The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) SLIM lunar probe landed on the moon earlier on January 20, making Japan the fifth country to land on the moon after the former Soviet Union, the United States, China and India. However, SLIM’s landing was not smooth sailing. After landing, it was discovered that its solar panels were not working, so SLIM could only rely on battery power to operate. It shut down and went into sleep due to insufficient power about two hours after landing. . Today, JAXA held a press conference to explain in detail the landing process and current status of SLIM.
SLIM works normally up to an altitude of about 50 meters. Judging from the navigation photos taken at that time, if the landing follows the established trajectory, the accuracy should be within 10 meters, or even 3 to 4 meters. Degree. Unfortunately, one of SLIM’s two engines lost power at an altitude of about 50 meters. Although SLIM could still rely on its remaining engine to slow down, it lost the ability to accurately control its attitude, so it began to drift eastward and flip slightly. At about five meters above the ground, SLIM ejected two small probes, and then SLIM landed on the moon at a speed lower than the safety upper limit. However, SLIM’s posture was different from the original plan, and he finally landed in a “head-over” posture. This somewhat awkward posture was captured by a small detector next to it, which is the photo above.
In the end, SLIM’s landing point was about 55m away from the intended target. This is still within 100m of the JAXA mission target, so JAXA still considers the mission successful. However, the position of SLIM happened to have the solar panel facing the west, and the sun was in the east at that time, so SLIM could not be charged through the solar panel, and only the remaining power in the battery was available for use. After JAXA used limited power to transmit various data and images during the landing, it used a little more power to conduct an observation with the multi-frequency light camera, and then turned off the power of SLIM and let it enter a dormant state. JAXA still hopes that when the sun gradually moves to the west, it can “wake up” SLIM again and continue scientific research observations.
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2024-01-25 09:28:00
