Japan is getting into a space race with its homegrown rocket and space technology to demonstrate its strength in the space industry. A new space launch mission aims to land on the lunar surface and deploy a Lander for research.
Japan’s moon lander named “Moon Sniper” will have various research instruments to collect the data and send it back to the Earth for further analysis.
The moon mission is launched from its homegrown H-IIA rockets. Japan has conducted several space missions in the past. The lunar mission will set a new milestone and make Japan the fifth country to land on the Moon early next year.
After the rocket’s successful launch, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency announced that they had successfully deployed the Smart lander from the rocket after it reached orbit. Now, the lander is on the way to the Moon. The mission was planned to launch a few weeks back, but due to unfavorable weather conditions, the mission was postponed three times.
Japan’s moon sniper will land on the Moon within 100 meters of its target site. If we talk about the cost of the moon mission, then as per the official news, Japan is spending $100 million on the moon mission. Lander will attempt the soft landing next year in February 2024.
Japan is using gravity to assist the lander in reaching the Moon’s orbit. Therefore, the spacecraft has to circle the Earth multiple times to gain momentum, and when the proper speed is achieved, the lander will be slingshot to the moon orbit using the onboard thruster.
It is a standard method various space industries use to perform fuel-efficient space research. Sending the lander directory to the Moon without gravity would require more fuel to power the engine, making the mission more expensive.
NASA spends a lot of money to launch the Moon and other space missions, which costs them a price because the rockets have to carry extra fuel to power the task.
Small countries could not afford the expensive space program; thus, they usually rely on gravity assistance to reach their space destination and perform space research at the lowest budget.
The primary mission of the SLIM is to achieve an accurate landing on the Moon’s surface. The lander is programmed to perform the landing through an onboard computer. The mission will help scientists learn more about future space missions. Also, it will increase the credibility of Japan’s space program after a successful landing, which will boost its future program.
Japan’s launch came after the two weeks of India’s Chandrayaan 3 mission, which was a success for the country. Before India, the Russian space industry tried to land on the Moon, but they had some software glitch that ended the mission in crash land.
India became the fourth country to land on the Moon and the first to land on the Lunar South Pole region. Chandrayaan 3 mission aims to explore the Moon’s water and soil composition to understand how the Moon’s surface works.
Japan had the moon mission two years back, which failed, and they could not land on the Moon. In the close approach to the Moon, JAXA lost contact with the OMOTENASHI lander and crash-landed in November.
The SLIM mission will touch down on the Moon’s surface close to the mare nectaries, also known as the lunar sea. The place is visible from the Earth, which looks like a dark spot. Japan’s moon mission primarily aims to test its technology for future space missions.
Advanced optical and image processing technology is used in the spacecraft to take high-resolution images with other research instruments. It will perform further research when it lands on the Moon.
Moon Lander will collect the soil sample to analyze the composition of the olivine rocks near the site. Search for the water and other mineral on the Moon will be done through instruments. Lander does not have the lunar rover; thus, the SLIM instruments will be the only onboard device to perform the entire research.
Rocket also carried the X-RAY imaging and spectroscopy mission satellite with its lunar lander. It is a joint project between the JAXA and NASA, the European Space Agency. The onboard satellite aims to observe plasma winds found in space. Data from the plasma detector will help the scientist observe the stars and galaxies.
Several countries are planning their space mission. Exploration in our solar system and beyond is now again taking the general public’s interest. Everything wants to explore space and seek answers to the visible universe. We may see similar space programs launched by other countries in the world.
