Against all odds, Japan's SLIM lander managed to power back up more than a week after falling face down on the moon's surface, but it has now been dormant during the lunar night and may not be able to wake up. up again. The SLIM team of the Japanese space agency, JAXA, shared on Thursday the last image the lander captured of the moon's Shioli crater before nightfall, as the night wore on. The lunar night lasts the equivalent of two Earth weeks and can reach temperatures below -200 degrees Fahrenheit.
Last night (1/31~1/2) we sent a command to turn on #SLIMThe communicator again just in case, but with no response, we confirmed that SLIM had entered an inactive state. This is the last scene of the Moon taken by SLIM before nightfall. #Good afternoon #JAXA pic.twitter.com/V1iAUoxJFK
— SLIM Small Moon Landing Demonstration Vehicle (@SLIM_JAXA) February 1, 2024
The team has confirmed that the solar-powered lander is in a dormant state that will last at least the duration of the lunar night. Its chances of resuming its operations later are not great, but of course, it already surprised us once. “Although SLIM was not designed for harsh lunar nights, we plan to try to operate again starting in mid-February, when the Sun will once again shine on SLIM's solar cells,” the team wrote in x. If this is really SLIM's last photo, it sure is creepy.
