Japan Becomes Fifth Country to Land Spacecraft on Moon
Japan became the fifth country in history to reach the moon when one of its spacecraft without astronauts successfully made a soft landing on the moon's surface on January 19.
However, space officials said they needed more time to analyze whether the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) achieved its mission priority of making a "pinpoint landing."
Space officials believe that the SLIM's small rovers were launched as planned and that data was being transmitted back to Earth, said Hitoshi Kuninaka, head of Japan's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science.
But he said that SLIM's solar battery wasn't generating power, likely because it didn't land at the planned angle facing the sun. He said the priority was for the craft to gather as much data about its landing as possible on the remaining battery.
Japan follows the United States, the Soviet Union, China and India in reaching the moon.
However, for the mission to be considered fully successful, officials needed to confirm whether SLIM made a pinpoint landing.
Kuninaka said that he thought the mission was most likely achieved, based on his observation of data showing the spacecraft's movement until the landing and its ability to transmit signals after landing.
Despite the solar panel issue, "it's delightful news," Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said in a message posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
SLIM is a lightweight spacecraft about the size of a passenger vehicle. It was testing technology to allow moon missions to land "where we want to, rather than where it is easy to land," the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) previously explained.
While most previous probes have used landing zones about 10 kilometers wide, SLIM was aiming at a target of just 100 meters.
A landing of such precision would be a world first, and would be crucial technology for a long-term and accurate space probe system, said Hiroshi Yamakawa, president of JAXA.
