Japan’s space module began its descent to the moon on Friday evening (Japan time), where it will attempt to land on the moon with unprecedented precision, AF reports.page

The SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) module, which has been orbiting the moon since late December, began its descent at a speed of about 1,700 meters per second. The descent is expected to take about twenty minutes.

On Friday, Japan may become the fifth country to send a probe to the moon.

The probe was launched in September on a Japanese H-2A rocket.

Japan has less of a space program budget than the US or China, but it has managed to return samples from two asteroids and plans to send humans into space. Japan is also planning joint missions with India.

The module, called SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating the Moon) and nicknamed “Moon Sniper”, should land with very high accuracy, that is, at a distance of a maximum of 100 meters from the set target, compared to the average today (several kilometers). The satellite target is called Shioli Crater.

Accuracy will be vital for much more complex missions in the future, when much larger payloads will be sent to the Moon, and it will be important that they don’t end up too far from where they’re supposed to be. This technology will also be used by NASA in future Artemis missions.

“The main goal of SLIM is to prove that high-precision selenization is possible. We want to land exactly where we want, not where we can,” said JAXA representatives.

If SLIM successfully reaches the surface of the Moon, it will use the Multispectral Camera to analyze the composition of the lunar soil and rocks and learn more about the interior structure of the Moon. The lander will also place two small robots on the surface of the moon, which will take pictures.

• the news is updated