Japan’s
Smart
Lander
for
Investigating
Moon
(SLIM)
has
been
resurrected,
over
a
week
after
the
probe
ran
out
of
electricity
following
its
troubled
lunar
touchdown
on
January
20th,
leaving
it
upside-down
and
its
solar
panels
pointing
in
the
wrong
direction.
On
Monday,
the
Japan
Aerospace
Exploration
Agency
(JAXA)
announced
that
communication
with
the
SLIM
spacecraft
had
been
re-established,
and
operations
to
hunt
for
clues
about
the
Moon’s
origins
had
resumed.
JAXA
had
predicted
that
a
change
in
sunlight
direction
could
allow
the
probe’s
battery
to
be
recharged
from
its
awkwardly
angled
solar
panels.
It’s
unclear
how
long
this
power
will
last
—
the
agency
previously
said
that
SLIM
was
not
designed
to
survive
a
lunar
night,
which
will
next
occur
on
Thursday.
Images
of
the
lunar
surface
taken
by
SLIM’s
multi-band
spectral
camera
before
the
spacecraft’s
power
was
initially
disabled
were
released
on
January
25th.
Today,
JAXA
released
another
image
of
the
“toy
poodle”
rock
formation
photographed
by
SLIM.
While
the
mission
faced
some
issues
with
its
landing
position
after
one
of
the
SLIM
spacecraft’s
main
engines
failed
causing
it
to
tumble
over,
the
successful
soft
landing
makes
Japan
the
fifth
nation
to
land
a
spacecraft
on
the
moon,
alongside
the
US,
China,
India,
and
the
former
Soviet
Union,
according
to
Reuters.
An
image
of
the
lander’s
awkward
touchdown
position
was
photographed
by
one
of
the
two
small
“baseball-sized”
transforming
robots
ejected
during
landing.
And
despite
the
topple,
SLIM’s
mission
itself
was
judged
a
success
by
JAXA
after
landing
within
an
“unprecedented”
180
feet
of
its
target
—
a
showcase
of
vision-based
“pinpoint”
landing
technology
that
the
space
agency
hopes
could
be
a
valuable
tool
in
advancing
Lunar
exploration.
(Originally posted by Jess Weatherbed)
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