JAXA’s SLIM lunar lander landed sharply on the lunar surface on January 19, just 328 feet (100 meters) from the precisely designated landing spot. Representatives of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced that the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) made a strange but precise landing on the lunar surface. At a press conference on Thursday (January 25), JAXA scientists said SLIM landed within 328 feet (100 meters) of its chosen lunar landing spot, making a precision landing, which was its main mission.
“We proved that you can land anywhere you want, not where you can land,” SLIM project manager Shinichiro Sakai said at the press conference, according to Reuters. “This will encourage more people, and preferably Japanese missions, to land in unexplored parts of the moon.”
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After landing on the lunar surface, a robot called LEV-2 (“Lunar Exploration Vehicle-2”) or SORA-Q, shaped like a ball, captured an image of the sent SLIM. SLIM, dubbed the “moon sniper,” shows marked precision compared to previous lunar probe landings, and according to JAXA, SLIM could help validate the image-based navigation used and could be a powerful tool for future lunar surface exploration.
“If we were able to achieve a precision of less than 10 meters, probably 3 to 4 meters, this is an extremely important achievement for future lunar exploration,” Sakai said. According to pictures of the lunar surface, SLIM landed with a 90-degree turn during landing, effectively landing on the tip of its nose.
Sakai explained that JAXA scientists think SLIM’s strangely oriented landing was caused by one of the main engines stalling during the landing, which lasted about 30 seconds and took place at an altitude of about 165 feet (50 meters) above the moon, the Japan Times reported. The Japan Times added that Sakai said the engine failure was the result of an “external factor” and that a camera captured an engine nozzle on the lunar surface. The team continues to analyze the cause of this malfunction.
This engine failure caused SLIM to move 55 meters away from the selected landing point. Had it been fault-free, SLIM could have landed only 10 to 13 feet from the selected region of the lunar surface. The SORA-Q image shows that the change in position means SLIM landed on the sloping ridge of a lunar crater. This slope caused the lander to tip onto its nose toward the west.
SLIM’s position has meant that the spacecraft has so far been unable to use its solar panels to generate electricity. Engineers turned off SLIM’s battery about two and a half hours after landing to conserve power. JAXA scientists are hopeful that this will change as the direction of sunlight on the moon changes. But SLIM’s hopes for revival will fade next week on February 1, when night falls on the moon and brings intense cold. “SLIM is not designed to spend a lunar night in a healthy way,” Sakai explained.
SLIM’s landing makes Japan the fifth country to make a soft landing on the lunar surface, after Russia (the Soviet Union at the time), the United States, China and India. Landing close to places thought to contain resources such as water ice will be an important step in establishing a sustainable human presence on the lunar surface. The US aims to land crews on the lunar surface in 2026 at the earliest with the Artemis 3 mission, while China plans to send its own astronauts to the moon by the end of the decade.
