Page 36 - Smart Lander News Today

Awkward Landing In an extremely unfortunate twist of fate, Japan's Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) has landed on its nose. An image snapped by its much smaller companion robot called SORA-Q (pictured below), which was successfully ejected before the lander touched down on the surface last week, shows the struggling lander awkwardly perched on […]

One of the landers main engines lost thrust about 54 yards above the moon surface.

It's the year of the Moon, but it's already shaping up to be (Moon) rocky.

Japan's "Moon Sniper" craft landed around 55 meters from its target, the country's space agency said Thursday as it released the first images from the mission. The unmanned Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM), dubbed the "Moon Sniper" for its pin-point technology, had the goal of touching down within 100 meters of a specific landing…

Images shared by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency show that the Slim spacecraft that landed on the lunar surface accidentally touched down headfirst.

By Jonathan AmosScience reporter8 hours agoimage caption, The slim lander may still be alive if its solar cells can workJapan's moon lander ended up

The SLIM spacecraft survived its trip to the surface, but ended up pointing in a direction that now limits the duration of its mission.

On Jan. 19, Japans Moon Sniper spacecraft made a successful soft landing on the moon. The landing was the most precise in lunar history; it was also upside-down.

Japans space agency said Thursday that its first lunar mission hit the tiny patch of the moons surface it was aiming for.

The successful soft-landing of the mission came with a little problem on the surface.