Japan's Moon lander has resumed operations after a week-long shutdown due to a power supply issue. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency confirmed that the glitch had been fixed and that the lander's solar cells are working again after a shift in lighting conditions allowed it to catch sunlight. Japan became the fifth country to achieve a soft touchdown on the Moon with the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (Slim) spacecraft. The lander will analyze the composition of rocks in its search for clues about the origin of the moon.
Slim landed at the edge of an equatorial crater called Shioli, within 55m of its target in a crater. The landing technology could allow future exploration of hilly Moon poles as potential sources of fuel, water, and oxygen. The Slim mission came after several earlier attempts by Japan failed, including one by the start-up iSpace, which saw its lunar lander crash when its onboard computer became confused about its altitude above the Moon.
Jaxa could not immediately say when Slim will operate on the Moon, as it has previously stated that the lander was not designed to survive a lunar night. Only about half of all attempts have succeeded. India was the most recent nation to join the elite club of countries that have achieved this, with its Chandrayaan-3 rover touching down near the lunar south pole in August 2023.
