Japan's SLIM lunar lander enters Moon orbit; landing scheduled for Jan 20

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM), a mission involving a small lunar lander to demonstrate pinpoint landing technology, entered lunar orbit on Monday, December 25, the agency announced on Monday.

"The orbit change proceeded as planned, and the spacecraft is currently in a normal condition," JAXA said, adding that its landing on the lunar surface is scheduled for January 20.

Launched on September 7, 2023, SLIM is a small lander designed to demonstrate new technology for navigating to a precise pinpoint landing and accelerate the study of the moon and other planets using the lighter exploration system. The lander will perform a two-step stable touchdown on the sloped grounds near the Shioli crater, located at the west of Mare Nectaris on the near side of the Moon.

Observations from the agency's Kaguya lunar orbiter suggest that ejecta from Shioli, which is thought to be a relatively recent impact crater, may contain olivine from the Moon's mantle and studying such minerals up-close could reveal information about the Moon's interior structure and formation.

Ahead of landing on the lunar surface, SLIM will roll out two tiny probes called the Lunar Excursion Vehicles (LEV) to record the state of the landing site and perform an engineering demonstration of autonomous exploration across the surface. Once safely on lunar ground, SLIM will examine the area with an onboard spectroscopic camera to explore the composition of the crater ejecta.