TOKYO: Japan’s autonomous lunar lander has resumed functioning after successfully enduring a second extremely cold lunar night.
The lander has transmitted new photographs back to Earth, as announced by the country’s space agency on Thursday.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced that they received a response from SLIM yesterday night, confirming the successful completion of its second nighttime operation.
This information was shared through a post on JAXA’s official X account for its Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) mission.’
Last night, we received a response from #SLIM, confirming that the spacecraft made it through the lunar night for the second time! Since the sun was still high and the equipment was still hot, we only took some shots of the usual scenery with the navigation camera. #GoodAfterMoon pic.twitter.com/5BjIr7vxMG
— 小型月着陸実証機SLIM (@SLIM_JAXA) March 28, 2024
The agency explained that they were able to acquire photographs of the well-known lunar scenery using the navigational camera, among other operations, due to the sun’s high position and the remaining warmth in the equipment.
However, this was only possible for a short amount of time. The article was accompanied by a monochromatic photograph depicting the rugged terrain of a crater.
SLIM’s landing in January occurred at an unorthodox inclination, resulting in the misalignment of its solar panels.
Approximately three hours after landing, JAXA decided to shut down SLIM, leaving it with 12 percent battery capacity in case it had to be turned on again in the future. This achievement makes Japan the fifth country to accomplish this.
After a change in the sun’s location, the probe temporarily resumed operation in late January, carrying out scientific investigations of a crater using a high-quality camera.
Nevertheless, the lunar nights, which last for two weeks and have temperatures dropping to – 133 degrees Celsius, presented a difficulty as the spacecraft was not initially designed to withstand such severe circumstances.
Therefore, JAXA scientists were delighted when SLIM successfully resumed activity in late February following its debut lunar night.
JAXA has given the nickname “Moon Sniper” to SLIM due to its advanced precision landing technology. The mission aims to explore a specific portion of the Moon’s mantle, which is a normally hard-to-reach inner layer located under the surface.
According to recent reports, Odysseus, an unmanned American lander and the initial privately-owned spacecraft to successfully land on the Moon, did not restart its operations despite predictions that there would be enough sunlight to provide power for its radio using its solar panels. This information was disclosed by the manufacturer on the previous Saturday.
(Written With inputs from agencies. The headline and the story has not been edited by THND staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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