TOKYOMarch 29 (News On Japan) – JAXA has announced the revival of the unmanned explorer “SLIM” after its successful hibernation after making Japan’s first moon landing. The probe successfully survived a second lunar night, a period when temperatures can drop to minus 170 degrees Celsius.
According to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, the generation operation was started on Wednesday evening, with the expectation that enough sunlight would hit the solar panels to restart SLIM. Communication with the probe was successfully restored.
SLIM also managed to capture images of the moon’s surface with its built-in camera.
On the moon, day and night alternate approximately every two weeks, with temperatures can drop to minus 170 degrees Celsius.
SLIM made its historic landing on the lunar surface on January 20, but landed in an unexpected direction, putting solar power generation out of action, and ended its planned operations on January 31.
After overcoming the harsh lunar environment and successfully surviving the first lunar night on February 25, SLIM achieved another remarkable feat by surviving a second night about a month later.
Source: ANN
