Japanese SLIM module flipped over during lunar landing due to engine failure

The Japanese SLIM vehicle turned over while landing on the Moon due to the failure of one of its two engines, according to images published by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). According to press release JAXA, the module is stationary, and the solar panel of the device is not receiving energy for the battery of on-board systems.

“The cause of the main engine failure is currently under investigation, including consideration of factors external to the engine itself,” the agency said in a statement. According to JAXA, SLIM reached the lunar surface 55 m east of where the module was originally supposed to land. Nevertheless, SLIM’s main objective – to demonstrate landing with an accuracy of 100 m – was achieved, JAXA notes.

The agency also published the first photographs taken by the module after landing. The photo shows several fragments of rocks that are valuable for research. “Based on this landscape image, the team sorts the rocks of interest, giving each one a nickname, aiming to seamlessly convey their relative sizes through names,” the JAXA release noted.

The Japanese SLIM module was launched on September 7 by the H-IIA MHI launch vehicle along with the X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) telescope from the Tanegashima Satellite Launch Center in Kagoshima Prefecture. SLIM landed on the Moon on January 20 at 0:20 Japanese time (18:20 Moscow time on January 19). As part of the mission, the device must study the crankcases and topography of the Moon using a special camera. Specifically, SLIM will measure the amount of iron in rocks on the lunar surface. Japan became the fifth country in the world after the USSR, USA, China and India to land its module on the surface of the Moon.