Japan's successful Moon landing was 'upside down', quite literally
Courtesy: The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
Japan Aerospace Exploration Company (JAXA) has unveiled the first image of its lunar lander on the moon's surface, which showed that the lander had an unusual upside-down landing. The spacecraft encountered a setback with an "abnormality in the main engine" when it was merely 50 metres above the lunar surface. Subsequently, an unexpected change in landing orientation occurred, JAXA said in an update on Thursday (Jan 25).
Japan's Moon landing still a distinct achievement
Despite the anomaly affecting the spacecraft's ability to charge its solar panels due to misalignment with the sun, Japan has become the fifth nation to successfully execute a soft landing on the moon.
The onboard software of the SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) mission continued to autonomously guide the descent autonomously, resulting in a landing speed below the design range at around 1.4 metres per second.
Also read |An 'unprecedented' pinpoint landing: Japan says its Moon landing was within 100 metres of target
The lander, however, ended up just 55 metres east of the original target landing site.
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JAXA officials declared the primary objective of demonstrating pinpoint landing technology within a 100-metre accuracy range as a success.
Earlier in the week, JAXA announced the planned powerdown of the spacecraft on the lunar surface to prevent the over-discharge of batteries connected to the misaligned solar cells.
The agency now awaits a change in the sun's direction, anticipating the potential for power generation once the solar cells are properly oriented.
Also watch |Japan's 'Moon Sniper' achieves historic lunar landing
Accompanying the lander were two rovers, with the Lunar Exploration Vehicle-2, or SORA-Q, responsible for capturing the first image.
The rovers were deployed following the lunar touchdown.
JAXA officials are actively investigating the cause of the main engine malfunction and promise updates as the investigation progresses. A crucial juncture in the mission's recovery will occur in approximately one week when the sun's beams shift westward towards the lander's solar cells.
(With inputs from agencies)