The Japanese SLIM lunar lander has started working again

The Japanese Aerospace Agency (JAXA) announced that the SLIM spacecraft that arrived at the Moon on Friday, January 19, has resumed its work. After the successful landing on the Moon, many doubts arose as to whether SLIM could continue to operate, since the vehicle's solar panels had stopped generating electricity and were thus unable to charge its batteries. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said on Sunday that it was able to restore communications with the lander about nine days after landing on the moon. According to the Japanese Space Agency, the vehicle will likely be able to generate energy again once it is illuminated by sunlight.

For landing on the moon's surface, the lander (its name is short for… Intelligent lander for lunar exploration) I used a high-precision autonomous navigation system. It was launched on September 6, 2023 from Japan and then spent a few months approaching the Moon, entering orbit around our natural satellite on December 25. He then performed some maneuvers to prepare for descending to the surface. At around 4pm Italian time on January 19, SLIM turned on its engines to slow down, detach itself from orbit, and begin to lose altitude. Its automatic navigation systems then select the pre-selected point for landing on the lunar surface and control the lander to avoid colliding with any obstacles along the path.

SLIM was successfully contacted last night, and operations have resumed! Scientific observations began immediately using MBC, and we obtained the first light of the ten-band observation. This figure shows the “toy poodle” observed in the multi-scale observation. pic.twitter.com/WYD4NlYDaG

– SLIM Small Lunar Landing Demonstration Vehicle (@SLIM_JAXA) January 29, 2024