Against all odds, Japan's SLIM lander has managed to return to action more than a week after falling upside down onto the moon's surface, but now it has remained dormant throughout the lunar night, and may never be able to wake up again. SLIM team from the Japanese Aerospace Agency JAXAOn Thursday, he shared the last image taken by the lander at the Moon's Cheoli Crater before dusk, as night approaches. A lunar night lasts the equivalent of two Earth weeks and can get colder than -200 degrees Fahrenheit.
Last night (1/31 ~ 2/1) we sent a command to run #Moderate buildThe communicator turned on again just in case, but with no response, we confirmed that SLIM had entered a sleep state. This is the last view of the moon captured by SLIM before dusk. #Good afternoon #jaxa pic.twitter.com/V1iAUoxJFK
— 小型月着陸実証機SLIM (@SLIM_JAXA) February 1, 2024
The team confirmed that the solar-powered lander will remain in a hibernation state and will continue at least throughout the lunar night. The chances of resuming operations after that are not great, but again, you have already surprised us once. “Although SLIM was not designed for harsh lunar nights, we plan to try working again from mid-February, when the sun will once again shine on SLIM's solar cells,” the team wrote on its website. X. If this is truly the last photo of SLIM, it must be a scary one.
“Devoted student. Bacon advocate. Beer scholar. Troublemaker. Falls down a lot. Typical coffee enthusiast.”