JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) has announced that the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) spacecraft has successfully entered orbit around the moon. Before it is scheduled to land on the night of January 19, 2024, and if the landing is successful This will make Japan the fifth country after Russia, the United States, China and India to successfully send a spacecraft to successfully explore the surface of the world’s only satellite.
The SLIM spacecraft successfully entered an orbit with Perilune, or the closest point to the moon, at 600 kilometers, and Apolune, or the farthest point from the moon, at a distance of 4,000 kilometers, on December 25, 2023. and the craft will gradually Lower orbit until mid-January To prepare for landing
SLIM is the first lunar lander of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. This craft is only 2.4 meters long. Its mission is to: To test precision landing technology on the moon On a target area that is only 100 meters in size, the landing technology at JAXA is called Pinpoint Landing, which is a precise landing that is as if arranged or called In-situ Observations. This landing is different from traditional landing craft that There is often a margin of error of several kilometers. In the past, Neil Armstrong piloted Apollo 11 into an elliptical landing zone 20 kilometers long and 5 kilometers wide.
The SLIM mission is planned to land near Shioli Crater on January 19, 2024 at approximately 10:40 p.m. local time. Shioli Crater is a point not far from the moon’s equator. The area will look like a slight hill.
If the moon landing is successful It will explore and collect information about the composition of rocks on the moon. that will help scientists discover the birth of the moon And it could help scientists unravel the mystery of the composition of rocks believed to be part of the Earth’s mantle.
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