Japan’s SLIM Moon Sniper Lander Sends Back Spectacular Imagery Ahead Of Historic Landing

The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM for short) recently sent back incredible imagery of the moon’s surface. The SLIM spacecraft successfully reached lunar orbit on Christmas Day, ahead of its historic attempt to land on the moon.

In a tweet sent by JAXA, images taken using a navigation camera during, before, and after the spacecraft entering lunar orbit were stitched together into what the space agency referred to as “a flip book.” The Japanese space agency remarked, “that SLIM is indeed moving above the lunar surface.” Now that SLIM has been inserted into lunar orbit, the spacecraft will continue to maneuver itself ahead of its descent toward the Moon. The lunar lander is projected to land on the moon’s surface on January 20, 2023, at approximately 12:20am JST.

JAXA has stated that SLIM is a project aiming to contribute to future lunar and planetary exploration by achieving two objectives. The first is a demonstration of high-precision landing technology on the moon. The second comprises the realization of a lightweight lunar and planetary probe system to allow more frequent lunar and planetary exploration missions.

The Japanese space agency also has three degrees of criteria it hopes to meet with SLIM. The minimum degree comprises a soft landing on the Moon with a small and lightweight spacecraft. SLIM will be considered having reached a full degree level of criteria if it can also land within 100m of accuracy. If the spacecraft meets both the minimal and full criteria, JAXA will then aim to carry out extra criteria, which comprise carrying out missions that operate on the lunar surface to obtain knowledge for lunar and planetary surface exploration in the future.

Japan is fully aware of how difficult it is to land on the lunar surface. In April of this year, Japanese company ispace attempted to become the first private company to make a moon landing, which ended in a loss of its Hakuto-R lander. Additionally, Russia was unsuccessful in landing a spacecraft on the moon this year. Therefore, JAXA employees will more than likely be holding their breath as SLIM makes its final approach to the lunar surface next month.

According to JAXA, SLIM is a technology demonstrator, and the expertise gained during the upcoming attempt to land on the moon will be utilized in future missions, such as the Martian Moon eXploration (MMX) and lunar polar missions.