< p>SLIM was launched in September 2023 and made a four-month journey to the Moon.
On Friday, January 19, Japan became one of the five world space nations to reach the Moon. The Japanese SLIM spacecraft successfully touched the surface of our planet's natural satellite.
Sky News reports this.
Although the ship landed at approximately 17:20 Kyiv time and can communicate with the crew on Earth, it cannot generate its own power, likely because its solar panels are positioned at the wrong angle.
This means that SLIM relies on its own battery to operate, which had 74% charge at the time of landing and will only last a few hours of operation.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) hopes that changing the angle of sunlight will charge the panels so that the craft can resume their operation.
“Need 30 days for the solar angle to change on the Moon,” Hitoshi Kuninaka, head of the JAXA Research Center, told reporters after landing.
The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM), dubbed the “lunar sniper”, attempted a risky landing on a slope near the crater's rim using new precision navigation technologies.
Specifically, landing within a 100 m radius of a target location near the Scioli crater, the device took photographs of the surface and compared them with detailed maps of the craters in order to adjust the operation of the engine in real time and land exactly at the desired location.
JAXA reported that after landing, SLIM deployed two mini-probes – a vehicle the size of a microwave and a wheeled rover the size of a tennis ball.
SLIM was launched in September 2023 and made a four-month journey to the Moon.
Recall that the American spacecraft Peregrine, which was supposed to deliver the Ukrainian flag to the Moon, is heading towards the Earth – it will burn up in its atmosphere.
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