AkaSci 🛰️
It's alive :mastodance:
The JAXA SLIM lander, lying in its awkward stance on the lunar surface, responded last night to a command sent by JAXA. Against all hope, it appears that it survived the cold lunar night.
The batteries were expected to get charged around this time, shortly after lunar midday, since the solar panels are facing southwest instead of up.
Apparently, the temperature of the comm equipment was too high, so comms was quickly terminated. Stay tuned!
1/n
AkaSci 🛰️
The lander that can!
The JAXA SLIM lunar lander woke up again, 27 days after its previous wake-up time. It survived a third brutal lunar night and promptly sent back this new image of the lunar surface.
This time, it woke up earlier during the day than on previous occasions. Note that the solar panels get sunlight well after lunar noon due to their unfortunate orientation.
That's one feisty lander, that took a licking but keeps on ticking!
👏
https://fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/111777585745262427 has more info on SLIM.
5/n
AkaSci 🛰️
The JAXA SLIM lunar lander was expected to wake up again around May 24, hopefully having survived a 4th brutal lunar night. After all, against all odds, it had survived the first 3 nights.
But it has not responded in two attempts made so far. Perhaps, its electronics finally succumbed to the lunar elements? The #SLIM team will try again tomorrow.
Note that the solar panels get sunlight well after lunar noon due to their unfortunate orientation with the lander in the upside down position.
🤞
6/n
AkaSci 🛰️
Here is a graph showing the elevation angle of the Sun at the SLIM landing site. The lander's batteries have gotten recharged halfway into the lunar afternoon, because the upside-down lander's solar panels are facing southwest, instead of up, while the Sun moves east to west along the northern side (SLIM is located south of the equator).
See the long thread at https://fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/111777585745262427 for the exciting adventure of the SLIM lander on its first lunar day on the moon.
4/n
AkaSci 🛰️
Rise and shine! The JAXA SLIM lander woke up again, exactly 28 days after its previous wake-up time. It survived a second brutal lunar night.
The sun is high and hot, so the SLIM team quickly shut down its comms after taking the picture below of the now familiar lunar landscape.
That's one feisty lander, that took a licking but keeps on ticking!
👏
3/n
AkaSci 🛰️
JAXA posted this new image of the lunar landscape around the SLIM lander taken by its multiband spectroscopic camera (MBC). It is similar to images posted in January.
2/n
AkaSci 🛰️
No luck communicating with the JAXA SLIM lunar lander this time around, as the Sun sets at the landing site.
They turned the power off overnight and are hoping that "the whole system will be reset and restarted" when it tries to wake up 24 days from now.
Note that the primary mission ended in January. SLIM has lasted this long even though it was not designed to survive lunar nights.
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