Smallest lunar lander will help Japan make big leap into elite club

JAPAN could become the fourth country to make a soft landing on the Moon, after hitching a ride on the Artemis mission.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) has developed the world’s smallest lunar lander which is housed in a Cubesat, ready to be deployed from

Nasa’s Mega Moon rocket. There are 10 Cubesats due to be launched as part of the Artemis mission, but only Jaxa is attempting to land on the Moon.

It is the first time anyone has tried to land on the Moon using a Cubesat, and there are doubts about whether it can survive the impact without thrusters or parachutes to slow it down.

To date, only the US, Russia and

China have made a soft landing, so, if successful, Japan will enter the elite club, although it may do so with a bumpier entry.

But if it works, scientists say it could change space exploration, making it far cheaper and easier to get probes down to the surface of other bodies.

Jacob Bleacher, chief exploration scientist at Nasa, said: “It’s a higher speed landing than most landings as they don’t have any way to brake, so it’s testing that out. If we can land a Cubesat way then it really alters the way we can use them, and that’s a game-changer.

“We’ve never done it before so we don’t know if we [can]. These things are high risk but high reward. It’s a really ambitious and exciting goal to have.”

If it gets to the ground, the little lander, named Omotenashi, has a job of monitoring radiation on the lunar surface, but it is really the landing that is the important part of the mission.

The lander’s name stands for “Outstanding Moon exploration Technologies demonstrated by Nano Semi-hard Impactor”, and helps describe the tiny spacecraft’s mission.

In a statement about the programme, Dr Tatsuaki Hashimoto, principal investigator at Omotenashi, said: “In the near future, industry, academia, and even individuals will be able to, and should, easily participate in space exploration.

“To realise such a world, small and low-cost spacecraft will be indispensable,” he added.

Other Cubesats will be hunting for water on the Moon.