Successful touchdown will make Japan the 5th nation ever to land a space carrier on the lunar surface. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency JAXA is trying for a precise landing of its SLIM i.e. Smart Lander for Investigation Moon search, with in 328 feet designated target a technology it calls vital for lunar search , specifically in the quest for lunar water and human habitation.
Japan is trying to land its Moon Sniper to investigate on the moon surface and will become the 5th country to put a space carrier on the lunar surface if it remain successful. Only 4 nations have successfully landed on the moon Russia, US, China and India.
Japan is involving in NASA’s Artemis programme with aim of sending one of its astronauts to the lunar surface.Shinchiro Sakai JAXA’s SLIM project manager said ” No other nation has achieved this. Proving Japan has this technology would bring us a mega advantage in upcoming international missions like Artemis”.
SLIM will begin a twenty minute touchdown phase on its one way mission from midnight on Saturday 15 GMT friday attempting to land on a target site roughly the size of 2 athletic tracks on the slope of a carter just south of the lunar equator.Japan also plans a joint unmanned lunar polar exploration with India in 2025.
Last year India Chandryaan 3 made touchdown on the moon south pole a mega technological feat give the harsh terrain.
JAXA has face various setbacks including a launch failure in March of the new flagship rocket H3 that was built to compete cost effective against commercial rocket supplier such as SpaceX.
JAXA has become a powerful tool in exploration of hillly moon poles fuel, water and oxygen source.JAX expresses it will take up to a month to verify whether SLIM has achieved its precision target after touchdown.
The Japanese agency has twice landed on asteriods however a moon landing is much more difficult due to its gravity as seen in a number of latest failures.
Japan Moon Sniper Spacecraft is a small robot with a mega aim to pop open such a Transformer toy, beam images back to Earth.
Bigger than a tennis ball weight like potato 8cm across and 250 gm SORA Q was designed by JAXA with Takara Tomy.
If the target succeeds the search cameras will take photos of a crater where part of the moon mantle usually deep below its crust are known to be exposed.