{"id":45529,"date":"2024-01-19T17:43:31","date_gmt":"2024-01-19T09:43:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/japan-becomes-the-fifth-nation-to-land-a-spacecraft-on-the-moon\/"},"modified":"2024-01-19T17:43:31","modified_gmt":"2024-01-19T09:43:31","slug":"japan-becomes-the-fifth-nation-to-land-a-spacecraft-on-the-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/japan-becomes-the-fifth-nation-to-land-a-spacecraft-on-the-moon\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan becomes the fifth nation to land a spacecraft on the Moon"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Japanese space agency\u2019s first lunar lander arrived on the the Moon\u2019s surface Friday, but a power system problem threatens to cut short its mission.<\/p>\n

Japan\u2019s robotic Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) mission began a 20-minute final descent using two hydrazine-fueled engines to drop out of orbit. After holding to hover at 500 meters and then 50 meters altitude, SLIM pulsed its engines to fine-tune its vertical descent before touching down at 10:20 am EST (15:20 UTC).<\/p>\n

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), which manages the SLIM mission, streamed the landing live on YouTube. About two hours after the touchdown, JAXA officials held a press conference to confirm the spacecraft made a successful landing, apparently quite close to its target. SLIM aimed to settle onto the lunar surface adjacent to a nearly 900-foot (270-meter) crater named Shioli, located in a region called the Sea of Nectar on the near side of the Moon.<\/p>\n

But ground controllers at JAXA\u2019s Sagamihara Campus in the western suburbs of Tokyo soon discovered the lander was in trouble. Its solar array was not generating electricity after landing, and without power, officials expected SLIM to drain its battery within a few hours.<\/p>\n

In what could be the mission\u2019s final hours, engineers prioritized downloading data from SLIM, including imagery taken during its descent, and potentially new pictures captured from the lunar surface. Official reported good communications links between SLIM and ground stations on Earth.<\/p>\n

\u201cMinimum success\u201d<\/h2>\n

Even if SLIM falls silent, the mission has achieved its minimum success criteria, JAXA said. The SLIM mission is a technology demonstrator developed to verify the performance of a new vision-based navigation system needed for precision Moon landings.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst and foremost, landing was made and communication was established,\u201d said Hiroshi Yamakawa, JAXA\u2019s president. \u201cSo a minimum success was made in my view.\u201d<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

One of the core goals of the SLIM mission was to land within 100 meters (about 330 feet) of its bullseye. This accomplishment would be a remarkable improvement in lunar landing precision, which typically is measured in miles or kilometers. It would also be an enabling capability for future Moon missions because it lays the foundation for future spacecraft to land closer to lunar resources, such as water ice.<\/p>\n

Hitoshi Kuninaka, director general of JAXA\u2019s Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, said it will take about a month for engineers to fully analyze data from SLIM and determine the precision of the landing.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut as you saw on the real-time data livestream, SLIM did trace the expected course, so my personal impression is that we probably have been able to more or less achieve a high precision landing within 100-meter accuracy,\u201d Kuninaka said. \u201cSo the solar cell state is unlikely to impact the full success criteria.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kuninaka said ground teams have seen no evidence of any damage to the solar array on SLIM. It\u2019s possible the lander is sitting in an orientation with its solar cells facing away from the Sun. All other components of SLIM, including its propulsion, thermal, and communication systems, all appear to be functioning well.<\/p>\n

SLIM launched September 6 on top of a Japanese H-IIA rocket, riding to orbit alongside an X-ray astronomy telescope. The spacecraft took a long route to get to the Moon, trading time for fuel to preserve propellant for Friday\u2019s landing attempt. SLIM entered orbit around the Moon on December 25, then completed several maneuvers to settle into a low-altitude orbit in preparation for the descent to the surface.<\/p>\n

A milestone moment for Japan<\/h2>\n

The landing of SLIM made Japan the fifth country to soft-land a spacecraft on the Moon, following the Soviet Union, the United States, China, and India. But landing on the Moon is a hazardous thing to do. Three commercial landers similar in scale to SLIM failed to safely reach the lunar surface over the last five years.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

One of those was developed by a Japanese company called ispace. Most recently, the US company Astrobotic attempted to send its Peregrine lander to the Moon, but a propellant leak cut short the mission. After looping more than 200,000 miles into space, Peregrine reentered Earth\u2019s atmosphere Wednesday, where it was expected to burn up 10 days after its launch.<\/p>\n

A Russian lander crashed into the Moon in August, and India\u2019s first lunar lander failed in 2019. India tried again last year and made history when Chandrayaan 3 safely landed.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This artist\u2019s illustration shows the SLIM spacecraft descending toward the Moon and ejecting two deployable robots onto the lunar surface.<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n JAXA<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

Japan\u2019s SLIM mission was primarily designed to test out new guidance algorithms and sensors, rather than pursuing scientific objectives. The technologies riding to the Moon on SLIM could be used on future spacecraft bound for the Moon. SLIM cost the Japanese government approximately 18 billion yen ($121 million) to design, develop, and build, according to JAXA.<\/p>\n

