Japan's Lunar Spacecraft Successfully Enters Orbit, Preparing for a Groundbreaking Moon Landing Mission
Japan's lunar mission is reaching a milestone as the SLIM spacecraft, affectionately known as the Moon Sniper, successfully enters lunar orbit The upcoming historic attempt to land on the moon's surface in mid-January marks an exciting race to explore and conquer the lunar frontier amidst a year filled with ambitious lunar landing missions
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The lander is currently orbiting the moon once every 6.4 hours, but it will gradually decrease its orbit over the next few weeks in preparation for its historic touchdown attempt in mid-January. If successful, Japan will be the fifth country to achieve this and the third country to do so in the 21st century.
In this century, only China and India have successfully landed vehicles on the moon, igniting a new competition for lunar exploration focused on identifying and utilizing the moon's natural resources for future crewed missions. Japan's robotic explorer aims to achieve a precise "pinpoint" landing to gather data on lunar rocks for a better understanding of the moon's formation.
Heading in for landing
On December 9 in Pasadena, MD, a group of geese gracefully landed on Stoney Creek as the final full moon of 2022 illuminated the sky behind them. According to the Farmers Almanac, this particular moon is known as the Cold Moon. (Image credit: Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post/Getty Images)
On December 25, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) revealed that the lunar lander has been successfully placed into an elliptical orbit. This orbit will allow the lander to pass over the moon's north and south poles at altitudes ranging from about 370 miles (600 kilometers) to 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers).
Over the next three and a half weeks, the spacecraft's orbit will bring it as close as 9 miles (15 kilometers) to the moon's surface as it initiates its final descent. The Moon Sniper lander, also known as SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon), is scheduled to make a soft touchdown at 10:20 a.m. ET on January 19, or 12:20 a.m. on January 20 Japan Standard Time.
About SLIM, aka the Moon Sniper
The SLIM lightweight lander will target a landing zone that stretches about 328 feet (100 meters), rather than the typical kilometer range.
The precision of the mission earned it the nickname "Moon Sniper."
Upon reaching the lunar surface, SLIM's objective is to explore a location near a small impact crater known as Shoelinear, close to the Apollo 11 landing site where NASA astronauts first landed in 1969.
The United States is still the only country to have successfully landed humans on the moon. However, since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, NASA has not achieved a soft-landing of astronauts or robotic vehicles on the lunar surface.
ISRO
The module that powered India's historic moon mission has successfully returned to Earth's orbit. In 2023, both a privately developed spacecraft from Japan-based company, Ispace, and a lunar lander launched by Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, attempted to touchdown on the moon but ultimately failed.
After encountering navigation problems, every robotic craft crash-landed. In August, a lunar lander created by the Indian Space Research Organisation, India's space agency, managed to successfully land on the moon, making it the fourth country to do so after the United States, China, and the former Soviet Union.
India's spacecraft successfully landed near the lunar south pole, a region believed to have valuable stores of water ice. This makes India the first nation to send a vehicle in close proximity to this area.
Following Japan's Moon Sniper spacecraft landing attempt, the United States plans to launch up to three robotic vehicles to the lunar surface within the next year. Additionally, NASA has plans to send astronauts into orbit around the moon by late 2024.
The success of the Artemis II mission could lead to a mission later this decade that lands humans on the moon. The crewed NASA Artemis III mission might be the first time astronauts have returned to the lunar surface since the 1970s.
