Japan’s space agency is about to launch a lunar lander and revolutionary satellite
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/25/world/ja ... index.html
A revolutionary satellite that will reveal celestial objects in a new light and the “Moon Sniper” lunar lander are preparing for launch.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, is expected to launch its XRISM mission, pronounced “crism,” from Japan on Sunday evening.
The satellite, also called the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission, is a joint mission between JAXA and NASA, along with participation from the European Space Agency and Canadian Space Agency.
Along for the ride is JAXA’s SLIM, or Smart Lander for Investigating Moon. This small-scale exploration lander is designed to demonstrate a “pinpoint” landing at a specific location within 100 meters (328 feet), rather than the typical kilometer range, by relying on high-precision landing technology. The precision led to the mission’s nickname, Moon Sniper.
SLIM / Landing on the Moon
The launch has already been rescheduled twice due to bad weather, and the agency now plans for liftoff of XRISM and SLIM aboard an H-IIA rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center at 8:26 p.m. ET Sunday, or 9:26 a.m. Japan Standard Time on Monday.
The event will stream live on JAXA’s YouTube channel, offering a broadcast in both English and Japanese. The live stream will begin at 7:55 p.m. ET Sunday.
The satellite and its two instruments will observe the universe’s hottest regions, largest structures and objects with the strongest gravity, according to NASA. XRISM will detect X-ray light, a wavelength invisible to humans.
Studying stellar explosions and black holes
X-rays are released by some of the most energetic objects and events in the universe, which is why astronomers want to study them.
“Some of the things we hope to study with XRISM include the aftermath of stellar explosions and near-light-speed particle jets launched by supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies,” said Richard Kelley, XRISM principal investigator at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, in a statement. “But of course, we’re most excited about all the unexpected phenomena XRISM will discover as it observes our cosmos.”
Compared with other wavelengths of light, X-rays are so short that they pass through the dish-shaped mirrors that observe and collect visible, infrared and ultraviolet light such as the James Webb and Hubble space telescopes.
With that in mind, XRISM has thousands of curved individual nested mirrors better designed to detect X-rays. The satellite will need to calibrate for a few months once it reaches orbit. The mission is designed to operate for three years.
Moon Sniper sets its sights on a crater
Meanwhile, SLIM will use its own propulsion system to head toward the moon. The spacecraft will arrive in lunar orbit about three to four months after launch, orbit the moon for one month, and begin its descent and attempt a soft landing between four to six months after launch.
SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) flight model. The photo was taken at the Spacecraft and Fairing Assembly Building (SFA) , Tanegashima Space Center.
The SLIM flight model is shown inside the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan.
JAXA
Unlike other recent lander missions aiming for the lunar south pole, SLIM is targeting a site near a small lunar impact crater called Shioli, in the vicinity of the Sea of Nectar, where it will investigate the composition of rocks that may help scientists uncover the origins of the moon. The landing site is just south of the Sea of Tranquility, where Apollo 11 landed near the moon’s equator in 1969.
Following the United States, the former Soviet Union and China, India became the fourth country to execute a controlled landing on the moon when its Chandrayaan-3 mission arrived Wednesday near the lunar south pole. Previously, Japanese company Ispace’s Hakuto-R lunar lander fell 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) before crashing into the moon during a landing attempt in April.
PP
Japan’s Lunar Lander is Ready to Go
Re: Japan’s Lunar Lander is Ready to Go
Launch of revolutionary satellite and ‘Moon Sniper’ lunar lander scrubbed just before liftoff
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/27/world/ja ... index.html
The launch of a revolutionary satellite that will reveal celestial objects in a new light and the “Moon Sniper” lunar lander has been postponed.
Liftoff was expected at at 8:26 p.m. ET Sunday, or 9:26 a.m. Japan Standard Time on Monday, but inclement weather — and specifically high upper winds above the launch site — led to the postponement less than 30 minutes prior, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. While the agency has not announced a new launch date, the launchpad at the Tanegashima Space Center is reserved through September 15.
The launch had already been rescheduled twice due to bad weather.
The XRISM satellite (pronounced “crism”), also called the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission, is a joint mission between JAXA and NASA, along with participation from the European Space Agency and Canadian Space Agency.
Along for the ride is JAXA’s SLIM, or Smart Lander for Investigating Moon. This small-scale exploration lander is designed to demonstrate a “pinpoint” landing at a specific location within 100 meters (328 feet), rather than the typical kilometer range, by relying on high-precision landing technology. The precision led to the mission’s nickname, Moon Sniper.
The satellite and its two instruments will observe the universe’s hottest regions, largest structures and objects with the strongest gravity, according to NASA. XRISM will detect X-ray light, a wavelength invisible to humans.
Studying stellar explosions and black holes
X-rays are released by some of the most energetic objects and events in the universe, which is why astronomers want to study them.
“Some of the things we hope to study with XRISM include the aftermath of stellar explosions and near-light-speed particle jets launched by supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies,” said Richard Kelley, XRISM principal investigator at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, in a statement. “But of course, we’re most excited about all the unexpected phenomena XRISM will discover as it observes our cosmos.”
Compared with other wavelengths of light, X-rays are so short that they pass through the dish-shaped mirrors that observe and collect visible, infrared and ultraviolet light such as the James Webb and Hubble space telescopes.
With that in mind, XRISM has thousands of curved individual nested mirrors better designed to detect X-rays. The satellite will need to calibrate for a few months once it reaches orbit. The mission is designed to operate for three years.
The satellite can detect X-rays that have energies ranging from 400 to 12,000 electron volts, which is far beyond the energy of visible light at 2 to 3 electron volts, according to NASA. This range of detection will allow for studying cosmic extremes across the universe.
The satellite carries two instruments called Resolve and Xtend. Resolve tracks tiny temperature shifts that help it determine the source, composition, motion and physical state of X-rays. Resolve operates at minus 459.58 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 273.10 degrees Celsius), a temperature about 50 times colder than that of deep space, thanks to a refrigerator-size container of liquid helium.
This instrument will help astronomers unlock cosmic mysteries such as the chemical details of glowing hot gas inside galactic clusters.
“XRISM’s Resolve instrument will let us peer into the make-up of cosmic X-ray sources to a degree that hasn’t been possible before,” Kelley said. “We anticipate many new insights about the hottest objects in the universe, which include exploding stars, black holes and galaxies powered by them, and clusters of galaxies.”
Meanwhile, Xtend will provide XRISM with one of the largest fields of view on an X-ray satellite.
