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1. Mission includes lander and X-ray satellite for universe study.
2.  Bad weather pushed launch to Monday, says Japan’s space agency.
3.  Small rover on SLIM explores how Moon formed.

After India’s historic lunar landing, Japan’s space program aims to recover from setbacks with its upcoming mission, known as “Moon Sniper.” The rocket will carry a lander and an X-ray imaging satellite, scheduled for launch on Monday after a day’s delay due to bad weather, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

While Japan boasts one of the world’s largest space programs, it encountered failures, including a lunar landing attempt in 2022 and a rocket explosion in the past month. JAXA’s focus now lies on the “Smart Lander for Investigating Moon” (SLIM), a compact lander standing at 2.4 meters high, 2.7 meters wide, and 1.7 meters long, weighing around 700 kilograms.

Dubbed the “Moon Sniper” for its precision, JAXA aims to land SLIM within 100 meters of a specific target on the Moon, a much smaller margin compared to previous missions. Equipped with a mini rover developed with a toy company, the probe seeks to explore lunar mantle pieces to understand how the Moon formed.

Shinichiro Sakai from the SLIM project team acknowledged the difficulty of lunar landings and expressed determination to learn from India’s success. Japan’s recent efforts have faced challenges, such as the failed landing of a probe named Omotenashi last year and a private company’s unsuccessful attempt to land on the Moon in April.

The upcoming H2-A rocket launch will also carry the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) developed by JAXA, NASA, and the European Space Agency. XRISM’s X-ray observations of hot gas plasma in the universe aim to study mass and energy flows, as well as the composition and evolution of celestial bodies. Hironori Maejima, XRISM project manager, highlighted the mission’s potential to shed light on the forces affecting dark matter’s behavior and distribution.

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