Japan Spacecraft Touches Down on Moon, Faces Power Issues for Lunar Rovers
• Japan's space agency reports its robotic spacecraft made a soft lunar landing, but solar cell is not powering the vehicle; relying on batteries with limited lifetime • Most equipment functioning; Japan becomes 5th country to land spacecraft on moon in mission to demonstrate precision landing technology • Spacecraft carries two small rovers that were to be deployed before landing to explore terrain; status unclear after landing problems • Landing intended to demonstrate technology to precisely target small areas on the lunar surface that have water ice in craters • Japan landing demonstrates fully autonomous precision landing, unlike Neil Armstrong's manual control of Apollo 11; part of Japan's partnership with NASA's Artemis program to return astronauts to the moon