We proved that you can land wherever you want.' Japan's SLIM moon probe nailed precise lunar landing, JAXA says

[Admin]

Japan's SLIM spacecraft made a strange but precise lunar landing, touching the moon with the tip of its nose as it landed incredibly close its target location.

We proved that you can land wherever you want.' Japan's SLIM moon probe nailed precise lunar landing, JAXA says : Read more

 

[Jim.on.Earth]

Japan's SLIM spacecraft made a strange but precise lunar landing, touching the moon with the tip of its nose as it landed incredibly close its target location.

We proved that you can land wherever you want.' Japan's SLIM moon probe nailed precise lunar landing, JAXA says : Read more

SpaceX would call this an R.U.F. - a "Rapid Unscheduled Faceplant".

 

[Classical Motion]

I have trouble understanding how it got in that position. The velocity at 50 ft, must be much slower than I assumed. It doesn't appear to have that much damage for landing upside down.

 

[RikF]

I have trouble understanding how it got in that position. The velocity at 50 ft, must be much slower than I assumed. It doesn't appear to have that much damage for landing upside down.

Based on the text I assume the craft actually landed more or less upright, but in a slope, which caused it to roll downwards and westward further down into the crater, ending up in the nose-down position.

 

[Cisventure Astronot]

Based on the text I assume the craft actually landed more or less upright, but in a slope, which caused it to roll downwards and westward further down into the crater, ending up in the nose-down position.

according to the the live landing conference, it was intended to have some sideways velocity, land on a slope, and tip over. but the engine failure made it have too much velocity, so it rotated too much.

 

[Meteoric Marmot]

Too bad that they didn't give it a proboscis to prevent this from happening. Even something the size of a standard automotive airbag inflated with nitrogen would have probably have been enough to shift the COG to make it tip bask onto its side.