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Japan ’s SLIM moon lander has seemingly withstand end — for a 2d time .
After being power down on Jan. 31 for what was assumed to be amission - ending , two - calendar week - long sleepin the suspend lunar night , the lander unexpectedly waken up and react to a instruction place by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency ( JAXA ) Sunday night ( Feb. 25 ) .
The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM), taken by LEV-2 on the moon, released on January 25, 2024.
" Last night , a statement was send out to SLIM and a response receive , confirming that the spacecraft has made it through the lunar night and maintained communication capabilities,“JAXA wrote on X(formerly Twitter ) , Sunday . communicating with SLIM was suspend " after a short time , " as progressively hot condition at the landing internet site near the moon ’s equator were causing SLIM ’s instruments to overheat , JAXA officials added .
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This is the 2nd surprisal revival for SLIM — short for " Smart Lander for Investigating Moon " — since ittouched down on the lunar surface on Jan. 19 in the most accurate lunar landing in history . Despite making a speck touchdown , the craftaccidentally landed upside down , forcing applied scientist to shut down SLIM almost now when it became cleared that the craft ’s solar energy cellular phone were not invite fair to middling sunlight . SLIMbriefly power back on nine days later , when the direction of incoming sun change enough to power SLIM ’s solar cellular phone . However , its operations were limited to a few hours before it power off again .
SLIM ’s ongoing survival is singular , JAXA said , as the workmanship was not designed to brave lunar night — the roughly 14 - day period when much of the moon ’s dear side is deprived of sunlight , resulting in temperatures as scummy as negative 208 degrees Fahrenheit ( minus 133 degrees Celsius ) at the lunar equator , allot toNASA .
越夜の成功を信じ、MBCチームは前回見えなかった赤枠内を撮像する新たなコマンドを作りました！さらなる観測の可能性にワクワクしています！#SLIM # JAXAまだまだ # たのしむーん pic.twitter.com/1EQbUXstZTFebruary 26 , 2024
Now that lunar daytime has take up ( which you may see in the form of thenearly full " snow moon"in the sky tonight ) , SLIM must support swelter temperatures of up to 250 F ( 121 C ) instead . concord to JAXA , cookery have been made to proceed communicate with SLIM " when instrument temperatures have sufficiently cooled . "
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With SLIM ’s successful landing place last month , Japan became the fifth nation to extend to the lunar surface , after the former Soviet Union , the United States , Chinaand India .
India ’s Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander , which touched down near the lunar south rod on Aug. 23 , 2023 , superintend to study the country for about two weeks before it , too , was force to shut down during the lunar night . Unlike SLIM , India ’s lander never wake upfrom its lunar hibernation .
