The national space agency Jaxa stated on X that “a command was sent to #SLIM and a response received last night.”
After a rough landing in January that rendered the solar panels facing the incorrect direction and unable to produce electricity, the vehicle was placed into sleep mode.
Later, as the direction of the sun shifted, it was able to transmit images back, but when lunar night descended, it shut down once more.
When Slim (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) was first launched, Jaxa stated that it was not intended fo
The statement stated that it intended to resume operations in the middle of February, when Slim’s solar cells would once more get sunlight.
After a short while, according to Jaxa, contact with the lander was lost because it was lunar midday, which meant that the communications equipment was extremely hot.
It stated that plans were in place to start up again once the instrument temperatures had dropped enough.
Slim’s previous brief reawakening allowed it to carefully examine its surroundings and send back fresh photographs to Earth.
Jaxa will be hoping to carry on with its mission after surviving the lunar night.
