Japan has landed its first ever probe on the moon, trying to overcome a year of setbacks in space, but the status of the probe was not immediately clear. The Slim spacecraft, nicknamed the “Moon Sniper,” landed about 20 minutes after midnight, Japanese time, last Saturday morning. The lightweight vehicle is designed to land within 100 meters (328 feet) of its target, and was launched in September by an H2-A heavy-lift rocket co-developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The Japanese Space Agency, JAXA, stated that the vehicle had descended to the surface, but the agency was unable to immediately verify the condition of the vehicle.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency ended its live broadcast without confirming Slim's condition, but it plans to update journalists on the latest developments at an upcoming press conference. A successful soft landing — where the spacecraft is brought to a controlled halt — of the Lunar Exploration Intelligent Lander would put Japan with a group of countries that have achieved the feat before: the United States, the Soviet Union, China and India. Exclusion from the elite club was a sore point for Japan, which defeated its arch-rival Japan
It launched its first satellite in 1970, but has since fallen behind a series of notable Chinese space successes. This includes China's success in the world's first-ever soft landing on the far side of the moon in 2019, and landing on Mars in 2021. India also surpassed Japan, as it succeeded in its second attempt last August by landing near the south pole of the moon.
While the Americans and Soviets sent spacecraft to the moon during the Cold War, the United States and Russia struggled to try to return: Russia's Luna 25 spacecraft crashed last August, and a NASA-backed mission from Pittsburgh startup Astrobotic Technology failed this month. For Japan, landing on the moon was more difficult, as its space agency, JAXA, lost contact with a lander on the surface of the moon in late 2022, and the Tokyo-based company “I Space” also failed to contact a vehicle heading to the moon last April. Other setbacks include the botched launch of the JAXA H3 Heavy rocket, which failed after take-off last March and has not been able to fly since.
Meanwhile, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's smaller Epsilon rocket was also grounded after an explosion in October 2022. In an interview on Friday, Takeshi Hakamada, founder and CEO of iSpace, said the possibility of targeting the vehicle “Slim” for more specific landing sites should also help future efforts to explore resources such as water, and perhaps increase demand for lunar missions. Major Japanese companies have already joined efforts to bolster the country's strength in spaceflight.
Toyota Motor is a partner with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency in developing a lunar rover, and Honda Motor is working with the agency to design a system to produce oxygen, hydrogen and electricity on the moon. The list of iSpace's partners includes Japan Airlines, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Company, and Citizen Watch Company.
A successful lunar landing would also improve the standing of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, as the government is finalizing a plan to give the agency 1 trillion yen ($6.8 billion) over 10 years to support space companies and researchers. “In Japan, there is a strong consensus that a major lunar economy is poised to develop in the coming decades,” said Luigi Scatia, head of the global space practice at consulting firm PwC.
The state wants to be among the pioneers in exploiting this.” Japan also needs the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to play a greater security role in space, and earlier this month added the agency to the country's network of spy satellites. The government wants to increase the size of the country's orbital fleet to keep pace with its neighbors, including China, which ranks second after the United States in the number of spy satellites in orbit. “There is definitely a race for space technologies in the region,” said Saadia Pekkanen, director of the Space Law, Data and Policy Program at the University of Washington. “For Japan, these facts mean further strengthening of space surveillance and communications capabilities for military purposes.”
Nicholas Takahashi*
*Bloomberg journalist covering cars, batteries and aerospace.
Bruce Einhorn**
** -Bloomberg correspondent in Hong Kong.
Published by special arrangement with the Washington Post Leasing and Syndication Service.
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