The Japanese Slim lander (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) managed to survive even its second lunar night, unexpectedly resisting strong temperature fluctuations: as soon as it woke up it sent new images demonstrating that it was in good health, despite some problems emerging to some temperature sensors and some battery cells. The Japanese space agency Jaxa made this known with a post on the X platform.
“We received a response from Slim, confirming that the spacecraft had passed the lunar night for the second time!,” the post read. “Since the Sun was still high and the equipment was still warm, we only took a few photos of the usual scenario with the navigation camera. According to the acquired data, some temperature sensors and unused battery cells start to malfunction, but most of the functions that survived the first lunar night were retained even after the second lunar night!".
Therefore, the Japanese lander which last January 19th became the protagonist of the first precision moon landing never ceases to amaze, but landed in an unfavorable position which does not allow the normal functioning of the solar panels. After two and a half hours of activity it had been put into standby to save the remaining battery charge, in the hope that it could survive the lunar night although it had not been designed to withstand its harsh temperatures. Against all odds, at the end of February Slim managed to wake up as soon as the sun's rays illuminated his solar panels again. The same script repeated itself again in March with the passing of the second lunar night.
This unexpected success comes a few days after the failed awakening of the other protagonist of the lunar chronicles of recent weeks, the Odysseus lander from the Texan company Intuitive Machines. In this case the American vehicle failed to survive its first lunar night and the mission was officially declared over a week after the moon landing on February 23rd.
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