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UPDATES:
On January 31, after two full days of normal operations, the Sun set in SLIM, preventing solar cells from generating electricity. It will be at least 14 days before sunlight supplies more power, so the spacecraft has been put to rest. Meanwhile, the excessive brightness of the lunar night poses a great risk of damaging the spacecraft’s electronics. However, JAXA officials will attempt to re-establish contact with SLIM in mid-February and assess that the vehicle can still function.
– 小型月着陸実証機SLIM (@SLIM_JAXA) February 1, 2024
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– 小型月着陸実証機SLIM (@SLIM_JAXA) January 29, 2024
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At a press conference on January 25, 2024 at 05:00 UTC, JAXA officials reported that during the descent, SLIM reached an altitude of 50 meters and decelerated to glide. Around the same time, the spacecraft suffered an anomaly that caused the terminal. wounded in one of the two main engines. Prior to the anomaly, officials say SLIM aimed to land within 3 or 4 yards of the target.
– Dawoon Jung (@dirkpitt2050) January 25, 2024
Despite the loss of one engine, the craft is still capable of descending at a speed of approximately two to three meters per moment. However, the asymmetric thrust caused a lateral movement of nine meters per moment to the east, which may simply not be counteracted by the thrusters. This caused SLIM to dive to within about 55 meters of the target, but with the all-important solar cells pointing west.
The two small rovers were effectively deployed through SLIM at an altitude of about five meters and carried out as planned, with LEV-2 being our main symbol for SLIM on the Moon.
Despite the issues, JAXA said, “We have proven that you can land where you want and not where you can,” stating that the landing is “accurate” thanks to “vision-based” navigation tools.
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Four months after its launch from the Tanegashima Space Center, SLIM, led by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), landed near Shioli, affecting the crater within the larger Mare Nectaris (“Nectar Sea”). “) at 11:20 p. m. JST on January 19, 2024 (3:20 p. m. UTC).
SLIM went on an exclusive adventure involving two close approaches to the Moon and orbits that took it into deep space, traveling for 110 days before performing a lunar insertion on Christmas Day in a lunar orbit of 15 x 600 kilometers. Other burns slowly descended and circulated the eye socket. The long-loop trajectory was designed to save fuel and mass, a must-have for the landing phase, giving the spacecraft the most productive possibility imaginable for a comfortable landing.
The lander has landed, they have communications, but the solar rover is generating electricity. On the battery. Trying to maximize the science.
LEV separated as planned, but JAXA wants more time to collect data. https://t. co/4Wct726bum
– Chris Bergin – NSF (@NASASpaceflight) January 19, 2024
Omotenashi, a small 6u cubesat from Artemis 1, which suffered from solar cell orientation disorders and was lost. Hakuto-R, an advertising lander designed by the Japanese company iSpace. This lander crashed into the Moon on April 25, 2023, following a mix-up between the other navigation systems resulting in a fuel shortage.
Earlier in 2019, Israel’s Beresheet lander suffered another failure, crashing into the Moon’s surface after a gyroscope failed, resulting in the loss of the spacecraft. More recently, the Astrobotic Peregrine One lunar lander failed to attempt to reach the moon. landing as a result of an anomaly in the propulsion system, which, in turn, caused disruptions that kept the spacecraft facing the Sun.
A leak of the formula engine added to the problems, ruling out any landing attempt. The leak diminished as the days went by, allowing Peregrine’s controllers to conduct as many clinical studies as possible.
Astrobotic was able to maintain transparent and informative communication with the public during the mission. Controllers conscientiously and responsibly steered the lander to avoid creating debris in the area, taking it on a trajectory to intercept Earth’s atmosphere, where it burned safely over the Pacific on Jan. 18. , 2024.
SLIM’s primary mission was to demonstrate that advanced navigation and radar systems can provide a pinpoint landing within 100 meters of any given target. To achieve this vastly improved accuracy, the spacecraft carried several advanced instruments, including a laser range finder and a landing radar. During its descent to the lunar surface, the lander was able to compare the terrain below to high-resolution imagery gathered from Japan’s previous lunar orbiter, Kaguya, and NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, to make autonomous real-time decisions about its speed and course using image processing algorithms developed by JAXA. Accurately targeted landings are seen as vital for ensuring optimum results from future landers, but the final position of this landing may not be known for some weeks, according to JAXA officials.
