The SLIM probe has reached the lunar surface. Japan is thus expanding the circle of countries that have successfully landed on Earth's natural satellite.
The Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) confirmed that communication with the probe is possible, but that its solar cells do not produce energy. She is currently trying to understand the nature of the problem.
The SLIM space module (for Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) had begun its descent to the moon about twenty minutes before its arrival at a speed of about 1,700 meters per second.
The probe has been in lunar orbit since the end of December.
SLIM carries an atypical instrument: a spherical robot reminiscent of a Star Wars droid that unfolds like a transformable toy and moves a little like a sea turtle.
The success of this mission, nicknamed “Moon Sniper” by JAXA, would be historic for Japan, which would become the fifth country to successfully land on the Moon, after the United States, the USSR, China and India.
SORA-Q, SLIM's research probe, is barely larger than a tennis ball and weighs just 250 grams. It was developed jointly by JAXA and Takara Tomy, a major Japanese toy manufacturer behind the famous Transformers robots, which were released in 1984 came. The Japanese electronics giant Sony and the private Japanese Doshisha University in Kyoto also contributed to its development.
SORA-Q has two cameras, one that is revealed at the front when the metal casing opens into two parts, and a second at the back.
Once the ball is opened, its two ends serve as wheels to rock on an uneven surface.
This convertible, ultra-compact and ultra-light mechanism was created with the technical know-how of toy development, explains the official SORA-Q website.
The probe has two types of movement: the butterfly movement, in which its two wheels roll together, and the crawling movement, in which they move out of synchrony.
SORA-Q's cameras are designed to transmit valuable images of Shioli, the small crater where SLIM is located and which exposes rocks from the moon's still poorly understood internal structure.
The moon, object of all desires
The United States is the only one to have sent astronauts to the lunar surface as part of the Apollo program from 1969 to 1972.
After turning away from the Moon for a long time, including for budget reasons, the American space agency NASA launched the Artemis program in 2017, which aims to return astronauts to its soil and eventually establish a permanent lunar base.
However, the first two manned missions of this program, Artemis 2 and 3, have just been postponed to September 2025 and September 2026, respectively.
NASA is now working with private companies to reduce costs, but this also creates a dependency problem.
The Starship lander ordered from the private company SpaceX for Artemis 3, the mission that would mark the return of astronauts to the moon, is far from finished: the machine exploded during its first two test flights last year. A new test is expected in February.
Astrobotic, another private American company contracted by NASA to send scientific equipment to the moon, announced on January 10 that its lander had suffered serious problems since launch and now had no chance of a smooth landing on the moon have moon.
Russia failed to land its Luna-25 probe on the moon last summer, marking the failure of its first mission to Earth's natural satellite since 1976.
After shining during the USSR, the Russian space sector has been in trouble since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 due to funding problems, corruption and Moscow's isolation.
However, Russian President Vladimir Putin has promised to continue funding lunar missions, and Russia has joined China's lunar base project, a competitor to America's Artemis program.
The Asian giant plans to send taikonauts to the moon before 2030 and build a sustainable research station there.
Although China only sent its first human into space in 2003, long after the Soviets and Americans, its colossal-budget, army-managed space program has been in decline. Steady development, with impressive progress in recent years.
China achieved its first moon landing in 2013. In 2019, the country became the first to land a device on the far side of the moon. The following year, the Chang'e probe brought 5 lunar samples back to Earth – a world first in more than 40 years.
Beijing also managed to send a probe (or rover) to Mars in 2021, emulating the United States, and has had its own orbital space station, Tiangong, since 2022.
A new Chinese mission to retrieve lunar samples is planned for this year.
Despite having much more modest resources than the established space powers, India managed to land an unmanned rocket, Chandrayaan-3, near the lunar south pole last year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi now wants to send an Indian to the moon by 2040.
In the short term, India plans to send a new research probe to the polar regions of the moon in 2025 in collaboration with Japan.
The European Space Agency (ESA) is also interested in the moon, but mainly through international cooperation (USA, Japan). After the invasion of Ukraine, it broke off cooperation with the Russian space agency Roscosmos.
South Korea launched its Danuri probe, launched aboard a SpaceX rocket, into lunar orbit in late 2022 and has set a goal of landing a vehicle on the moon in 2032.
Intuitive Machines, another American startup tasked by NASA with a lunar logistics mission, is set to try its luck this year.
To date, no private company has successfully landed on the moon. Initial Israeli and Japanese attempts in this category have failed in recent years.