The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) survived its third night on the moon.
This is despite the fact that the Japanese moon was not designed to withstand even one very cold night on the moon, where the temperature dropped to as low as 274 degrees Fahrenheit (less than 170 degrees Celsius).
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) revealed that SLIM braved its third lunar night on Wednesday (April 23) after receiving a picture of the moon’s surface from a human in charge.
Related: It’s alive! JAXA’s SLIM moon lander sends new photos home after surviving a cold lunar night
With it X feed, JAXA shared an image captured by SLIM as it exited its third lunar night.
In a translated tweet, the Japanese space agency wrote: “Last night (April 23 night), we were able to successfully communicate with # WARNING which had started again, and confirmed that SLIM had survived the third time.
“Here is a picture of the surface of the moon taken last night with a travel camera. Since this picture was taken in the first years of the moon until now after nightfall, the moon is generally bright and the shadows are too short.”
SLIM arrived on the moon on January 19, 2024, tasked with testing landing technology and collecting data on lunar geology. Shortly after landing, its JAXA crew discovered that it had moved forward, resting on its nose. This meant that its solar panels didn’t look right into the sun, which made its survival all the more remarkable.
SLIM on the first night of the month started on January 31, ends on Feb. 15. Then night fell on SLIM again on February 29, its crew expected a steady drop in temperature from 212 degrees Fahrenheit (100 degrees Celcius) to around. 274 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 170 degrees Celsius) spells doom for the slice.
“Although the probability of failure will increase due to the severe heat cycle, SLIM plans to retry the operation at the next sunrise (late March),” JAXA said. renew .
When operations were retested in mid-March, JAXA found that the lander’s basic functions were still working. And it seems that’s the case again when SLIM appears on the night of the moon again in mid-April, sending messages home on April 23rd.
While SLIM is sending images of the lunar surface, an independent researcher in India Chandra Tungathurthi used the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter to probe Japan’s lunar lander. He shared some of the pictures he took on his X feed.
Tungathurthi wrote: “I got SLIM using the High Orbital Camera on top of Chandrayaan-2. The image below was taken on 2024.03.16 with a pixel resolution of 16cm per pixel! Because of the altitude at the bottom of the sun, you see long- drawn shadows.”
“I’ve shared three different views of the meaning of the place. I’ve talked a lot about the place SLIM got to before, you can see it below. # WARNING I woke up again yesterday for the third time – that’s 3 nights in a row it’s done that,” he continued.
“SLIM maintained its basic functions even after an overnight hibernation, which was not expected in its design,” JAXA said. post translated to X . “We will continue to monitor SLIM’s condition closely and hope to identify areas of deterioration based on the lunar environment during the day and night, as well as areas of instability.”
