Japan's SLIM Probe Revives After Second Night

Mar 29, 2024 | News On Japan

TOKYO - JAXA has announced the revival of the unmanned explorer "SLIM" following its successful hibernation after making Japan's first moon landing. The probe successfully endured a second lunar night, a period during which temperatures can drop to as low as minus 170 degrees Celsius.

According to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, the revival operation was initiated on Wednesday night, with expectations that sufficient sunlight would hit the solar panels to restart SLIM. Communication with the probe was successfully reestablished.

SLIM also succeeded in capturing images of the lunar surface with its onboard camera.

On the moon, day and night alternate approximately every two weeks, with temperatures plunging to as low as minus 170 degrees Celsius.

SLIM made its historic landing on the moon's surface on January 20th but landed in an unexpected orientation, rendering the solar power generation inoperative, and concluded its planned operations on January 31st.

After overcoming the harsh lunar environment and successfully surviving the first lunar night on February 25th, SLIM achieved another remarkable feat by surviving a second night about a month later.

Source: ANN

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