The Japanese space agency (Jaxa) announced Monday January 22 that it had turned off the power supply to its Slim module less than three hours after its historic moon landing on Saturday, in order to save its batteries for a possible restart.
There is a “
possibility
” that the Japanese Slim module, which encountered a solar panel problem, could be revived, Jaxa added.
“Large volume of data”
“
According to telemetry data, Slim's solar cells are oriented towards the West.
If sunlight hits the Moon from the west in the future, we believe it is possible to produce energy, and we are currently preparing for restoration
,” the space agency said.
“
We were able to complete the transmission of technical data and images acquired during descent and on the lunar surface before power was cut
,” Jaxa said on social
network data
” had been received.
Japan on Saturday became the fifth country to have successfully landed on the Moon.
After a breathtaking 20-minute descent, Jaxa announced that the SLIM module (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) had landed at 12:20 a.m. Saturday (Friday 3:20 p.m. GMT) and that communication with it had been established.
But due to a lack of solar panels in service, the machine, nicknamed "
Moon Sniper
" for its ability to land with precision, only had electricity for "
several hours
", warned Hitoshi Kuninaka, one of those responsible for the Jaxa.
It is possible that the panels will work again when the angle of the sun changes, she said, while the team worked to maximize the scientific results of the mission by transmitting the data obtained to Earth.
SLIM is one of many lunar missions launched recently by countries and private companies.
But so far, only the United States, the Soviet Union, China and more recently India have succeeded in landing on the Moon.
“Partnership in the cosmos”
The head of NASA, the American space agency, Bill Nelson, sent his “
congratulations (to Japan) which has become the fifth country in history to successfully land on the Moon
”.
“
We value our partnership in the cosmos and our ongoing collaboration
,” he added.
Jaxa hopes to analyze the data acquired during the moon landing to determine whether the craft achieved its objective of landing within 100 meters of its target.
SLIM landed in a small crater less than 300 meters in diameter, called Shioli, from where it was to carry out analyzes on the ground.
The two mini-rovers carried by SLIM were released normally, Jaxa said, including a spherical probe called SORA-Q, barely larger than a tennis ball, and capable of modifying its shape to move on the lunar soil.
It was developed by Jaxa, in partnership with the Japanese toy giant Takara Tomy.
Although the accuracy of the moon landing must be confirmed, "
I think the mission is a great success
," said Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
Several problems could potentially be at the origin of the problem with solar panels, he explained to AFP.
“
A loose cable, a cable connected the wrong way, or the lander could be upside down and not seeing the sun for whatever reason
,” suggested Jonathan McDowell.
Technological challenge
More than 50 years after the first steps by humans on the Moon - the Americans in 1969 - it has once again become the subject of a global race.
In addition to the United States and China, Russia also dreams of reconnecting with the space glory of the USSR, by partnering in particular with China and India, which made its first moon landing last summer.
Japan's first two attempts to land on the moon went wrong.
In 2022, a Jaxa probe, Omotenashi, on board the American Artemis 1 mission, experienced a fatal battery failure shortly after its ejection into space.
And in April 2023, a lunar lander from the young private Japanese company ispace crashed on the surface of the Moon, having missed the gentle descent stage.