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(Bloomberg) — Japan hasn’t given up on resurrecting its moon lander, whose solar cells couldn’t recharge after it reached the lunar surface around five days ago.
The probe landed on a slope but there’s still a possibility the sun will strike the lander’s west-facing solar cells and charge the craft, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said in a statement Thursday.
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“We’re on standby should a signal come through,” the statement said.
The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, touched down within 55 meters of its intended target, according to JAXA, making it the nation’s first time landing on the moon and the world’s first pinpoint landing.
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SLIM was meant to demonstrate JAXA’s ability to dramatically improve the landing accuracy of lunar excursions, by reducing the target range of past probes from several kilometers to less than 100 meters.
Last week’s landing, while an historic success for the nation and the industry, was short-lived.
Mission control flagged an issue with its power source immediately after it reached the moon’s surface about 20 minutes after midnight Japan time on Saturday morning.
Its solar cells weren’t recharging, JAXA told reporters, meaning it would shut down in a few hours if the sun didn’t strike it at the right angle.
The agency announced Tuesday that SLIM was shut off less than three hours after landing to conserve energy.
The lander and the rover it deployed were still able to collect readings and images from the surface, vital data that JAXA said its scientists are “relieved to have collected and excited to examine.”
Japan joined an exclusive club previously occupied by only four other nations to have successfully landed on the moon, including the US, USSR, China and India.
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2024-01-25 05:40:24Z
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