Japan hopes to become the fifth country to land on the moon in January
Just months after India established itself as the fourth lunar power, Japan is set to land on our closest celestial body this month.
JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, has made a number of extremely impressive space achievements over the past three decades, including a sample return mission from the asteroid Ryugu, something that has never been done before, even in the United States.
Now that their Smart Lunar Exploration Lander (SLIM) entered lunar orbit on December 25, JAXA is preparing to descend on the lunar surface on Saturday, January 20.
If the landing is not completed at the time listed above, the next opportunity is scheduled for approximately February 16, 2024.
The goal of SLIM is to achieve precision landing with an accuracy of less than 100 meters. This marks an unprecedented high-precision landing on a gravitational body such as the Moon, and the results are expected to contribute to international space exploration programs.
SLIM is “a mission to investigate the pinpoint landing technology required for future lunar probes and test it on the lunar surface using a small probe,” JAXA officials wrote in the mission description.
The spacecraft left Earth on September 7 along with the powerful X-ray telescope XRISM, which remained in Earth orbit.
“By creating the SLIM lander, humans will make a quantum shift towards being able to land where we want, rather than just where it's easy to land, as has been the case before,” they added. “Having achieved this, it will be possible to land on planets even more scarce in resources than the Moon.”
If they succeed, Japan will become the fifth country after China, India, the Soviet Union and the United States to land on the moon.
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