On December 5th, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced its goal to launch the SLIM spacecraft to the Moon on January 20, 2024.
The SLIM lander is set to land on the Moon on January 20, 2024. (Photo: JAXA).
This effort will mark the first “soft” landing on the Moon by a Japanese spacecraft, expected to occur at 12:00 PM local time on January 20. The entire landing process is anticipated to take about 20 minutes and will be broadcast live on television channels in Japan.
According to JAXA, the SLIM lander will enter lunar orbit on December 25, followed by nearly a month of preparations for its landing attempt. If this landing is successful, Japan will become the fifth country to land on the Moon, following the Soviet Union, the United States, China, and India.
This mission could also pave the way for more ambitious scientific exploration projects.
“The SLIM spacecraft aims to achieve precise landing capabilities on the Moon from an altitude of less than 100 meters,” JAXA officials stated in an announcement.
“This represents a previously unprecedented high-precision landing on a celestial body with gravity such as the Moon. The results from this mission will be a breakthrough for programs like international space exploration, which are currently under study.”
If this landing is successful, Japan will become the fifth country to land on the Moon, following the Soviet Union, the United States, China, and India (Photo: Getty).
The SLIM lander (short for “Smart Lander for Investigating Moon“), measures 2.7 meters in length and was launched by Japan’s H-2A rocket along with the XRISM space telescope on September 6.
While XRISM has been successfully deployed in low Earth orbit, the SLIM lander is still on its way to making history.
According to JAXA, the SLIM spacecraft carries two small exploration robots. Both will deploy on the lunar surface after landing.
This duo will photograph the landing site, assisting the SLIM mission team in monitoring the status of the mother ship and providing an independent communication system for direct contact with Earth. Additionally, they will conduct various scientific research related to the geology of the Moon.
The SLIM mission is not Japan’s first attempt to land on the Moon. Earlier this year, a similar effort was made by the Hakuto-R lander, developed by the Tokyo-based company ispace.
Although it successfully reached lunar orbit, the mission ultimately failed due to a malfunction during the landing attempt.
