Japan's SLIM probe regains power more than a week after moon landing
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[January 29, 2024]
By Kantaro Komiya
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's SLIM spacecraft has regained power, its space
agency said on Monday, more than a week after it achieved an
unconventionally precise lunar landing but ran out of electricity
because its solar panels were at the wrong angle. |
![](../images/012924PIX/news_b8.jpg)
Daichi Hirano, Hitoshi Kuninaka, Shinichiro Sakai and Masatsugu Otsuki
from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), smile in front of a
screen showing an image taken by LEV-2 on the moon, after their press
conference on SLIM’s moon landing mission, in Tokyo, Japan January 25,
2024. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo |
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) re-established
communication with its Smart Lander for Investigating Moon
(SLIM) late on Sunday, a JAXA spokesperson said, nearly nine
days after the probe's touchdown made Japan the fifth country to
put a spacecraft on the moon.
The probe was likely able to generate power thanks to a change
in the sunlight's direction, JAXA said.
SLIM resumed its operations to analyse the composition of
olivine rocks on the lunar surface with its multi-band spectral
camera, in search of clues about the origin of the moon, the
agency added.
SLIM touched down on the moon within 55 m (180 ft) of its target
in a crater near the lunar equator on Jan. 20. JAXA said it
proved an advancement in what it called vision-based "pinpoint"
landing - a technology that could be a powerful tool for future
exploration of hilly moon poles seen as a possible source of
fuel, water and oxygen.
SLIM lost the thrust of one of its two main engines shortly
before the touchdown for unknown reasons and ended up drifting a
few dozen metres away from the target. The lander safely stopped
on a gentle slope but appeared toppled with an engine facing
upward in a picture taken by a baseball-sized wheeled rover it
deployed.
The probe's solar panels faced westward due to the displacement
and could not immediately generate power. JAXA manually
unplugged SLIM's dying battery 2 hours and 37 minutes after the
touchdown as it completed the transmission of the lander's data
to the earth.
JAXA does not have a clear date when SLIM will end its operation
on the moon, but the agency has previously said the lander was
not designed to survive a lunar night. The next lunar night
begins on Thursday.
(Reporting by Kantaro Komiya; Editing by Jamie Freed)
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