TOKYO: Japan’s unmanned Moon lander woke up after surviving a second frigid, two-week lunar night and transmitted new pictures back to Earth, the country’s space agency said on Thursday.
We received a response from Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) last night and confirmed that it had successfully completed its second overnight, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said in a post
It added that since the sun was still high in the sky last night and the equipment was hot, we recorded photos of the usual scenery with the navigational camera, among other activities, for a short span of time, AFP reported.
A black-and-white image of the rocky surface of a crater accompanied the post on social media platform X.
Japan’s SLIM Lander Touches Down
The SLIM lander touched down in January at a wonky angle that left its solar panels facing the wrong way.
Around 3 hours after the landing — which made Japan only the 5th country to touch down on the Moon — JAXA decided to switch SLIM off with 12% power remaining to allow for a possible resumption later on.
As the sun’s angle shifted, the probe came back to life in late January for 2 days and carried out scientific observations of a crater with a high-spec camera.
But the spacecraft was not designed for the freezing, fortnight-long lunar nights, when the temperature dropped to minus 133 degrees.
So space agency scientists had cause for celebration when it was successfully revived in late February after its first lunar night.
