SLIM
SPACECRAFT - SCI & TECH
News:
How Japan’s moon-landing
attempt in January will affect Chandrayaan 4 | Explained
What's
in the news?
●
On December 25, Japan’s Smart Lander for
Investigating Moon (SLIM) spacecraft entered into orbit around the moon and
will land on January 19.
Key
takeaways:
●
Japan
will become the fifth country to soft-land a robotic craft on the natural
satellite.
●
SLIM’s success or failure will also affect
the upcoming Chandrayaan 4 mission.
●
India succeeded with its Chandrayaan 3
mission in August 2023 to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and
roving on the lunar surface.
SLIM:
1.
Spacecraft:
●
SLIM is a spacecraft built and launched by
the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on September 7, 2023
2.
Low Weight:
●
It weighed only 590 kg at launch (one-seventh of Chandrayaan 3 3,900 kg at
launch).
3.
Counterparts:
●
SLIM was launched with XRISM which is a
next-generation X-ray space telescope which is onboarded an H-2A rocket.
SLIM
and its objective:
1.
Moon sniper:
●
SLIM’s standout feature is its reputation
as the “moon sniper” as it will try to land
within 100 meters of its chosen landing site which is an unusually tight
limit given the history of moon-landing missions.
●
For example, the ‘Vikram’ lander of
Chandrayaan 3 landed at a spot 350 meters away from a predetermined one.
2.
Soft land:
●
SLIM will attempt to soft-land with the
smallest ever area tolerance on the moon.
●
The chosen site is near the Shioli Crater,
at 13.3º S and 25.2º E., SLIM will use data from JAXA’s SELENE orbiter, which
ended in 2009.
3.
Lower mass:
●
Its lower mass (only 120 kg excluding
fuel) will help in this endeavor by rendering it more maneuverable while its
small size will be a test of its economical design.
4.
Two rovers:
●
SLIM will deploy two small rovers called Lunar Excursion Vehicle (LEV) 1 and 2.
●
LEV-1, LEV-2, and SLIM will together study
the lunar surface near the landing point, collect temperature and radiation
readings, and attempt to study the moon’s mantle.