Why Japan wants to become the 5th country to land on the Moon – 08/29/2023 – Science

Jaxa (Japan’s space agency) postponed once again this Monday (28) the launch of what it hopes will be the country’s first spacecraft to land on the moon. The reason was strong winds at high altitude.

Japan intends to launch the Slim (“Smart Lander for Investigating Moon” into space by mid-September, with a lunar landing scheduled for January 2024.

If the mission is successful, the country will become the fifth to land on the moon, after the United States, the former Soviet Union, China and India.

What is Japan’s lunar mission?

With more than two decades of development, the Slim project focuses on using advanced image-based navigation technology and lightweight hardware to achieve a high-precision landing.

Dubbed the “lunar shooter”, Slim was designed to land no more than 100 meters from the target location. This represents a giant leap over conventional multi-kilometer accuracy for lunar probes, according to JAXA.

By building a lightweight lander, the agency aims to reduce launch costs and allow for more frequent missions. Slim weighs just over 700 kg at launch, or less than half of India’s Chandrayaan-3.

It uses an efficient chemical propulsion system and includes miniaturized electronic devices.

Slim’s overall development cost about 15 billion yen ($100 million) this year. India launched its lander with a budget of around R$367 million.

Why is technology important?

The “spot” landing technology allows for a more granular search for rock and water resources and increases the spacecraft’s chance of survival by helping it select the best location for solar power generation and avoid rough terrain, JAXA said.

Slim is scheduled to land on the slope of Shioli crater, near the Mare Nectaris lunar sea. The location was chosen based on high-resolution images from lunar orbiters.

Slim employs “vision-based navigation” to identify where it is flying during the landing phase, Jaxa says. This allows the spacecraft to combine real-time images from its camera with existing images of the lunar surface.

Why is Japan’s space program important?

Although 14 Japanese astronauts have been in space — the fourth-highest number after the US, Russia (including the former Soviet Union) and China — Japan’s space missions have focused on developing launchers and space probes and have relied on the United States. and in Russia to transport astronauts.

Japan intends to send an astronaut to the surface of the Moon in the second half of the 2020s, as part of the Artemis program of the US agency Nasa.

Advanced Japanese imaging technology, like that used on Slim, is seen as a key part of its response to China’s growing military presence in space.

And the recent setbacks?

Slim’s launch was delayed for a few months after Jaxa manually destroyed the starter model of the new H3 medium-lift rocket due to engine misfires after launch in March.

Jaxa also failed to launch a small Epsilon rocket in October 2022, followed by an engine explosion during a test run last month.

The government says private sector projects should play a greater role. Startups including ispace and orbital debris removal company Astroscale have entered the market and raised hundreds of millions of dollars in addition to traditional industrial heavyweights such as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

Collaborated with Maki Shiraki

^{Translated by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves}