Japanese module that reached the Moon carried out observation and went to rest during lunar night

2024-02-01 11:50:54

The Japanese lunar module SLIM resumed operations after restoring the power supply, which allowed it to carry out its observations on January 30 and 31, but on February 1 it entered “rest” for the lunar night that will last two weeks, the space agency reported. Japanese JAXA.

“After completing operations on January 30 and 31, SLIM entered a two-week rest period during the long lunar night,” JAXA said on the social network X (formerly Twitter).

“Although SLIM was not designed for the harsh lunar nights, we plan to try to operate it again in mid-February, when the Sun returns to illuminate its solar cells,” he added.

He indicated that SLIM was able to “successfully complete its observations (…) as planned” with its camera and could study more areas than expected.

Lunar module recovers energy

Nine days after the module landed on the lunar surface at the wrong angle with just a few hours of power remaining, SLIM was able to recover power, the Japanese space agency reported last Monday. “Last night we managed to establish communication with SLIM and it resumed operations”indicated JAXA on the social network X.

“We immediately began scientific observations with the MBC (multi-band spectroscopic camera) and we have obtained the first light for 10-band observation,” he added.

The agency also uploaded in X an image captured by the probe of a rock called a “toy poodle”, observed near the module.

What happened to the module after its landing on the moon?

He SLIM module (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) made a historic lunar landing 55 meters from its initial target, a high degree of precision, which made Japan the fifth country to land on the Moon, after the United States, the Soviet Union, China and India.

The module achieved its goal of landing within 100 meters of its goal, a much greater precision than other lunar landings, which according to experts is usually within a range of several kilometers.

SLIM pointed to a crater where the moon’s mantle, the usually deep inner layer beneath its crust, would be exposed on the surface.

Two probes separated successfully, JAXA said, one with a transmitter and the other designed to roam the lunar surface sending images to Earth.

This rolling probe, barely larger than a tennis ball, was jointly developed by the firm responsible for Transformer toys.

Russia, China and other countries from South Korea to the United Arab Emirates are also trying to reach the Moon.

For its part, the Peregrine lunar module, from the American firm Astrobotic, began to lose fuel after taking off this month, which put an end to its mission.

It then lost contact with the spacecraft in a remote area of the South Pacific, after apparently burning up in Earth’s atmosphere upon returning.

NASA also postponed its manned lunar missions under its Artemis program. Previously, two Japanese lunar missions – one private and one public – failed.

In 2022, the country unsuccessfully sent a lunar probe called Omotenashi as part of the US Artemis 1 mission.

In April, Japanese startup ispace attempted in vain to become the first private company to land on the Moon after it lost communication with its spacecraft following a “crash landing.”

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