Japan SLIM Moon Lander Defies Odds And Survives Second Brutal Lunar Night

The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced that its Smart Lunar Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) had successfully reawakened following a chilling second lunar night, which equates to two weeks back here on Earth. SLIM was even capable of transmitting images of the surrounding lunar landscape, making the feat even more exciting for the space agency.

It was only a couple of months ago that SLIM made its landing on the lunar surface, which JAXA referred to as a “numbing 20 minutes of terror!” The successful landing made Japan only the fifth nation to accomplish the feat of landing a spacecraft on the Moon, following India’s Chandrayann-3 mission last summer. However, an electrical issue caused the space agency to wonder if SLIM was still operational. To everyone’s surprise, the lunar lander not only woke up after its first lunar night, but now has awakened following a second.

In a tweet, JAXA remarked, “Last night, we received a response from #SLIM, confirming that the spacecraft made it through the lunar night for the second time!” It added, “Since the sun was still high and the equipment was still hot, we only took some shots of the usual scenery with the navigation camera.”

Not all the news was good, however. The space agency responded to the original tweet, adding that data showed some temperature sensors and unused battery cells started malfunctioning. On the sunnier side of that news, JAXA added that most functions which survived the first lunar night were still operational. It's worth noting that temperatures near the Moon's equator can reach 250F (121C) during the day and -208F (-133C) during the night.

Another recent lunar landing has not been so lucky. Houston-based Intuitive Machines announced last weekend that its Odysseus spacecraft failed to wake up. Odysseus had landed at the wrong angle, but was able to complete several tasks and send back a few photos before its first lunar night began. Unfortunately, Intuitive Machines was forced to announce the spacecraft’s journey officially over.

All of this goes to show that landing on the Moon still remains an extremely difficult feat to pull off, even after Apollo 11 first touched down on the lunar surface over 50 years ago. Hopefully, JAXA’s SLIM will continue to defy odds and send back data that might help future endeavors be more successful.