apan’s ‘Moon Sniper’ lander took off from Tanegashima Space Centre aboard a H-IIA rocket in September (STR). Photo: AFP
Tokyo, Japan – Japan on Saturday became the fifth nation to achieve a soft lunar landing, but said its “Moon Sniper” spacecraft was running out of power due to a solar battery problem.
After a nail-biting 20-minute descent, space agency JAXA said its Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) had touched down and communication had been established.
But without the solar cells functioning, JAXA official Hitoshi Kuninaka said the craft — dubbed the “Moon Sniper” for its precision technology — would only have power for “several hours”.
SLIM is one of several new lunar missions launched by governments and private firms, 50 years after the first human Moon landing.
Crash landings and communication failures are rife, and only four other…
