Lunar resilience: Japan’s SLIM bounces back, captures images of ‘toy poodle’ rock on Moon’s surface

Japan’s Moon lander, the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM), has resumed its operations in a triumphant turnaround. This comes after the lander faced initial challenges with its solar batteries.

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced the successful restoration of communication on X (formerly Twitter), signalling the revival of scientific observations.

“Communication with SLIM was successfully established last night, and operations resumed!,” said JAXA.

“Science observations were immediately started with the MBC, and we obtained first light for the 10-band observation. This figure shows the “toy poodle” observed in the multi-band observation,” it added. Here MBC refers to the lander’s multi-band spectroscopic camera.

It also shared an image taken by SLIM of a rock resembling a “toy poodle” near the lander, offering a glimpse into the lunar surface.

The announcement came after the lunar lander encountered issues with its solar batteries, leading to a hiatus in its power generation. 

On January 20, Japan achieved a soft lunar landing, making it only the fifth nation to accomplish this feat, joining the ranks of the United States, the Soviet Union, China, and India. 

The lander demonstrated remarkable precision, landing within 100 metres of its target and only 55 metres away.

Despite the feat, challenges faced by SLIM led to the decision to temporarily switch it off, merely three hours after landing, reports AFP.

SLIM, as per JAXA, deployed two probes successfully – one equipped with a transmitter and another designed to traverse the lunar surface, capturing images to beam back to Earth. The mini-rover, slightly larger than a tennis ball, has been co-developed by the creators of Transformer Toys.

Japan’s lunar endeavours have faced challenges in the past, with two previous missions encountering setbacks. 

Also watch | Japan’s ‘Moon Sniper’ achieves historic lunar landing

In 2022, the nation witnessed an unsuccessful mission of its lunar probe, Omotenashi, as part of the United States’ ambitious Artemis 1 mission. Adding to the cosmic drama, a Japanese startup, ispace, embarked on its lunar odyssey in April 2022. The attempts to etch its name as the first private company to achieve a Moon landing failed as the mission encountered challenges after what the company described as a “hard landing”.

(With inputs from agencies)