The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is scheduled to try a soft landing on the lunar surface today, January 19.
Japan would join an exclusive group of nations if the "Moon Sniper" soft landing were to be successful; currently, only the US, USSR, China, and India have accomplished this.
On September 6, 2018, SLIM was launched on a Japanese H-2A rocket. The moon mission travelled in tandem with XRISM, an X-ray space telescope that was successfully checkout and just launched into low Earth orbit, where it beamed home its first test images.
After a protracted and energy-efficient journey to the moon, SLIM ultimately reached its orbit around Earth's closest moon on Christmas Day. Following that, the spacecraft prepared for the impending landing day for three weeks, which will hopefully happen today.
What is Japan's historic moon landing?
Should everything proceed as planned, SLIM will touch down 330 feet (100 metres) from a target location on the moon's Shioli Crater rim. The intention is to showcase the technologies required to accomplish such precise touchdowns.
JAXA Director Hiroshi Yamakawa stated last month that SLIM "will kick-start a new era of lunar exploration by making it possible to land where we want to land, rather than where we have to".
This isn't Japan's first attempt.
As part of NASA's unmanned Artemis 1 mission, a tiny Japanese probe known as OMOTENASHI launched towards the moon in November 2022, however, it was unsuccessful in reaching its target.
Additionally, in April of last year, the Tokyo-based company ispace's Hakuto-R spacecraft crashed during an attempt to land because its sensors misinterpreted the rocky terrain of the moon.
How to watch the moon landing live
The live streaming of the landing will be available on JAXA's official YouTube channel from 3:20pm UK time on January 19.
