Japanese SLIM Lander Rises Again After Night On The Moon

The lunar surface portrait of the SLIM camera (photo: dock. JAXA)

JAKARTA - In early February, the smart Lander for Investigation Moon (SLIM) was deactivated because the Moon entered the night. The plane is expected to be completely shut down after the evening of the end.

Apparently, this estimate is wrong. On Monday, February 26, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced that their lander managed to respond to the order. This response shows that SLIM is able to survive on extreme lunar nights.

"Last night, orders were sent to SLIM and responses were received, confirming that the spacecraft had made it past the evening of the moon and maintained communication capabilities!" JAXA said via platform X some time ago.

Communication was established in a short time because SLIM again cut contact shortly after responding. This happened because communication equipment was in such a high temperature and the lander decided to rest.

"When we (SLIM) communicated with Earth last night, the temperature of some of our equipment was already more than 100 degrees Celsius. I didn't expect the temperature to be this high, but it was amazing that space electronic equipment was still functioning!" said JAXA.

Seeing this development, JAXA believes that they can still maintain SLIM. After the temperature of the instrument has dropped and is not as hot as before, JAXA will send an order to SLIM to give another response.

Currently, the SLIM team is preparing a multiband spectroscopy camera (MBC) instrument to return to observation. This instrument will observe the composition of the lunar surface until the sun sets again on Thursday, February 29.

This means that JAXA only has a short time to explore the moon and observe its surface. If it is late, SLIM will not be reactivated because the lander is not designed to stay on very extreme lunar nights.