A Japanese spacecraft equipped with
perfection navigation technology has successfully landed on the Moon, but the fate of its charge is uncertain due to problems with its solar power generation system, the country's space agency said Saturday.
With the touchdown
of the Smart Lander for probing Moon, or SLIM, Japan has made its first lunar wharf, joining the former Soviet Union, the United States, China and India as the only countries to have fulfilled the feat.
" We believe it succeeded in making a soft wharf"
as data transmitted from the craft to Earth has so far suggested that utmost of the mounted outfit was working duly, Hitoshi Kuninaka, a elderly functionary of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, told a press conference.
But the lander's solar power system
wasn't working and its battery would last for only a matter of hours. JAXA officers said they suspect the erected-in power generation system wasn't duly facing the sun and could begin to serve formerly sun conditions change.
The spacecraft is designed
to test technology for conducting point levees on the face of gravitational bodies with unknown perfection of lower than 100 measures from intended targets, as opposed to former Moon landers that have an delicacy of within several to around a dozen kilometers, according to JAXA.
Kuninaka said,"
We believe we came near to 100-cadence perfection" with the wharf, as the vehicle matched the anticipated line and acceleration previous to touching down.
JAXA President Hiroshi Yamakawa
said that while the agency would need a month to dissect the wharf and exactly what happed to the spacecraft as it reached the lunar face, Japan is ready to partake applicable knowledge about the point wharf technology through transnational cooperation fabrics.
The agency has said it's necessary
to realize a transition down from an period of" wharf where we can" toward one of" wharf where we want" for unborn Moon operations, which could include searching for water, taking point levees on uneven shells similar as pitches.
participating the technology
for similar precise levees would enhance sustainable, long- term disquisition of the Moon, Yamakawa told Saturday's press conference.
Using SLIM,
dubbed the" Moon Sniper," the agency hopes to help unravel the origins of the Moon by carrying out a composition analysis of jewels believed to be part of its mantle.
The inquiry began
the final stage of its wharf charge around night Friday from a point around 15 km above the face.
According to the agency,
the vehicle can autonomously determine the stylish spot to land by taking prints of craters and shells during its descent and comparing them with imagery inputted in advance.
The spacecraft
is designed to first land on one of its five legs and use the others after tilting over to stabilize its position.
The discoverer
was launched on an H2A rocket onSept. 7 last time from Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan. The spacecraft entered lunar route on Dec. 25.
Its launch was
originally listed for around May last time but was delayed due to a failed takeoff of Japan's coming- generation H3 rocket several months before. It was laid over again in August due to the rainfall.
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