An 'unprecedented' pinpoint landing: Japan says its Moon landing was within 100 metres of target

Japan's space agency - the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) - said on Thursday (Jan 25) that it achieved an unprecedented "pinpoint" Moon landing within 100 metres of the target. "SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) succeeded in a pin-point soft landing... the landing point is confirmed to be 55 metres away from the target point," JAXA said. Last Saturday (Jan 20), Japan became the world's fifth country to put a spacecraft on the Moon, as the SLIM made a soft landing on the lunar surface.

The space agency also said that it received all data about the SLIM's landing in the twohours and 37 minutes after the touchdown and before the probe lost power, a report by the news agency Reuters said. SLIM's solar panels have been unable to generate electricity likely because they were angled wrong, but a change in the sunlight's direction could power it up again, JAXA added.

JAXA published the first colour images from the mission,showing the SLIM craft sitting intact at a slight angle on the rocky grey surface, lunar slopes rising in the distance, a report by the news agency AFP said. However, these images were not publicly available yet.

Two probes detached successfully from SLIM on Jan 20: one with a transmitter and another designed to trundle around the lunar surface beaming images to Earth.

Regaining confidence in space technology

SLIM is one of several new lunar missions launched by governmentand private firms, 50 years after the first human Moon landing. Japan, which entered the space age in 1970 with the launch of a satellite, is hoping to regain confidence in its space technology after many failures.

Last year, a spacecraft designed by a Japanese company crashed during a lunar landing attempt in April, and a new flagship rocket failed its debut launch in March.

Celebrations muted despite space feat

Despite becoming the fifth country (after Russia, the United States, India and China) to reach the Moon,celebrations (in Japan) on Jan 20 were muted due to a problem with the spacecraft's solar batteries, which were not generating power, AFP reported.

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JAXA decided to switch SLIM off with 12 per cent power remaining, to allow for a possible recovery when the sun's angle changes. Before the power was turned off, the spacecraft was able to download technical and image data from the craft's descent and the lunar surface.

Earlier this week, the space agency said that if sunlight hits the Moon from the West in the future, "we believe there's a possibility of power generation, and we're currently preparing for restoration".

(With inputs from agencies)