Japan's Lander Closes in on the Moon

Tuckerfan · Dec 31, 2023

It'll touchdown just south of the equator.

SLIM: Japan's lunar lander captures stunning images of Moon's surface

Japan's moon lander successfully captured its first images of the lunar surface after entering lunar orbit on Christmas Day.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) released these exquisitely detailed photographs of crater-filled lunar landscapes acquired by the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM).

According to JAXA, these images were compiled after the spacecraft seamlessly maneuvered into lunar orbit at 2:51 am EST (0951 GMT or 4:51 pm Japan time) on Monday, December 25.

"SLIM successfully completed main engine injection at 16:51 and successfully entered lunar orbit! Below is an image sent from SLIM near the moon," JAXA mentioned in the X post.

Landing is expected around January 19

The 8.8-foot-long (2.7-meter) spacecraft is planned to land on the moon around January 19.

If it achieves a successful lunar landing, it will join the exclusive ranks of other nations that have accomplished this significant feat: the United States, Russia, China, and India.

On September 6, the lander was launched along with JAXA's X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM), which is dedicated to detecting cosmic X-ray sources. After the XRISM probe was successfully positioned in Earth's orbit, SLIM left for an elliptical orbit, performing a circumlunar journey every 6.4 hours.

According to reports, this trajectory will assist in bringing the lander to a distance of around 373 miles (600 kilometers) from the lunar surface, with the spacecraft swinging out to a maximum distance of 2,485 miles (4,000 kilometers) from the moon.
Technology demonstration mission

Nicknamed Moon Sniper, it serves as a technology demonstrator mission to achieve a precise landing on the lunar surface.

This small and lightweight probe is planned to land on the "Sea of Nectar" on the moon's near side, next to the Shioli Crater. The lander will try to land within 330 feet (100 meters) of the chosen location.

This pinpoint-landing technique might enable space agencies to land a robotic probe anywhere on the moon or even on the peculiar terrains of our solar system's other celestial worlds.

"By creating the SLIM lander, humans will make a qualitative shift towards being able to land where we want and not just where it is easy to land, as had been the case before. By achieving this, it will become possible to land on planets even more resource-scarce than the moon," mentioned JAXA mission description.
Click to expand...

More at the link.

matthunter · Jan 19, 2024

It's down, though power issues might hamper the rest of the mission.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68035314

Log in or Sign up

Japan's Lander Closes in on the Moon

Tuckerfan BMF

matthunter Ice Bear

Log in or Sign up

Japan's Lander Closes in on the Moon

Tuckerfan BMF

matthunter Ice Bear

Useful Searches