Japan Ends Its Lunar Module Mission One Year After Launch

JAXA Ends Operations of Smart Lander on Moon

The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced on August 26th that it had concluded operations of its lunar module, which survived three cold lunar nights, a year after its launch. The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) landed on the moon in January, making Japan the fifth country to successfully land on the moon after the United States, USSR, China, and India.

Communication Difficulties and Conclusion of Mission

After attempting to communicate with the module last week without success, JAXA announced that they received no response from the spacecraft launched in September 2023. With no prospect of restoring communication, JAXA sent a command to halt its activity. The probe continued to transmit information on its status and environment for a much longer period than expected.

Mission Objectives and Challenges

The SLIM mission, not designed to withstand the cold lunar nights of two weeks, aimed to analyze rocks believed to originate from the moon’s internal structure, the lunar mantle, still poorly understood. The Japanese mission also sought to advance research on water resources on the moon, a crucial question as the United States and China plan to establish inhabited bases in the future.

Previous Japanese Lunar Landing Attempts

Japan had faced setbacks in its prior lunar landing attempts. In 2022, the JAXA probe Omotenashi, part of the American Artemis 1 mission, experienced a fatal battery failure shortly after being deployed into space. Last year, a lander from the Japanese private company Ispace crashed on the lunar surface, missing the critical descent phase.