Japan’s lunar lander has resumed operations, the country’s space agency said on Monday, indicating that power had been restored after it was left upside down during a slightly accidental landing.
The probe, nicknamed the “lunar sniper,” tumbled down a crater slope during its Jan. 20 landing, leaving its solar arrays facing the wrong direction and unable to generate electricity.
Jaxa, Japan’s space agency, prioritized the transfer of landing data before the battery runs out on the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (Smart), but said there is a chance the probe will be able to recharge once the west side of the moon begins to receive sunlight in the coming days.
“Last night we managed to establish communication with Slim and resumed operations,” Jaxa said on Monday. “We immediately started scientific observations with MBC [multi-band camera]and successfully acquired the first light for 10-band observation,” it said, referring to the lander’s spectroscopic camera.
The agency posted on X an image shot by Slim of “toy poodle,” a rock observed near the lander.
Communication with SLIM was successfully established last night, and operations have resumed! Science observations were started immediately with the MBC, and we obtained first light for the 10-band observation. This figure shows the “toy poodle” observed in the multi-band observation. pic.twitter.com/WYD4NlYDaG
— 小小月着陸実証機SLIM (@SLIM_JAXA) January 29, 2024
The touchdown made Japan only the fifth nation to achieve a soft lunar landing, after the United States, the Soviet Union, China and India.
The lander achieved its goal of landing within 100 meters of its target and touching down 55 meters further. This is much more precise than the usual landing zone range that experts set at several kilometers.
Slim aimed for a crater where the moon’s mantle, the usually deep inner layer beneath its crust, is believed to have been exposed on the surface.
But about three hours after landing, Jaxa decided to shut down Slim with 12% power left to allow for a possible restart when the sun’s angle changes.
Two probes were successfully detached, Jaxa said — one with a transmitter and another designed to orbit the lunar surface and beam images back to Earth. This shape-shifting mini-rover, slightly larger than a tennis ball, was co-developed by the firm behind the Transformer toys.
Two previous Japanese moon missions – one public and one private – failed. In 2022, the country unsuccessfully sent a lunar probe named Omotenashi as part of the United States’ Artemis 1 mission.
In April, Japanese started ispace tried unsuccessfully to become the first private company to land on the moonand lost communication with his vessel after what it described as a “hard landing”.
