The Japanese space agency JAXA has announced the details of the SLIM module’s landing on the Moon. The landing went smoothly, but as a result, the vehicle overturned. Apparently, at an altitude of 50 meters, while performing an obstacle avoidance maneuver, the thrust of one of the module’s two main engines disappeared, leading to an emergency landing. But this does not mean that everything has disappeared. The module still has a chance to recharge the batteries and continue working.
The SLIM module descended to the Moon at a speed of 1.4 m/s, which was within the permissible range. The landing is soft, even on one engine out of two. This made Japan the fifth country in the history of terrestrial astronautics to land a descending vehicle on our satellite. However, due to the failure of one of the engines and a deviation in the horizontal orientation of the module, a rather high lateral velocity occurred, which led to the module’s overturning.
The SLIM module has been turned upside down. More precisely, he stood on his head. Unfortunately, the solar panels were completely turned away from the sun. This was the worst case scenario of all, and it was the one that was realized by a blind chance. There is hope that the sun will gradually move, and its rays will be able to illuminate the back of the module, where the solar panels are rigidly fixed.
The module descended to the lunar surface at 00:20 Tokyo time. At 00:57, the power to the systems was cut off when the telemetry data and camera images were removed. It was impossible to discharge the scarce battery life any further. The mission team left a reserve of power to reboot the equipment if the batteries do run out.
Another goal of the SLIM mission was to land the module with a deviation of no more than 100 meters from the target point. Although the data is still being refined, the module has coped with its task. It deviated from the target by about 55 meters. Later, the deviation will be more accurately estimated.
All the scientific equipment of the module is working. Or rather, it worked until the power was cut off. During the work, the optics of a low-resolution multibeam camera (MBC) were discovered, which, even from a headstand, walked across the surface of the Moon and identified targets for scanning with a high-resolution spectral camera. If the module’s power is restored, the equipment will be able to study interesting objects in detail.
The launch of two miniature probes LEV-1 and LEV-2 was also successful. It was the second of them, created in cooperation with Sony in the form of a ball that divides into two halves, that took a picture of the lander from the side view. We are waiting for more news, JAXA promises to keep us informed of all developments. This is all the more interesting because the situation with the engine failure is unclear.
