Japan’s Moon lander comes back to life

TOKYO – Japan’s Moon lander has come back to life, enabling the craft to proceed with its mission of investigating the lunar surface despite its rocky start. 
The surprise announcement was a boost to Japan’s space programme, nine days after the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) touched down at a wonky angle that left its solar panels facing the wrong way. 
“Last evening we succeeded in establishing communication with SLIM, and resumed operations!” JAXA said on social media platform X, posting a grainy image of a lunar rock known as “toy poodle”.
“We immediately started scientific observations with MBC, and have successfully obtained first light for 10-band observation,” it said, referring to the lander’s multiband spectroscopic camera.
SLIM’s January 20 touchdown made Japan only the fifth nation to achieve a “soft landing” on the Moon after the United States, the Soviet Union, China and India.
But on its descent, dubbed the “20 minutes of terror”, the craft suffered engine problems and ended up at a skewed angle, images released by JAXA showed.
Helping to repair its reputation after a number of recent mishaps, JAXA said last week that SLIM had landed 55 metres from its target.
This meant that the “Moon Sniper” lived up to its nickname and landed within the 100-metre landing zone, much more precise than the usual range of several kilometres.
Before powering the craft off, mission control was able to download technical and image data from SLIM’s descent and of the lunar crater where it landed.
Assuming it has enough juice, SLIM can now tackle its main mission of investigating an exposed area of the Moon’s mantle, the inner layer usually deep beneath its crust.
Two probes also detached successfully, JAXA said — one with a transmitter and another designed to trundle around the lunar surface beaming images to Earth.