現在開発が進められている「小型月着陸実証機 SLIM」について、その立ち上げまでの経緯をまとめたエッセイが公開されました。
なぜ、宇宙研は SLIM をやらなければいけないのか?」 SLIM プロジェクト 澤井秀次郎

将来の月惑星探査に必要な高精度着陸技術を小型探査機で実証するための技術として、二段階着陸方式地形照合など多くの新規技術をご紹介しています。

The Smart Lander for Investigating the Moon (SLIM) is currently under development.The mission will develop a series of new technologies to demonstrate high-precision landing with a small spacecraft that will be needed for future lunar and planetary exploration.
These include a "Two-stage landing scheme" to achieve a safe landing on an incline (animation shows a simulation with one landing gear arrangement), and terrain matching to automatically identify craters from images captured by the onboard camera and compare these with a map to know the spacecraft's exact position.

A summary of the process leading to the launch of SLIM has been released by Sawai Syujiro (SLIM Project), titled "Why does ISAS have to launch SLIM?" (Text in Japanese.)

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(2022/02/08)