The Moon continues to be a difficult target at the beginning of 2024. After the postponement of NASA’s Artemis 2 and 3 missions and the failure of the American private Peregrine mission to land on the moon (which was then destroyed upon its re-entry into the atmosphere on Thursday evening), the Japanese mission also Slim keeps everyone in suspense.
His heart-pounding moon landing was successful, establishing Japan as the fifth world power to achieve the goal after the United States, the Soviet Union, China and India. The lander, however, touched the ground and ended up in an unfavorable position that does not allow the normal functioning of the solar panels.
The vehicle still enjoys good health and communicates regularly with the Earth, but its life on the lunar surface now depends on the residual charge of the batteries: the technicians of the Japanese space agency Jaxa are trying to save them, while they are busy maximizing the download of the scientific data collected. However, they do not give up hope that the solar cells can start working again if the sun’s rays reach them again. The Jaxa managers said this during a highly anticipated press conference, called two hours after the moon landing to confirm its success.
The telemetry data had immediately shown that the spacecraft had touched the lunar soil after the 20 minutes of ‘terror’ of the descent, but the checks to ascertain its health conditions then took longer than expected. Rumors of a possible crash had begun to circulate on the web, and while everyone’s eyes were focused on the antennas on Earth, which were picking up the first signals from the lunar vehicle, someone on social media joked about the long wait by talking about ‘space Var’.
After two hours Jaxa confirmed that the moon landing had been successful as well as the separation of the two rovers on board, Lev-1 and Lev-2. Instead, it will take weeks to analyze the data and ascertain that the moon landing was successful with the required precision, i.e. within 100 meters of the pre-established target near the Shioli crater. That will mark the full success of the mission launched last September.
In the same minutes in which the Jaxa technicians illustrated their objectives, on the other side of the ocean the technicians of NASA and the Astrobotic company instead took stock of the end of the Peregrine mission, launched on January 8 to bring the first private lander to land on the Moon.
The vehicle, which had immediately shown problems aiming at the Sun to recharge its batteries, was later compromised by a propellant leak due to a faulty valve. Also in this case, as with Slim, we tried to maximize battery life in order to collect as much data as possible. The epilogue was on Thursday evening: at 9.50pm Italian time, the signal from the lander was definitively lost, and it completed its controlled return to the South Pacific Ocean at 10.04pm.
Astrobotic number one, John Thornton, said that a commission of inquiry will be convened to clarify what happened. The company’s goal is to best prepare for the launch of the next Griffin lander, scheduled for the end of 2024. Meanwhile, on February 12, another company is preparing to launch its lander to win the first private moon landing: Intuitive Machines with his Nova-C.
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Source: Ansa
I am a journalist with over 6 years of experience working in the news industry. I currently work as an author for Global Happenings, and my coverage focuses on Technology news. I have written for various publications, including Reuters, The New York Times and The Guardian.
