Japan’s Moon Landers Put to Sleep Again, Has Faced 2 Ultra-Chilly Lunar Nights

Japan’s Moon lander was put to sleep again. It has unexpectedly survived two ultra-chilly long lunar nights, Japan’s space agency said on Monday.

The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) touched down on Moon in January. With it Japan became the fifth country to achieve a soft lunar landing.

But the moon lander of Japan landed at a wonky angle that left its solar panels facing the wrong way.

But astonishingly, this Moon Lander was revived in late February once the 14-day long lunar night ended. Despite facing temperatures as low as -130 degrees Celsius it came back to life transmitted new images back to Earth.

On Monday, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced the probe has been put back to sleep again on Sunday.

JAXA said on X, “Although there are some malfunctions in some functions of MBC, it still works, so we are carefully checking its status,” it said, referring to the Multi-band Camera used to examine lunar rocks.

Some types of rocks around the lunar craters are thought to contain material from its mantle, which could give clues on how the Moon was formed.