Japan’s lunar craft lands successfully but can’t generate solar power

TOKYO: Japan on Saturday became the fifth country to put a spacecraft on the moon but the probe was not generating solar power, its space agency said, during a mission to prove a “precision” landing technology and revitalise a space programme that has suffered setbacks.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said its Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) landed the moon’s surface at around 12:20 a.m. (1520 GMT Friday) and re-established communication with earth, but its solar panels were not able to generate electricity, possibly because they are angled wrong.

“SLIM is now operating only on its battery, and we are prioritising the transfer of its data onto earth”, Hitoshi Kuninaka, the head of JAXA’s space lab, told a press conference.

Dubbed the “moon sniper”, SLIM attempted to land within 100 metres (328 feet) of its target, versus the conventional accuracy of several kilometres, a technology JAXA says will become a powerful tool in future exploration of hilly moon poles seen as a potential source of oxygen, fuel and water.

It will take up to a month to verify whether SLIM had achieved the high-precision goals, JAXA has said.