A precision Moon landing and the future

Japan’s SLIM spacecraft on the Moon as imaged by the LEV-2 crawler bot (inset image) and India’s Chandrayaan 2 orbiter (background). An arrow points to the tiny lander on the image’s right. Images: JAXA / TOMY / SONY / ISRO / Chandra TungathurthiThis story pieces together insights from experts at JAXA, NASA, and ISRO.On January 19, 2024, Japan’s solar-powered Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) lander made a lopsided-but-successful touchdown on Earth’s cosmic companion. Most (social) media coverage focused on the feat as a historic first for the nation’s space agency JAXA. After all, Japan became only the fifth nation after the US, the former Soviet Union, China, and India to achieve an intact lunar landing. But the true historic aspect of SLIM lay in its achieved landing accuracy of 55 meters amid a remarkably treacherous location strewn with craters and boulders. And that’s despite the spacecraft losing one of its two main engines during the final phase of its descent.JAXA’s…

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