Almost all moon landers break down during the extraordinarily cold of lunar night, but Japan’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon has astonishingly survived three nights
Moon landers typically survive for one lunar day – about two Earth weeks – because night on the moon is so cold that it ruins spacecraft batteries and electronics. Somehow, Japan’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon has survived three lunar nights, an astonishing feat.
Very few moon landers are built to survive nighttime temperatures on the moon, which can dip as low as drop down as low as -133°C . SLIM is no exception to this – it has no heaters or special insulation designed to keep the spacecraft’s electronics warm. The original plan was that lunar night would mark the end of the lander’s mission, so when night fell less than two weeks after SLIM’s 19 January landing, nobody expected it to wake up again. But on 25 February, the sun rose over SLIM’s resting place near the south pole of the moon, andSurprised, SLIM’s operating crew on Earth got to work instructing the lander to take images and measurements of its surroundings until the next lunar night, when surely the mission would truly be over.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Samsung Introduces Smart Ring to Shake Up the Smart Accessories WorldSamsung takes the lead in introducing a smart ring that aims to help users stay healthy and become an integral part of the Samsung Health ecosystem.
Read more »
Go smart or go home: Amazon’s Echo Show 8 smart display is $50 offThe Amazon Echo Show 8 is a great smart display for keeping on top of everything at home. It's on sale now at Best Buy.
Read more »
Here are the top 10 smartest cities in the world — and none of them are in the U.S.The 2024 Smart City Index, by IMD World Competitiveness Center and the World Smart Sustainable Cities Organization (WeGO), ranked 142 smart cities around the…
Read more »
Here are the top 10 smartest cities in the world — and none of them are in the U.S.The 2024 Smart City Index, by IMD World Competitiveness Center and the World Smart Sustainable Cities Organization (WeGO), ranked 142 smart cities around the…
Read more »
Japan's SLIM moon lander defies death to survive 3rd frigid lunar night (image)Robert Lea is a science journalist in the U.K. whose articles have been published in Physics World, New Scientist, Astronomy Magazine, All About Space, Newsweek and ZME Science. He also writes about science communication for Elsevier and the European Journal of Physics. Rob holds a bachelor of science degree in physics and astronomy from the U.K.
Read more »
SLIM lunar lander survives second night on the MoonThe SLIM lunar lander from the Japanese Space Agency has survived its second night on the Moon and returns a new photograph, despite the solar panels pointing away from the Sun during the day. The lightweight spacecraft landed upside-down but managed to touch down in one piece, making Japan the fifth nation to land on the surface without crashing.
Read more »