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Japan Praises ‘Pinpoint’ Moon Landing by Slim Probe

[1/6] The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM), is seen in this handout image taken by LEV-2 on the moon, released on January 25, 2024. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), TAKARA TOMY, Sony Group, Doshisha University /via REUTER Acquire Licensing Rights
[1/6] The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM), is seen in this handout image taken by LEV-2 on the moon, released on January 25, 2024. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), TAKARA TOMY, Sony Group, Doshisha University /via REUTER Acquire Licensing Rights
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Japan Praises ‘Pinpoint’ Moon Landing by Slim Probe

[1/6] The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM), is seen in this handout image taken by LEV-2 on the moon, released on January 25, 2024. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), TAKARA TOMY, Sony Group, Doshisha University /via REUTER Acquire Licensing Rights
[1/6] The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM), is seen in this handout image taken by LEV-2 on the moon, released on January 25, 2024. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), TAKARA TOMY, Sony Group, Doshisha University /via REUTER Acquire Licensing Rights

Japan's moon lander achieved an unusually precise touchdown within 100 m (328 feet) of its target, the space agency said on Thursday, after the nation became the fifth to put a spacecraft on the moon with the weekend touchdown of its SLIM probe.

Japan hopes the demonstration of what it called a "pinpoint" moon landing will revitalise a space program seeking to overcome setbacks as it moves to capture a bigger role in space by partnering with ally the United States to counter China.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said it received all data about the touchdown of its Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) within the 2 hours and 37 minutes before the lander lost power.

"We proved that you can land wherever you want, rather than where you are able to," its project manager for the lander, Shinichiro Sakai, told a press conference.

"This will inspire more and more people, desirably Japanese missions, to try to land on unexplored places on the moon."

One of the lander's two main engines probably stopped in the final phase of touchdown, so that it drifted 55 m (180 ft) away from the target site to an unintended position, Sakai said, Reuters reported.

In the absence of engine trouble, it could have landed as close as 3 m to 4 m (10 ft to 13 ft) from the target, he said.

The lander was toppled on the gentle slope of a crater on the moon's surface, in a picture published by JAXA and taken by a wheeled rover SLIM deployed during touchdown.

Angled westward because of the tumble, SLIM's solar panels have been unable to generate electricity, but a change in the direction of sunlight could power it up before the next lunar sunset on Feb. 1 brings freezing cold.

"SLIM is not designed to survive a lunar night", said Sakai.

The power outage meant the lander's multi-band spectral camera, tasked to study the composition of moon rocks, could only generate low-resolution images, JAXA said.

The landing with an error of less than 100 m (330 ft) by SLIM, dubbed the "moon sniper", outstrips the conventional accuracy figure of several kilometres for lunar landers.

It employed "vision-based" navigation that JAXA says could be a powerful tool for future exploration of hilly moon poles seen as a possible source of fuel and life-giving water and oxygen.

Home to several private space startups, Japan aims to send an astronaut to the moon in NASA's Artemis program in the next few years. But JAXA's recent setbacks in rocket development included the launch failure in March of its new H3 rocket.

That delayed many of Japan's space missions, including SLIM and LUPEX, a joint lunar exploration project with India, which made a historic touchdown on the moon's south pole in August.

In the past year, three lunar missions by Japanese startup ispace, Russia's space agency and American company Astrobotic have failed, but more lunar landers will head to the moon this year.

US startup Intuitive Machines aims to launch its IM-1 lander in mid-February.

China plans to send its Chang'e-6 spacecraft to the far side of the moon in the first half of the year, and NASA's launch of its lunar polar exploration rover VIPER is set for November.

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Why Does Trump Want to End US Daylight Saving Time?

Members of the public on a snow covered National Mall in Washington, DC, USA, 06 January 2025. (EPA)
Members of the public on a snow covered National Mall in Washington, DC, USA, 06 January 2025. (EPA)
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Why Does Trump Want to End US Daylight Saving Time?

Members of the public on a snow covered National Mall in Washington, DC, USA, 06 January 2025. (EPA)
Members of the public on a snow covered National Mall in Washington, DC, USA, 06 January 2025. (EPA)

Daylight saving time, a practice affecting almost 400 million people across North America, is once again in the spotlight as debates over its necessity continue. This twice-a-year ritual of adjusting clocks forward in spring and back in autumn has been ingrained in American, Canadian and Cuban life for more than a century. However, US President-elect Donald Trump has pushed for an end to daylight saving time, which he has called inconvenient and costly.

WHAT DID TRUMP SAY ABOUT DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME?

Trump said his Republican Party would work to end daylight saving time after he takes office on Jan. 20.

"The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Saving Time, which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn't!" Trump wrote on social media. "Daylight Saving Time is inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation."

Trump's billionaire allies Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, whom he picked to lead a new Department of Government Efficiency, have endorsed Trump's plan.

In 2022, the US Senate passed a bill called the Sunshine Protection Act that would make daylight saving time permanent. It stalled in the House of Representatives because lawmakers could not agree on whether to keep standard time or permanent daylight saving time.

Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress, could revive the bill or introduce a new one.

WHEN DO THE CLOCKS CHANGE?

Any changes that Trump and the Republicans may enact probably would not take effect immediately.

Daylight saving time in the United States and some other countries is due to start on March 9 at 2 a.m. local time, meaning people will lose an hour of sleep. Mornings will be darker but it will stay light until later in the evening. Daylight saving time is scheduled to end on Nov. 2. The saying "spring forward, fall back" serves as a helpful reminder for adjusting clocks.

Daylight saving time in the United States always starts on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November.

In the UK and other European countries, daylight saving time, also known as summer time, begins on the last Sunday in March and ends on the last Sunday in October. This year it will start on March 30 and end on Oct. 26.

WHEN IS THE SHORTEST DAY OF THE YEAR IN 2025?

The shortest day of 2025 will be on Dec. 21, which marks the winter solstice. Daylight hours vary significantly across latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. Areas near the North Pole will be plunged into complete darkness while southern regions will still get more than 10 hours of sunshine.

WHY WAS DAYLIGHT SAVING CREATED IN THE US AND HOW DID IT START?

The modern idea of changing the clocks with the seasons can be traced back to at least the late 19th century, when New Zealand entomologist George Hudson proposed it to conserve energy and extend summer daylight hours, something that would have benefited his hobby of collecting insects after work. The idea was slow to gain traction until World War One, when European states sought any strategies to conserve fuel. Germany was the first country to adopt daylight saving time in 1916. The United States followed in 1918.

The practice went through many variations before the United States standardized it in 1966 in a law called the Uniform Time Act, which allows states to opt out of it but not to stay on daylight saving time permanently.

WHY IS DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME CONTROVERSIAL?

A common myth is that the United States adopted daylight saving time to benefit farmers, but in reality many farmers are opposed to the practice for being disruptive to their schedules.

The original motivation to conserve fuel is also under debate, as studies have found little, if any, energy savings from the shift, according to the US Congressional Research Service.

Opponents point to other studies that have found adverse health effects linked to daylight saving time, such as a spike in fatal traffic accidents, heart attacks, strokes and sleep deprivation in the days after clocks are moved forward an hour every March.

A March 2023 YouGov poll found that 62% of Americans want to end the practice of changing clocks, though only 50% prefer to keep permanent daylight saving time.

DO ALL US STATES OBSERVE DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME?

No. Hawaii and Arizona, with the exception of its Navajo Nation region, do not observe daylight saving time. The US territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands also observe permanent standard time.

While daylight saving time is widespread across the United States, 19 states have passed legislation to permanently use daylight saving time if Congress were to allow it, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.