Japan's moon lander clicks final image before going dormant once again
Japan's SLIM
After a brief time awake, Japan's Moon lander, the unmanned Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM), has once again fallen asleep. On Thursday, the Japanese space agency on X, formerly Twitter, revealed that the lander is out of action but will resume its mission if it survives the two-week lunar night.
What's up with SLIM?
In a post on X, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said, "After completing operation from 1/30 (to) 1/31, #SLIM entered a two-week dormancy period during the long lunar night."
Also read |Lunar resilience: Japan's SLIM bounces back, captures images of 'toy poodle' rock on Moon's surface
The moon lander went dormant after capturing an amazing black-and-white picture of the rocky lunar surface.
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"Although SLIM was not designed for the harsh lunar nights, we plan to try to operate again from mid-February, when the Sun will shine again on SLIM's solar cells," it added in another post.
JAXA, as per space.com,will have to wait out a roughly 14.5 Earth-days-long lunar night—facing harsh temperatures of around minus 208 degrees Fahrenheit(minus 130 degrees Celsius). It can potentially revive because of the favourable lighting and temperature conditions during the lunar daytime (estimated to start around Feb 15).
Previous troubles
On January 20, Japan achieved a soft lunar landing, making it only the fifth nation to accomplish this feat, joining the ranks of the United States, the Soviet Union, China, and India.
The lander demonstrated remarkable precision, landing within 100 metres of its target and only 55 metres away.
Despite the feat, challenges faced by SLIM led to the decision to temporarily switch it off. Landing at a wonky angle left its solar panels facing the wrong way, and merely three hours after landing SLIM had to be switched off.
SLIM, as per JAXA, deployed two probes successfully – one equipped with a transmitter and another designed to traverse the lunar surface, capturing images to beam back to Earth. The mini-rover, slightly larger than a tennis ball, has been co-developed by the creators of Transformer Toys.
(With inputs from agencies)
