Japan became the fifth country to successfully land on the moon. However, the celebration of this event was short-lived. The SLIM landed at 10:20 a.m. EST, but its solar panels never opened, leaving the device to operate on a battery that would last for several hours.
This landing has attracted considerable attention, especially after the recent unsuccessful completion of the US Peregrine 1 mission. JAXA’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) mission was marked by an attempt to test a new precision landing system that uses surface craters as landmarks for navigation.
Unlike conventional lunar landings, which require large landing areas, SLIM was designed to land with an accuracy of 100 meters. For comparison, the Apollo 11 mission required a 20-kilometer-long landing corridor.
SLIM quickly earned the nickname “Moon Sniper.”
According to JAXA, the landing attempt began at 10:00 a.m. EST, and 20 minutes later, the vehicle touched down. The landing was declared a “minimal success” because the vehicle bounced off the ground and the solar panels never activated. As a result, SLIM runs exclusively on battery power, and if the malfunction is not corrected, the device will stop working in a few hours.
