The small Japanese lander SLIM is in turn trying to land on the Moon, and it’s today!

On the way since September 6, the small Japanese SLIM vehicle will attempt in the afternoon to land precisely on the lunar surface. A descent broadcast live by the JAXA agency! 20 minutes to achieve a technical feat, and become the 5th nation to lead a mission to the Moon? Answer this January 19.

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Compact and light with only 600 kg on the scale during takeoff, the Japanese SLIM lander will experience its descent towards the lunar surface today. A real challenge for the one that JAXA (the Japanese space agency) calls the “Moon Sniper”! Everything is planned so that it attempts to land less than 100 meters from its objective, located on the visible side: next to a small crater called Shioli, within Mare Nectaris, a basin which was probably formed by a lava flow when the Moon hosted very active volcanism.

The landing, which is at the center of the mission, is above all a technological demonstration, since SLIM is small and its onboard equipment is particularly designed for landing. Shock-deformable feet, ultra-light solar panels, a tandem optical and radar vision system… At 4:00 p.m. (Paris), SLIM will brake to begin its descent, and 20 minutes later, it will have succeeded or crashed. If successful, in addition to a deserved celebration, the Japanese hope to study the lunar soil with a spectrometer, and two tiny robots ejected in the final maneuver.

To settle down is his mission

SLIM’s mission is difficult; we know how many robots have missed their arrival on the lunar surface in recent years. And all the more so since it is a vehicle designed to be small, economical and in a certain sense, minimalist. However, we must not forget that SLIM has already succeeded in a large part of its mission with its journey from Earth. In fact, it took off on September 6 from Japan, with the XRISM orbital observatory, and since then it has carried out a series of maneuvers which were all successful, with a very economical lunar approach in propellants (its fuels).

In orbit since January 1, it has gradually lowered its trajectory to find itself today in position for a final braking. Note that if, for one reason or another, the teams or the on-board computer choose to cautiously remain in orbit, there is a second opportunity on February 16.

There’s only one way to know

“ For the landing, we only have one try, impossible to go back », Explains Kenji Kushiki, project manager for the Japanese agency. He also mentions “20 minutes of terror” (a reference to the landings of American robots on Mars), because SLIM will have to fend for itself during its descent: it is impossible to pilot it remotely, everything is automated.

It remains to be seen whether the software, the radar and the “smart eyes” system will work as expected. India (2023) and China (2013, 2019, 2020) are the only nations to have successfully landed on the Moon in the 21st century, and there have been many failures since 2019. Beresheet (Israel), Chandrayaan-2 (India), Hakuto-R (Japan), Luna-25 (Russia), Peregrine-1 (USA) are reminders that nothing should be neglected during a lunar mission, neither the simulations nor the margins operational, nor hardware tests. Will SLIM succeed?

Source : CNN