Japan’s SLIM space probe managed to survive a freezing lunar night, the agency announced this Monday. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)which managed to restore communication with the device, which is now preparing to resume observation work.
“SLIM successfully survived the night on the lunar surface while maintaining its communication capabilities,” the organization said via profile The SLIM project on social network X.
As the team communicated with the probe at midday on the moon with extremely high temperatures, the communication was interrupted shortly afterwards, but from now on the necessary adjustments will be made “to resume observations once the temperature has dropped sufficiently”. detailed.
Communication with #SLIM it was terminated after a short time because it was still midday on the moon and the temperature of the communication device was very high. Preparations are underway to resume operations when the device temperatures cool down sufficiently. #GoodAfterMoon #JAXA
— SLIM Small Moon Landing Demonstrator (@SLIM_JAXA) February 26, 2024
The announcement coincided with today’s release of a detailed report on the probe’s landing on the moon, preliminary results of which were presented at a press conference held in the middle of this month.
He SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) landed on Earth’s natural satellite at 00:20 local time on January 20 (15:20 GMT on January 19), after a rough 20-minute descent in which it lost one of its two engines.
The device landed in an abnormal position and orientation that did not allow it to charge its batteries with solar power, so it had to be temporarily shut down and there were fears for its fate.
Nine days later, it was reported that the module managed to return to work when the position of sunlight was favorable, and so it continued to observe the lunar surface with a spectroscopic camera installed on the device, which later went into hibernation with the arrival of the probe. night on the satellite.
Shortly after landing and during its subsequent operation, SLIM made detailed observations of ten rocks, which were named after dog breeds.
Objectives
Launched on September 7, 2023, SLIM’s primary mission was to make a “precise” or precise/localized landing within 100 meters of the Shioli Crater, near the lunar equator, an accuracy never seen before.
The probe, which made Japan the fifth country in the world to successfully land an unmanned device on the moon, landed about 55 meters from its target, and the team believes the project can contribute to both improving navigation technology and reducing the weight of such devices. in future missions.
Another side quest SLIM was to take pictures for use in Artemis Lunar Exploration Projecta component that was worried when it had to be shut down, but which recovered after power was restored due to changing sunlight conditions and is now expected to be able to continue after the last hibernation.
(With information from EFE)
