Japan’s space agency, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), successfully landed its first lunar lander, the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM), on the Moon’s surface on Friday, reports state.
“The final descent of the robotic mission took 20 minutes, utilizing two hydrazine-fueled engines. SLIM touched down at 10:20 am EST (15:20 UTC), aiming for a location near a 900-foot (270-meter) crater named Shioli in the Sea of Nectar on the Moon’s near side,”Ars Technica reported.
The landing was broadcast live on YouTube, and a press conference two hours later confirmed the successful landing, albeit with a potential setback. Shortly after landing, the solar array of the lander stopped generating electricity, posing a threat to the mission’s continuation. Without power, officials expected SLIM to exhaust its battery within a few hours.
JAXA officials expressed satisfaction with the mission, noting that even if SLIM were to lose power, it had achieved its minimum success criteria as a technology demonstrator. SLIM’s primary goal was to test a new vision-based navigation system for precision Moon landings. The mission aimed to land within 100 meters (about 330 feet) of its target, a crucial advancement for future lunar missions seeking proximity to resources like water ice.
Japan’s SLIM mission marked a significant milestone, making Japan the fifth country to achieve a soft landing on the Moon, following the Soviet Union, the United States, China, and India. The mission’s cost was approximately 18 billion yen ($121 million), and it served as a platform to test new guidance algorithms and sensors for potential use in future lunar spacecraft.
SLIM’s landing precision, as well as the deployment of two small robots called Lunar Excursion Vehicles (LEVs), was closely monitored. The LEVs included a hopping mechanism for short-distance travel and a Transformer-like robot shaped like a ball, developed in collaboration with Japanese toymaker Tomy Company.
While SLIM faced challenges with its solar array post-landing, mission controllers hope for potential recharging during the lunar daytime. The success of the SLIM mission is seen as a crucial step toward achieving high-precision lunar landings and navigating future spacecraft to specific locations on the Moon.
