Mission type Lander Manufacturer MELCO Dry mass 120 kg | Operator JAXA Launch mass 590 kg | |
Mission duration 2-3 weeks in lunar orbit, several days on lunar surface (planned) | ||
Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) is a lunar lander being developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Unlike lunar landers of the past which have landed "where it is easy to land", SLIM will land "where it is wanted to land". As of 2016, the probe is planned to be launched in 2019.
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Overview
SLIM is Japan's first major lunar surface mission, and will demonstrate precise, pinpoint lunar landing. During its descent to the moon, the lander will recognizing lunar craters by applying the technology used in facial recognition systems, and decipher its current location from utilizing observation data collected by the SELENE (Kaguya) lunar orbiter mission. SLIM aims to soft land with an error range of 100 m (330 ft). In comparison, the error range of the Apollo 11 Eagle lunar module was an elliptic which was 20 km (12 mi) wide in downrange and 5 km (3.1 mi) wide in crossrange. According to Yoshifumi Inatani, deputy director general of the JAXA Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), by succeeding in this extremely precise landing, it will lead to enhancing the quality of space exploration.
SLIM will be launched by an Epsilon rocket taking off from Uchinoura Space Center, and is to land near the Marius Hills Hole, a lunar lava tube entrance discovered by Kaguya. The expected cost for developing this project is 18 billion yen.
History
The proposal which later came to be known as SLIM existed as early as back in 2005, as theSmall Lunar Landing Experiment Satellite (小型月着陸実験衛星). On 27 December 2013, ISAS called for proposals for its next "Competitively-Chosen Medium-Sized Focused Mission", and SLIM was among the seven proposals submitted. In June 2014, SLIM passed the semi-final selection along with the DESTINY technology demonstration mission, and in February 2015 SLIM was ultimately selected. From April 2016, SLIM gained project status within JAXA. In May 2016, Mitsubishi Electric (MELCO) was reportedly awarded the contract for building the spacecraft. SLIM is scheduled to be the second Japanese lunar lander to operate from the moon's surface; on 27 May 2016 NASA announced that the OMOTENASHI (Outstanding MOon exploration TEchnologies demonstrated by NAno Semi-Hard Impactor) cubesat jointly developed by JAXA and the University of Tokyo will be launched as a secondary payload on Space Launch System Exploration Mission 1. OMOTENASHI will deploy a mini lunar lander weighing 1 kg.