HELSINKI — Japan’s SLIM lander has been forced to power down on the moon with its solar cells unable to catch sunlight, but hope remains that the spacecraft can be reactivated.
Japan’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) successfully touched down within the small, mid-latitude Shioli crater at 10:20 a.m. Eastern (1520 UTC) Jan. 19.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) confirmed the successful landing just under two hours later. Two small rovers, Lunar Excursion Vehicle 1 and 2 (LEV-1 and 2) were successfully deployed onto the surface of the moon. The achievement proved the technical approach of SLIM and made Japan the fifth country to successfully soft-land on the moon.
SLIM’s solar cells were, however, not generating power. JAXA thus prioritized acquiring data while the spacecraft ran on battery power. While initially not confirmed, it was suspected that the attitude of the lander relative to the sun left its solar cells useless.
In a series of posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, via an official mission account Jan. 22, JAXA stated that SLIM disconnected its battery at 12%, as planned, to prevent over-discharge. SLIM powered down at 12:57 p.m. Eastern (1757 UTC) Jan. 19. Before this, JAXA managed to obtain “a lot of data.”
“Technical and image data acquired during the landing descent and on the lunar surface were successfully transmitted,” according to JAXA. The agency is conducting a detailed analysis of the data.
There remains the possibility of the spacecraft being reactivated later in the lunar day. SLIM’s solar cells are facing west, according to telemetry data. This attitude means the cells are not receiving sunlight and cannot generate electricity to power the…
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