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Japan 5th country in world to land on Moon

Besides Japan, other four countries of the world to land on the Moon are the United States, former Soviet Russia, China and India (Chandrayaan 3). Read More

Saturday January 20, 2024 0:26 AM , ummid.com with inputs from Agencies

Tokyo: Japan on Friday January 19, 2024 announced successful landing of its un-manned craft 'Moon-Sniper' on the lunar surface, becoming only 5th country in the world to do so.

The Japanese space agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), said earlier Moon-Sniper successfully landed on the Moon but its power system was facing some problem.

The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) probe began its “power descent sequence” towards the lunar surface early Saturday local time (15:00 GMT Friday) and was down to about 10 kilometres (six miles) above the lunar surface, according to JAXA.

The space agency said its unmanned spacecraft is currently on the moon, but is still “checking its status”. Officials said they still needed to analyse the pinpoint accuracy of the landing.

Hitoshi Kuninaka, head of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, said they believe that rovers were launched and data were being transmitted back to Earth, but there could an issue with the power supply.

“The probe's solar panels aren't generating electricity as planned on the lunar surface and it's relying entirely on batteries”, JAXA officials said during a post-landing press conference Friday.

JAXA is now rushing to fix the solar generators before the batteries run out.

The SLIM was launched in September 2023 along with an X-ray space telescope called XRISM. The scope deployed into low Earth orbit shortly after lift-off (and recently sent home its first test images), but SLIM set out for more distant celestial shores.

Watch Video

＼Finally from 23:00 JST today／
[SLIM Moon landing: live broadcast ]

Jan. 19 (Fri) 23:00~ JST
https://t.co/FTjt0Dm4tk
Please support SLIM as they take on the challenge of a high-precision pinpoint landing

You can send us your messages using the hashtag #SLIMMoonLivepic.twitter.com/L7i1QWOy4v

— JAXA Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (@ISAS_JAXA_EN) January 19, 2024

JAXA has emphasised that its high-precision technology will become a powerful tool in future exploration of hilly moon poles, seen as a potential source of oxygen, fuel and water. Japan also plans a joint unmanned lunar polar exploration with India in 2025.

The Japanese agency has twice landed on small asteroids, but a moon landing is much more difficult due to its gravity, as seen in a number of recent failures.

Besides Japan, other four countries of the world to land on the Moon are the United States (Apollo 11), former Soviet Russia, China and India (Chandrayaan 3).

 

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