Preview: Japan counts down to precision 'moon sniper' landing mission
18/01/2024 23:00
(Repeats Jan 18 story for wider distribution, with no change to
text)
By Kantaro Komiya
TOKYO, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Japan aims to become the fifth
country to put a spacecraft on the moon when it attempts a
precision landing on Friday, in what would be a boost for a
space programme that has suffered a wave of setbacks and been
eclipsed by rival China.
Dubbed the "moon sniper", the Japan Aerospace Exploration
Agency (JAXA) probe is attempting to land within 100 metres (328
feet) of its target, a technology JAXA says is unprecedented and
essential in the search for moon water and human habitability.
Japan is increasingly looking to play a bigger role in
space, partnering with close ally Washington to respond to
China's military and technological might, including in space.
Japan boasts a number of private-sector space startups and aims
to send an astronaut to the moon as part of NASA's Artemis
programme.
But JAXA has faced multiple setbacks, including a launch
failure in March of the new flagship rocket H3 that was meant to
match cost-competitiveness against commercial rocket providers
like SpaceX.
JAXA's Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) probe will
start a 20-minute touchdown phase on its one-way mission from
midnight on Saturday (1500 GMT Friday), trying to land on a
target site roughly the size of two athletic tracks on the slope
of a crater just south of the lunar equator.
"No other nation has achieved this. Proving Japan has this
technology would bring us a huge advantage in upcoming
international missions like Artemis," said Shinichiro Sakai,
JAXA's SLIM project manager.
India's Chandrayaan-3 in August made a historic touchdown on
the moon's south pole, a major technological feat given the
rough terrain, highlighting India's rise as a major player in
space.
JAXA stresses its high-precision technology will become a
powerful tool in future exploration of hilly moon poles, seen as
a potential source of oxygen, fuel and water. Japan also plans a
joint unmanned lunar polar exploration with India in 2025.
"For lunar project development, Japan can't beat the U.S.,
China or India in terms of resources," said Kazuto Saiki, a
Ritsumeikan University professor who developed SLIM's
near-infrared camera that will analyse moon rocks after the
landing.
"We should focus on building sought-after technologies like
the pinpoint landing and near-infrared cameras which overseas
exploration projects will strive to adopt."
JAXA has twice landed on small asteroids, but a moon landing
is much more difficult due to its gravity, as seen in a number
of recent failures.
Last year, a probe belonging to Japanese startup ispace inc
9348.T crashed onto the moon's surface, and Russia's Luna 25
followed suit. A lander from American startup Astrobotic last
week suffered a fuel leak, forcing it to abandon a touchdown
attempt.
"Mistakes happen, but Japan is a very experienced space
power - it's conducted very complicated space operations for
many years," said Bleddyn Bowen, a University of Leicester
associate professor specialising in space policy.
"Not as big as the United States or the Soviet Union of old
or China today in terms of scale, but in terms of capability and
niche advanced technologies, Japan has always been there."
SLIM's precision landing "won't be a game changer", but the
demonstration of it and the lightweight probe manufacturing
Japan has pursued might open up moonshots to space organisations
worldwide by reducing the cost of each mission, Bowen added.
JAXA says it will take up to a month to verify whether SLIM
has achieved the high-precision goals after touchdown.
On landing, SLIM will also deploy two mini-probes - a
hopping vehicle as big as a microwave oven and a baseball-sized
wheeled rover - that will take pictures of the spacecraft. Tech
giant Sony Group 6758.T , toymaker Tomy 7867.T and several
Japanese universities jointly developed the robots.
(Reporting by Kantaro Komiya; Additional reporting by Irene
Wang; Editing by David Dolan and Nick Macfie)
((Kantaro.Komiya@thomsonreuters.com; Twitter: @kantarokomiya;))