The spacecraft is modest in size, measuring nearly 8 feet (2.4 meters) tall and nearly 9 feet (2.7 meters) across. Without propellant in its tanks, SLIM has a mass of roughly 660 pounds (200 kilograms).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe start of the deceleration to the landing on the Moon\u2019s surface is expected to be a breathless, numbing 20 minutes of terror!\u201d said Kushiki Kenji, sub-project manager for the SLIM mission, before the landing.<\/p>\n

A new way to land<\/h2>\n

First, the spacecraft ignited its two engines for a retrograde burn to slow the lander\u2019s velocity enough to be pulled to the surface by lunar gravity. As it slowed down, SLIM flipped into a configuration to enable a top-down vertical final approach. During this process, SLIM\u2019s advanced guidance system received data from a landing radar and an optical rangefinder. This told the spacecraft\u2019s control system how high it was above the surface.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

The lander\u2019s vision-based navigation system autonomously guided SLIM toward its target landing zone. Engineers loaded SLIM\u2019s computer with maps of craters surrounding the landing site, using imagery collected by orbiters flying overhead. SLIM\u2019s down-facing cameras were expected to take pictures of the Moon\u2019s charcoal-gray surface, and the spacecraft\u2019s computer was to compare the locations of craters to the pre-loaded orbiter imagery. Working autonomously, SLIM\u2019s computer was also supposed to look for hazards and obstacles such as boulders or steep craters.<\/p>\n

The precision navigation technology tested on SLIM caused some Japanese space officials to nickname this spacecraft the \u201cMoon sniper.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thanks to observations from orbiting spacecraft like NASA\u2019s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, India\u2019s Chandrayaan, and Japan\u2019s Kaguya, scientists have created high-resolution lunar maps showing topography, interesting geologic features, and resources like water ice that astronauts could harvest.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt used to be that we were landing where we could, now we are trying to land where we want,\u201d Yamakawa said. \u201cThat is the slogan of the project, so if 100-meter precision has been successful, then as a result of this approach, this technology has been established. This is the very first time in the world that this was achieved.\u201d<\/p>\n

In order to get to more intriguing locations on the Moon, future landers must be able to navigate themselves to safe touchdown zones near craters, ridges, or mountains. Many previous lunar landing missions have targeted locations far away from these rugged features to ensure they had a wide expanse to safely settle onto the surface.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The two-step landing sequence for SLIM involves a brief hover just over the landing site, followed by a 90-degree slip as the spacecraft settles onto the Moon\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n JAXA<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

In the final moments before touchdown, SLIM was expected to release two small robots to drop onto the lunar surface. If everything worked, these robots could have been in position to take pictures of the lander just as it reached the Moon. JAXA calls the robots Lunar Excursion Vehicles (LEVs). One has a hopping mechanism designed to travel short distances across the lunar landscape.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

The other is shaped like a ball, with a diameter of about 3 inches (80 millimeters). Once on the Moon, this robot will change its shape and move across the surface. Its design resembles that of a Transformer toy, and guess what? Japanese toymaker Tomy Company, founder of the Transformers brand, partnered with Japan\u2019s space agency on this little gadget.<\/p>\n

JAXA confirmed Friday that the hopper robot apparently worked, and the jury is still out on the Transformer-like robot.<\/p>\n

Just 10 feet (3 meters) over its landing site, SLIM was supposed to briefly hold in a hover position before shutting off its main engines and using smaller thrusters to rotate itself. This would allow SLIM to drop to the surface on the weight of five crushable landing legs\u2014two under SLIM\u2019s upper body, two at the rear, and one extending toward the back of the lander.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs SLIM descends vertically downwards, it is this back leg that first touches the lunar surface,\u201d JAXA said in a mission overview posted before the launch of SLIM. \u201cIn the second step, the spacecraft tips forwards, rocking onto the upper support legs before stabilizing on the lunar surface. In a nominal case, the rear support legs do not touch the Moon, but can prevent SLIM from tumbling sideways in the case of a more tricky landing.\u201d<\/p>\n

This novel two-step landing sequence will be useful for safely landing future spacecraft on steep slopes. Mission managers estimated the landing site for SLIM to have an incline of about 6 to 7 degrees.<\/p>\n

According to Kuninaka, JAXA\u2019s mission controllers hope different solar angles throughout the two-week lunar daytime could eventually recharge the battery on SLIM, even if the spacecraft loses power in the hours after landing. \u201cWhen the solar direction changes, and when the light shines from a different direction, the light could end up hitting the solar cells.\u201d<\/p>\n

SLIM was not designed to survive a cold, Sun-free lunar night.<\/p>\n

This story was updated on January 19, 2024, after the landing of the SLIM spacecraft on the Moon.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Japanese space agency\u2019s first lunar lander arrived on the the Moon\u2019s surface Friday, but a power system problem threatens to cut short its mission. Japan\u2019s robotic Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) mission began a 20-minute final descent using two hydrazine-fueled engines to drop out of orbit. After holding to hover at 500 meters […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[377,877,572,625,1495],"class_list":["post-45529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan","tag-jaxa","tag-lunar-exploration","tag-moon","tag-slim"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45529"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}