Japan’s “Moon Sniper” is the lunar mission that keeps coming back to life. After being dormant for most of February, the spacecraft miraculously woke up over the weekend and transmitted new images to Earth, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. This feat was unexpected given that the CNN —
Japan’s “Moon Sniper” is the lunar mission that keeps coming back to life. After being dormant for most of February, the spacecraft miraculously woke up over the weekend and transmitted new images to Earth, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. This feat was unexpected given that the lunar lander wasn’t designed to survive the moon’s harsh temperaturesKnown as SLIM, or the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, the robotic vehicle’s touchdown on January 19 made Japan the third country this century — and the fifth ever — to land on the moon.
During descent, however, the spacecraft experienced an anomaly and landed on its nose, which meant its solar panels were facing west rather than upright and not receiving necessary sunlight to generate power.
After just a couple of hours operating on limited battery power, the lander sent back a mosaic image of its landing site before shutting down. Japan’s space agency had hoped light might reach the spacecraft’s solar cells as the sun’s angle on the moon shifted, allowing the vehicle to reawaken.
Sure enough, the Moon Sniper, so named for the precision technology that enabled it to land just 55 meters (165 feet) from its target, woke up 10 days later and began taking new images.
