Japan’s moon lander comes back to life, resumes mission

— Japan’s moon lander has resumed operations, the space agency said on Monday, indicating that power had been restored.

After it landed on Jan. 20, JAXA had said that problems with the craft’s solar batteries meant they were not generating power.

“Last evening we succeeded in establishing communication with SLIM, and resumed operations,” JAXA said on X, formerly Twitter.

“We immediately started scientific observations with MBC, and have successfully obtained first light for 10-band observation,” it said, referring to the lander’s multiband spectroscopic camera.

The agency posted on X an image shot by the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) of “toy poodle,” a rock observed near the lander.

The touchdown made Japan only the fifth nation to achieve a soft lunar landing, after the United States, the Soviet Union, China and India.

But around three hours after landing, JAXA decided to switch SLIM off with 12 percent power remaining to allow for a possible resumption when the sun’s angle changed.

The lander achieved its goal of landing within 100 meters of its target, touching down 55 meters away.

That is much more precise than the usual landing zone range that experts put at several kilometers.

SLIM was aiming for a crater where the moon’s mantle, the usually deep inner layer beneath its crust, is believed to be exposed on the surface.

Two probes detached successfully, JAXA said — one with a transmitter and another designed to trundle around the lunar surface beaming images to Earth.

This shape-shifting mini-rover, slightly bigger than a tennis ball, was co-developed by the firm behind the Transformer toys.