Despite a rough beginning, Japan’s Moon lander has restarted, the space agency announced on Monday, allowing the craft to continue its mission of exploring the lunar surface.
The unexpected declaration, which came nine days after the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) landed at an odd angle and its solar panels facing the wrong direction, gave Japan’s space program a boost.
“Last evening we succeeded in establishing communication with SLIM, and resumed operations!” JAXA stated on the social media site X, sharing a blurry picture of a “toy poodle” lunar rock.
“We immediately started scientific observations with MBC, and have successfully obtained first light for 10-band observation,” it said, referring to the lander’s multiband spectroscopic camera.
– Terrifying minutes –
SLIM’s January 20 touchdown made Japan only the fifth nation to achieve a “soft landing” on the Moon after the United States, the Soviet Union, China and India.
But on its descent, dubbed the “20 minutes of terror”, the craft suffered engine problems and ended up at a skewed angle, images released by JAXA showed.
This meant the solar panels were facing west instead of up, and it was uncertain if they would still get enough sunlight to function.
Last week JAXA said it had switched the elevator-sized SLIM off with 12 percent power remaining, hoping that the craft would wake up this week.
A JAXA spokesman told AFP on Monday that the SLIM operation resumed “presumably because power generation resumed in its solar battery as it received sunlight”.
“We will prioritise what we can do now — observing and collecting information — rather than adjusting SLIM’s position since adjusting the position could lead to a worse situation,” he said.
“The daytime (where SLIM is on the Moon) will last until around the end of January and it will be at night from around February,” he said.
– Pinpoint –
Rebuilding its credibility following several recent setbacks, JAXA announced last week that SLIM had landed 55 meters (yards) away from its intended target.
This meant that, true to its moniker, the “Moon Sniper” landed inside the landing zone of 100 meters, which is far more accurate than the typical range of several kilometers (miles).
Mission control downloaded technical and image data from SLIM’s descent and from the lunar crater where it landed before turning off the craft.
Now that it has enough power, SLIM can focus on its primary task of exploring an exposed region of the Moon’s mantle, which is the inner layer that is typically located far below its crust.
According to JAXA, two more probes—one with a transmitter and the other made to trundle—also separated successfully.
– Transformers –
This shape-shifting mini-rover, slightly bigger than a tennis ball, was co-developed by the firm behind the Transformer toys.
Russia, China and other countries from South Korea to the United Arab Emirates are also trying their luck to reach the Moon.
US firm Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander began leaking fuel after takeoff this month, dooming its mission. It likely burned up in the Earth’s atmosphere on its return.
NASA has also postponed plans for crewed lunar missions under its Artemis programme.
Two previous Japanese lunar missions — one public and one private — have failed.
As part of the US Artemis 1 mission, the nation sent the Omotenashi lunar probe in 2022, but it was an unsuccessful mission.
Japanese startup ispace made a fruitless attempt to land on the moon in April, losing contact with its craft following what it called a “hard landing.”
AFP
