Japan landed a spacecraft on the Moon for the first time (3 photos + 1 video)

True, the landing module did not “live” for long, but it was quite long enough for Japan to become the fifth lunar power.





The Japanese landing module SLIM (from the English Smart Lander for Investigating Moon - Smart Landing Module for Investigating the Moon) successfully landed on the surface of the Earth's satellite. Thus, Japan became the fifth country that managed to land a spacecraft on the surface of the Moon.

The device landed on the visible side of the Moon in the area of the Scioli crater. The main task of SLIM is to demonstrate the capabilities of soft and precise landing with an error of up to 100 meters. However, it is not yet known how accurate the landing was.



Proposed landing site

After landing on the Moon, communication was established with the device, and telemetry also confirmed that before the module touched the surface of the Moon, a routine release of microprobes occurred. Now employees of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) are trying to extract photographs from the probes and from the cameras of the landing module, but so far they have not succeeded - the latter is silent.



This is what dropped microprobes look like

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) reports that immediately after landing, the device began to have problems with its batteries. They were unable to recharge from solar panels, although it is a lunar day at the lunar landing site. The JAXA team has turned off all non-essential power, including the electronics heating systems, and is attempting to fully assess the situation. There are suggestions that the unique landing pattern played a cruel joke on the module, as a result of which the device could capsize.