SLIM, Japan’s historic moon lander, is formally powered down in preparation for a brutal, seemingly deadly lunar nighttime lasting round 14.5 days. Before drifting off to what very in all probability will be a everlasting slumber, nevertheless, the small craft beamed again a number of remaining glimpses of its new house to mission management at the Japanese area company, JAXA.
[Related: Japan’s SLIM lunar lander stuck the landing—upside down.]
“Last night (January 31st to February 1st), we sent a command to turn on the probe’s communication device just 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. “This is the last scene taken by SLIM with its navigation camera before dusk.”
After finishing operation from 1/30 ~ 1/31, #SLIM entered a two week dormancy interval throughout the lengthy lunar evening 🌚. Although SLIM was not designed for the harsh lunar nights, we plan to attempt to function once more from mid-February, when the Sun 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 Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, first bumped into hassle throughout its descent on January 19, when its important 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 apprehensive the lander would 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.
Almost 10 days later, nevertheless, the solar’s return offered SLIM sufficient juice to reboot itself and begin a number of extra operations, together with utilizing its Multi-Band Camera to scan the chemical composition of its lunar environment. JAXA researchers are at the moment analyzing all the information SLIM relayed again to Earth, paying particular consideration to the detection of olivine, which “will help solve the mystery of the origin of the moon,” JAXA officers stated in an announcement launched on February 1.
SLIM’s remaining glimpse of the moon exhibits a darkening panorama because it enters its prolonged lunar evening, when temperatures plummet as little as a balmy -208 Fahrenheit. It’s fascinating to check the final photograph with SLIM’s two earlier snapshots taken instantly after landing on January 19, in addition to after coming again on-line ten days later. Viewed side-by-side, the triptych highlights an out-of-frame solar’s gradual 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: JAXA/Takara Tomy/Sony Group Corporation/Doshisha University.)
But though it’s very seemingly SLIM’s official finish to a monthslong journey, JAXA isn’t shutting down operations simply but. After all, spacecraft typically show way more resilient than initially believed—simply ask the NASA groups behind Voyager or Ingenuity.
“Although SLIM was not designed for the harsh lunar nights, we plan to try to operate again from mid-February, when the Sun will shine again on SLIM’s solar cells,” JAXA posted to X on Thursday.