Although a Japanese robot has succeeded in landing on the moon, the mission may only last a few hours due to problems with the solar system. The mission encountered a problem with the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (Slim), which was testing new technology for precision landings. The approach and descent seemed to go smoothly.
Near the equatorial crater, the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (Slim) gently touched down on the lunar surface. With this achievement, the Asian nation joins the US, the former Soviet Union, China and India as the only other nations to have landed on Earth’s moon.
What lead this mission glitch ?
Just before landing, the space agency received a message from Slim and the small rover it had placed, but the lander was only running on batteries due to a problem with the solar panels. Officials said it was likely that the lander’s solar panels were not properly positioned to face the sun.
Hitoshi Kuninaka, Japanese space agency (Jaxa) vice president, answered in the affirmative when asked whether Japan could legitimately demand a soft landing during a press conference. “If the powered descent had not been successful, it would have collided with the surface at a very high speed and the function of the spacecraft would have been completely lost,” “But it is still sending us data correctly, which means our original goal of a soft landing was successful,” he told reporters.
What Jaxa explained ?
According to Jaxa, “landing where we want” would replace the previous philosophy of “landing where we can” if the probe’s accuracy is as expected. Such precision landings will be essential for future lunar exploration.
Slim only using its battery to function, two hours after the lander touched down, the head of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (Jaxa) space laboratory told reporters during a press conference. The lander’s battery will likely run out within a few hours, but if the sun shines on the solar cells for the next few weeks, it could be able to generate power on board.
The space agency thinks Slim landed softly, but it will likely take a month or two to verify that the lander actually landed within 100 meters of its planned location, which is near Shioli Crater, south of the moon’s equator. This was the key objective of the mission.
From an altitude of 15 km (9 miles), Slim began its descent operations at midnight Japan Standard Time (15:00 GMT Friday) on Saturday. It landed just after 15:20 GMT. The landing site, which is near Shioli Crater, is now brightly lit, but lunar night will return towards the end of the month.
A small Japanese company called iSpace made the landing last year. When the Hakuto-R craft’s onboard computer misread the height above the moon, it crashed.
With ambitions to bring humans back to the surface and harness the water and other resources there, lunar missions are once again popular with major space agencies. Although China’s Chang’e 3 landed smoothly in 2013, the Soviet Union’s Luna 24 mission in 1976 was the last to do so, despite successful landings by the US and the Soviet Union in the 1960s. With the launch of Chandrayaan-3 in 2023, India became the fourth country to be admitted to the prestigious league.
On the Peregrine, Dr. Simeon Barber of the Open University in the UK equipment. He praised Japan’s efforts. It was all about the exact landing for me. This is really successful , “I’d be really happy to be them.” He told BBC News
Several lunar missions are going on these days, involving various groups. Whether or not these attempts are successful, if we collect all the information these players are learning, we as a community will be able to place missions more skillfully in the future – Dr Simeon Barber
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