So far, a total of 5 countries in the world have successfully landed on the moon, except for the United States, which is a manned landing on the moon by Apollo, the rest of the countries are currently unmanned on the moon.
The difficulty of the moon landing missions of the five countries is also different, if the difficulty is the highest, it is the Apollo manned moon landing, followed by the continent's "orbiting, landing, and patrolling".
The least difficult is undoubtedly the Japanese and Indian missions to the moon, and they have also set themselves the minimum standard, that is, as long as they land on the surface of the moon and can transmit back data, it will be considered successful.
In the Japanese probe mission to the moon in January this year, it obviously met this requirement and also landed on the surface of the moon, but unlike what many people think, the landing of the Japanese probe is very distinctive, that is, the "lying" landing, yes, it is the lying as you understand it.
In the previous record of successful moon landings in the world, there is no such operation, so is Japan's lying down landing on the moon a more technologically advanced landing method, or is there another hidden reason?
Japan was once far ahead in the matter of lunar exploration
Since entering the 10 years, China has begun to make efforts, successively launching lunar probes such as Chang'e-3, Chang'e-4 and Chang'e-5 on the surface of the moon, with a success rate of 100%.
Because of China's great success in lunar exploration, this has given other countries some illusions. If I can do it in China, I will do it too. Especially after Chang'e-5, a wave of moon landings has been set off around the world.
In this wave of lunar landing craze, countries that think they are scientific and technological powers have participated in it, and it is regrettable that the missions have failed one after another, and even if they succeed in landing on the moon, it is the result of many attempts, and the lunar landing mission has not achieved the expected results.
It is not difficult to understand that the most positive in this wave of moon landings are undoubtedly India and Japan, and at the same time, Asian countries, watching China achieve a series of results, if they have no other ideas in their hearts, it is impossible.
It's just that India's performance is more flamboyant, and after the successful landing of Chang'e-5 on the moon, they announced that they would start landing on the moon in four months. Japan, on the other hand, is more restrained and less ostentatious, but judging from its behavior, it is also more anxious.
This is not to blame them, in terms of the lunar exploration project, China is a rising star, and it must not be very pleasant to see it surpassed. Japan's lunar exploration program started relatively early, and it began its lunar exploration mission in the 80s of the last century.
By 1990, Japan had launched its first lunar probe, called "Hiten", and Japan became the third country to launch a probe to the moon after the Soviet Union and the United States. Although this lunar probe was an orbital probe, however, there were not many countries that had this capability at that time.
China's lunar exploration program was launched much later, not until 2004, and China's first lunar orbiter Chang'e-1 was not successfully launched until 2009. In terms of time, China's lunar orbiter is 19 years later than Japan's.
Since the successful launch of the "Feitian" lunar probe, after entering the year 2000, Japan has also started a more ambitious lunar exploration mission, that is, the "Moon Goddess" lunar exploration program, which is similar to the Chang'e series of missions, and also takes "orbiting, landing, and patrolling" as the goal of lunar exploration.
However, due to various reasons, the mission was either delayed or there were problems in the middle, until 2007, when the Moon Goddess was successfully implemented, compared to the Feitian lunar probe, this probe is a lunar probe in the true sense, which carries more scientific instruments and can carry out comprehensive exploration of the moon.
This year was also the highlight of Japan's lunar exploration, after which Japan raised its lunar exploration goal upward, not satisfied with lunar exploration, but established a lunar base on the moon.
It's just that the ideal is very good, but the reality is not satisfactory. Two years later, China launched its first lunar probe, and everyone knows what happened next, in the matter of lunar exploration, China rode the dust, leaving Japan far behind.
After Chang'e-5, Japan failed to land on the moon many times
In the matter of lunar exploration, Japan looks at China as if it was a poor student in the past, but now it has become an excellent student, far surpassing itself. With the Japanese character, it is not in a hurry on the surface, but in the heart.
