Japanese Robot Slim Successfully Lands on Moon, Sends First Images

Japanese robot “Smart Lander for Investigating Moon” (SLIM) made a soft landing on the lunar surface near the equatorial crater, which made Japan the fifth state that carried out a soft landing on the natural satellite of the Earth after the United States, the Soviet Union, China and India.

However, there are problems with the system of sunny power supply of the device. For unknown reasons, solar batteries do not generate electricity, which is why Slim completely depends on their batteries, which will ultimately discard. After the battery discharge, the robot will not be able to accept commands and send data to Earth. Engineers are now fighting for saving the mission, turning off the heaters and downloading images from the device, as well as extracting data on the work of the landing program.

Vice President of the Japanese Space Agency of JAXA Hitoshi Kuninak at a press conference confirmed the success of a soft landing, saying that the device still sends the data correctly.

On board SLIM are two small rovers, which, according to telemetry data, were successfully dropped immediately before landing. The device is equipped with an infrared camera and was supposed to study local geology over the next two weeks, but it is unclear how many of this study it would be possible to spend at an affordable time.

It is statistically difficult to land on the moon – only about half of all attempts are successful. JAXA relied on new accurate navigation technologies. The computer on board the lunoprotechnician used rapid image processing and crater mapping to avoid dangers and achieve the landing point. The engineers wanted to land within 100 meters from the target point and are now studying the data to see how well Slim has dealt with the task.

SLIM landing occurred in the area of ​​the Sioly crater, which is currently lit by the sun, but by the end of the month the lunar night will come there, and the temperatures will drop sharply, which can damage electronic boards.

Dr. Simeon Barber from the Open University of Great Britain, who participated in the Peregrine mission, praised the Japanese achievement, noting the importance of landing accuracy. Dr