Japan ‘Moon Sniper’ lands but power running low, space agency says

Name: Japan launches rocket carrying moon lander to explore origins of the universe
Uploaded: 2024-01-19T16:46:45.000Z
Duration: 2 min 35 s
Description: Japan launches rocket carrying moon lander to explore origins of the universe

With the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) mission reaching the lunar surface, Japan is now the 5th nation to pull off a tricky ‘soft landing’

Contact has been established, but with the spacecraft unable to rely on solar power, the priority is sending data back to Earth

3-MIN READ3-MIN

An artist illustration depicts Japan’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) in its landing phase. Image: JAXA via EPA-EFE

Agence France-Presse

Published: 12:46am, 20 Jan 2024Updated: 3:37pm, 20 Jan 2024

Japan on Saturday became the fifth nation to achieve a soft lunar landing, but said its “Moon Sniper” spacecraft was running out of power due to a solar battery problem.

After a nail-biting 20-minute descent, space agency JAXA said its Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) had touched down and communication had been established.

But without the solar cells functioning, JAXA official Hitoshi Kuninaka said the craft – dubbed the “Moon Sniper” for its precision technology – would only have power for “several hours”.

SLIM is one of several new lunar missions launched by governments and private firms, 50 years after the first human Moon landing.

Crash landings and communication failures are rife, and only four other countries have made it to the Moon: the United States, the Soviet Union, China and most recently India.

02:35

Japan launches rocket carrying moon lander to explore origins of the universe

As mission control prioritised gathering data while they could, Kuninaka suggested that the batteries might work again once the angle of the sun changed.