The Japanese spacecraft “SLIM”, which landed on the moon last January, has resumed its activity after surviving a harsh lunar night that lasted for two weeks, according to what the Japanese space agency “JAXA” announced today, Monday.
The agency wrote, via the “X” platform (formerly Twitter), “Last night, a command was sent to ‘Salim’ and a response was received, confirming that the vehicle survived the lunar night and maintained its ability to communicate!”
JAXA indicated that communications “were interrupted for a short period, because the spacecraft was still in the middle of the lunar day and the temperature of the communications equipment was very high.”
The agency added, “Preparations are being made to resume operations when the temperatures of the devices decrease to a sufficient extent.”
On January 20, the “Slim” spacecraft (which are the first English letters of the phrase “smart lander for exploring the moon”) succeeded in landing 55 meters from its designated target, which is a very high degree of accuracy, making Japan the fifth country whose vehicle has succeeded. In landing on the moon after the United States, the Soviet Union, China and India.
But a problem with the engine in the last few tens of meters before landing led to Slim settling on the moon's surface at a curved angle, so its west-facing photovoltaic panels were not receiving sunlight.
“Slim” landed in a small crater less than 300 meters in diameter, called “Shiuli”, and was able to naturally launch the two miniature vehicles it carried. These two vehicles are supposed to conduct analyzes of rocks coming from the internal structure of the moon known as the lunar mantle, about which not much data is yet available.
More than 50 years after man's first steps on the moon, an achievement achieved by the Americans in 1969, countries raced to it again.
The American “Artemis” program intends to send astronauts to the moon, a project that was recently postponed to September 2026, and aims in the longer term to build a permanent base on the moon. China has similar competing projects.
#vehicle #resumes #activity #moon