Japan eyes big as its Moon Lander Nails Orbit Insertion, Sets Stage for Historic Lunar Touchdown!
A significant milestone has been achieved in Japan’s pursuit of its inaugural moon landing, with the successful entry of the robotic SLIM moon lander into lunar orbit on December 25. At 4:51 p.m. Japan Standard Time (JST), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) verified the spacecraft’s entry into lunar orbit, a critical step towards the country’s first-ever moon landing.
Officials from JAXA released the following statement: “The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is pleased to announce that the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) was successfully inserted into lunar orbit at 16:51 (Japan Standard Time, JST) on December 25, 2023.” Moon Lander SLIM is presently circling the moon in an elliptical orbit that takes 6.4 hours to complete. At its closest point to the lunar surface, it is 373 miles (600 km) away, and at its furthest point, it is 2,485 miles (4,000 km) away.
With this result, Moon Lander SLIM is now on track for its historic lunar landing mission on January 19, which is expected to go as planned. The Soviet Union, the United States, China, and India are the only countries to have successfully completed a soft landing on the moon so far.
The 8.8-foot-long Moon Lander SLIM, also known as the “Smart Lander for Investigating Moon,” embarked on its journey on September 6 alongside XRISM, a powerful X-ray space telescope. While both spacecraft initially entered Earth orbit, XRISM remains in Earth’s orbit, whereas SLIM began its trajectory toward the moon on September 30, following an energy-efficient and circuitous route.
The spacecraft’s journey concluded on Christmas Day as SLIM autonomously inserted itself into lunar orbit. Preparations for the lunar landing are underway, and Moon Lander SLIM hopes to live up to its moniker, “Moon Sniper,” by hitting a landing zone as close as 330 feet (100 metres). This accuracy is essential to progressing our efforts to explore the moon in the future.
Officials from JAXA described the project’s objectives as follows: “SLIM is a mission for researching the pinpoint landing technology necessary for future lunar probes and verifying this on the moon’s surface with a small-scale probe.”
They stated that this can be termed as a significant step in human history where the people can be facilitated to settle in any place of their choice. Moreover, they can be guided to places with scarce resources than the moon itself.
Assuming the mission proceeds as planned, SLIM Moon Lander will deploy two mini probes onto the lunar surface after landing. These auxiliary crafts will capture images, monitor SLIM’s status, and serve as an independent communication system for direct contact with Earth, as detailed in JAXA’s SLIM mission press kit.
While SLIM is not the first Japanese spacecraft to reach lunar orbit—Hiten achieved this in 1990, followed by SELENE (Kaguya) in 2007, and Hakuto-R in March 2023—its mission represents a significant step forward in Japan’s lunar exploration endeavors.
Hakuto-R, built by Tokyo-based company ispace, aimed to touch down on the moon a month after entering lunar orbit but faced challenges leading to a crash, highlighting the complexities of lunar exploration.
