.”