Japan's lunar lander has responded to signals from Earth, suggesting it survived two weeks of lunar night, the Japanese space agency announced.
Last month, the unmanned lunar exploration smart lander (Slim) landed at an unstable angle with its solar panels facing the wrong direction. However, due to the change in the angle of the sun, we powered up for two days and conducted scientific observations of the crater using high-spec cameras.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said the lander will go back to sleep when darkness returns and it is unclear whether it will wake up again because it is “not designed to withstand harsh lunar nights.” .
“Yesterday, we sent a command and Slim responded,” Jaxa said Monday. “Slim was able to survive a night on the moon while maintaining communication capabilities.”
“The communication was short-lived because it was still midday and the temperature of the communication equipment was very high,” the paper said. We are preparing to resume operation once the temperature of the equipment has cooled down sufficiently. ”
Slim, nicknamed Moon Sniper because of its precision landing technique, landed within its target landing zone on January 20.
The feat is a victory for Japan's space program after a series of recent failures, making Japan the fifth person to achieve a “soft landing” on the moon, after the United States, Soviet Union, China and India. .
During the descent, the plane experienced engine trouble and ended up on its side with the solar panels facing west instead of up.
JAXA toasted the successful launch of its H3 rocket on February 17, becoming third time lucky after years of delays and two failures.
Russia, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates are among the other countries trying to reach the moon.
The Odysseus unmanned lander, built by a private company and funded by NASA, was the first U.S. spacecraft to reach the moon since the Apollo era, landing near the moon's south pole on Thursday.
Producers said the U.S. spacecraft was likely lying on its side after the dramatic landing, even as ground controllers were trying to download data and surface photos from the spacecraft.
Private Japanese company iSpace attempted to land on the moon last year, but the probe made a “hard landing” and lost contact.
