Posted on 02/26/2024 12:14:04 PM PST by Red Badger
An artist's conception shows Japan's SLIM lander in its upended position on the lunar surface. (Credit: JAXA)
Japan’s space agency didn’t expect its wrong-side-up SLIM moon lander to revive itself after powering down for a circuit-chilling lunar night on Feb. 1. But that’s exactly what happened.
“Last night, a command was sent to SLIM and a response received, confirming that the spacecraft has made it through the lunar night and maintained communication capabilities!” the SLIM mission team reported today in a posting to X / Twitter.
This wasn’t SLIM’s first resurrection: The boxy spacecraft touched down and tumbled onto its side on Jan. 19-20, settling in a position where its solar arrays couldn’t charge up its batteries. To conserve power, mission managers put the probe into hibernation and waited for the sun’s rays to hit the panels at a more favorable angle.
The team was able to revive the lander and get a few days’ worth of science data before putting it back into hibernation. Mission managers thought that might have been the end. During the 14-day lunar night, surface temperatures were expected to fall to about 200 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (-130 degrees Celsius) — a deep-freeze that was colder than what SLIM was designed to endure.
The lunar night ended days ago. After giving SLIM’s solar panels a chance to charge up the batteries again, the team at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency decided to check in — and got the good news. The circuitry is warm again. Actually, it’s hot: SLIM’s team members said that when the lander resumed contact, some of its equipment was hotter than 212 degrees Fahrenheit (100 degrees Celsius). That’s too hot for their liking.
“Communication with SLIM was terminated after a short time, as it was still lunar midday and the temperature of the communication equipment was very high,” the mission team reported. “Preparations are being made to resume operations when instrument temperatures have sufficiently cooled.”
Based on that information, it sounds as if SLIM (whose acronym stands for “Smart Lander for Investigating Moon”) would be able to get in only a few days of work before the team has to put it to sleep again for the next lunar night. But that’s better than nothing. During SLIM’s previous opportunity to do some science, it made multispectral observations of its surroundings near Shioli Crater — including an assortment of rocks that were nicknamed after canine breeds.
SLIM’s remarkable revival may also boost the hopes of the team behind Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus lander, which touched down near the moon’s south pole last week and is expected to be in operation until lunar sunset about a week from now. Like SLIM, Odysseus made an off-kilter landing. Like SLIM, Odysseus was equipped with electronics that weren’t designed to survive the lunar night. And like SLIM, Odysseus will nevertheless get a wakeup call after the coming night has ended — just in case its circuits are more resilient than its designers thought.
Update: The SLIM team has posted a fresh photo from the lander. “During the SLIM overnight operation, we took images with a navigation camera!” the team said in a Japanese-language posting to X / Twitter:
It lasted 20 episodes, one season.
Griffith played a salvage yard operator who tinkered with rockets and assembled a Moon ship out of old NASA scrap.
He had invented a new special rocket fuel, called ‘hydrothorazine’ that could propel him and his ship to the moon without exploding.
He would go up and bring back ‘abandoned’ space junk from the Moon.
Of course there were all kinds of legalities involved...............
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvage_1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvage_1
I saw that show as a teen and really liked it but I think in this case that the SLIM lander had its power turned back on by the nazis that live at the secret WWII moon base.
Well, they could at least go out and stand it upright..................
, they could at least go out and stand it upright
The service company can send a guy to do that, for $10.83 per mile.
That’s the second one in two weeks...probably lunar teenagers going out “probe tipping”.
Yeah, you'd think one of the team had watched "Battlebots" or "Robowars" where even the kids know your robot needs the ability to right itself.
Looks like their photographer made it to the moon okay
“Why is it gold, and what is the gold material covering it?”
It’s mylar
I’ve been told it’s something called ‘Kapton’. Is that the same as Mylar?
“I’ve been told it’s something called ‘Kapton’. Is that the same as Mylar?”
“Kapton is a polyimide film produced from the condensation of pyromellitic dianhydride and oxydiphenylamine, which not only offers higher tensile strength and reliability than Mylar but has the ability to maintain its excellent physical, electrical, and mechanical properties over a wide temperature range.”
(WWW)
New and improved! Interesting.
R2D2 fall down
I don’t know if it did. Sometimes landers / rovers have backup low bandwidth omnidirectional antennas that might have been used, slowly.
Hmmm...
On a per capita useful byte cost basis, SLIM data may be cheaper than LHD data...
The young lady narrating calls herself a "Space History Nerd" -- LOL. She's cute, personable, seems very knowledgable and is a great narrator with a good, tight script.
Best announcement of the series being cancelled came from Johnny Carson.
“Salvage 1, Audience nothing.”
Could you?
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