Japan landed its Smart Lander for Investigating the Moon, or SLIM, craft on the surface of the Moon on Jan. 20, 2024. Despite a power issue with the lander, the event holds both political and technical importance. It’s Japan’s first lunar landing – making it only the fifth country in the world to successfully land on the Moon. This is a significant achievement and solidifies Japan’s position as a leader in space technology.
While the craft landed successfully on the lunar surface and deployed its rovers, SLIM’s solar cells were not functioning properly – meaning that the craft could likely only operate for a few hours.
I’m a scholar of international affairs who studies space. Like NASA and other space agencies, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, wants to advance research and technology by demonstrating new techniques and collecting scientific data. The landing is also a part of something bigger – a growing global interest in lunar activity.
Precision technology
Japan’s achievement isn’t only symbolic – Japan is demonstrating a number of new technologies with the lander. The name, Smart Lander for Investigating the Moon, refers to the spacecraft’s new precision-landing technology.
SLIM’s landing technology allowed it to detect and avoid potential obstacles.
This technology could assist future landings by allowing spacecraft to land in relatively small areas amid rocky or uneven terrain, rather than having to find large clearings. This ability will be particularly important in the future as countries focus on very specific areas of interest at the lunar south pole.
The lander also carried two small rovers, each of which will demonstrate a new technology for moving on the Moon.
Lunar Excursion Vehicle 1 includes a camera, as well as scientific equipment, and uses a hopping mechanism to maneuver on the Moon.
An illustration of the SLIM lander touching down.
JAXA/ISAS
Lunar Excursion Vehicle 2, developed in a partnership among government, industry, and academia, is a sphere small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. Once on the surface, its two halves separate slightly, allowing it to roll around.
SLIM is designed to land within a 328-foot (100-meter) zone, far smaller than previous lunar landers which have had landing zones spanning multiple kilometers.
SLIM used a vision-based navigation system that took images of the lunar surface. Its system rapidly compared these images to crater patterns on lunar maps that JAXA developed with data from previous missions.
As countries identify areas that are most likely to hold useful resources, such as water in the form of ice, precision landing technology will allow agencies to avoid nearby hazards and reach these areas without incident.
International relations back on Earth
There is a geopolitical element to these activities….