The target of the landing, Shioli Crater, is a crater about three hundred meters wide and has significant clinical potential, especially due to the presumed presence of the mineral olivine, which is thought to be a component of the lunar mantle. The multi-band infrared camera aboard SLIM will determine the composition of olivine by analyzing the spectra of sunlight reflected off the lunar surface. This knowledge will allow scientists to better understand the early formation of the Moon.
The main goal of this project at the moment is the “realization of a lightweight lunar and planetary probe formula to enable more common lunar and planetary exploration projects. “To this end, SLIM has carried out considerable weight reduction, modern framing techniques and a chemical-based tough propellant formula.
The structural core of the spacecraft is the integrated fuel tank, a cylinder that holds fuel and oxidizer in a common dome to save mass. The oxidizing component has a specially evolved form of polytetrafluoroethylene coating to prevent any reaction.
There are two main engines, manufactured through Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. These feature ceramic combustion chambers, a very wide thrust diversity and can fire using complex pulsation techniques to facilitate accurate positioning. Each of the engines supplies approximately 500 newtons of thrust and are used for the main insertion operations, transit to the Moon, and descent/lunar landing. The thrusters used to supply attitude control were built through IHI AEROSPACE Co. Ltd. There are 12 such thrusters, each with a nominal thrust of around 20 newtons. They use the same fuel/oxidizer as the main engines to facilitate lightweight design avoiding the need for additional fuel tanks.
The solar panels for SLIM are built through SHARP Corporation and are made of a thin, lightweight, and flexible film. They are designed to bend around some of the curved surfaces of the contraption and only have Velcro in places.
SLIM has been designed to land on a slope of about 15 degrees from horizontal. As the spacecraft neared landing with the main engines pointing downward to slow the rate of descent, the thrusters had to tilt the craft about forty-five degrees, so that the main landing legs landed first, and then the craft finished its rotation to horizontal mode with the auxiliary legs placed at the end. All legs feature a 3D-printed aluminum alloy weight platform to absorb the full effect on stresses during landing.
Just before landing, SLIM ejected two small lunar excursion vehicles (LEV) automatons, LEV-1 and LEV-2. They will explore and photograph the surroundings and the lander, each using new experimental propulsion techniques. LEV-1 is designed to leap like a frog around the lunar surface, not only taking pictures, but also measuring the slope, elevation, temperature, and radiation of the local lunar environment. This rover is also capable of establishing direct communication with Earth.
LEV-2 evolved through JAXA in collaboration with Tomy, Sony, and Doshisha University, Japan. Weighing just 250 grams and just 8 centimeters in diameter, this baseball-shaped vehicle was powered by Tomy’s toy co-developer Transshapeers. The initial concept had to be scaled back to w8 to meet the limitations imposed by the ideals of mission lightness. Upon landing, the ball separated to form two wheels and reveal pop-up cameras and a stabilizer. The forward movement method, a stirring movement, is encouraged through that of the sea turtle. This collaboration with Tomy aims to motivate young people to dream big, and in fact, a toy edition of SORA-Q, also known as the LEV-2, is sold in Japan.
There has been an upturn in interest in landing on the Moon, and there are several more landing attempts due in the near future. NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) is providing incentives for commercial partners to demonstrate reliable cargo delivery capabilities to support the Artemis mission. CLPS has already produced the Peregrine One mission, which has provided data, and experience and generated public interest despite its failure to land.
Intuitive Machines hopes to succeed in its first lunar landing attempt when its Nova-C lander launches in February 2024 on a SpaceX Falcon 9. Nova-C is described as being the length of a telephone booth and carrying 130 kilograms of cargo. useful, most commonly tools for NASA, but also a cubesat and a deployable camera called EagleCAM. Intuitive Machines has three assignments for Nova-C as part of the CLPS contract.
Japan has planned a second Hakuto-R project for the fourth quarter of 2024. This project, called Resilience, will be featured on a SpaceX Falcon nine and will come with a microrover.
(Main image: SLIM Lander on the Moon Credit: JAXA)
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