JAXA released that H-IIA rocket blasted off from Tanegashima Space Center in Southern Japan and successfully released SLIM.
Japan launched its lunar mission, Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM), the “Moon Sniper” on 7th September 2023, with the hope to become the world’s fifth country to land on the moon following two previously failed attempts. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) successfully sent the SLIM probe into space atop its homegrown H-IIA rocket. SLIM, for the first time, will land within 100 metres of its intended target so got its name “Sniper”.
JAXA President Hiroshi Yamakawa emphasized the significance of high-accuracy landings, stating, “The big objective of SLIM is to prove the high-accuracy landing … to achieve ‘landing where we want’ on the lunar surface, rather than ‘landing where we can”.
Globally, “there are no previous instances of pinpoint landing on celestial bodies with significant gravity such as the moon”
JAXA, President Hiroshi
Hours after the launch, JAXA reported the successful reception of signals on the ground stations from SLIM, indicating normal operations.
The mission is expected to touch down on the lunar surface in early 2024. The lunar landing will target the near side of the moon, near Mare Nectaris, with the primary aim of testing advanced optical and image processing technology. SLIM will analyze the composition of olivine rocks in the vicinity, providing information about the moon’s origins.
The SLIM mission comes in the wake of India’s successful Chandrayaan-3 mission and Russia’s Luna-25 lander crash, highlighting the complexities of lunar exploration.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (7011.T) built and launched the H-IIA rocket, which was the 47th H-IIA Japan has launched since 2001, boosting the vehicle’s success rate to about 98%. After its 50th launch in 2024 JAXA plans to retire its H-IIA rocket after its 50th launch in 2024.
In addition to SLIM, the H-IIA rocket also carried the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) satellite, a collaborative effort involving JAXA, NASA, and the European Space Agency. XRISM aims to study plasma winds in the universe, enhancing our understanding of star and galaxy evolution.
Other recent failures for Japan’s space missions include the failure of an Epsilon small rocket to launch in October 2022, followed by an engine explosion during a test in July.
Two earlier lunar landing attempts by Japan failed in the last year. JAXA lost contact with the backpack sized OMOTENASHI lander sent as a part of the US Artemis 1 mission run by the US. The Hakuto-R Mission 1 lander, made by Japanese startup ispace (9348.T), crashed in April as it attempted to descend to the lunar surface.
Japan is set to collaborate with the Indian Space Research Organisation on the Lunar Polar Exploration Mission (LUPEX) and has plans to send an astronaut to the moon’s surface in the 2020s as part of NASA’s Artemis program.
