Japan’s robotic lunar lander touched down on the lunar surface on Friday, but soon encountered some kind of power failure that prevented its solar cells from generating the power needed to survive in the harsh lunar environment.
As a result, mission managers believe that the seemingly healthy Lunar Smart Lander (SLIM) will run out of battery within hours of landing, rendering it powerless and unable to receive commands, telemetry or science data from Earth. He said it is expected that he will no longer be able to send or send messages. .
Assuming the spacecraft lands in the wrong direction and the angle between the sun and the solar cells improves enough to generate enough power over time, the spacecraft could “wake up” at some point. There are hopes, but officials said that’s not entirely certain.
“SLIM is communicating with the Earth station and accurately receiving commands from Earth, and the spacecraft is responding to these as usual,” JAXA Director Hitoshi Kuninaka told reporters. Translated comment.
“However, at the moment it appears that the solar (battery) is not generating power. And since we cannot generate power, we are using the battery to operate. … We are trying to retrieve (the stored data). We are working to maximize the scientific effects (returns) by returning the Earth’s resources to the earth. ”
He said the battery would run out of power before the day was over.
Only the United States, Russia, China, and India have successfully landed a spacecraft on the moon. Three privately funded landing missions were launched as commercial ventures, but all three failed.
The end of the Hayabusa lunar lander
Most recently, Hayabusa landerThe spacecraft, built by Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic, ran aground in highly elliptical Earth orbit after a valve failure ruptured its propellant tank. Immediately after launch On January 8, the company’s flight controllers directed the spacecraft to return to Earth’s atmosphere, where it burned up on Thursday afternoon.
In a separate news conference Friday, Astrobotic CEO John Thornton said the company’s flight controllers were working to keep the spacecraft alive as long as possible, activating the science payload and firing the thrusters. He praised the team’s success in reorienting the spacecraft and collecting data that will be fed back to the spacecraft. Design and operation of the large lunar lander “Griffin” scheduled to launch later this year.
Mr Thornton said: “We will be assembling a review committee with many experts from across the industry to look into this in detail to understand exactly what happened.” “We are already assessing what impact this could have on Project Griffin to ensure this type of anomaly does not occur again.”
At the same time, he said, “We are also working hard to ensure that all of the successes of the Peregrine mission are incorporated into the Griffin program to ensure that Griffin is successful. I’m confident,” he added. Our next mission will be successful and we will land on the moon. ”
Japan’s moon landing plan
JAXA’s lunar module was built to accomplish two primary objectives. One is to demonstrate a high-precision landing system that can guide the spacecraft to within 100 meters of its planned target, or about the length of an American football field, for touchdown. The aim is also to test innovative lightweight designs that allow smaller spacecraft to carry more sensors and equipment.
On sale now From the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan on September 7, the 1,600-pound spacecraft slipped into what was initially an elliptical orbit around the moon’s poles on Christmas Day and into a 373-mile-high circular orbit earlier this month. has moved to
On Friday morning US time, the SLIM spacecraft began its final descent to the lunar surface from an altitude of about 9 miles. Real-time telemetry ensures that the vehicle is accurately following its planned trajectory, pausing several times along the way to photograph the ground below and comparing that view to onboard maps to ensure a predictable, high-precision landing. It has been shown that this is ensured.
The final stage of the descent seemed to go smoothly. SLIM flipped from horizontal to vertical on time and slowly fell towards the surface. Two miniature rovers, known as LEV-1 and LEV-2, were programmed to be released just a few feet before landing.
It was designed to land on a slope, and the spacecraft’s two rear legs were expected to touch the ground first. The spacecraft was then designed to tilt forward slightly and lower its nose gear. The idea was to position the spacecraft on a slope in an orientation that would maximize solar power generation.
Telemetry showed it touched down at 10:20 a.m. ET, about 20 minutes after it began its descent. JAXA officials did not immediately confirm receipt of the telemetry, raising concerns that the spacecraft might not have survived touchdown.
But NASA’s deep space networkThe satellite, which sends commands and receives data from probes throughout the solar system, was receiving telemetry from SLIM or one of the small probes, or both, an hour after landing.
At a press conference after landing, JAXA officials confirmed that flight controllers were receiving telemetry from both SLIM and LEV-1, which is designed to send data directly to Earth. LEV-2 relays data via SLIM.
“We believe we have successfully separated LEV-1 and LEV-2, and we are currently working to obtain data,” Kuninaka said.
As for SLIM, the solar cells mounted on the top of the spacecraft were not damaged during landing, given that other systems were operating normally after what he called a “soft” landing. Engineers said they doubted it.
“The spacecraft was able to send telemetry to us (after landing), which means that most of the equipment on the spacecraft is functioning and working properly,” he said. said. “10 kilometers was the altitude at which the descent took place. Therefore, if the descent had not been successful, (the impact) would have occurred at a very high velocity. In that case, the spacecraft’s functionality would have been completely lost. Let’s go.”
“However, data is still being transmitted properly. This means that the original objective of a soft landing was successful.”
But he said extensive data analysis would be needed to determine the spacecraft’s attitude and orientation on the surface, figure out what happened, and learn how accurate the actual landing was. Ta.