Japan will make moon-exploration history in the course of next month, if all goes to plan.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced today (Dec. 5) that it’s targeting Jan. 19 for the lunar landing of its robotic SLIM (“Smart Lander for Investigating Moon”) spacecraft.
The newly revealed plan calls for SLIM to start its descent toward the moon on Jan. 19 around 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT; 12 a.m. on Jan. 20 Japanese Standard Time). Touchdown — which might mark the first-ever soft lunar landing for a Japanese spacecraft — is scheduled to occur about 20 minutes later.
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The 8.8-foot-long (2.7 meters) SLIM probe launched atop a Japanese H-2A rocket together with an X-ray space telescope called XRISM on Sept. 6. XRISM deployed into low Earth orbit, but SLIM began making its circuitous, fuel-efficient approach to the moon.
If all goes easily, SLIM will enter lunar orbit on Christmas Day, then spend nearly a month prepping for its technology-demonstrating touchdown attempt. Success would make Japan just the fifth nation to place a probe down on the moon, after the Soviet Union, the US, China and India. This landing could also open doors for much more ambitious exploration feats down the road.
“SLIM goals to realize a pinpoint landing with an accuracy of lower than 100 meters [330 feet],” JAXA officials wrote in an update today.
“This marks an unprecedentedly high-precision landing on a gravitational body corresponding to the moon, and the outcomes are anticipated to contribute to the programs corresponding to international space exploration which are currently under study,” they added.
SLIM also totes two miniprobes, each of which can deploy onto the lunar surface after landing. The duo will photograph the touchdown site, help the SLIM team monitor the mothership’s status and supply an “independent communication system for direct communication with Earth,” in response to JAXA’s mission press kit.
SLIM’s lunar landing try won’t be the primary for a Japanese spacecraft; a personal probe had a go earlier this 12 months.
That spacecraft — the Hakuto-R lander, built by Tokyo-based company ispace — successfully reached lunar orbit but crashed during its touchdown attempt after getting confused by the rim of a moon crater.