Impossible but true: Japanese SLIM module survived the second night on the Moon and sent photos (photo)

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) reported that the SLIM lander, which was expected to not withstand the harsh conditions of the lunar night, woke up again after surviving its second night on the Moon. While the first emergence of the SLIM module from sleep mode at the end of February was unexpected for scientists, the second exit was an even bigger surprise. Nevertheless, Phys writes that the module turned on and sent new images of the lunar surface to Earth.

In Focus. Technologies emerged telegram channel. Subscribe to avoid missing the latest and most exciting news from the world of science!

Thanks to the successful landing of the SLIM module on the Moon, Japan became the fifth country on the planet to complete such a mission. But the Japanese module’s landing on January 19 was not entirely smooth. He landed in a location where he couldn’t recharge his batteries using sunlight. However, after 10 days, the Sun was in a position where the SLIM solar panels could receive the required amount of light. As a result, the module was able to study the Moon for only a few days, after which it turned off, as I wrote earlier Focus. The truth is that SLIM is not designed to withstand the extreme conditions of a cold night on the Moon that lasts more than two Earth weeks.

But at the end of February, SLIM unexpectedly “resurrected”, although it was already “buried”, that is, it unexpectedly came out of sleep mode and sent a signal to Earth. Shortly after this, he also fainted. Scientists believed this would last forever.

And on the evening of March 27, a real surprise for Japanese scientists was the awakening of the SLIM module, which was able to survive the second lunar night. The lander sent another signal to Earth and new images of the lunar surface, notifying scientists of its awakening. However, it is not yet known how long SLIM will be able to work because its devices are already malfunctioning.

As a reminder, JAXA has dubbed the SLIM module “Lunar Sniper” for its ability to land as close to the landing point as possible. The device managed to land on the lunar surface just 55 meters away from its target, while other similar devices landed within a radius of several kilometers.

As I already wrote FocusThe American Odyssey lander has officially completed its work on the Moon. This first dedicated module on a satellite of the Earth did not survive the lunar night, but its creators still hoped to continue their work, inspired by the initial success of SLIM. By the way, this landing also resulted in a not-so-soft landing on the Moon on February 23.

Moreover Focus He wrote that NASA is working on creating a Mars drone that could explore the Red Planet’s atmosphere and surface from an altitude of 1,000 meters.

We would like to remind you that scientists have proposed sending a new spacecraft with a solar sail to study Mercury. This technology will allow more efficient exploration of the planet and, as written before, will require less money for the mission Focus.