JAXA's Moon Mission: Why I Feel Inspired by this Story of Hope

On January 19th, 2024, 12:20 a.m. JST, Japan became the 5th country to reach the moon after the USA, Russia, China, and India. The spacecraft is called “SLIM”, which stands for Smart Lander for Investigating the Moon. The spacecraft landed lightly on the moon, making this a ground-breaking success for Japan. Unfortunately, the landing was on its side, so the solar panels are facing the moon's surface instead of facing the sun. This meant that the spacecraft would only be able to operate for a few more hours on its limited battery. However, a miracle took place! The sun eventually moved to a position where the spacecraft was able to absorb sunlight. Most people doubted that the spacecraft would ever work again, but SLIM became fully functional! SLIM was able to successfully deploy both rovers it carried. Now, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is getting as much work done as possible before the lunar night sets in and SLIM can no longer gather solar energy.

The SLIM Spacecraft

This landing is a milestone achievement for Japan, space exploration, and the world. At first, I was upset to learn that the rover was not working after JAXA made it so far through its mission. However, the cinematic-like miracle made this event even more exciting! I was happy to hear this news because every time a new country finds its way onto the moon, humanity goes one step further in space exploration. 

I found this landing very unique because of the problems this mission faced and overcame with hope. I am glad that more countries are finding their path to the moon and that our world’s space exploration technologies are advancing. This is important because I believe our future lies beyond our atmosphere. We might need resources from space. We might need places to live other than our own planet. We might need to research our biggest mysteries from space.

I’ve wanted to work in the field of space as soon as I learned there is more beyond our blue sky. When I was younger, there were talks about building a moon base. I was so excited about this idea. I even had a poster of the moon base concept hung up on my wall that I got from a space magazine! Then a new book was released called “Space Case” written by Stuart Gibbs that was set in this futuristic place on the moon. Gosh, I loved that book so much! It described a similar dome-like structure as the setting for the story. This giant smooth glass dome was like a dream world for me, a place I hoped to see. When would this happen? Is it soon? Each time I hear news of a moon mission, I remember this sci-fi world and believe that our brilliant space agencies are getting closer and closer to such a place. This is another reason why the news about Japan’s moon mission excited me.

A Moon Base concept

To summarize, this event made me feel inspired to see how we can recover from setbacks through hard work, determination, and a great amount of hope. This news aligns with my dreams and interests, so I am eagerly looking forward to what will happen next in the future of space exploration. Will JAXA send another spacecraft to improve its landing? Will they aim for a planet? Which country will reach the moon next?