“The spectra XRISM collects will be the most detailed we’ve ever seen for some of the phenomena we’ll observe,” said Brian Williams, NASA’s XRISM project scientist at Goddard, in a statement. “The mission will provide us with insights into some of the most difficult places to study, like the internal structures of neutron stars and near-light-speed particle jets powered by black holes in active galaxies.”
Moon Sniper sets its sights on a crater
Meanwhile, SLIM will use its own propulsion system to head toward the moon. The spacecraft will arrive in lunar orbit about three to four months after launch, orbit the moon for one month, and begin its descent and attempt a soft landing between four to six months after launch. If the lander is successful, the technology demonstration will also briefly study the lunar surface.
Unlike other recent lander missions aiming for the lunar south pole, SLIM is targeting a site near a small lunar impact crater called Shioli, in the vicinity of the Sea of Nectar, where it will investigate the composition of rocks that may help scientists uncover the origins of the moon. The landing site is just south of the Sea of Tranquility, where Apollo 11 landed near the moon’s equator in 1969.
Following the United States, the former Soviet Union and China, India became the fourth country to execute a controlled landing on the moon when its Chandrayaan-3 mission arrived Wednesday near the lunar south pole. Previously, Japanese company Ispace’s Hakuto-R lunar lander fell 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) before crashing into the moon during a landing attempt in April.
The SLIM probe has vision-based navigation technology. Achieving precise landings on the moon is a key target for JAXA and other space agencies.
Resource-rich areas, such as the lunar south pole and its permanently shadowed regions filled with water ice, also present a number of hazards with craters and rocks. Future missions will need to be able to land within a narrow area to avoid these features.
SLIM also has a lightweight design that could be favorable as agencies plan more frequent missions and explore moons around other planets such as Mars. If SLIM is successful, JAXA contends, it will transform missions from “landing where we can to landing where we want.”
PP
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/27/world/ja ... index.html
The launch of a revolutionary satellite that will reveal celestial objects in a new light and the “Moon Sniper” lunar lander has been postponed.
Liftoff was expected at at 8:26 p.m. ET Sunday, or 9:26 a.m. Japan Standard Time on Monday, but inclement weather — and specifically high upper winds above the launch site — led to the postponement less than 30 minutes prior, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. While the agency has not announced a new launch date, the launchpad at the Tanegashima Space Center is reserved through September 15.
The launch had already been rescheduled twice due to bad weather.
The XRISM satellite (pronounced “crism”), also called the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission, is a joint mission between JAXA and NASA, along with participation from the European Space Agency and Canadian Space Agency.
Along for the ride is JAXA’s SLIM, or Smart Lander for Investigating Moon. This small-scale exploration lander is designed to demonstrate a “pinpoint” landing at a specific location within 100 meters (328 feet), rather than the typical kilometer range, by relying on high-precision landing technology. The precision led to the mission’s nickname, Moon Sniper.
The satellite and its two instruments will observe the universe’s hottest regions, largest structures and objects with the strongest gravity, according to NASA. XRISM will detect X-ray light, a wavelength invisible to humans.
Studying stellar explosions and black holes
X-rays are released by some of the most energetic objects and events in the universe, which is why astronomers want to study them.
“Some of the things we hope to study with XRISM include the aftermath of stellar explosions and near-light-speed particle jets launched by supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies,” said Richard Kelley, XRISM principal investigator at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, in a statement. “But of course, we’re most excited about all the unexpected phenomena XRISM will discover as it observes our cosmos.”
Compared with other wavelengths of light, X-rays are so short that they pass through the dish-shaped mirrors that observe and collect visible, infrared and ultraviolet light such as the James Webb and Hubble space telescopes.
With that in mind, XRISM has thousands of curved individual nested mirrors better designed to detect X-rays. The satellite will need to calibrate for a few months once it reaches orbit. The mission is designed to operate for three years.
The satellite can detect X-rays that have energies ranging from 400 to 12,000 electron volts, which is far beyond the energy of visible light at 2 to 3 electron volts, according to NASA. This range of detection will allow for studying cosmic extremes across the universe.
The satellite carries two instruments called Resolve and Xtend. Resolve tracks tiny temperature shifts that help it determine the source, composition, motion and physical state of X-rays. Resolve operates at minus 459.58 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 273.10 degrees Celsius), a temperature about 50 times colder than that of deep space, thanks to a refrigerator-size container of liquid helium.
This instrument will help astronomers unlock cosmic mysteries such as the chemical details of glowing hot gas inside galactic clusters.
“XRISM’s Resolve instrument will let us peer into the make-up of cosmic X-ray sources to a degree that hasn’t been possible before,” Kelley said. “We anticipate many new insights about the hottest objects in the universe, which include exploding stars, black holes and galaxies powered by them, and clusters of galaxies.”
Meanwhile, Xtend will provide XRISM with one of the largest fields of view on an X-ray satellite.
“The spectra XRISM collects will be the most detailed we’ve ever seen for some of the phenomena we’ll observe,” said Brian Williams, NASA’s XRISM project scientist at Goddard, in a statement. “The mission will provide us with insights into some of the most difficult places to study, like the internal structures of neutron stars and near-light-speed particle jets powered by black holes in active galaxies.”
Moon Sniper sets its sights on a crater
Meanwhile, SLIM will use its own propulsion system to head toward the moon. The spacecraft will arrive in lunar orbit about three to four months after launch, orbit the moon for one month, and begin its descent and attempt a soft landing between four to six months after launch. If the lander is successful, the technology demonstration will also briefly study the lunar surface.
Unlike other recent lander missions aiming for the lunar south pole, SLIM is targeting a site near a small lunar impact crater called Shioli, in the vicinity of the Sea of Nectar, where it will investigate the composition of rocks that may help scientists uncover the origins of the moon. The landing site is just south of the Sea of Tranquility, where Apollo 11 landed near the moon’s equator in 1969.
Following the United States, the former Soviet Union and China, India became the fourth country to execute a controlled landing on the moon when its Chandrayaan-3 mission arrived Wednesday near the lunar south pole. Previously, Japanese company Ispace’s Hakuto-R lunar lander fell 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) before crashing into the moon during a landing attempt in April.
The SLIM probe has vision-based navigation technology. Achieving precise landings on the moon is a key target for JAXA and other space agencies.
Resource-rich areas, such as the lunar south pole and its permanently shadowed regions filled with water ice, also present a number of hazards with craters and rocks. Future missions will need to be able to land within a narrow area to avoid these features.
