Japan’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) reached the Moon’s orbit on Christmas Day, bringing Japan one step closer to its first successful lunar landing. If successful, Japan will become the fifth country in the world to land a probe on the Moon, following the United States, Russia, China, and India.
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced on Monday that SLIM “successfully entered the moon’s orbit at 04:51 pm Japan time” (0751 GMT). The lander is scheduled to begin its descent on January 20, around 12 am Japan time, with the landing expected 20 minutes later.
The SLIM lander, launched by an H-IIA rocket in September from the southern Japanese island of Tanegashima, is part of an ambitious mission by JAXA for an “unprecedentedly high precision landing” on the Moon. The mission aims for a margin of error during landing of under 100 meters, a remarkable achievement compared to the error margins of “a few or 10-plus kilometers” used by other countries. This precision is the result of decades of research efforts by JAXA researchers.
One distinctive feature of the SLIM mission is a spherical probe developed in collaboration with a toy company, slightly larger than a tennis ball, capable of changing its shape to move on the lunar surface. JAXA’s SLIM project manager, Shinichiro Sakai, emphasized the evolution from the days of merely exploring “somewhere on the moon” to today’s mission, reflecting advancements in technology and precision in lunar exploration. If successful, Japan will join the ranks of nations contributing to lunar exploration and research.
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