More than a week after the successful soft landing on the moon, the Japanese station's solar panels began producing energy. There are still a few days left for useful work.
Like this sound (Intelligent Lunar Lander) As fate would have it, it was revealed in our previous articles (see bottom of page) that the probe capsized upon its arrival on January 19. Because of this, its solar cells could not start producing power, and the SLIM only lasted for two years or more after the batteries were exhausted. After analyzing the situation, specialists at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) calculated that before the local sunset, the sun will fall in a direction from which the probe can be forgotten, batteries can be charged and further tests can be carried out. . On January 28, what they had hoped for happened: the SLIM system was turned on as soon as the solar panels in the west had the necessary lighting.
This is what scientists started. Using a camera (MBC) sensitive to the different wavelengths of the fire, you can see one of the rocks – previously informally named after a breed of dog – called Jytkuszkr. (toy dog) We started observing. Sunset ends on January 31 at the corner of Sciuli Crater, so there isn't much time left to act. (The station's equipment probably wouldn't be able to withstand temperatures as cold as minus 130 degrees Celsius on the semi-hot Moon, nor was it designed to do so.)
An early shot of SLIM from the corner of the site, in the enlarged section (right) of the rocks bearing the names of the dogs. (Conservative Party:jaxa)
The release of the SLIM signal and the initiation of communication could only be known through radio communications, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency did not officially announce the news until later.
According to reports, SLIM, one of whose main goals was to carry out precision landing on the lunar surface, landed at a distance of 55 meters from the designated point despite the failure of one of the two engines and the resulting lateral displacement. (Sideal movement away from the suspension also led to a capsize when it reached the top.) The originally planned support error was no more than 100 metres, and the goal was fully achieved. The specific point, the small Sheuli crater (210 m diameter), may have been formed by debris deposited during the formation of the larger nearby Theophilus crater (100 km). That's why they went there to examine the hands from deeper layers of the body. Meanwhile, the SLIM site was visited by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). (JAXA held on January 25 material According to the lunar coordinates of the planned location, the longitude was 25.24889 east and latitude 13.31549 south. Longitude 25.2510E and longitude 13.3160S are given as positional coordinates indicating the SLIM location of the NASA LRO image.)
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency also released a photo taken on the descent line, where you can see the engine removed from the vehicle. According to expert estimates, the permissible distance was lost at a height of 50 meters above the surface of the moon. Even then, there were no signs of any malfunction in the main engine.
On the left side, among the images taken from the navigation column, on the right side, you can see the tree removed from the probe circled in red. The red arrows help identify terrain objects in the before and after images, while the red arrows on the right side point to objects that were not there before, so they may have appeared after the abnormal event. (Conservative Party:jaxa)
SLIM also delivered two innovative small rovers, which successfully landed on the lunar surface, even in the final stage of landing. 2.1 kg LEV-1 (Lunar Expedition Module-1) It uses a jumping mechanism for movement, and the 25 dkg LEV-2 is a ball-shaped transforming robot. LEV-1 transmitted to Earth the first published image of SLIM prepared by LEV-2, which revealed the location of the radio after arrival. Incidentally, they also demonstrated successful regular transfer of data between rovers.
Link articles:
LRO saw the Japanese lunar lander
Salim: Fast news and a picture of the moon
Sound position report
Quick summary: Inn is intact, but…
Will Japan's best moon landing attempt succeed?
Link links:
About Slim (Space News)