SLIM also has a lightweight design that could be favorable as agencies plan more frequent missions and explore moons around other planets such as Mars. If SLIM is successful, JAXA contends, it will transform missions from “landing where we can to landing where we want.”
PP
Re: Japan’s Lunar Lander is Ready to Go
Watch Japan launch a new X-ray satellite and ‘Moon Sniper’ lunar lander
https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/06/world/ja ... index.html
A revolutionary satellite that will reveal celestial objects in a new light and the “Moon Sniper” lunar lander are expected to liftoff Wednesday night.
The Japanese Space Agency launch, already rescheduled several times due to bad weather, will occur aboard an H-IIA rocket from Tanegashima Space Center at 7:42 p.m. ET Wednesday, or 8:42 a.m. Japan Standard Time on Thursday.
The event will stream live on JAXA’s YouTube channel, offering a broadcast in both English and Japanese. The live stream began at 7:10 p.m. ET Wednesday.
The XRISM satellite (pronounced “crism”), also called the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission, is a joint mission between JAXA and NASA, along with participation from the European Space Agency and Canadian Space Agency.
An artist's rendering shows how XRISM will look once it's in orbit.
An artist's rendering shows how XRISM will look once it's in orbit.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Along for the ride is JAXA’s SLIM, or Smart Lander for Investigating Moon. This small-scale exploration lander is designed to demonstrate a “pinpoint” landing at a specific location within 100 meters (328 feet), rather than the typical kilometer range, by relying on high-precision landing technology. The precision led to the mission’s nickname, Moon Sniper.
The satellite and its two instruments will observe the universe’s hottest regions, largest structures and objects with the strongest gravity, according to NASA. XRISM will detect X-ray light, a wavelength invisible to humans.
Studying stellar explosions and black holes
X-rays are released by some of the most energetic objects and events in the universe, which is why astronomers want to study them.
“Some of the things we hope to study with XRISM include the aftermath of stellar explosions and near-light-speed particle jets launched by supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies,” said Richard Kelley, XRISM principal investigator at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, in a statement. “But of course, we’re most excited about all the unexpected phenomena XRISM will discover as it observes our cosmos.”
Compared with other wavelengths of light, X-rays are so short that they pass through the dish-shaped mirrors that observe and collect visible, infrared and ultraviolet light such as the James Webb and Hubble space telescopes.
With that in mind, XRISM has thousands of curved individual nested mirrors better designed to detect X-rays. The satellite will need to calibrate for a few months once it reaches orbit. The mission is designed to operate for three years.
XRISM contains two special mirror arrays to detect X-rays.
XRISM contains two special mirror arrays to detect X-rays.
Taylor Mickal/NASA
The satellite can detect X-rays that have energies ranging from 400 to 12,000 electron volts, which is far beyond the energy of visible light at 2 to 3 electron volts, according to NASA. This range of detection will allow for studying cosmic extremes across the universe.
The satellite carries two instruments called Resolve and Xtend. Resolve tracks tiny temperature shifts that help it determine the source, composition, motion and physical state of X-rays. Resolve operates at minus 459.58 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 273.10 degrees Celsius), a temperature about 50 times colder than that of deep space, thanks to a refrigerator-size container of liquid helium.
This instrument will help astronomers unlock cosmic mysteries such as the chemical details of glowing hot gas inside galactic clusters.
“XRISM’s Resolve instrument will let us peer into the make-up of cosmic X-ray sources to a degree that hasn’t been possible before,” Kelley said. “We anticipate many new insights about the hottest objects in the universe, which include exploding stars, black holes and galaxies powered by them, and clusters of galaxies.”
Meanwhile, Xtend will provide XRISM with one of the largest fields of view on an X-ray satellite.
“The spectra XRISM collects will be the most detailed we’ve ever seen for some of the phenomena we’ll observe,” said Brian Williams, NASA’s XRISM project scientist at Goddard, in a statement. “The mission will provide us with insights into some of the most difficult places to study, like the internal structures of neutron stars and near-light-speed particle jets powered by black holes in active galaxies.”
Moon Sniper sets its sights on a crater
Meanwhile, SLIM will use its own propulsion system to head toward the moon. The spacecraft will arrive in lunar orbit about three to four months after launch, orbit the moon for one month, and begin its descent and attempt a soft landing between four to six months after launch. If the lander is successful, the technology demonstration will also briefly study the lunar surface.
SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) flight model. The photo was taken at the Spacecraft and Fairing Assembly Building (SFA) , Tanegashima Space Center.
The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon flight model can be seen at Tanegashima Space Center.
JAXA
Unlike other recent lander missions aiming for the lunar south pole, SLIM is targeting a site near a small lunar impact crater called Shioli, in the vicinity of the Sea of Nectar, where it will investigate the composition of rocks that may help scientists uncover the origins of the moon. The landing site is just south of the Sea of Tranquility, where Apollo 11 landed near the moon’s equator in 1969.
Following the United States, the former Soviet Union and China, India became the fourth country to execute a controlled landing on the moon when its Chandrayaan-3 mission arrived August 23 near the lunar south pole. Previously, Japanese company Ispace’s Hakuto-R lunar lander fell 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) before crashing into the moon during a landing attempt in April.
The SLIM probe has vision-based navigation technology. Achieving precise landings on the moon is a key target for JAXA and other space agencies.
Resource-rich areas, such as the lunar south pole and its permanently shadowed regions filled with water ice, also present a number of hazards with craters and rocks. Future missions will need to be able to land within a narrow area to avoid these features.
SLIM also has a lightweight design that could be favorable as agencies plan more frequent missions and explore moons around other planets such as Mars. If SLIM is successful, JAXA contends, it will transform missions from “landing where we can to landing where we want.”
PP
https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/06/world/ja ... index.html
A revolutionary satellite that will reveal celestial objects in a new light and the “Moon Sniper” lunar lander are expected to liftoff Wednesday night.
The Japanese Space Agency launch, already rescheduled several times due to bad weather, will occur aboard an H-IIA rocket from Tanegashima Space Center at 7:42 p.m. ET Wednesday, or 8:42 a.m. Japan Standard Time on Thursday.
The event will stream live on JAXA’s YouTube channel, offering a broadcast in both English and Japanese. The live stream began at 7:10 p.m. ET Wednesday.
The XRISM satellite (pronounced “crism”), also called the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission, is a joint mission between JAXA and NASA, along with participation from the European Space Agency and Canadian Space Agency.
An artist's rendering shows how XRISM will look once it's in orbit.