In fact, Japan has not figured out one thing, it is not that it has regressed a lot, but that China has become better. Japan once launched a lunar probe in 1990, and China has followed behind, and has achieved such great success, that Japan mistakenly thinks that scientific progress has made it easier to land on the moon, and it is also like a leap to try, but the reality is very cruel.
Watching others do it is easy, but it is very difficult to do it yourself.
On November 16, 2022, Japan's "Hospitable" lunar probe lifted off with a heavy American rocket, and then the probe lost contact, and on the 21st, the mission was declared a failure, and the "Hospitable" lunar probe gave up landing on the moon.
On April 26, 2023, Japan's "White Rabbit" lunar probe suddenly lost contact with the Earth during the landing stage of the moon, and was finally determined to crash on the surface of the moon.
In addition to these two missions, Japan has also had a number of missions in recent years, which were eventually cancelled due to failure to launch, and it can be seen from these actions that Japan is actually more anxious than India in the matter of lunar exploration.
Until January 19, 2024, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched a lunar probe, SLIM, landed on the moon, which also means that Japan is the fifth country to land on the moon after the United States, the Soviet Union, China, and India.
It is believed that Japan's moon landing will also leave a strong mark in the history of the future moon landing, because this moon landing is different from other countries in that it was a successful "lying down" moon landing.
It's good that when others go down the steps, they are jumping on their feet and standing, while Japan is lying down and jumping down the steps, this way of going down the steps is really novel, is this Japan's newly developed lunar landing technology, is it a more advanced lunar landing technology?
Led crooked by Japan, the United States also landed on the moon lying down
At the beginning of the moon landing, the Japanese side divided the mission into three success levels: the first level was that it did not crash on the surface of the moon and could send back information.
In fact, Japan's moon landing this time just met this requirement, that is, the "lying down" moon landing is not that Japan wants this, who doesn't want to go to the moon standing up?
The SLIM lunar probe is designed with a "two-stage landing method", which is easy to understand from the name, that is, the landing is divided into two stages. In the first stage, two or three meters from the lunar surface, the main engine is turned off, and then the probe is controlled to lean forward, in the process of which the probe stretches out one leg and supports the foot to the ground.
After this support leg hits the ground, two auxiliary brackets are extended to jointly support the main detector to form a stable structure that supports the entire detector.
This process is like when a person is descending a step, leaning forward and stretching out his front legs to land first. Wait for the front leg to hit the ground, then the back leg heels, and the two legs fall firmly to the ground.
The ideal is very good, but one leg is not stable, and it falls directly on the steps, isn't this just "lying down"?
Technically speaking, it is indeed somewhat "advanced", because in the lunar landing project, every extra action means an extra risk, and generally others are two steps, that is, directly turn off the main engine and land.
Japan is different, even after turning off the transmitter, there are two actions even to stretch the legs, and I have to admire them, the imagination is too rich.
However, although the Japanese probe landed lying down, it can still send back some data, but it is just lying down, so the solar panels are tilted, and the sunlight reception is not ideal, and the maintenance time is not too long.
Although Japan landed on the moon "lying down", which is nothing, but it affects another country, and that country is the United States.
One month after Japan's successful landing on the moon, the United States succeeded in landing on the moon again after a hiatus of more than 50 years.
The American lunar probe "Odysseus" also landed on the moon "lying down", which lies on the moon one after another, what does it mean?
Epilogue:
Many times, if you don't have a reference object, you don't know how good you are. If Japan is not used as a reference, I don't know how remarkable the progress of China's lunar exploration is.
Although the United States used to be very strong, it is now stumbling all the way on the moon landing project, landing on the moon again after a hiatus of more than 50 years, but it is the same as Japan, it is an unexpected way to "lie down" to land on the moon.
Although China is a latecomer in the lunar exploration project, it has basically achieved a 100% success rate step by step, which even the United States cannot do today.
In May, Chang'e-6 will once again "conquer" the moon, and here, I wish Chang'e-6 a complete success in advance.
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