No eternal night for the SLIM mission. At least, not yet. The Japanese lander overcame the terrible night on the Moon, which lasts a very long time and is extremely cold. A signal was received, which put an end to a grueling wait for the Japanese space agency.
It’s a sudden trace on a graph, a single and very brief peak. But it was a radio burst that sparked the joy of the Japanese space agency (Jaxa). And for good reason: the SLIM lander is still operational! SLIM survived the terrible lunar night, whose duration (two weeks) and intensity (-130°C) are sometimes fatal to missions.
“ Last night, a command was sent to SLIM and a response was received, confirming that the spacecraft passed through the lunar night and maintained its communications capabilities! “, wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on February 26, the account dedicated to the mission. A small miracle, which took place nearly 385,000 km from Earth.
This signal, captured on February 25, lifted a big weight off the shoulders of the teams in charge of SLIM (acronym for Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, in French intelligent lander to investigate the Moon). It offers Jaxa the prospect of being able to extend the career of the machine, which was only supposed to last a few days.
This time, SLIM is a little too hot
However, we will still have to wait a little before SLIM gets back into the swing of things. Indeed, this time, it is… too hot on the Moon. The satellite experiences extreme temperature swings, which can drop as low as -248°C and rise as high as 123°C. Variations that severely test the equipment on board lunar missions.
That’s why ” communication with SLIM was interrupted after a short time “, clarified the Jaxa. “ It was still lunar noon and the temperature of the communications equipment was very high. » The team waits until the temperature of the instruments drops enough. Scientific operations can then resume.
Beyond the Japanese space agency, others have welcomed the survival of SLIM, such as Thomas Appérédoctor in planetology and professor in physics-chemistry, or theAMSAT, an association of radio amateurs responsible for maintaining experimental satellites. Many feared that the craft would not be able to recover from these hellish conditions.
Jaxa is not completely at the end of its troubles: certainly, the mission has arrived on the Moon, but it did not land correctly. The machine is overturned, which will complicate the collection of scientific data, but also communication with Earth. The signal received on February 25 was weak because of this situation.
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