An artist's rendering shows how XRISM will look once it's in orbit.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Along for the ride is JAXA’s SLIM, or Smart Lander for Investigating Moon. This small-scale exploration lander is designed to demonstrate a “pinpoint” landing at a specific location within 100 meters (328 feet), rather than the typical kilometer range, by relying on high-precision landing technology. The precision led to the mission’s nickname, Moon Sniper.
The satellite and its two instruments will observe the universe’s hottest regions, largest structures and objects with the strongest gravity, according to NASA. XRISM will detect X-ray light, a wavelength invisible to humans.
Studying stellar explosions and black holes
X-rays are released by some of the most energetic objects and events in the universe, which is why astronomers want to study them.
“Some of the things we hope to study with XRISM include the aftermath of stellar explosions and near-light-speed particle jets launched by supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies,” said Richard Kelley, XRISM principal investigator at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, in a statement. “But of course, we’re most excited about all the unexpected phenomena XRISM will discover as it observes our cosmos.”
Compared with other wavelengths of light, X-rays are so short that they pass through the dish-shaped mirrors that observe and collect visible, infrared and ultraviolet light such as the James Webb and Hubble space telescopes.
With that in mind, XRISM has thousands of curved individual nested mirrors better designed to detect X-rays. The satellite will need to calibrate for a few months once it reaches orbit. The mission is designed to operate for three years.
XRISM contains two special mirror arrays to detect X-rays.
XRISM contains two special mirror arrays to detect X-rays.
Taylor Mickal/NASA
The satellite can detect X-rays that have energies ranging from 400 to 12,000 electron volts, which is far beyond the energy of visible light at 2 to 3 electron volts, according to NASA. This range of detection will allow for studying cosmic extremes across the universe.
The satellite carries two instruments called Resolve and Xtend. Resolve tracks tiny temperature shifts that help it determine the source, composition, motion and physical state of X-rays. Resolve operates at minus 459.58 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 273.10 degrees Celsius), a temperature about 50 times colder than that of deep space, thanks to a refrigerator-size container of liquid helium.
This instrument will help astronomers unlock cosmic mysteries such as the chemical details of glowing hot gas inside galactic clusters.
“XRISM’s Resolve instrument will let us peer into the make-up of cosmic X-ray sources to a degree that hasn’t been possible before,” Kelley said. “We anticipate many new insights about the hottest objects in the universe, which include exploding stars, black holes and galaxies powered by them, and clusters of galaxies.”
Meanwhile, Xtend will provide XRISM with one of the largest fields of view on an X-ray satellite.
“The spectra XRISM collects will be the most detailed we’ve ever seen for some of the phenomena we’ll observe,” said Brian Williams, NASA’s XRISM project scientist at Goddard, in a statement. “The mission will provide us with insights into some of the most difficult places to study, like the internal structures of neutron stars and near-light-speed particle jets powered by black holes in active galaxies.”
Moon Sniper sets its sights on a crater
Meanwhile, SLIM will use its own propulsion system to head toward the moon. The spacecraft will arrive in lunar orbit about three to four months after launch, orbit the moon for one month, and begin its descent and attempt a soft landing between four to six months after launch. If the lander is successful, the technology demonstration will also briefly study the lunar surface.
SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) flight model. The photo was taken at the Spacecraft and Fairing Assembly Building (SFA) , Tanegashima Space Center.
The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon flight model can be seen at Tanegashima Space Center.
JAXA
Unlike other recent lander missions aiming for the lunar south pole, SLIM is targeting a site near a small lunar impact crater called Shioli, in the vicinity of the Sea of Nectar, where it will investigate the composition of rocks that may help scientists uncover the origins of the moon. The landing site is just south of the Sea of Tranquility, where Apollo 11 landed near the moon’s equator in 1969.
Following the United States, the former Soviet Union and China, India became the fourth country to execute a controlled landing on the moon when its Chandrayaan-3 mission arrived August 23 near the lunar south pole. Previously, Japanese company Ispace’s Hakuto-R lunar lander fell 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) before crashing into the moon during a landing attempt in April.
The SLIM probe has vision-based navigation technology. Achieving precise landings on the moon is a key target for JAXA and other space agencies.
Resource-rich areas, such as the lunar south pole and its permanently shadowed regions filled with water ice, also present a number of hazards with craters and rocks. Future missions will need to be able to land within a narrow area to avoid these features.
SLIM also has a lightweight design that could be favorable as agencies plan more frequent missions and explore moons around other planets such as Mars. If SLIM is successful, JAXA contends, it will transform missions from “landing where we can to landing where we want.”
PP
Re: Japan’s Lunar Lander is Ready to Go
Japan launches X-ray satellite, ‘Moon Sniper’ lunar lander
A revolutionary satellite that will reveal celestial objects in a new light and the “Moon Sniper” lunar lander lifted off Wednesday night.
The Japanese Space Agency launch, which was rescheduled several times due to bad weather, occurred aboard an H-IIA rocket from Tanegashima Space Center at 7:42 p.m. ET Wednesday, or 8:42 a.m. Japan Standard Time on Thursday.
PP
A revolutionary satellite that will reveal celestial objects in a new light and the “Moon Sniper” lunar lander lifted off Wednesday night.
The Japanese Space Agency launch, which was rescheduled several times due to bad weather, occurred aboard an H-IIA rocket from Tanegashima Space Center at 7:42 p.m. ET Wednesday, or 8:42 a.m. Japan Standard Time on Thursday.
PP
Re: Japan’s Lunar Lander is Ready to Go
Japan’s space agency braces for ‘20 minutes of terror’ with moon landing attempt
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/18/world/ja ... index.html
CNN
—
As the first US lunar lander mission in decades ends without reaching its target, a spacecraft that Japan launched is drawing closer to the moon and preparing for a historic landing attempt.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, is expected to touch down on the lunar surface at 10:20 a.m. ET Friday, or 12:20 a.m. Saturday Japan Standard Time. If successful, SLIM’s landing will mark Japan’s first time putting a robotic explorer on the moon’s surface — and make it the third country to achieve such a feat in the 21st century, and the fifth country to soft-land a spacecraft on the moon since the Soviet Luna 9 mission in 1966.
The spacecraft, also nicknamed the “Moon Sniper” for its precision technology, will begin its descent toward the lunar surface at 10 a.m. ET. The landing will be streamed live on YouTube in Japanese and English.
“The start of the deceleration to the landing on the Moon’s surface is expected to be a breathless, numbing 20 minutes of terror,” said Kenji Kushiki, the subproject manager of the SLIM mission, in a statement.
The small-scale exploration lander is designed to demonstrate a “pinpoint” landing at a specific location.
