“Photos of Japan's robotic lunar lander show the spacecraft landed upside down despite traveling 250,000 miles to the moon's surface…” mashable.
The space agency said the lander was now in an apparently inverted position, meaning its solar panels were not properly oriented to generate electricity. The research team chose to save power by shutting down the spacecraft about two and a half hours after landing.
Perhaps as surprising as the photo of the lander is how it was taken. Two small rovers separated from the unoccupied mothership shortly before landing. It was one of his robots, about the size of a baseball, that was able to capture images of the spacecraft with its head in the moon dust. The rover, built with the help of Japanese toy maker Takara Tomy, has a sphere that can be split in half to reveal a pair of cameras facing forward and backward. The two hemispheres also serve as the rover's wheels. “The company is probably best known for being the first to develop Transformers, alien robots that could disguise themselves as machines,” said Elizabeth Tasker, who gave an English commentary on the moon landing on January 20.
The space agency still doesn't fully understand what went wrong. Approximately 55 yards above ground, the spacecraft performed an obstacle avoidance maneuver as part of a pinpoint landing demonstration. Just before this step, one of the two main engines ceased thrust, disorienting the lander. JAXA continues to investigate the cause of the engine problem…despite the fact that the spacecraft is currently asleep, the SLIM team has not lost hope for recovery. With its solar panels facing west, the lander could still capture the rays and generate electricity. According to mission officials, SLIM could wake up even if the angle of sunlight changes.
But it has to happen soon. On February 1st, the moon will experience nightfall, with temperatures below freezing. The spacecraft was not built to withstand such conditions.
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft is currently passing over the landing site at an altitude of about 50 miles (80 kilometers), detecting “slight changes in reflectance around the lander as engine exhaust gases sweep across the surface.” They showed and took pictures themselves. ”