Japan’s first moon lander has survived the third cold lunar night, Japan’s space agency said Wednesday after receiving an image from the device three months after landing on the moon.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said the lunar probe responded to a signal from Earth on Tuesday night, confirming it had survived another week-long lunar night.
Temperatures can drop to minus 170 °C (minus 274 °F) during the lunar night, and rise to nearly 100 Celsius (212 °F) during the lunar day.
The probe, Smart Lander for Investing in the Moon, or SLIM, reached the lunar surface on January 20, making Japan the fifth country to successfully land a probe on the Moon. SLIM landed incorrectly on January 20, with its solar panels initially unable to see the Sun, and had to be turned off within a few hours, but were turned on when the Sun rose eight days later.
SLIM, which was tasked with testing Japan’s pinpoint landing technology and collecting geological data and images, was not designed to survive lunar nights.
JAXA said on social media platform X that SLIM’s key functions are still working despite repeated harsh cycles of temperature changes. The agency said it plans to monitor the lander’s condition closely.
Scientists are hoping to find clues about the Moon’s origin by comparing the mineral composition of the Moon’s rocks and Earth’s.
SLIM’s message comes days after NASA restored contact with Voyager 1, the farthest space probe from Earth, which had been sending garbled data back to Earth for months.
A US lunar probe developed by a private space company announced it would end its operations a month after landing in February, while an Indian lunar lander failed to establish communication after touchdown in 2023.
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Published: April 24, 2024, 02:16 PM IST
