Japan just became the fifth country to land a spacecraft on the moon. But after SLIM landed on the Moon, the team faced a serious problem that threatened to derail the mission. You’re running out of power because your solar panels are at the wrong angle.
If the problem is not resolved soon, the SLIM (Smart Lunar Lander) probe will shut down. The ship runs entirely on batteries. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) carried out several maneuvers to extend the operation time, such as turning off the heating, but there will still be enough energy for a few more hours.
“JAXA will maintain the status quo instead of taking risky measures and hopes that changing the angle of sunlight on the panels will restore their functions,” explained Hitoshi Kuninaka, director of the JAXA Research Center. press conference.
The angle of the Sun on the Moon will change in 30 days– Kuninaka noted. “So when the direction of the sun changes and light comes from a different direction, it can end up hitting the solar cells,” he added. According to NASA’s Deep Space Network, the SLIM signal was lost this Friday afternoon. It is unknown whether this was a temporary failure or another energy saving measure.
Another failure of Japan in the race to the moon
The Japanese agency launched the SLIM mission in September last year. The probe, nicknamed the “lunar sniper” for its accuracy, has finally begun its descent to the Moon. 15:00 UTC (16:00 Spanish peninsular time) this Friday. The maneuver lasted about 20 minutes. Previously, such success was achieved only by the United States, the Soviet Union, China and India.
Before this failure, JAXA had faced other key setbacks in its race to the Moon. It made its first attempt to land on the Moon in 2022, but was forced to abandon the mission after losing contact with the Omotenashi lander. And in March last year, the launch of its new flagship rocket, the H3, with which it had intended to compete with other space companies such as SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, failed. This failure led to several delays in their missions, including SLIM.
Even with the risk of power shortages, Japan considers the moon landing a success. “The spacecraft sent telemetry data, meaning that most of the equipment on board was working,” the JAXA director said.
The agency claims that SLIM has achieved a soft landing. However, it is expected that it will take about a month to confirm whether they landed exactly where they planned. The plan was to land near the Scioli crater, south of the lunar equator. If they achieved the expected accuracy, it would be a big step between “landing where we can” and “landing where we want,” JAXA said. These high-precision landings will be critical for future lunar exploration.
SLIM carried two small robots that were released during the Moon landing. The first is LEV-1, a small all-terrain vehicle weighing just over 2 kg, equipped with a thermometer and radiation sensor. The second is called LEV-2, weighs only about 250 grams and is equipped with two cameras. Both can send their data directly to Earth. They were expected to do this soon as they had the opportunity to act within 40 minutes and 2 hours respectively. AJAX said it will continue to report any developments.
Source: Hiper Textual