The first US lunar lander to launch in over 50 years is headed for a fiery end. Here’s what it got done in space
Other lunar landings, including NASA’s Apollo missions, achieved extreme accuracy in reaching a specific zone, but SLIM’s technology aims to bring precision to robotic probes that are low-cost and lightweight. The hope, according to JAXA, is that the technology will make it possible for the small lander to target specific sites on the moon, allowing SLIM to land even among treacherous, rocky terrain.
If successful, the technology could allow future missions “to land on planets even more resource scarce than the moon,” according to the space agency.
“Nowadays, there has been an increase in the knowledge of target astronomical objects and the details which should be studied have grown more specific so that high accuracy landings near the target of study have become necessary,” according to JAXA.
The SLIM lander will target a landing site that stretches just 100 meters (328 feet) across. By comparison, Astrobotic Technology’s Peregrine lunar lander — which became the first US lunar lander to launch in more than 50 years — was targeting a landing zone that spanned a few kilometers before a fuel leak forced the spacecraft to abandon its mission.
If SLIM misses this window to attempt a landing, it will have another opportunity on February 16.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's SLIM lunar lander launched aboard a H-IIA launch vehicle on September 7, 2023, from the Tanegashima Space Center.
Moon Sniper’s journey
The SLIM lander launched in September alongside the XRISM satellite (pronounced “crism”), also called the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission, a joint mission between JAXA and NASA. Following the launch, SLIM used its own propulsion system to head toward the moon. The spacecraft successfully entered an oval-shaped lunar orbit on Christmas Day.
Since entering an orbit that passes the moon’s north and south poles, the lander has been moving closer and closer to the moon’s surface.
If the spacecraft touches down successfully, it will briefly study the lunar surface just south of a dark spot on the moon called the Sea of Tranquility, the region where Apollo 11 landed in 1969.
Unlike other recent robotic missions aiming for the moon’s south pole, SLIM is targeting a site near a small lunar impact crater called Shioli, within a plain known as the Sea of Nectar that scientists suspect was formed by ancient volcanic activity. There, it will investigate the composition of rocks that may help scientists uncover the origins of the moon.
“A closer look at such minerals could reveal information about the Moon’s interior structure and formation,” according to JAXA. “However, sites of crater ejecta are usually avoided due to the difficulty of landing within a small ejecta strewn area on the sloped sides surrounding a crater.”
The SLIM probe has vision-based navigation technology, which JAXA refers to as “smart eyes.” The spacecraft will capture photographs of the moon’s surface as it approaches and rapidly pinpoint the vehicle’s location on maps previously sketched out by lunar satellites, autonomously adjusting its trajectory as it swoops in for landing.
Kushiki said in those final moments, the SLIM lander will be constantly pulled toward the lunar surface by the moon’s gravity, requiring the spacecraft’s engines to fire continuously.
The “landing is a one-shot game that cannot be undone,” he added.
A new lunar space race
The SLIM mission comes amid a renewed international push to explore the moon.
Following the United States, the former Soviet Union and China, India became the fourth country to execute a controlled landing on the moon when its Chandrayaan-3 mission arrived in August near the lunar south pole.
But other recent missions have highlighted how difficult a safe touchdown on the lunar surface can be. Last year, Japanese company Ispace’s Hakuto-R lunar lander fell 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) before crashing into the moon during a landing attempt in April. A Russian mission dubbed Luna-25 also crash-landed in August during the country’s first attempt to return to the moon since the fall of the Soviet Union.
The Peregrine mission, which lifted off January 8, similarly marked the first lunar landing mission to launch from the United States in decades, but a crucial fuel leak forced the lander to abandon its goals just hours later. The spacecraft is expected to burn up as it reenters the Earth’s atmosphere.
NASA delays astronaut moon landing to at least 2026
A private company, Astrobotic, developed Peregrine for NASA. Another commercial US lander, built for the space agency by a company called Intuitive Machines, could take off as soon as mid-February.
Each of these recent robotic missions have targeted a different area of the moon, though much of the focus of this renewed lunar race centers around the south pole. Scientists suspect the region, portions of which are permanently shadowed, might be home to deposits of water ice. Those resources could be filtered into drinking water for astronauts on future crewed missions or even converted into rocket fuel for exploring deeper into the cosmos.
The lunar south pole also presents a number of landing hazards with craters and rocks. Future missions will need to be able to land within a narrow area to avoid these features, which is one reason JAXA is hoping that SLIM’s precision landing technology will prove effective.
SLIM also has a lightweight design that could be favorable as agencies plan more frequent missions and explore moons around other planets such as Mars. If SLIM is successful, JAXA contends, it will transform missions from “landing where we can to landing where we want.”
PP
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/18/world/ja ... index.html
CNN
—
As the first US lunar lander mission in decades ends without reaching its target, a spacecraft that Japan launched is drawing closer to the moon and preparing for a historic landing attempt.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, is expected to touch down on the lunar surface at 10:20 a.m. ET Friday, or 12:20 a.m. Saturday Japan Standard Time. If successful, SLIM’s landing will mark Japan’s first time putting a robotic explorer on the moon’s surface — and make it the third country to achieve such a feat in the 21st century, and the fifth country to soft-land a spacecraft on the moon since the Soviet Luna 9 mission in 1966.
The spacecraft, also nicknamed the “Moon Sniper” for its precision technology, will begin its descent toward the lunar surface at 10 a.m. ET. The landing will be streamed live on YouTube in Japanese and English.
“The start of the deceleration to the landing on the Moon’s surface is expected to be a breathless, numbing 20 minutes of terror,” said Kenji Kushiki, the subproject manager of the SLIM mission, in a statement.
The small-scale exploration lander is designed to demonstrate a “pinpoint” landing at a specific location.
The first US lunar lander to launch in over 50 years is headed for a fiery end. Here’s what it got done in space
Other lunar landings, including NASA’s Apollo missions, achieved extreme accuracy in reaching a specific zone, but SLIM’s technology aims to bring precision to robotic probes that are low-cost and lightweight. The hope, according to JAXA, is that the technology will make it possible for the small lander to target specific sites on the moon, allowing SLIM to land even among treacherous, rocky terrain.
If successful, the technology could allow future missions “to land on planets even more resource scarce than the moon,” according to the space agency.
“Nowadays, there has been an increase in the knowledge of target astronomical objects and the details which should be studied have grown more specific so that high accuracy landings near the target of study have become necessary,” according to JAXA.
