This was reported by JAXA on network xAccording to Ukrinform.

The article read: “The connection with SLIM was successfully established yesterday (Sunday, January 28) evening and the work was restarted!” he is writing.

According to the agency, the lander began surveying the lunar surface using its onboard Multispectral Camera and took a photo of a rock called a “toy poodle” that had previously been observed near the probe.

The SLIM (Smart Lander for the Study of the Moon) lander, called “lunar sniper”, landed on the moon on the morning of January 20 local time (January 19 Kiev time).

This small probe, approximately 2.4 m long and weighing approximately 200 kg, was designed to test the technology of pinpoint landing on the surface of gravitational objects with high precision. According to JAXA, the probe demonstrated unprecedented positioning accuracy at less than 10 meters, perhaps even 3-4 meters, from the designated landing site, unlike conventional landers that are accurate to within a few kilometers.

SLIM landed as planned in an area near the Shioli Crater in the region known as the “Sea of ​​Nectar”, but its orientation turned out to be incorrect, causing the solar panels to point west, away from the Sun. Therefore, after several hours of operation with spare batteries, the module was turned off.

JAXA believes the SLIM systems will become operational again when light from the Sun begins to shine from the western side of the Moon in the direction the panels are facing.

Japan became the fifth country to land a spacecraft on the moon after the former Soviet Union, the USA, China and India.

As Ukrinform reported, on Friday, January 26, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA showed images of the Japanese SLIM probe after its successful landing on the moon.