Mashable reports that Japan’s robotic moon lander successfully made the 250,000-mile journey to the lunar surface, but landed upside down. This resulted in the lander’s solar panels being unable to generate power due to their incorrect orientation, prompting the space agency to shut down the spacecraft around 2.5 hours after landing to conserve power. What’s equally surprising is that the photo of the upside-down lander was taken by a small rover that separated from the crewless mothership just before touchdown. The baseball-sized robot captured the image with its head in the moondust. This rover, developed with the assistance of Japanese toy maker Takara Tomy, is a sphere that opens up to reveal a pair of cameras pointing in opposite directions, and the two halves also act as wheels. Elizabeth Tasker, who provided commentary on the moon landing, noted the involvement of Takara Tomy, a company known for creating the Transformers, in the rover’s construction.
The space agency is still investigating the cause of the engine problem that affected the spacecraft’s orientation during its obstacle avoidance maneuver at a height of about 55 yards above the moon’s surface. Despite the lander currently being inactive, the SLIM team remains hopeful for a potential recovery as the solar panels could still catch some rays and generate power if the angle of sunlight changes, according to mission officials. However, time is of the essence as nightfall on the moon is expected on February 1, bringing freezing temperatures that the spacecraft was not designed to withstand.
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft has flown over the landing site at an altitude of about 50 miles (80 km) and taken a photograph showing “the slight change in reflectance around the lander due to engine exhaust sweeping the surface.”
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