The SLIM lander will target a landing site that stretches just 100 meters (328 feet) across. By comparison, Astrobotic Technology’s Peregrine lunar lander — which became the first US lunar lander to launch in more than 50 years — was targeting a landing zone that spanned a few kilometers before a fuel leak forced the spacecraft to abandon its mission.
If SLIM misses this window to attempt a landing, it will have another opportunity on February 16.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's SLIM lunar lander launched aboard a H-IIA launch vehicle on September 7, 2023, from the Tanegashima Space Center.
Moon Sniper’s journey
The SLIM lander launched in September alongside the XRISM satellite (pronounced “crism”), also called the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission, a joint mission between JAXA and NASA. Following the launch, SLIM used its own propulsion system to head toward the moon. The spacecraft successfully entered an oval-shaped lunar orbit on Christmas Day.
Since entering an orbit that passes the moon’s north and south poles, the lander has been moving closer and closer to the moon’s surface.
If the spacecraft touches down successfully, it will briefly study the lunar surface just south of a dark spot on the moon called the Sea of Tranquility, the region where Apollo 11 landed in 1969.
Unlike other recent robotic missions aiming for the moon’s south pole, SLIM is targeting a site near a small lunar impact crater called Shioli, within a plain known as the Sea of Nectar that scientists suspect was formed by ancient volcanic activity. There, it will investigate the composition of rocks that may help scientists uncover the origins of the moon.
“A closer look at such minerals could reveal information about the Moon’s interior structure and formation,” according to JAXA. “However, sites of crater ejecta are usually avoided due to the difficulty of landing within a small ejecta strewn area on the sloped sides surrounding a crater.”
The SLIM probe has vision-based navigation technology, which JAXA refers to as “smart eyes.” The spacecraft will capture photographs of the moon’s surface as it approaches and rapidly pinpoint the vehicle’s location on maps previously sketched out by lunar satellites, autonomously adjusting its trajectory as it swoops in for landing.
Kushiki said in those final moments, the SLIM lander will be constantly pulled toward the lunar surface by the moon’s gravity, requiring the spacecraft’s engines to fire continuously.
The “landing is a one-shot game that cannot be undone,” he added.
A new lunar space race
The SLIM mission comes amid a renewed international push to explore the moon.
Following the United States, the former Soviet Union and China, India became the fourth country to execute a controlled landing on the moon when its Chandrayaan-3 mission arrived in August near the lunar south pole.
But other recent missions have highlighted how difficult a safe touchdown on the lunar surface can be. Last year, Japanese company Ispace’s Hakuto-R lunar lander fell 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) before crashing into the moon during a landing attempt in April. A Russian mission dubbed Luna-25 also crash-landed in August during the country’s first attempt to return to the moon since the fall of the Soviet Union.
The Peregrine mission, which lifted off January 8, similarly marked the first lunar landing mission to launch from the United States in decades, but a crucial fuel leak forced the lander to abandon its goals just hours later. The spacecraft is expected to burn up as it reenters the Earth’s atmosphere.
NASA delays astronaut moon landing to at least 2026
A private company, Astrobotic, developed Peregrine for NASA. Another commercial US lander, built for the space agency by a company called Intuitive Machines, could take off as soon as mid-February.
Each of these recent robotic missions have targeted a different area of the moon, though much of the focus of this renewed lunar race centers around the south pole. Scientists suspect the region, portions of which are permanently shadowed, might be home to deposits of water ice. Those resources could be filtered into drinking water for astronauts on future crewed missions or even converted into rocket fuel for exploring deeper into the cosmos.
The lunar south pole also presents a number of landing hazards with craters and rocks. Future missions will need to be able to land within a narrow area to avoid these features, which is one reason JAXA is hoping that SLIM’s precision landing technology will prove effective.
SLIM also has a lightweight design that could be favorable as agencies plan more frequent missions and explore moons around other planets such as Mars. If SLIM is successful, JAXA contends, it will transform missions from “landing where we can to landing where we want.”
PP
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Re: Japan’s Lunar Lander is Ready to Go
Japan's Lunar Landing happening now......
The helicopter pilots' mantra: If it hasn't gone wrong then it's just about to...
https://www.glenbervie-weather.org
https://www.glenbervie-weather.org
Re: Japan’s Lunar Lander is Ready to Go
Japan’s SLIM spacecraft reaches the moon's surface in historic mission
The feat makes Japan the fifth country to land on the moon, following Russia (then the Soviet Union), the U.S., China and India.
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/j ... rcna134738
Japan staked a claim among national space powers on Friday, as its SLIM spacecraft reached the lunar surface.
The country’s SLIM lander launched in September and touched down on the lunar surface around 10:20 a.m. ET, according to telemetry readings by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA. Engineers were checking the status of the spacecraft shortly after its landing.
The feat makes Japan the fifth country to land on the moon, following Russia (then the Soviet Union), the U.S., China and India. Last year, India joined the list of moon landings with its Chandrayaan-3 mission.
Japan’s SLIM, which stands for “Smart Lander for Investigating Moon,” is a cargo research mission. It carries a variety of scientific payloads, including an analysis camera and a pair of lunar rovers.
Governments and private companies alike have made more than 50 attempts to land on the moon with mixed success since the first attempts in the early 1960s, a track record that’s remained shaky even in the modern era.
Last year, Japanese company ispace made its first attempt to land on the moon, but the spacecraft crashed in the final moments. And, earlier this month, U.S. company Astrobotic got its first moon mission off the ground but encountered problems shortly after launch. The flight was cut short and failed to make a lunar landing attempt.
More attempts are on the way, with U.S. companies Intuitive Machines and Firefly preparing to fly moon landers this year, while China plans to launch another lunar lander in May.
PP
The feat makes Japan the fifth country to land on the moon, following Russia (then the Soviet Union), the U.S., China and India.
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/j ... rcna134738
Japan staked a claim among national space powers on Friday, as its SLIM spacecraft reached the lunar surface.
The country’s SLIM lander launched in September and touched down on the lunar surface around 10:20 a.m. ET, according to telemetry readings by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA. Engineers were checking the status of the spacecraft shortly after its landing.
The feat makes Japan the fifth country to land on the moon, following Russia (then the Soviet Union), the U.S., China and India. Last year, India joined the list of moon landings with its Chandrayaan-3 mission.
Japan’s SLIM, which stands for “Smart Lander for Investigating Moon,” is a cargo research mission. It carries a variety of scientific payloads, including an analysis camera and a pair of lunar rovers.
Governments and private companies alike have made more than 50 attempts to land on the moon with mixed success since the first attempts in the early 1960s, a track record that’s remained shaky even in the modern era.
