🇯🇵 Japan’s lunar lander touches down on its nose

Welcome to another issue of Aerospace, where we bring you the latest in space and aviation innovations.

The first month of 2024 has seen two lunar landing attempts, both of which served as a timely reminder that landing on the Moon isn’t easy.

While the private US lander Peregrine-1 failed to reach the Moon at all after its launch, last week also saw Japan’s SLIM lander touch down on the lunar surface. However, an awkward landing means it is unable to generate electricity via its solar panels. More on that below.

Aside from that, many eVTOL flying taxi firms have marked 2024 as the year they’ll first fly passengers. One of those just signed a deal with NASA. Buckle up. We have plenty in store.

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INDUSTRY UPDATES

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♻️ World's first life cycle check: 2-seater electric vs. fossil fuel plane

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🪖 Pentagon to declassify some secret space programs to boost military edge

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🇨🇳 China allegedly crafts toughest hypersonic aircraft heat shield ceramic

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AEROSPACE ENGINEERING SPOTLIGHT

Representatives from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced during a press conference on Thursday, Jan. 25, that the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) made somewhat of an awkward landing on Jan. 19.

That’s not to say the spacecraft didn’t perform a successful soft landing. It just happened to land on its nose. Due to the angle of its landing, SLIM had to power down its batteries to conserve energy as it wouldn’t be able to draw energy using its solar panels.

Still, the JAXA representatives stressed that SLIM, also fondy known as ‘Moon sniper’, had successfully carried out its primary mission objective of performing a pinpoint landing.

The lander had touched down within 328 feet (100 meters) of its lunar landing site, and SLIM project manager Shinichiro Sakai said, “we proved that you can land wherever you want, rather than where you are able to.”

But what now for SLIM?

Images from the tiny robot rover Lunar Exploration Vehicle-2, or SORA-Q, showed this week that it is in a precarious position. It effectively landed at a 90-degree angle, possibly due to its engines misfiring before landing.

JAXA scientists do hope the situation will change for SLIM. As the Moon moves relative to the Sun, the angle of sunlight might allow the spacecraft to draw some power. However, it doesn’t have much time. The lunar night starts on Feb. 1 and SLIM was not designed to survive the intense cold of lunar night conditions.

Either way, JAXA said it was able to successfully test its vision-based navigation using SLIM, and that technology could prove valuable to future space missions.

Will Starship allow humans to establish the first colony on Mars?

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Yes, I believe Elon Musk’s vision will come true! (44%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ No, nuclear rockets will be required to cut travel times to Mars. (13%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ No, China will get there first. (13%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ Not at all, and why would we want to establish a colony on Mars, anyway? (30%)

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AERO BULLETIN

Flying taxi firm Archer Aviation announced this week it has entered into a Space Act Agreement with NASA. The partnership will focus on high-performance battery cell development and safety testing that will benefit the entire industry.

In the meantime, one company is racing against the clock to have its eVTOL flying taxi ready for the 2024 Paris Olympics, which will begin on July 26.

The plan is for pioneering German eVTOL firm Volocopter to fly its VoloCity flying taxi on an existing helicopter route during the Olympic games. One passenger and one pilot at a time will fly along two routes, taking short trips from Charles de Gaulle airport to Le Bourget and then onto a new landing pad at Austerlitz Paris. Another route will take passengers from Paris to Sans-Cyr.

If Volocopet is successful, it will have launched the first pre-commercial eVTOL service in the world. As predicted a few years ago, 2024 could be the year of the flying taxi.

There are no guarantees Volocopter will pull it off, though.

The VoloCity air taxi passed its first crewed test flight in 2021. Still, as a recent Guardian piece pointed out, regulation shouldn’t be an issue, but there are still many factors to consider – such as whether air taxis will be adversely affected by helicopter turbulence, how tickets will be handed out, and whether extra landing pads are needed in case of emergencies.

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