Japanese flight controllers re-established contact with the robotic SLIM lunar lander Saturday, eight days after the spacecraft tipped over and misplaced energy because it was touching down on Jan. 19, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Company introduced Sunday.
An engine malfunction moments earlier than touchdown induced the Sensible Touchdown for Investigating (the) Moon, or SLIM, spacecraft to float to at least one aspect throughout its ultimate descent as a substitute of dropping straight all the way down to the floor.
That lateral velocity apparently induced the probe to tilt over because it touched down, leaving its photo voltaic cells, connected to the highest of the lander, dealing with away from the solar. With out solar energy, the spacecraft was pressured to depend on the dwindling energy in its on-board battery.
After downloading just a few images and amassing as a lot engineering information as doable, instructions have been despatched to close the spacecraft down whereas it nonetheless had a small reserve of battery energy.
On the time, officers mentioned they have been hopeful contact could possibly be restored when the angle between the solar and SLIM’s photo voltaic cells modified because the moon swept via its orbit.
Within the meantime, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter photographed the SLIM touchdown web site final week from an altitude of fifty miles, exhibiting the spacecraft as a tiny speck of mirrored mild on the moon’s cratered floor:
No particulars have been instantly out there Sunday, however the staff mentioned in a put up on X that it “succeeded in establishing communication with SLIM final evening and have resumed operations! We instantly began scientific observations with MBC (multi-band digicam), and have efficiently obtained first mild.”
The goal was a close-by rock formation nicknamed “toy poodle.”
昨晩SLIMとの通信を確立することに成功し、運用を再開しました！
早速MBCの科学観測を開始し、無事、10バンド観測のファーストライトまで取得しております。
下の図はマルチバンド観測のファーストライトにてトイプードルを観測したものです。 pic.twitter.com/vLVh4utQTT— 小型月着陸実証機SLIM (@SLIM_JAXA) January 28, 2024
It was not instantly recognized if sufficient energy was out there to recharge SLIM’s battery, how lengthy engineers anticipated the spacecraft to function with the out there energy or whether or not it is perhaps shut down once more to await extra energy technology.
Regardless of its issues, SLIM efficiently landed on the moon, making Japan the fifth nation to tug off a lunar touchdown after the US, the previous Soviet Union, China and India
Three commercially developed robotic landers launched over the previous couple of years from Japan, Israel and the US all suffered malfunctions that prevented intact landings.
A fourth industrial lander, constructed by Houston-based Intuitive Machines, is scheduled for launch subsequent month.
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