Dr James Blake, Research Fellow at the Centre for Space Domain Awareness, University of Warwick, said: “SLIM is an exciting mission that aims to advance precision landing techniques, paving the way forward for future spacecraft to land precisely where they need to. If JAXA are successful in achieving a soft landing – an impressive feat in itself for the agency – SLIM will use onboard instruments and rovers to analyse and explore the lunar surface. Experiments conducted on the Moon can tell us a great deal about its composition and history, which in turn helps us to better understand how bodies in the Solar System formed and how they have evolved over time. Many weird and wonderful worlds have been discovered around other stars in the past few decades – exploration of the Moon and our planetary neighbours can grant us access to more pieces of the puzzle that is the Universe.”