- Jonathan Amos
- science correspondent
Slim lander could still be revived if solar cells can be made to work
Japan’s lunar lander crashed nose-first during its historic lunar touchdown.
The first photos of the Slim spacecraft that crashed show it rotating 90 degrees from its supposed rest.
This would go some way to explaining the difficulties there were in generating the power needed for operation.
The image was taken by a small robot the size of a baseball called Sora-Q, which was ejected from Slim just before touchdown last Saturday.
Japan’s space agency JAXA said in a statement that “an abnormality in the main engine affected the spacecraft’s landing attitude.”
One of Slim’s two large thrusters appears to have stopped working during descent.
Artist’s impression of the direction the slim spacecraft should take
To transmit images to Earth, Sora-Q first had to transmit them to the second mobile robot it ejected, Lunar Expedition Vehicle 1 (Lev-1). This hopping robot is equipped with a radio device that allows it to contact mission control independently of Slim.
The lander itself stopped three hours after arrival because the solar cells were not working. With the battery draining quickly, Jaxa officials made the decision to put Slim into hibernation.
Their hypothesis, which appears to be borne out by the Sora-Q images, is that the main spacecraft is oriented in a direction that prevents the solar cells from seeing the sun.
The purpose is to wake up Slim when the lighting angle changes at the landing site.
This mosaic from Slim’s onboard camera consists of 257 individual views
Before hibernation, controllers were able to obtain a series of photographs of the surface taken by an onboard infrared camera.
These show that the spacecraft is on a slope surrounded by small rocks.
Slim’s landing site is on the edge of an equatorial crater known as Shiori.
With the landing at 0:20 JST (15:20 GMT) on Saturday, Jaxa became the fifth national space agency to achieve a soft touchdown on the moon, following the United States, the former Soviet Union, China and India. Ta.
Statistically, placing it gently on the moon’s surface has proven to be extremely difficult. Only about half of all attempts are successful.
Artwork: Hopper, Lev-1 (left) and rolling, shape-shifting Sora-Q (right)
JAXA believes in new precision navigation technology.
The lander’s onboard computer used high-speed image processing and crater mapping to avoid danger and reach the touchdown point.
Engineers wanted to get within 100 meters (330 feet) of the target location. This has been achieved.
“Analysis of data acquired before power down confirmed that Slim reached the lunar surface approximately 55 meters east of its original target landing site,” JAXA said, adding that the onboard computer also recorded the last moments of descent. He added that the decision was made to reach the moon’s surface. Move the aircraft to one side to avoid obstacles.
This will make everyone involved happy, and so will the success of the two rovers. Sora-Q not only traveled and photographed the lunar surface, but also managed to hop Lev-1. Like Slim, Lev-1 was also powered down.
“Lev-1’s leaping motion on the lunar surface, robot-to-robot communication between Lev-1 and Sora-Q, and the achievement of fully autonomous operation are groundbreaking achievements and valuable technologies for future lunar exploration. “It will be a demonstration,” and the knowledge and experience gained will be applied to future missions, officials said.
The targeted landing site was a slope approaching Shiori Crater, just south of the moon’s equator.
