2024-01-25 07:30:24
Having become the fifth country in the world to successfully land on the Moon, Japan published images on Thursday of its Slim space module which landed a few days ago in a lunar crater. Despite a problem with solar panels, the Japanese space agency believes that a restart is possible.
Published on: 01/25/2024 – 08:30
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Successful moon landing, supporting photos. The Japanese space agency (Jaxa) published the first images of the moon landing of its small Slim spacecraft on Thursday January 25. The device had landed five days previously on the Moon, where it touched the ground approximately 55 meters from its target, a very high degree of precision, noted Jaxa.
The objective of landing this module within a radius of 100 meters from its target, compared to several kilometers in general for lunar missions, has therefore been achieved.
Slim (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) landed in a small crater less than 300 meters in diameter, called Shioli. He was able to land his two mini-rovers normally, supposed to carry out analyzes of rocks coming from the internal structure of the Moon (the lunar mantle), which is still very poorly understood.
A mosaic of monochrome images scanning the lunar surface captured by the camera mounted on the Slim mission’s lunar module, following the moon landing on January 20, 2024. © AFP – Jaxa, Aizu University, Ritsumeikan University
A multi-band spectroscopic camera (MBC) mounted on the private company’s lunar module for the Slim mission made it possible to take multiple images of the lunar surface.
Scientists have given nicknames to the lunar rocks photographed by the multiband spectroscopic camera (MBC) mounted on the lunar module of the Slim mission, following the moon landing on January 20, 2024. © AFP – Jaxa, the University of Aizu, l Ritsumeikan University
This moon landing represented an unprecedented feat for Japan, which became the fifth country in the world to successfully land on the Earth’s natural satellite following the United States, the USSR, China and India.
The Lunar Excursion Vehicle 2 (LEV-2) mounted on the Slim craft, on display here at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) premises. © Kim Kyung-Hoon, Reuters
The Sun expected to help Slim’s solar panels
But the Japanese feat was accompanied by a serious downside: Slim (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) experienced a problem with its solar panels, which forced Jaxa to turn off its power supply less than three hours following its moon landing, to save its batteries for a possible restart later.
Jaxa believes it is possible that Slim’s solar panels might work once more when the angle of the sun at the moon landing site changes.
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