Japan's 'Moon Sniper' spacecraft landed about 55 meters from its target, the Japanese space agency said as it released the first images from the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) lunar mission. The photo, taken by a mini rover, showed the angular yellow lander sitting intact at a slight angle on the rocky gray surface, with the moon's slopes rising in the distance.
“SLIM managed to perform a very soft landing… the landing point is believed to be 55 meters away from the target point,” space agency JAXA said. The soft moon landing makes Japan only the fifth country to achieve this feat, after the United States, the Soviet Union, China and India. However, the lack of electricity generated by the lightweight spacecraft's solar batteries put a damper on the festivities.
Nearly three hours after landing, JAXA decided to shut down SLIM with 12 percent power remaining to allow for a possible resumption when the sun's angle changes. That could be in just a week, because the spacecraft's solar cells face west, the agency said.
The spacecraft will look for clues about the moon's origins, including analyzing minerals with a special camera. The SLIM, equipped with a cushion to absorb the impact, aimed to land near the Shioli crater, near an area covered in volcanic rock. By analyzing the rocks there, JAXA hopes to shed light on the mystery of the moon's possible water supplies — the key to building bases there one day as a possible stopover on the way to Mars.
The closely watched mission came just 10 days after a US private company's moon mission failed when the spacecraft developed a fuel leak hours after launch. SLIM was launched in September on a Mitsubishi Heavy H2A rocket. It initially orbited the Earth and entered lunar orbit on December 25.
SLIM is one of many recent moon missions by governments and private companies, 50 years after the first human moon landing. Two previous Japanese moon missions – one public and one private – had also failed. Earlier in 2022, the country unsuccessfully sent a lunar probe named Omotenashi as part of the United States' Artemis 1 mission. In April, Japanese startup ispace tried unsuccessfully to become the first private company to land on the moon, losing communications with its spacecraft after what it described as a “hard landing.”
(With input from AFP, Reuters)
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Published: Jan 25, 2024 1:06 PM IST