Japan’s moon lander survives two-week lunar night after wonky landing
Japan’s moon lander has responded to a signal from Earth, suggesting it survived the two-week lunar night, the country’s space agency has said.
The unmanned Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (Slim) touched down last month at a wonky angle that left its solar panels facing the wrong way. But as the sun’s angle shifted, it powered up for two days and carried out scientific observations of a crater with a hi-spec camera.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) said the lander went to sleep again as darkness returned and, since it was “not designed for the harsh lunar nights”, it was unclear whether it would reawaken.
“Yesterday we sent a command, to which Slim responded,” Jaxa said on Monday. “Slim succeeded in surviving a night on the moon’s surface while maintaining its communication function.”
It said communications were “terminated after a short time, as it was still lunar midday and the temperature of the communication equipment was very high. Preparations are being made to resume operations when instrument temperatures have sufficiently cooled.”
Slim, nicknamed the Moon Sniper for its precision landing technology, touched down within its target landing zone on 20 January.
The feat was a win for Japan’s space programme after a string of recent failures, making the country only the fifth to achieve a “soft landing” on the moon, after the US, Soviet Union, China and India.
During its descent, the craft experienced engine problems and ended up on its side with the solar panels facing west instead of up.
Jaxa toasted a successful blast-off for its H3 rocket on 17 February, making it third time lucky after years of delays and two failed attempts.
Russia, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates are among the other countries trying to reach the moon.
The first US spaceship to the moon since the Apollo era – the uncrewed Odysseus lander built by a private company and funded by Nasa – landed near the lunar south pole on Thursday.
Its maker said the US spacecraft was probably lying sideways after its dramatic landing, even as ground controllers worked to download data and surface photos from it.
The private Japanese firm ispace attempted to land on the moon last year but the probe had a “hard landing” and contact was lost.