TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s first moon lander has survived a 3rd freezing lunar evening, Japan’s house company stated Wednesday after receiving a picture from the software 3 months after it landed at the moon.The Japan Aerospace Exploration Company stated the lunar probe spoke back to a sign from the earth Tuesday evening, confirming it has survived any other weekslong lunar evening.Temperatures can fall to minus 170 levels Celsius (minus 274 levels Fahrenheit) all over a lunar evening, and upward thrust to round 100 Celsius (212 Fahrenheit) all over a lunar day. The probe, Sensible Lander for Making an investment Moon, or SLIM, reached the lunar floor on Jan. 20, making Japan the 5th nation to effectively position a probe at the moon. SLIM on Jan. 20 landed the unsuitable manner up with its sun panels to begin with not able to peer the solar, and needed to be became off inside hours, however powered on when the solar rose 8 days later.
SLIM, which was once tasked with checking out Japan’s pinpoint touchdown era and gathering geological knowledge and photographs, was once now not designed to live to tell the tale lunar nights.JAXA stated at the social media platform X that SLIM’s key purposes are nonetheless running in spite of repeated harsh cycles of temperature adjustments. The company stated it plans to carefully track the lander’s deterioration.
Scientists are hoping to seek out clues concerning the foundation of the moon via the evaluating mineral compositions of moon rocks and the ones of Earth.
The message from SLIM got here days after NASA restored touch with Voyager 1, the farthest house probe from earth, which have been sending garbled knowledge again to earth for months.An U.S. lunar probe advanced via a non-public house corporate introduced termination of its operation a month after its February touchdown, whilst an Indian moon lander failed to ascertain verbal exchange after landing in 2023.
