Japan on Friday landed its precise “Moon Sniper” rover on the Moon, and its space agency is checking data to confirm the landing’s success, a potentially historic achievement that could see it join a select group of just four other countries, as nations and private companies race to stake a claim in the emerging space economy
.The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said it landed its Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) on the lunar surface and was checking to confirm whether the landing was successful.
The probe is nicknamed the “moon sniper” on account of the precision navigation technology it uses.
JAXA hoped to land the rover on the lunar surface within 100 meters of a set target, a significant improvement on the precision of previous lunar landings, which had landing zones stretching kilometers.
