Japan’s Moon Lander SLIM Restarts Mission After JAXA’s Initial Setback

Japan’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM), after a difficult start, is now working well. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) shared this news recently. SLIM had a tough landing on the Moon on January 20, but now it’s back on track.

SLIM lost contact for nine days after landing in a tricky way, but JAXA fixed this problem. Now, SLIM can do its science work again. It has a special camera that has started taking pictures and studying the Moon.

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The landing was really tense because of engine problems. This caused SLIM to land at a wrong angle. People were worried that it wouldn’t get enough sunlight to work, but now it’s getting enough sun. SLIM managed to land within 100 meters of its target, showing Japan’s skills in space.

SLIM’s job is to learn more about the Moon’s inside layers. Japan’s success is a big step in the world’s efforts to explore the Moon after India’s Chandrayaan-3. Other countries and companies are also planning to go to the Moon. This shows how important and exciting space exploration is.

SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) is a small spacecraft, about the size of a car. It’s designed to try new ways of landing on the Moon and to study Moon rocks to understand how the Moon was formed.

JAXA shared on social media that they got the spacecraft working again. They also posted a picture of a rock near SLIM that looks like a toy poodle dog.

Japan is now one of only five countries to make a soft landing on the Moon. The others are the United States, the Soviet Union, China, and India.

SLIM’s goal was to land in a very small area, just 100 meters wide. This is much smaller than previous missions, which used areas about 10 kilometers wide. This mission is the result of 20 years of work by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency).

The mission’s main aim is to test new landing techniques for future Moon missions. SLIM was launched on a Mitsubishi Heavy H2A rocket and first orbited Earth before reaching the Moon on December 25. This mission is very important for future space exploration.