JAXA
The Japanese space agency has released a generated image of what appears to have happened to the robotic probe Moon Sniper, which landed on the moon on January 19, 2024.
Tokyo
CNN
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Japanese Robot probe “Moon Sniper” The country’s space agency announced Monday that it has resumed operations after a power problem forced the spacecraft to shut down when it landed on the moon 10 days ago.
The spacecraft performed a precise landing on January 19, making Japan the fifth country to safely land a spacecraft on the moon’s surface. faced a serious problem Almost immediately.
According to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), one of the spacecraft’s engines failed during landing and the spacecraft landed facing the wrong direction, leaving its solar cells unable to generate electricity and having to rely on limited battery power. lost.
The agency said it would turn off the lunar rover to conserve battery power and restart it automatically when its solar panels begin generating electricity in response to changes in the moon’s angle.
“Last night, we successfully established communications with the Smart Lander for Lunar Exploration (SLIM) and resumed operations,” JAXA announced on social media platform X on Monday.
It added that the spacecraft also took new images of the lunar surface.
Its mission is at least conceivable “Minimum success” Officials say this is because they achieved a precise and soft landing on the moon using optical navigation. Currently, Japan aims to use the lander to gather unprecedented information about a region of the moon called the Sea of Honey.
The spacecraft landed near a crater called bookmark The site is about 200 miles (322 kilometers) south of Sea of Tranquility, an area near the lunar equator where Apollo 11 first landed astronauts on the moon.
Over the past year, multiple space agencies and countries have attempted lunar landing missions, leading to historic firsts and several lunar landing missions. failure.
India became the fourth country to perform a controlled landing on the moon, after the United States, the former Soviet Union and China. Chandrayaan 3 mission arrives Near the south pole of the moon in August.
The new lunar space race is driven in part by countries’ desire to exploit water trapped as ice in the permanently shadowed region of the moon’s south pole. In the future, it could be used for drinking water or fuel as humanity pushes the limits of space exploration.