Space and Physics
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Japan's "Moon Sniper" mission has sent back an eerie photo of the Earth, testing the cameras that will help the lander with an ambitious landing on the lunar surface.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.Usually, when probes land on the Moon, the missions behind them are attempting to land in a zone that is kilometers wide. Earlier this month, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched the smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) probe, aimed at narrowing that down significantly and landing with an accuracy within 100 meters (328 feet).
"The big objective of SLIM is to prove the high-accuracy landing," JAXA President Hiroshi Yamakawa said in a press conference as reported by Reuters, "to achieve 'landing where we want' on the lunar surface, rather than 'landing where we can'."
Ahead of the landing, SLIM took a photo of Earth from approximately 100,000 kilometers (62,137 miles) away to confirm the camera was working correctly.
JAXA has not announced when the attempted landing will take place, though it will take around 3-4 months to arrive at the Moon from Earth.
[H/T: Space.com]
