SLIM, Japan’s historic moon lander, is formally powered down in preparation for a brutal, seemingly deadly lunar nighttime lasting round 14.5 days. Earlier than drifting off to what very most likely can be a everlasting slumber, nonetheless, the small craft beamed again just a few remaining glimpses of its new residence to mission management on the Japanese area company, JAXA.
[Related: Japan’s SLIM lunar lander stuck the landing—upside down.]
“Final night time (January thirty first to February 1st), we despatched a command to activate the probe’s communication machine simply in case, and when there was no response, we confirmed that SLIM had entered a dormant state,” reads a machine translated message from JAXA posted to X on Thursday. “That is the final scene taken by SLIM with its navigation digicam earlier than nightfall.”
After finishing operation from 1/30 ~ 1/31, #SLIM entered a two week dormancy interval throughout the lengthy lunar night time 🌚. Though SLIM was not designed for the tough lunar nights, we plan to attempt to function once more from mid-February, when the Solar will shine once more on SLIM’s photo voltaic cells. pic.twitter.com/JO4ZgDaOxo
— 小型月着陸実証機SLIM (@SLIM_JAXA) February 1, 2024
Japan’s Sensible Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, first bumped into hassle throughout its descent on January 19, when its foremost engines malfunctioned roughly 162-feet above the lunar floor. The resultant lack of thrust threw the lander off kilter, and whereas it arrived intact, it did so nosedown with SLIM’s photo voltaic panels confronted westward. Engineers frightened the lander could be unable to generate sufficient energy to proceed speaking with Earth for very lengthy, and SLIM subsequently went silent only some hours after its arrival—though its two, tiny autonomous robots ejected unscathed to start their very own surveys.
Virtually 10 days later, nonetheless, the solar’s return offered SLIM sufficient juice to reboot itself and begin just a few extra operations, together with utilizing its Multi-Band Digital camera to scan the chemical composition of its lunar environment. JAXA researchers are presently analyzing all the information SLIM relayed again to Earth, paying particular consideration to the detection of olivine, which “will assist resolve the thriller of the origin of the moon,” JAXA officials stated in an announcement launched on February 1.
SLIM’s final glimpse of the moon reveals a darkening panorama because it enters its prolonged lunar night time, when temperatures plummet as little as a balmy -208 Fahrenheit. It’s attention-grabbing to check the final picture with SLIM’s two earlier snapshots taken instantly after landing on January 19, in addition to after coming again on-line ten days later. Considered side-by-side, the triptych highlights an out-of-frame solar’s sluggish descent throughout the moon’s horizon because it casts lengthening shadows throughout the lunar panorama and regolith. (Pictured under: From left to proper: SLIM’s pictures of the lunar floor from Jan. 19 to Feb. 1. Credit score: JAXA/Takara Tomy/Sony Group Company/Doshisha College.)
However though it’s very seemingly SLIM’s official finish to a monthslong journey, JAXA isn’t shutting down operations simply but. In any case, spacecraft typically show way more resilient than initially believed—simply ask the NASA groups behind Voyager or Ingenuity.
“Though SLIM was not designed for the tough lunar nights, we plan to attempt to function once more from mid-February, when the Solar will shine once more on SLIM’s photo voltaic cells,” JAXA posted to X on Thursday.
