Japan’s Moon lander has been successfully reactivated after surviving the freezing lunar night, marking a surprising turn of events for the country’s space agency. Scheduled for another operation later this month, the unmanned Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) initially encountered challenges when it touched down at an awkward angle in January, causing its solar panels to face the wrong direction.
Despite this setback, SLIM managed to revive for two days as the sun’s angle shifted, enabling it to conduct scientific observations of a crater using a high-spec camera. Unexpectedly, the probe woke up again this week after enduring two weeks of the harsh lunar night, where temperatures plummet to minus 133 degrees Celsius.
JAXA announced SLIM’s return to dormancy after sunset on March 1, acknowledging the increased risk of failure due to severe temperature fluctuations. However, they remain determined to attempt SLIM’s operation once more when sunlight returns in late March.
This development follows the recent achievement of the uncrewed American lander Odysseus, which became the first private spacecraft to land on the Moon. Sadly, Odysseus sent its final image before its power banks depleted.
SLIM, affectionately known as the “Moon Sniper” for its precision landing technology, successfully landed within its designated target zone on January 20, marking a significant milestone for Japan’s space program. This success comes after a series of setbacks, positioning Japan as the fifth nation to achieve a “soft landing” on the Moon, following the United States, the Soviet Union, China, and India.
The primary objective of the SLIM mission is to investigate a portion of the Moon’s mantle, the typically inaccessible deep inner layer beneath its crust. Meanwhile, NASA is gearing up to return astronauts to the Moon later in the decade, with plans to establish long-term habitats in the region and utilize polar ice for drinking water and rocket fuel for future missions to Mars.
