The spacecraft “succeeded in a precise soft landing,” explained Jaxa on Thursday when publishing the first images of the landing on Earth’s satellite. “The landing point is proven to be 55 meters from the target point.”
Shortly following its successful landing on Saturday, the probe was switched off due to problems with the power supply. At the same time as this bad news, the space agency Jaxa expressed the hope on Monday that a restart might still be successful if the sun’s rays were favorable on Slim’s solar cells.
When evaluating the data collected during the landing, it should be clarified, among other things, whether the 2.40 meter long and 1.70 meter wide spacecraft achieved the goal of landing in the Shioli crater within the planned radius of one hundred meters. Slim has now apparently succeeded in doing this.
Two failed attempts
Slim was Japan’s third attempt at a moon landing following two failed missions. Previously, only the USA, the Soviet Union, China and India had successfully landed on the moon. Now Japan has become the fifth nation to achieve such success. The Japanese space agency had previously achieved a precision landing on an asteroid, but the challenge is greater on the moon, where gravity is stronger.