Last year, Japanese company ispace made its first attempt to land on the moon, but the spacecraft crashed in the final moments. And, earlier this month, U.S. company Astrobotic got its first moon mission off the ground but encountered problems shortly after launch. The flight was cut short and failed to make a lunar landing attempt.
More attempts are on the way, with U.S. companies Intuitive Machines and Firefly preparing to fly moon landers this year, while China plans to launch another lunar lander in May.
PP
Re: Japan’s Lunar Lander is Ready to Go
Japan’s lunar lander reaches the moon but is rapidly losing power, space agency says
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/19/world/ja ... index.html
Japan’s “Moon Sniper” robotic explorer landed on the lunar surface, but the mission may end prematurely since the spacecraft’s solar cell is not generating electricity, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said. The agency said it is currently receiving a signal from the lander, which is communicating as expected.
The uncrewed Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, mission landed just after 10:20 a.m. ET Friday (12:20 a.m. Saturday Japan Standard Time), according to telemetry data shared on JAXA’s live broadcast.
Currently, the lander is operating on limited battery power, only expected to last several hours, and the JAXA team is analyzing the data to determine the cause of the solar cell issue and the next steps for the lander. It’s possible that the solar cell issue is due to the fact that the spacecraft is not pointing in the intended direction, JAXA officials said.
There is hope that as the solar angle changes on the moon, the solar cell may be able to charge again, but that may take some time and will depend on if SLIM can survive the frigid lunar night, the team shared during a news conference.
The agency believes the mission has met the criteria to declare it a “minimum success,” because the spacecraft achieved a precise and soft lunar landing using optical navigation. The landing makes Japan the third country to land on the moon this century, and the fifth overall.
When asked to score the landing operation for SLIM, JAXA director general Dr. Hitoshi Kuninaka gave it a “60 out of 100,” while also mentioning that he is known for making “harsh comments.”
The team is also working to gather all of the scientific data obtained by the lander.
The lander was able to release its two lunar rovers, LEV-1 and LEV-2. The LEV-1 rover moves using a hopping mechanism and is equipped with wide-angle visible light cameras, scientific equipment and antennas that allow it to communicate with Earth.
And LEV-2, also outfitted with cameras, can change shape to move across the lunar surface.
The team is receiving a signal from LEV-1 and will see if its cameras were able to capture any images, and they will not definitively confirm the status of LEV-2 until more data is received.
The small-scale SLIM robotic explorer, which launched in September, goes by the nickname “Moon Sniper” because it carried new precision technology to demonstrate a “pinpoint” landing.
Previous lunar missions have been able to target and reach specific zones that spanned many kilometers, but the SLIM lander targeted a landing site that stretches just 100 meters (328 feet) across. The lander’s “smart eyes” — an image-matching-based navigation technology — rapidly photographed the lunar surface on approach and autonomously made adjustments as the spacecraft descended to touchdown on a sloped surface.
The JAXA team is still working to determine the accuracy of SLIM’s landing, which could take up to a month.
Moon Sniper’s journey
The Moon Sniper targeted a landing site near the small Shioli crater within a lunar plain called the Sea of Nectar that was created by ancient volcanic activity and lies just south of the Sea of Tranquility, where Apollo 11 landed in 1969. The lander is designed to briefly study rocks at the site that could reveal insights into the moon’s origin.
When meteorites and other objects strike the moon, they create craters as well as rocky debris that litters the surface. These rocks intrigue scientists because studying them is effectively like peering inside the moon itself. Minerals and other aspects of the rocks’ composition can potentially shed more light on how the moon formed.
Landing near the sloped, rock-strewn areas around craters is a hazardous process that most missions usually avoid, but JAXA believes its lander has the technology to touch down safely on rocky terrain.
New space race
Multiple space agencies and countries have attempted moon landing missions over the past year, leading to a historic first as well as failures.
India became the fourth country — after the United States, the former Soviet Union and China — to execute a controlled landing on the moon when its Chandrayaan-3 mission arrived near the lunar south pole in August.
The lightweight SLIM lander, which launched in September, carries new precision technology to demonstrate a “pinpoint” landing.
Meanwhile, Japanese company Ispace’s Hakuto-R lunar lander fell 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) before crashing into the moon during a landing attempt in April. Russia’s Luna-25 also crash-landed in August during the country’s first attempt to return to the moon since the Soviet Union’s fall. Astrobotic Technology’s Peregrine spacecraft — the first US lunar lander to launch in five decades — met a fiery end Thursday after a critical fuel leak made safely landing on the moon out of the question.
Part of the motivation behind the new lunar space race is a desire to access water trapped as ice in permanently shadowed regions at the lunar south pole. It could be used for drinking water or fuel as humanity pushes the bounds of space exploration in the future. This region is riddled with craters and strewn with rocks, leading to narrow landing sites.
The lightweight SLIM lander might be an effective design that could not only land in small areas of interest on the moon but also on planets such as Mars, according to JAXA.
PP
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/19/world/ja ... index.html
Japan’s “Moon Sniper” robotic explorer landed on the lunar surface, but the mission may end prematurely since the spacecraft’s solar cell is not generating electricity, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said. The agency said it is currently receiving a signal from the lander, which is communicating as expected.
The uncrewed Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, mission landed just after 10:20 a.m. ET Friday (12:20 a.m. Saturday Japan Standard Time), according to telemetry data shared on JAXA’s live broadcast.
Currently, the lander is operating on limited battery power, only expected to last several hours, and the JAXA team is analyzing the data to determine the cause of the solar cell issue and the next steps for the lander. It’s possible that the solar cell issue is due to the fact that the spacecraft is not pointing in the intended direction, JAXA officials said.
There is hope that as the solar angle changes on the moon, the solar cell may be able to charge again, but that may take some time and will depend on if SLIM can survive the frigid lunar night, the team shared during a news conference.
The agency believes the mission has met the criteria to declare it a “minimum success,” because the spacecraft achieved a precise and soft lunar landing using optical navigation. The landing makes Japan the third country to land on the moon this century, and the fifth overall.
When asked to score the landing operation for SLIM, JAXA director general Dr. Hitoshi Kuninaka gave it a “60 out of 100,” while also mentioning that he is known for making “harsh comments.”
The team is also working to gather all of the scientific data obtained by the lander.
The lander was able to release its two lunar rovers, LEV-1 and LEV-2. The LEV-1 rover moves using a hopping mechanism and is equipped with wide-angle visible light cameras, scientific equipment and antennas that allow it to communicate with Earth.
And LEV-2, also outfitted with cameras, can change shape to move across the lunar surface.
