Japan plans to launch a lunar lander in August with the hope of improving the ability of humans to reach other worlds. The mission has observation tools to help us understand how celestial objects are formed.
The Well-Crafted Sniper
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) developed the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) using technologies that are claimed to make a breakthrough that will enable us to where we want to land and not just where it is easy to touch down. If JAXA makes it possible, then we can land on other planets that are scarcer in resources than the Moon.
The SLIM is also named Moon Sniper because it has high-resolution cameras and an image-processing algorithm. While traveling across the orbit of the Moon, it will detect craters on the lunar surface and measure its position. From these data, the SLIM will accurately decide where to touch down. It is expected to land within 100 meters of its target spot.
Such accuracy is critical because it can inspire future missions to send tools to specific spots. During the past lunar probes, experts designed missions around the places where it would be easiest to land.
SLIM measures 2.7 meters long and 1.7 meters wide and will weigh only 210 kg upon touchdown. JAXA asserts that its small size is crucial as the kind of missions it envisions in the future could require payloads with a specific purpose.
The mission involves another payload called the Developing X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM). This mission is dubbed the new astronomical satellite with the ability to observe the plasma in stars and galaxies. The agency is confident that XRISM can use its X-ray spectroscopy equipment to answer the mysteries about the formation of our universe.
It can be recalled that JAXA suffered from failure when it lost two of its most recent rockets. The SLIM and XRISM will be launched in this upcoming lunar mission using a Mitsubishi H-IIA vehicle. This flight vehicle has conducted 30 successful missions since 2005. The two crafts will ride the 47th H-IIA, so it is safe to assume it has a high chance of success.
Just like SLIM, JAXA has twice successfully landed probes on asteroids. If SLIM conducts its mission as planned, it will make Japan the fourth nation to land on the Moon.
The New Space Race
Being the closest neighbor of our home planet, the Moon has been the subject of space explorations for decades. Different nations have been attempting to achieve pioneering breakthroughs in space journeys as they will set their mark in the aerospace industry.
So far, only three countries have successfully carried out soft landing on the moon where the spacecraft did not encounter any damage during lunar landing. The United States won the space race when it successfully sent the first man to walk on the moon in 1969. Between 1964 and 2018, the U.S. carried 32 missions to the Moon.
Meanwhile, the Soviet Union was the first to send a spacecraft to the moon in 1959. The USSR has also sent 23 missions where unmanned spacecraft were sent to the Moon. Lastly, China completes the list as the third country to make a soft landing on the Moon with the launch of its lunar probe in December 2019.
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