As it turned out, the soft landing of the JAXA SLIM spacecraft on the Moon was not so soft. During the descent, the vehicle tipped over and is now lying upside down.
This became known thanks to the images of the miniature lunar rover LEV-2, which took SLIM from the side. The images were posted on Twitter/X by the JAXA Institute of Space and Astronautics.
The unscheduled landing occurred because one of SLIM’s two engines collapsed while hovering near the lunar surface, and its nozzle fell off. According to JAXA representatives, it was allegedly due to some external causes. That’s why the spacecraft “steered” and overturned.
The LEV-1 and LEV-2 rovers fired off the SLIM during the hover and worked normally. LEV-2 deployed from the sphere state to the uniaxial rover state, took a picture of SLIM lying upside down, and transmitted the photo to Earth via LEV-1.
JAXA is still hoping that the sun will illuminate the SLIM solar panels and provide enough energy to charge the vehicle’s batteries. Although there is a possibility that the panels were damaged during the landing.
Of course, Japanese social media reacted to the event with a bunch of drawings depicting the SLIM device as a girl who has lost her shoe and really doesn’t want to wake up.
— 窓 口 基 (@MADOguchimoto) January 25, 2024
転ぶときは前のめりのSLIMちゃん
ピンポイント着陸成功おめでとうございます!!!!!!
#SLIM #JAXA pic.twitter.com/hHVcVSzhDE— Doroni(どろにー) (@Doroni_max) January 25, 2024
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