2024-01-25 18:00:44
Japan celebrated this Thursday the precision of its arrival on the Moon. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) confirmed that the SLIM spacecraft landed in the region for which it had been targeted, a point of honor of its mission. He also published his first image from the lunar surface, in which you can see that The space probe overturned during the lunar landing maneuver.
This first image from SLIM (Landing Intelligent Lunar Investigation Module) shows that the spacecraft rotated 90 degrees relative to how it should have been after touching the surface of the Moon. It appears that one of the two large thrusters stopped working during the descent.
“A main engine anomaly affected the landing attitude of the SLIM spacecraft,” JAXA explained in a statement. This would explain the problems he is facing generating energy. As the agency explained last week, the module was running entirely on batteries, because their solar panels were at the wrong angle.
The agency later reported that it decided to put the SLIM spacecraft into hibernation, because the battery would only last a few more hours. But Japan, the fifth country to reach the moon, is hopeful that a change in the direction of sunlight could power the panels in the coming days.
This should happen before February 1, when night comes to this sector of the Moon. The darkness on the natural satellite lasts about 14 Earth days and is so cold that it can damage the electronic components of the module.
Illustration showing the desired orientation of Japan’s spacecraft after it landed on the moon. Credit: JAXA
The importance of the precision of Japan’s SLIM moon landing
The photo of SLIM on the Moon was captured by Sora-Q (also known as LEV-2), a small rover about the size of a baseball that the ship carried with it. To transmit the image to Earth, I need the help of Lev-1, a second robot that can communicate independently.
The lunar landing module (nicknamed the “lunar sniper” for its accuracy) managed descend to within 100 meters of its target, near the Shioli crater, south of the lunar equator. The eventual problem in one of its engines would have caused it to deviate about 55 meters. In any case, it exceeds the precision of several kilometers achieved so far by other similar ships.
“We have shown that you can land on the moon wherever you want, not where it is possible”said SLIM spacecraft project manager Shinichiro Sakai. “This will inspire more and more people, preferably missions from Japan, to try to land in unexplored places on the Moon.”
JAXA said it received all data about the landing area before placing the SLIM spacecraft into sleep mode. Japan explained that it used “vision-based” navigation, which it claims could be a key tool in future missions to the south pole of the Moon.
Last year, India became the first country to take a spacecraft to the lunar south pole. It is believed that there are deposits of frozen water there, an eventual source of hydrogen and oxygen. China and the United States hope to send their first astronauts to that region in this decade.
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