Space and astronomy news
Space travel and exploration was never going to be easy. Failures are sadly all too common but it’s wonderful to see missions exceed expectations. The Japanese Space Agency’s SLIM lunar lander was only supposed to survive a single day but it’s survived three brutal, harsh lunar nights and is still going. The temperatures plummet to -170C at night and the lander was never designed to operate into the night. Even sat upside down on the surface it’s still sending back pictures and data.
Of course it is important to note that a day on the Moon lasts many days compared to a day here on Earth and so, the first night for SLIM began on 31 January. Surprisingly, SLIM survived the first long night where temperatures to -170 degrees. SLIM was never designed to survive the cold harsh nights on the Moon so it was with some surprise that it powered back up successfully on the 15 February.
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Japan’s SLIM moon lander survives a second brutal lunar nightAndrew Paul is Popular Science‘s staff writer covering tech news. Previously, he was a regular contributor to The A.V. Club and Input, and has had recent work featured by Rolling Stone, Fangoria, GQ, Slate, NBC, as well as McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. He lives outside Indianapolis.
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Japan’s lander that nose-dived on moon survives 2nd lethal lunar nightMost landers last about one lunar day (roughly two Earth weeks) before being wrecked by the extremely frigid lunar night.
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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.
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Japan moon probe survives second lunar nightJapan's moon lander woke up after unexpectedly surviving a second frigid, two-week lunar night and transmitted new images back to Earth, the country's space agency said Thursday.
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Defying the odds, Japan's SLIM lander survives 2nd night on the moonMichael was a science writer for the Idaho National Laboratory and has been an intern at Wired.com, The Salinas Californian newspaper, and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. He has also worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D.
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