Japan was successful in making an unusually precise moon landing just metres from its target, its space agency has announced.
The country on Saturday became the fifth to put a spacecraft on the moon when its so-called “Moon Sniper” lander touched down on the lunar surface.
On Thursday, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency [JAXA] said it had received all data about the landing of its Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) probe within 2 hours and 37 minutes after the touchdown.
“We need a more detailed analysis of the data, but the accuracy of the ‘pinpoint’ landing was probably 3 metres to 4 metres [10 to 13 feet],” the lander’s project manager, Shinichiro Sakai, told a news conference.
The mission aimed to land within 100 metres (328 feet) of its target, bettering the conventional accuracy figure of several kilometres. The target was a crater where the moon’s mantle, a deep inner layer, is believed to be exposed on the surface.
Credit: aljazeera.com
