{"id":54226,"date":"2024-01-29T12:10:23","date_gmt":"2024-01-29T12:10:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/9776c48a-19e5-4433-ac6f-08eb664ab784"},"modified":"2024-01-29T12:32:30","modified_gmt":"2024-01-29T12:32:30","slug":"japans-lunar-lander-slim-back-online","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/japans-lunar-lander-slim-back-online\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan\u2019s lunar lander SLIM back online<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>
By Ezzy Pearson\n <\/p>
Published: Monday, 29 January 2024 at 12:10 PM<\/p>
\n\n
Japan\u2019s lunar lander, Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM)<\/a> has come back online after nine days of radio silence.<\/p>
The lander landed on its nose, placing its solar panels in the shade but the Sun has now moved into a position where it can illuminate them.<\/p>
JAXA will now conduct operations for as long as it can before lunar night falls in a few days time.<\/p>
What is the SLIM lander?<\/strong><\/h2>SLIM from the Japanese Aerospace Agency (JAXA<\/a>) launched on 6 September 2023, landing on the lunar surface several months later on 19 January at 15:20UT.<\/p>
SLIM launched on 6 September 2024 onboard a H-IIA rocket (JAXA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
The Moon mission\u2019s<\/a> primary goal was to conduct a precision landing in the Shioil Crater, with a target landing zone just 100m wide.<\/p>
Soon after the expected touchdown time, NASA\u2019s<\/a> Deep Space Network received telemetry from the spacecraft, confirming it had landed in one piece.<\/p>
This achieved the mission\u2019s primary goal and made Japan the fifth nation to successfully soft land on the Moon.<\/p>
Unfortunately, it soon became apparent the spacecraft\u2019s solar panel system wasn\u2019t charging properly.<\/p>
JAXA attempted to recover the spacecraft\u2019s operations during the few hours of battery life but were unsuccessful.<\/p>
They placed the spacecraft into hibernation when the its battery power was diminished, hopeful they would be able to get SLIM back online when the Sun moved into a more favourable positon.<\/p>
What was wrong with the SLIM lander\u2019s solar panels?<\/strong><\/h2>The team were able to determine the cause of the problem thanks to one of SLIM\u2019s two small lunar rovers<\/a>, Lunar Excursion Vehicle 1 (Lev-1) which were able to deploy successfully.<\/p>
Lev-1 is designed to communicate directly with Earth, rather than using SLIM as a relay station, meaning the team were able to use the rover\u2019s camera to examine the spacecraft.<\/p>
These images showed the spacecraft had landed on its nose, blocking its solar panels from the Sun.<\/p>
$\"The$
The Lev-1 rover was able to return images on the SLIM lander on the surface (JAXA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
How did the SLIM lander get back online?<\/h2>
The team were hopeful that as the Sun moved around during the lunar day, it would be able to illuminate the solar panels and bring SLIM back online.<\/p>
On the morning on 29 January, JAXA announced that it had successfully re-established contact.<\/p>
JAXA immediately restarted science operations, analysing the composition of olivine rocks on the lunar surface.<\/p>
Such rocks are believed to have formed in the mantel layers of infant planets, and so could give insight into how the Moon and other planetary bodies formed.<\/p>
The delay mean the spacecraft only has a few more days until lunar night falls<\/a>.<\/p>
SLIM isn’t designed to survive the 14-day long period of darkness and so will probably not resume operations once the new lunar day dawns.<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n
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