NASA Spacecraft Finds Japanese Lander on the Moon

JAKARTA – The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), a spacecraft belonging to the United States Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), discovered the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) on the Moon.

NASA believes the portrait they shared is of the Japan Exploration Agency's (JAXA) SLIM lander which is being rested because its power generator is not yet functioning. The reason is, LRO had passed that location before and the point was empty.

Based on the LRO portrait taken at an altitude of 80 kilometers, SLIM is at 13.3160 ​​degrees south latitude and 25.2510 degrees east longitude. LRO couldn't enlarge the image anymore because it was quite far away and it still had to orbit the moon.

At least, LRO succeeded in proving that SLIM landed in the right area, namely near the Shioli crater. The bright lines around the object, referring to the image shared by LRO, are rock material that came out of the Shioli crater.

SLIM's current landing location means its solar panels are not working. In fact, this plane requires electricity to increase battery power. This problem causes the battery power to continue to decrease so that JAXA has to remove the battery.

Currently, SLIM is being decommissioned, while the Lunar Excursion Vehicle 1 (LEV-1) and Transformable Lunar Robot (LEV-2) rovers have been separated from SLIM. Although both rovers were fine, they were unable to operate because they were waiting for the power plant to function.

The solar panel not working occurred due to SLIM's landing not meeting JAXA's expectations. The lander should have landed 55 meters west of the current distance. This inappropriate distance keeps SLIM far from sunlight.

Even though SLIM is powered down, JAXA is confident that the lander will be able to survive until the solar cells reach its position. Sunlight is expected to come from the west, after which the solar panels will produce electricity and SLIM can be turned on again.