Not dead yet: Japan prepares for possible recovery of SLIM moon lander
The SLIM 'Moon Sniper' probe went silent shortly after notching Japan's first-ever lunar landing on Jan. 19. But there may be life in the spacecraft yet.
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The SLIM 'Moon Sniper' probe went silent shortly after notching Japan's first-ever lunar landing on Jan. 19. But there may be life in the spacecraft yet.
Japan switched off its Moon lander almost three hours after a historic touchdown on Saturday, to allow for a possible recovery of the craft, but were unable to confirm if its solar batteries were generating power.
Japanese space officials said on Monday that they hope the lunar lander that arrived on the moon's surface on Friday will regain power once the sun hits the spacecraft's solar cells from the west.
An orbiting instrument named LOLA succeeded in sending a laser beam to ping India's Vikram lander on the lunar surface.
NASA spacecraft, currently orbiting the Moon, sent laser beams to Vikram, and received reflected beams, thus verifying the possibility of a new way to precisely locate objects on the Moon