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

Japan's lunar lander on February 1 entered the dormant state which will last two weeks. The Smart Lander For Investigating Moon (SLIM) landed near the Shioli crater on the near side of the 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 the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and its partners will have their fingers crossed as they will be hoping to wake SLIM again after the harsh lunar night.

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

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

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

In the 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 the 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 the help of images captured by Chandrayaan-2 orbiter, which ISRO shared with JAXA, the mission team was able to determine that SLIM was about 55 meters away from the target point. In mid-February, all eyes will be on SLIM if it will be able to survive the unforgiving lunar night or go silent forever like Chandrayaan-3.