this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2024
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This is the best summary I could come up with:
In a press conference officials at Japan's space agency JAXA confirmed SLIM is right now operating from its batteries and only has a few hours of power left.
In an attempt to keep the mission going, JAXA said it may turn off the batteries to reserve the probe's supplies, and switch them back on when sunlight is hitting the vehicle at a different angle.
Even if the probe doesn't last beyond the first day, JAXA says it has successfully executed the agency's first-ever soft landing, which is arguably the most difficult part of exploring the lunar surface.
Japan's first attempt ended in failure when ispace, a private company headquartered in Tokyo, crashed its Hakuto-R lunar lander last year in April.
Meanwhile, the first private, unmanned American Moon landing mission launched by Astrobotic on January 8 suffered a propellant leak as it was flying towards the natural satellite.
The ultimate goal of the SLIM mission was to test the accuracy of its lunar landing technology, and see whether it's possible to study the Moon in detail using smaller and lighter hardware.
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