Japan’s moon mission Sniper has successfully landed on the lunar surface. Japan’s space agency JAXA sent its sniper to the moon on September 7 last year. After a journey of more than 4 months, it has landed on the moon as part of the Moon Sniper Slim mission. Japan has become the fifth country to reach the moon.
After India’s successful Chandrayaan mission, Japan has created history in space. Japan’s space agency JAXA has said that its smart lander has landed on the lunar surface to investigate the moon. This Japanese sniper reached lunar orbit on December 25. Since then it has been moving towards the surface of the Moon.
The weight of this lander is 200 kg. Length is 2.4 meters and width is 2.7 meters. It is equipped with radar, laser range finder and vision based navigation system.
The cameras installed in it will take very clear pictures of the rocks present on the moon. It also has a Lunar Exploration Vehicle and a Lunar Robot. According to Japan’s space agency, pin point landing technology will allow landing on planets other than the moon. A slim lander will target a landing site that is around 100 meters away.
Japan has landed its moon lander after America’s Peregrine lander failed after launch. Before Japan, only four countries – Russia, America, China and India – have been able to perform a soft landing on the moon. Japan’s space agency has managed to land on small asteroids twice before but this time it has succeeded in landing on the moon.
Japan also sent a lander to the moon last year but it was not successful. It was supposed to land in November but Japan lost contact with its lunar lander. After this, the Hakuto-R mission lander was sent to the moon but it also crashed on the moon.
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