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Japanese Lunar Exploration Program
The (Japanese) Lunar Exploration Program (Japanese: 月探査計画, romanized: tsuki tansa keikaku) is a program of robotic and human missions to the Moon undertaken by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and its division, the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS). It is also one of the three major enterprises of the JAXA Space Exploration Center (JSPEC). The main goal of the program is "to elucidate the origin and evolution of the Moon and utilize the Moon in the future".
The first spacecraft of the program, the uncrewed lunar orbiter SELENE (Kaguya), was launched from Tanegashima Space Center on September 14, 2007, after being delayed several times. SELENE-2, Japan's first lunar lander and rover, was expected to be launched in the 2020s, but the mission was canceled in March 2015. The program also included a lunar sample return mission (SELENE-3) and an advanced lander for future human missions to the Moon. The eventual goal is to participate in an international lunar outpost program, in which Japanese crews would stay on the lunar surface for a prolonged period of time and promote scientific research and environment utilization.
Hiten, or MUSES-A (Mu Space Engineering Satellite-A) is a technology demonstration satellite built by ISAS, launched on January 24, 1990.
SLIM, short for Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, is a SPRINT-C (Small scientific satellite Platform for Rapid INvestigation and Test-C) mission to test lunar landing technologies. SLIM was successfully launched together with the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) space telescope from Tanegashima Space Center on 6 September 2023 at 23:42 UTC (7 September 08:42 Japan Standard Time) and is to land near Shioli crater (13.3°S, 25.2°E) via Weak stability boundary like trajectory. SLIM entered lunar orbit 25 December JST.
The lunar lander, nicknamed Moon Sniper for its extremely accurate landing precision, of about 100 metres (330 ft) landing ellipse, touched down onto the Moon on 19 January 2024 at 15:20 UTC, at the Sea of Nectar, to the south of the Theophilus crater. Japan became the fifth nation to successfully soft land an operational lander on the Moon, after the USA, USSR, China, and India.
Though it landed successfully, it was in the wrong attitude, because the solar panels were oriented westwards facing opposite to the Sun at the start of lunar day, thereby failing to generate enough power. The lander operated on internal battery power, which was fully drained that day. The mission's operators hope that the lander will wake up after a few days when sunlight should hit the solar panels. A Mitsubishi Heavy H2A rocket was used to launch the SLIM, which initially entered the lunar orbit on December 23, 2023.
Irrespective of this solar array issue on lander, the two LEV 1 and 2 rovers, deployed during hovering just before final landing are working as expected and LEV-1 communicating independently to the ground stations. LEV-1 conducted six hops on lunar surface. Images taken by LEV-2 show the wrong attitude landing with loss of an engine nozzle during descent and even possible sustained damage to lander's Earth bound antenna, that is not pointed towards Earth. Irrespective of wrong attitude and loss of communication with the lander, the mission is already fully successful after confirmation of its primary goal landing within 100 m (330 ft) of its landing spot was already achieved.
On 29 January, the lander resumed operations after being shut for a week. JAXA said it re-established contact with the lander and its solar cells were working again after a shift in lighting conditions allowed it to catch sunlight. After that, SLIM was put in sleep mode for impending harsh lunar night. SLIM was expected to operate only for one lunar daylight period, or 14 Earth days, and the on-board electronics were not designed to withstand the −120 °C (−184 °F) nighttime temperatures on the Moon. On 25 February 2024, JAXA sent wake-up calls and found SLIM had successfully survived the night on the lunar surface while maintaining communication capabilities. Since it was midday of the lunar day on the moon om 25 February 2024, the temperature of the communications payload was extremely high, so communication was terminated after only a short period of time. JAXA is now preparing for resumed operations, once the temperature has fallen sufficiently. This feat of surviving lunar night without a Radioisotope heater unit is only achieved by some landers in Surveyor Program. SLIM showed perseverance and survived another lunar night waking up on 28 March 2024.
