Nasa has shared photos captured by its satellite of Japan’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (Slim) on the lunar surface following its successful pinpoint landing. The photos, taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter before and after the landing, reveal a slight change in reflectance around the lander due to engine exhaust sweeping the surface, according to Nasa.
On January 19, Japan achieved the historic feat of landing a spacecraft on the Moon, making it the fifth nation to do so. The explorer landed around 55 meters from its target site, showcasing Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s ‘pinpoint’ landing technology. Despite the precise landing, the craft’s unintended tilt during landing caused the solar panels to fail in generating power.
Jaxa stated that the craft’s unexpected orientation might have been caused by one of the main engines losing thrust at an altitude of 50 meters above the surface. Nevertheless, power generation is expected to commence once the west side of the Moon is exposed to sunlight.
Furthermore, Slim successfully deployed a palm-sized robot named SORA-Q shortly before landing. It has managed to capture an image of Slim tilting on the Moon’s surface.
The newly released images show that Slim ended up on its head, rather than the intended orientation, inhibiting it from harnessing sunlight as intended. However, the successful transmission of the image to mission control indicates the proper operation of the mini probes—LEV-2 and LEV-1—deployed from Slim during the descent on the lunar surface.
Jaxa officials mentioned in a statement, “This image [of the lander on its head] was transferred to the ground via LEV-1, and it was confirmed that the communication function between LEV-1 and LEV-2 was operating normally.”
(With inputs from agencies)
