As of: January 26, 2024, 5:00 a.m
By: Tanja Banner
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Despite power problems, Japan celebrates the success of the “Slim” lunar landing mission.
The sun could still play an important role.
Tokyo – The moon landing of the Japanese lunar lander “Slim” last Friday (January 19th) was not accompanied by much celebration.
The reason for this was the uncertainty created by the Japanese space agency Jaxa by keeping the public in the dark about whether the moon landing was successful.
It was obvious that Slim had reached the lunar surface, as the moon has a gravitational pull that inevitably attracts any space probe.
However, the question of whether the probe survived the landing remained unanswered for a long time.
But then the longed-for news came: “Slim” had made contact with the team on Earth after landing.
However, the lunar lander could not generate electricity from its solar cells and the battery charge did not last long.
Jaxa has now released more information about the spacecraft, which has been silent for several days.
Shortly after landing on the moon, which took place at 4:20 p.m. German time, the battery was only twelve percent charged, which is why “Slim” was switched off as planned at 6:57 p.m.
“Slim” could generate electricity when the sun reaches its solar cells
The remaining energy should be saved for a later restart of the lunar lander.
And apparently that is actually possible.
“According to the telemetry data, the solar cells of 'Slim' are facing west,” explains Jaxa on
X
(formerly Twitter).
The sun is currently not shining on the lunar lander's solar cells, which is why it cannot generate electricity.
But this situation could change if the lighting conditions on the moon change.
“When sunlight shines on the lunar surface from the west, there is a possibility of generating electricity,” the “Slim” team said, adding: “We are preparing for recovery.”
People follow the landing of the Japanese lunar lander “Slim” with fascination.
The moon landing makes Japan only the fifth country to achieve a soft landing.
© Eugene Hoshiko/dpa
A lunar day lasts approximately two weeks.
On “lunar morning” the sun rises above the eastern horizon.
Two weeks later it sets in the west, followed by two weeks of darkness, the “lunar night,” without any sunlight.
It is currently “morning” at the “Slim” landing site – the sun could reach the solar cells on “lunar afternoon”.
Japan's moon landing was a success - despite power problems
Jaxa has revealed further information: In the short period of time between the moon landing and the lunar lander being switched off, “Slim” apparently sent a lot of data and images to Earth.
“We are currently conducting a detailed analysis and are relieved that we have obtained a lot of data,” said the Japan Space Agency.
At the end of the current week, Jaxa plans to report more on the status of “Slim” and the current results.
“Although the landing position did not go as planned, we are happy that we were able to achieve so much and happy to have landed successfully, ”
continues
X.
A scale model of the Japanese space agency Jaxa's "Slim" lunar lander.
© Eugene Hoshiko/dpa
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Japan is the fifth country to soft land on the moon
With the “Slim” mission, Japan has achieved a significant success: it is the fifth country to achieve a soft landing on the moon.
The former Soviet Union (“Luna 9”, February 1966) was the first country, followed by the USA (“Surveyor 1”, June 1966) in the “space race” during the Cold War.
Many years later, China followed (“Chang'e 3”, December 2013) and most recently India (“Chandrayaan 3”, August 2023).
In recent years, several countries and private companies have failed in their attempts to land on the moon.
Most recently, the US space probe “Peregrine” burned up in the Earth's atmosphere instead of landing on the moon.
Experts attribute this, among other things, to the fact that a moon landing cannot be adequately simulated on Earth.
Both the US and China plan to send people to the moon in the coming years.
However, while the USA had to postpone its “Artemis” program again, China is still sticking to its target year of 2030.
The editor wrote this article and then used an AI language model for optimization at her own discretion. All information has been carefully checked.
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