Japan's Moon Landing: Space Agency Braces for '20 Minutes of Terror' With Historic Attempt

Japan's space agency is bracing for what they call "20 minutes of terror" as their Moon Sniper spacecraft is readying itself for a historic lunar landing attempt.

The craft, which is the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM), is expected to touch down on the lunar surface at roughly 10:20 a.m. ET on Friday or 12:20 a.m. on Saturday Japan Standard Time.

Japan's Latest Lunar Landing Attempt

(Photo : JIJI Press / AFP)(STR/JIJI Press/AFP via Getty Images)
Japan's Moon Sniper spacecraft is preparing to land on the lunar surface as the country's space agency braces for what is called "20 minutes of terror" prior to touchdown.

If the landing is successful, the Japanese spacecraft's achievement will make Japan the third country to achieve such a feat in the 21st century. It would also be the fifth nation to soft-land a spacecraft on the moon since the Soviet Luna 9 mission that was conducted in 1966.

The Moon Sniper spacecraft was nicknamed so for its precision technology and it will begin its descent toward the lunar surface at 10:00 a.m. ET. The landing of the craft will be live-streamed live on YouTube in both Japanese and English, as per CNN.

In a statement, the subproject manager of the SLIM mission, Kenji Kushiki said that the beginning of the craft's deceleration to the landing on the lunar surface is expected to be a "breathless, numbing 20 minutes of terror."

The small-scale exploration lander was initially designed to demonstrate a "pinpoint" landing at a specific location on the surface of the moon. Prior lunar landings, including NASA's Apollo missions in the 1960s, achieved extreme accuracy in reaching a specific zone.

However, Japan's Moon Sniper technology seeks to bring more precision to robotic probes that are both low-cost and lightweight. JAXA's hope is that the new technology would make it possible for the small lander to target specific sites on the moon, which would allow it to land even among treacherous and rocky terrain.

Bracing for "20 Minutes of Terror"

The Japanese lander is equipped with a rolling probe that was developed by a major toy company with care to extreme precision. Moon Sniper is targeting an area within 100 meters of a spot on the lunar surface, which is a far tighter margin than usual landing zones that stretch for several kilometers, according to Philstar.

The latest mission follows two failed space missions by Japan's space agency, including two lunar missions and other rocket failures that involved explosions after take-off. Success would also echo the triumph of India's low-cost space program in August last year. It was when the nation became the first to land an uncrewed spacecraft near the Moon's largely unexplored south pole.

The small landing target of Japan's SLIM is a crater where the Moon's mantle is believed to be accessible at the surface. An associate professor at the University of Tokyo, Tomokatsu Morota said that the rocks exposed in the area are crucial in the search for the origins of the Moon and the Earth.

SLIM was initially launched along with XRISM, a new type of X-ray imaging satellite that observes plasma in stars and galaxies. They were carried onboard an H-IIA rocket from Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture on Sept. 7, 2023, said the Japan Times.