Janice R. Andrews
Japan became the sixth nation to soft land on an Earthly satellite when the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (Slim), a robot built in Japan, made history by landing on the lunar surface close to an equatorial crater. But now that Slim’s solar power system is having issues, the mission could be jeopardised, clouding the impressive accomplishment.
The craft’s solar panels suddenly stop producing electricity, and engineers from the Japanese space agency (Jaxa) are working nonstop to save the project. Now that Slim is completely dependent on its batteries, there is a real risk that the mission may end in a matter of hours due to battery drain, which would leave the ship motionless and silent.
Even with this setback, Jaxa officials are still hopeful. In the hopes that adjustments to the light angles on the Moon may bring Slim back to life, they are investigating the idea that the solar cells may have gotten positioned in a way that blocks their vision of the Sun.
Hitoshi Kuninaka, vice president of Jaxa, highlighted during a press conference that a gentle landing was successfully accomplished in spite of the power outage. Two small rovers were successfully ejected by Slim as scheduled, and telemetry shows that it is still communicating with Earth.
Fitted with an infrared camera, the probe was scheduled to investigate the lunar geology in the area over the course of the following two weeks. It is questionable how much of this inquiry can be completed in the allotted time.
Jaxa made use of cutting-edge precision navigation technologies, such as crater mapping and fast picture processing, to accomplish a 100-meter precise landing. In order to determine how well Slim performed throughout its descent, the engineers are currently reviewing data.
Concerns about the freezing temperatures that could shatter electronic circuit boards arise when lunar night draws closer the landing site in Shioli Crater. Having successfully placed robots on asteroids before, Jaxa now has to figure out how to keep Slim operating in these hostile lunar settings.
The successful moon landing adds another accomplishment to Jaxa’s resume and puts Japan in a strong position to contribute significantly to NASA’s Artemis programme, which aims to send people back to the lunar surface after more than 50 years, despite the solar power issue. The world space community is eager to learn more about the mission’s outcome.
