The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Moon Research Smart Lander (SLIM), a project involving a small lunar lander intended to demonstrate exact landing technology, entered lunar orbit on Monday, Dec. 25, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency announced. Firm Monday.
“The orbit upgrade went as planned and the spacecraft is currently in good shape,” JAXA said, adding that its landing on the lunar surface is scheduled for Jan. 20.
Launched on September 7, 2023, SLIM is a small lander designed to demonstrate that the new generation can navigate to a precise landing and improve the examination of the Moon and other planets using the lightest scanning system. The lander will make a two-stage solid landing on the sloping terrain near Shioli Crater, located west of Mare Nectaris on the near side of the Moon.
Observations from the agency’s Kaguya lunar orbiter suggest that the Shioli ejecta, which is thought to be a relatively recent impact crater, could involve olivine from the lunar mantle and reading those minerals up close may also reveal data about the moon’s interior. Layout and training.
Prior to landing on the lunar surface, SLIM will deploy two small probes called Lunar Excursion Vehicles (LEVs) to record the prestige of the landing and conduct a technical demonstration of autonomous exploration across the surface. Once safely on the lunar surface, SLIM will read about the domain with an onboard spectroscopic camera to explore the composition of the crater ejecta.