SLIM

SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) made Japan the fifth nation to achieve a soft lunar landing. Its primary goal was demonstrating precision landing technology — it achieved a remarkable 55-meter accuracy by using onboard image matching to recognize craters during descent. However, it landed nose-down due to a last-minute engine failure, leaving its solar panels pointed away from the Sun. Despite this, it survived multiple lunar nights and conducted science when sunlight angles allowed power generation. Two mini-rovers, LEV-1 and the tiny spherical LEV-2 (SORA-Q, designed with TOMY), were deployed during descent.