The team is receiving a signal from LEV-1 and will see if its cameras were able to capture any images, and they will not definitively confirm the status of LEV-2 until more data is received.
The small-scale SLIM robotic explorer, which launched in September, goes by the nickname “Moon Sniper” because it carried new precision technology to demonstrate a “pinpoint” landing.
Previous lunar missions have been able to target and reach specific zones that spanned many kilometers, but the SLIM lander targeted a landing site that stretches just 100 meters (328 feet) across. The lander’s “smart eyes” — an image-matching-based navigation technology — rapidly photographed the lunar surface on approach and autonomously made adjustments as the spacecraft descended to touchdown on a sloped surface.
The JAXA team is still working to determine the accuracy of SLIM’s landing, which could take up to a month.
Moon Sniper’s journey
The Moon Sniper targeted a landing site near the small Shioli crater within a lunar plain called the Sea of Nectar that was created by ancient volcanic activity and lies just south of the Sea of Tranquility, where Apollo 11 landed in 1969. The lander is designed to briefly study rocks at the site that could reveal insights into the moon’s origin.
When meteorites and other objects strike the moon, they create craters as well as rocky debris that litters the surface. These rocks intrigue scientists because studying them is effectively like peering inside the moon itself. Minerals and other aspects of the rocks’ composition can potentially shed more light on how the moon formed.
Landing near the sloped, rock-strewn areas around craters is a hazardous process that most missions usually avoid, but JAXA believes its lander has the technology to touch down safely on rocky terrain.
New space race
Multiple space agencies and countries have attempted moon landing missions over the past year, leading to a historic first as well as failures.
India became the fourth country — after the United States, the former Soviet Union and China — to execute a controlled landing on the moon when its Chandrayaan-3 mission arrived near the lunar south pole in August.
The lightweight SLIM lander, which launched in September, carries new precision technology to demonstrate a “pinpoint” landing.
Meanwhile, Japanese company Ispace’s Hakuto-R lunar lander fell 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) before crashing into the moon during a landing attempt in April. Russia’s Luna-25 also crash-landed in August during the country’s first attempt to return to the moon since the Soviet Union’s fall. Astrobotic Technology’s Peregrine spacecraft — the first US lunar lander to launch in five decades — met a fiery end Thursday after a critical fuel leak made safely landing on the moon out of the question.
Part of the motivation behind the new lunar space race is a desire to access water trapped as ice in permanently shadowed regions at the lunar south pole. It could be used for drinking water or fuel as humanity pushes the bounds of space exploration in the future. This region is riddled with craters and strewn with rocks, leading to narrow landing sites.
The lightweight SLIM lander might be an effective design that could not only land in small areas of interest on the moon but also on planets such as Mars, according to JAXA.
PP
Re: Japan’s Lunar Lander is Ready to Go
Presumably one of the two robot's cameras could see whether the darn thing just fell over?
Re: Japan’s Lunar Lander is Ready to Go
Japan’s ‘Moon Sniper’ robot explorer resumes operations on lunar surface
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/29/asia/jap ... index.html
Japan’s “Moon Sniper” robotic explorer is back in action, the country’s space agency said Monday, after a power issue forced the spacecraft to shut down upon landing on the moon 10 days ago.
The explorer executed a precise landing on January 19, making Japan only the fifth country to put a spacecraft safely on the lunar surface — but faced a critical issue almost immediately.
The spacecraft landed facing the wrong direction after one of its engines failed during landing, meaning its solar cells couldn’t generate electricity and it had to rely on limited battery power, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
The agency shut off the lunar explorer to conserve its battery, saying it would automatically be restarted if its solar panel began generating power as the angle of the moon changed.
On Monday, JAXA announced on social media platform X that it had “succeeded in establishing communication with (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM) last night and have resumed operations!”
The explorer has also captured new images of the lunar surface, it added.
Its mission can be considered at least a “minimum success” because it achieved a precise and soft lunar landing using optical navigation, the agency has said. Now, Japan aims to use the lander to collect unprecedented information about a region of the moon called the Sea of Nectar.
The spacecraft touched down near a crater called Shioli — a Japanese female first name pronounced “she-oh-lee” — which sits about 200 miles (322 kilometers) south of the Sea of Tranquility, the region near the lunar equator where Apollo 11 first landed astronauts on the moon.
Multiple space agencies and countries have attempted moon landing missions over the past year, leading to a historic first as well as some failures.
India became the fourth country — after the United States, the former Soviet Union and China — to execute a controlled landing on the moon when its Chandrayaan-3 mission arrived near the lunar south pole in August.
The new lunar space race is partly driven by countries’ desire to access water trapped as ice in permanently shadowed regions at the lunar south pole. It could be used for drinking water or fuel as humanity pushes the bounds of space exploration in the future.
PP
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/29/asia/jap ... index.html
Japan’s “Moon Sniper” robotic explorer is back in action, the country’s space agency said Monday, after a power issue forced the spacecraft to shut down upon landing on the moon 10 days ago.
The explorer executed a precise landing on January 19, making Japan only the fifth country to put a spacecraft safely on the lunar surface — but faced a critical issue almost immediately.
The spacecraft landed facing the wrong direction after one of its engines failed during landing, meaning its solar cells couldn’t generate electricity and it had to rely on limited battery power, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
The agency shut off the lunar explorer to conserve its battery, saying it would automatically be restarted if its solar panel began generating power as the angle of the moon changed.
On Monday, JAXA announced on social media platform X that it had “succeeded in establishing communication with (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM) last night and have resumed operations!”
The explorer has also captured new images of the lunar surface, it added.
Its mission can be considered at least a “minimum success” because it achieved a precise and soft lunar landing using optical navigation, the agency has said. Now, Japan aims to use the lander to collect unprecedented information about a region of the moon called the Sea of Nectar.
The spacecraft touched down near a crater called Shioli — a Japanese female first name pronounced “she-oh-lee” — which sits about 200 miles (322 kilometers) south of the Sea of Tranquility, the region near the lunar equator where Apollo 11 first landed astronauts on the moon.
Multiple space agencies and countries have attempted moon landing missions over the past year, leading to a historic first as well as some failures.
India became the fourth country — after the United States, the former Soviet Union and China — to execute a controlled landing on the moon when its Chandrayaan-3 mission arrived near the lunar south pole in August.
The new lunar space race is partly driven by countries’ desire to access water trapped as ice in permanently shadowed regions at the lunar south pole. It could be used for drinking water or fuel as humanity pushes the bounds of space exploration in the future.
PP