Japan’s ‘SLIM’ lander successfully landed on the lunar surface of the moon yesterday January 19. But before enjoying its success fully, the solar batteries in the lander started losing its power.
Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM), is the first ever lunar lander of Japan built by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). It aims at pinpoint landing of the spacecraft at the lunar surface of the moon. Everything went smoothly and SLIM hit its various milestones along its way.
Slim landed successfully
On January 14, SLIM performed a crucial engine burn efficiently and made a stage for successful landing operation. As per plan the landing operation started yesterday 10.00 am EST and wrapped up 20 minutes later.
Initially everything seemed fine and the Scientist started celebrating but after a few minutes they were shocked because the SLIM started losing its power.
Glitches in batteries
JAXA confirmed this in a press conference that, SLIM lander is designed to generate energy for its movements through sunlight.This means the lander’s batteries have to work by absorbing sunlight on the moon’s surface.
But it began to lose its power soon after it gets landed on the moon and the batteries which have to generate energy from sunlight are said to have failed. Due to this, the solar batteries are not producing the electricity required for the lander.
Hence, this project of Japan has been declared as minimal success. Now the lander’s solar batteries are not working properly, so the lander’s exploration work is likely to end early.
Japan successfully launched this Slim spacecraft on September 7 2023 from Tanegashima Space Center. After a 4 month journey Slim landed on the lunar surface of the moon.
Though the exploration of the lander is challenging on the moon’s surface because of the battery malfunctions, the lunar landing of the moon is successful. By this Japan became the fifth country to step into the moon followed by the United States, Soviet Union, China and India.
