Japan's lunar lander SLIM surprisingly reports back after third night
Japan's lunar lander exceeds all expectations: Although it is not designed for the extreme night-time temperatures on the moon, it has survived three nights.
(Bild: Elena11/Shutterstock)
The Japanese lunar lander SLIM has surprisingly survived its third night on Earth's satellite and returned to Earth. This was announced by the Japanese space agency JAXA, which added that this longevity had not been expected. It will now try to determine the condition of the probe to find out in which parts wear and tear is visible due to the changes between day and night and in which it is not. SLIM is not actually designed to survive night-time temperatures of less than -130 degrees Celsius. It has now managed to do so three times. Those responsible have also published another photo that SLIM has taken. It is significantly brighter than those previously published.
SLIM landed on the moon on January 19, but landed at an angle. As a result, the probe was only able to complete the tasks assigned to it before it ran out of power. It had to be deactivated after a few hours, but those responsible had already announced at this point that this did not necessarily mean the end of the mission. When the sun shone on the probe from a more favorable direction, it was able to recharge its batteries and be reactivated. This was successful at the end of January, after which the probe collected data and take photos for several days. The sun then set and the probe ceased operations again. It reported back at the end of February after its first lunar night and at the end of March after the second.
With SLIM, Japan became only the fifth nation ever to land a spacecraft safely on the moon. As an additional special feature, SLIM also managed to touch down closer to the intended landing site than any other unmanned probe before it. Normally, such landings reach the target regions with an accuracy in the kilometer range. SLIM, on the other hand, touched down just 55 meters from the planned landing site. The technology used for this is to be used in future missions. A short time later, the first commercial moon landing was also successful, with the successful Odysseus lander tipping over just like SLIM. However, it still worked afterwards.
(mho)