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Japanese Lunar Exploration Program AI simulator
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Japanese Lunar Exploration Program
The (Japanese) Lunar Exploration Program (Japanese: 月探査計画, romanized: tsuki tansa keikaku) is a program of robotic and human missions to the Moon undertaken by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and its division, the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS). It is also one of the three major enterprises of the JAXA Space Exploration Center (JSPEC). The main goal of the program is "to elucidate the origin and evolution of the Moon and utilize the Moon in the future".
The first spacecraft of the program, the uncrewed lunar orbiter SELENE (Kaguya), was launched from Tanegashima Space Center on September 14, 2007, after being delayed several times. SELENE-2, Japan's first lunar lander and rover, was expected to be launched in the 2020s, but the mission was canceled in March 2015. The program also included a lunar sample return mission (SELENE-3) and an advanced lander for future human missions to the Moon. The eventual goal is to participate in an international lunar outpost program, in which Japanese crews would stay on the lunar surface for a prolonged period of time and promote scientific research and environment utilization.
Hiten, or MUSES-A (Mu Space Engineering Satellite-A) is a technology demonstration satellite built by ISAS, launched on January 24, 1990.
SLIM, short for Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, is a SPRINT-C (Small scientific satellite Platform for Rapid INvestigation and Test-C) mission to test lunar landing technologies. SLIM was successfully launched together with the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) space telescope from Tanegashima Space Center on 6 September 2023 at 23:42 UTC (7 September 08:42 Japan Standard Time) and is to land near Shioli crater (13.3°S, 25.2°E) via Weak stability boundary like trajectory. SLIM entered lunar orbit 25 December JST.
The lunar lander, nicknamed Moon Sniper for its extremely accurate landing precision, of about 100 metres (330 ft) landing ellipse, touched down onto the Moon on 19 January 2024 at 15:20 UTC, at the Sea of Nectar, to the south of the Theophilus crater. Japan became the fifth nation to successfully soft land an operational lander on the Moon, after the USA, USSR, China, and India.
Though it landed successfully, it was in the wrong attitude, because the solar panels were oriented westwards facing opposite to the Sun at the start of lunar day, thereby failing to generate enough power. The lander operated on internal battery power, which was fully drained that day. The mission's operators hope that the lander will wake up after a few days when sunlight should hit the solar panels. A Mitsubishi Heavy H2A rocket was used to launch the SLIM, which initially entered the lunar orbit on December 23, 2023.
Irrespective of this solar array issue on lander, the two LEV 1 and 2 rovers, deployed during hovering just before final landing are working as expected and LEV-1 communicating independently to the ground stations. LEV-1 conducted six hops on lunar surface. Images taken by LEV-2 show the wrong attitude landing with loss of an engine nozzle during descent and even possible sustained damage to lander's Earth bound antenna, that is not pointed towards Earth. Irrespective of wrong attitude and loss of communication with the lander, the mission is already fully successful after confirmation of its primary goal landing within 100 m (330 ft) of its landing spot was already achieved.
On 29 January, the lander resumed operations after being shut for a week. JAXA said it re-established contact with the lander and its solar cells were working again after a shift in lighting conditions allowed it to catch sunlight. After that, SLIM was put in sleep mode for impending harsh lunar night. SLIM was expected to operate only for one lunar daylight period, or 14 Earth days, and the on-board electronics were not designed to withstand the −120 °C (−184 °F) nighttime temperatures on the Moon. On 25 February 2024, JAXA sent wake-up calls and found SLIM had successfully survived the night on the lunar surface while maintaining communication capabilities. Since it was midday of the lunar day on the moon om 25 February 2024, the temperature of the communications payload was extremely high, so communication was terminated after only a short period of time. JAXA is now preparing for resumed operations, once the temperature has fallen sufficiently. This feat of surviving lunar night without a Radioisotope heater unit is only achieved by some landers in Surveyor Program. SLIM showed perseverance and survived another lunar night waking up on 28 March 2024.