Smart Lander For Investigating Moon (SLIM) Mission : Japan
Japan’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) spacecraft entered into orbit around the moon after months-long journey.
- Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) Mission is a spacecraft built and launched by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on September 7, 2023, from the Tanegashima spaceport.
- It weighed only 590 kg.
- It was launched together with XRISM, a next-generation X-ray space telescope, onboard an H-2A rocket.
- It entered into an elliptical orbit around the moon over three minutes or so.
- Its apogee (farthest point) in this orbit is 4,000 km and perigee (closest point) is 600 km above the lunar surface.
- SLIM will deploy two small rovers called Lunar Excursion Vehicle (LEV) 1 and 2. LEV-1, LEV-2, and SLIM will together study the lunar surface near the landing point, collect temperature and radiation readings, and attempt to study the moon’s mantle.
XRISM Mission:
- The X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) is a joint mission of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), involving contributions from the European Space Agency (ESA).
- The mission aims to observe X-rays coming from deep space and to identify their wavelengths with unprecedented precision.
- It will use state-of-the-art spectroscopy to measure changes in the brightness of celestial objects at different wavelengths.
- It detects X-rays with energies ranging from 400 to 12,000 electron volts. (For comparison, the energy of visible light is 2 to 3 electron volts.)
- This range will provide astrophysicists with new information about some of the universe’s hottest regions, largest structures, and objects with the strongest gravity.
