Resumed Operation of Halted Japanese Lunar Probe... Successful Rock Imaging

Kyodo News Forecasts Communication with Ground Until the End of This Month

On the 20th, the Japanese probe "SLIM," which landed on the moon, started moving again.

According to Kyodo News and others on the 29th, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced via social media platform X (formerly Twitter) that SLIM resumed operations through communication with the ground the previous night.

It is also reported to have succeeded in photographing rocks using a special camera. Japanese media explained that although the probe tilted like a handstand during landing, making it difficult to operate the solar panels, the change in the sun's direction appears to have enabled solar panel power generation.

Kyodo News reported that communication and photography are expected to continue until the end of this month when sunlight reaches SLIM's solar panels. However, it added that due to the moon's rotation and revolution, solar power generation will become difficult in February as it will correspond to sunset.

Earlier, the probe SLIM succeeded in landing within an error margin of 100 meters on the 20th. However, after landing, the probe tilted westward, and contrary to the initial plan to operate for several days using solar power, it stopped after two and a half hours.

With SLIM's landing on the lunar surface, Japan became the fifth country in the world to successfully land on the moon.