Japan has made history, becoming only the fifth nation to ever land on the moon. However, the lander may have run out of power.
According to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), it was announced that the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) was able to touch down on the moon’s surface on January 20. The agency was able to communicate with the craft upon landing. Yet, JAXA said the craft’s cells are not generating power.
In an additional statement, JAXA said the battery of the SLIM only had 12% remaining upon touching down. The battery was disconnected to avoid a restart failure as the space agency hopes sunlight will power it up. SLIM’s power cells are facing west, which gives the craft a good chance of favorable ray conditions.
“Until power was switched off after landing, the technical and image data acquired during the landing descent and on the lunar surface were successfully transmitted,” JAXA said. “We’re currently conducting a detailed analysis, and are relieved to see that we obtained a lot of data.”
JAXA will reveal additional details regarding SLIM later this week.
Japan now follows the United States, Soviet Union, China, and India for successful moon landings. However, to this day, only the US has managed to land astronauts on the surface. A private US company with NASA’s backing launched its craft to the moon but suffered an engine failure. It would have been America’s first trip back since 1972.
NASA wants to send humans to the Moon and Mars as part of its Artemis program, but the timelines have been delayed.