See You On The Other Side: Japan's Moon Lander Goes Silent As Lunar Night Begins

Japan's lunar lander on February 1 entered dormant state which will last two weeks. Smart Lander For Investigating Moon (SLIM) landed near Shioli crater on near side of Moon on January 19 after its launch in September 2023. While it faced problem with electricity generation shortly after landing, scientists were able to revive it a week later and operations continued until its dormancy period began.

Scientists at Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and its partners will have ir fingers crossed as y will be hoping to wake SLIM again after harsh lunar night.

"After completing operation from 1/30 ~ 1/31, SLIM entered a two week dormancy period during long lunar night. Although SLIM was not designed for harsh lunar nights, we plan to try to operate again from mid-February, when Sun will shine again on SLIM’s solar cells," JAXA said in a statement.

Scientists confirmed dormancy state after sending a command to SLIM which did not respond. Japanese agency also shared new pictures taken by lander before it went silent.

Similar to Vikram lander and Pragyan rover, SLIM was also designed to operate for roughly two weeks but it was cut short due to lack of electricity. lander was unable to function as its solar cells were not receiving sunlight for electricity generation.

In next two weeks until sun rises again over Shioli crater, SLIM will have to endure temperatures as low as -170°C. In such harsh conditions, chances are that lander's electronic equipment will break down and it might never get revived again.

Be that as it may, JAXA said that it has achieved its objective of making a precision landing within a 100 meter area. With help of images captured by Chandrayaan-2 orbiter, which ISRO shared with JAXA, mission team was able to determine that SLIM was about 55 meters away from target point. In mid-February, all eyes will be on SLIM if it will be able to survive unforgiving lunar night or go silent forever like Chandrayaan-3.