Japan's unmanned moon lander wakes up after surviving second lunar night

Japan's unmanned Moon lander has reactivated after encountering its second cold, two-week lunar night, and has sent back new images to Earth, according to Japan's space agency on Thursday (Mar 28).

"We received a response from SLIM last night and confirmed that SLIM had successfully completed its second overnight," the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said in a post on its official X account aboutthe Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) probe.

"Since the sun was still high in the sky last night and the equipment was still hot, we recorded images of the usual scenery with the navigational camera, among other activities, for a short period of time," it added.

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JAXA's lunar journey

Formerly posted on X, a grayscale image capturing the rough terrain of a crater accompanied the update on the SLIM mission, shared via a platform similar to Twitter. The SLIM lander's touchdown in January happenedat an unexpected angle, misaligning its solar panels.

Despite this roadblock JAXAmarked Japan as the fifth country to achieve a lunar landing.

Subsequently, in late January, as the sun's position shifted, SLIM reawakened for a brief period, usingits high-spec camera to conduct scientific observations.

However, the harsh lunar nights, with temperatures dropping to minus 133 degrees Celsius, presenteda challenge as SLIM was not made to withstandsuch conditions.

The successful revival of the spacecraft in late February brought relief to JAXA scientists, earning SLIM the nickname "Moon Sniper" for its smoothlanding capabilities.

Also watch |Japanese moon lander 'SLIM' comes back to life and resumes mission

The central objective of the mission is to investigate a segment of the Moon's mantle.

(With inputs from agencies)