tokyo: Japan’s space agency (JAXA) said on Thursday that the ‘lander’ of its moon mission (Japan Moon Mission) has successfully reached its intended target but the investigation seems to be upside down. After the ‘Smart Lander’ or ‘Slim’ mission reached the moon on Saturday, Japan became the fifth country in the world to reach the moon. But due to technical problems with the solar batteries, it was initially difficult to ascertain whether it reached its target or not.
The Japanese spacecraft landed on the moon’s surface early Saturday local time. One of the lander’s main engines lost expected power about 50 meters (54 yd) above the lunar surface, preventing the planned landing.
The Lunar Excursion Vehicle 2 (LEV-2 / SORA-Q) has successfully taken an image of the #SLIM spacecraft on the Moon. LEV-2 is the world’s first robot to conduct fully autonomous exploration on the lunar surface. https://t.co/NOboD0ZJIr pic.twitter.com/mfuuceu2WA
— JAXA Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (@ISAS_JAXA_EN) January 25, 2024
After analyzing data for a few days, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, said the spacecraft landed about 55 meters (60 yards) short of its target, near Shioli Crater, an area covered in volcanic rock.
The lunar mission lander has sent some box-shaped pictures of the surface but it appeared upside down. JAXA project manager Shinichiro Sakai said that the images sent were exactly what he had imagined and seen in computer graphics. Before Japan, America, Soviet Union, China and India had reached the surface of the moon. Last year, India became the fourth country in the world to make a successful ‘soft landing’ on the moon.