Japan became the fifth nation to land a functioning robot on the moon, but the mission faced a problem involving its solar cells.
Japan has become the fifth nation to land a functioning robot on the moon, but the mission could fall short of complete success due to a problem with the lander’s power-generating solar cells.from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center in early September — and after weeks of in-space maneuvers, SLIM touched down today at 1520 GMT .
Kuninaka said SLIM was able to communicate with Earth and respond to commands. “However, it seems that the solar cells are not generating electricity at this point in time,” he said. “And since we are not able to generate electricity, the operation is being done using batteries alone.” Kuninaka said the problem could have arisen because the solar cells weren’t properly aligned toward the sun. “We are trying to analyze the data that we’re gathering at this point in time and analyzing the status,” he said.
He also said two mini-rovers, known as LEV-1 and LEV-2, were successfully deployed during SLIM’s descent to the surface. LEV-1 is built to capture imagery and record temperature and radiation levels as it hops around the surface. LEV-2 has the shape of a deformable sphere, and is designed to roll around the surface to take pictures.
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