2024-01-19 21:08:30
Until the last moment, Japan’s first landing on the Moon, which thus became the fifth country to do so, seemed a success. The telemetry said that the SLIM probe had landed on the satellite, but confirmation that everything had gone well was slow to arrive. Minutes later, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) cut off the transmission and asked the audience to wait while they checked the status of the ship. The agency has explained, two hours after landing, that it has communication with the ship, but the solar panels cannot generate energy, probably because it is poorly oriented, which means that it would run out of energy to operate. However, as JAXA officials explained during a press conference, “there is still hope” that when the angle of the sun changes, the panels will generate electricity again.
While trying to find out if SLIM was okay, at the Robledo de Chavela station, near Madrid, signals from the probe and LEV-1, one of the explorer robots traveling with it, began to be received. It seems likely that the landing was soft, leaving the ship capable of communicating and keeping its two accompanying robots alive, but it is possible that it did not land in the ideal position.
Japan today aspired to become the fifth country to have successfully landed on the Moon with one of its devices, after the Soviet Union, the United States, China and India. Although the position in the race does not seem bright, the Japanese space agency (JAXA) dresses its challenge with capabilities that make its mission a pioneer. The SLIM probe (smart lander to investigate the Moon), also known as the “lunar sniper”, wants to land with much greater precision technology than usual. The Eagle module, with which Armstrong and Aldrin became the first humans to reach the Moon, had enough precision to land on an ellipse 20 kilometers long and 5 kilometers wide. SLIM aims to land at a maximum distance of 100 meters from the point chosen to do so, in the Shioli crater. A few moments before touching the lunar soil, SLIM will launch its two explorer robots, LEV-1 and LEV-2.
Although landing on the Moon has been going on for more than half a century, it is still not a routine operation and the success rate is still around 50%. JAXA’s goal is to prove that its technology allows it to not only land safely on an extraterrestrial world, but to do so exactly where each mission requires it. “Currently, there has been an increase in knowledge of astronomical objects and the details that should be studied have become more specific, so high-precision landings near the study target have become a necessity,” explains the agency. Japanese.
If successful, its precision tools, which include cameras adapted with image recognition algorithms to detect dangerous obstacles, could be incorporated into new missions to explore the Moon for water and other resources and improve the exploration of other planets and satellites of the Moon. Solar system.
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In addition to testing its precise landing system, SLIM carries on board two small rover robots, LEV-1 and LEV-2 (lunar excursion vehicles). The first, the size of a microwave and weighing two kilos, can be moved by jumping. It has a camera to take images, a thermometer, a radiation and tilt meter, and can communicate with Earth. The LEV-2 is a sphere slightly larger than a tennis ball and weighs 250 grams, and can be split in two to reveal two cameras.
Image of the LEV-2 robot carrying SLIM.JAXA
Japan has already managed to land with two missions, Hayabusa 1 and 2, on very distant asteroids, but the Moon poses different challenges, given its greater gravitational attraction. In statements to the Reuters agency, Kazuto Saiki, a professor at Ritsumeikan University, who has developed the SLIM infrared camera, states that his country “cannot beat the United States, China or India in terms of resources” dedicated to a lunar mission. For this reason, he considers it important that he focus on developing technologies that may be interesting for other countries to incorporate into their projects. With this approach, he wants to play a role as a partner alongside other countries. It is scheduled to launch a joint robotic mission with India in 2025 and in the coming years it plans to send a Japanese to the Moon in collaboration with NASA’s Artemis program.
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