Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has recently made an exciting announcement regarding its Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM). Despite facing challenges during a brutal two-week lunar night where the spacecraft ended up upside down, SLIM managed to survive and start back up over the weekend. In a recent update, JAXA revealed that communication was briefly established with the lunar lander on Sunday, but the high surface temperatures of the moon are currently limiting further actions. However, once the instrument temperatures of SLIM cool down in the coming days, JAXA plans to resume operations and continue with scientific observations.
SLIM reached the vicinity of the moon’s Shioli crater on January 19, marking Japan as the fifth nation to successfully land on the lunar surface. Despite experiencing a malfunction with its main engines, resulting in an upside-down landing, SLIM’s solar cells managed to gather enough energy to carry out its reconnaissance duties. The craft’s two robots successfully deployed and gathered valuable data before temporarily shutting down.
While there were doubts about SLIM’s ability to continue its mission, the spacecraft surprised everyone by rebooting 10 days later and resuming its survey of the lunar environment. With the data obtained so far, JAXA is analyzing rocks and estimating the chemical composition of minerals to unlock the mysteries surrounding the moon’s origin. The scientific findings will be shared with the public once they are available.
As the moon transitioned into a lunar night with plummeting temperatures, JAXA prepared to say goodbye to SLIM once again. However, to everyone’s surprise, the spacecraft managed to recharge its solar cells and come back online after the night phase. Despite facing extreme temperature fluctuations on the moon, SLIM is gearing up to conduct additional scans, including assessing the chemical compositions of regolith formations using its Multi-Band Camera.
The resilience and adaptability of SLIM continue to impress, showcasing the remarkable achievements of JAXA’s lunar exploration mission. The agency remains committed to pushing the boundaries of space exploration and unlocking the secrets of the cosmos.