Japan’s Moon lander has survived the harsh lunar night, the sunless and freezing equivalent to two Earth weeks. “Last night, a command was sent to #SLIM and a response received,” national space agency Jaxa said on X. The craft was put into sleep mode after an awkward landing in January left its solar panels facing the wrong way and unable to generate power.
A change in sunlight direction later allowed it to send pictures back but it shut down again as lunar night fell. Jaxa said at the time that Slim (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) was not designed for the harsh lunar nights. It said it planned to try to operate again from mid-February, when the Sun would shine again on Slim’s solar cells.
Dr Barber explained that Slim landed near the Moon’s equator, where the lunar surface reaches more than 100C at noon, but then plunges to -130C during the lunar night.
Jaxa said that communication with the lander was terminated after a short time – it was lunar midday, meaning the temperature of the communications equipment was very high.
Credit: bbc.com
