Japan’s unmanned lunar probe SLIM successfully landed on the moon. With this, Japan became the fifth country in the world to successfully land on the moon, following the former Soviet Union, the United States, China, and India.
At a press conference on the 20th (local time), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said, “Slim began its descent from 15km above the moon around midnight on the 20th and landed on the surface near the lunar equator about 20 minutes later.” “The soft landing was successful,” he said.
He went on to explain, “After Slim reaches the surface of the moon, it is able to communicate with the Earth, but is unable to generate power using solar cells.” Slim was initially scheduled to use solar cells to generate power after landing and carry out a mission to measure the types of minerals contained in rocks on the lunar surface using a special camera. However, the solar cell installed in Slim is not currently working, so it is running on its own battery. These batteries are known to only work for a few hours.
JAXA believes that the solar cells were not damaged during landing. This means that if the solar angle changes in the future, the solar cell can operate normally again.
The two camera-equipped small robots ‘LEV-1’ and ‘LEV-2’ mounted on Slim were properly separated from the aircraft. LEV-1 photographs Slim and the landing area through communication equipment and sends the data to Earth. LEV-2 is a ball-shaped robot jointly developed with Japanese toy company ‘Tommy’ and shoots videos while driving around the landing site.
Slim, which is 2.4m tall and weighs 200km, was launched on a ‘H2A’ rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture on September 7th last year. After entering lunar orbit on the 25th of last month, preparations for landing began on the 15th of this month. Slim, designed with a landing error of less than 100m, is also called the ‘Moon Sniper’, meaning a precise lunar landing.
This time, Slim attempted a ‘pinpoint’ landing that reduced the target point error to within 100m. Water and ice exist locally on the moon, so precise landing at the destination is important. A JAXA official said that although there is a high possibility of successful pinpoint landing, it is expected to take about a month to analyze data to confirm success.
Hyewon Lee, Donga.com
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.