Posts: 52965 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 01-19-2024 12:30 AM
JAXA video
The pinpoint moon landing operation by the SLIM spacecraft will be live-streamed from JAXA's Sagamihara Campus.
Webcast starts: 9:00 a.m. EST on Jan. 19, 2024 Moon landing time：10:20 a.m. EST on Jan. 19, 2024
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 52965 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 01-19-2024 09:38 AM
Telemetry appeared to show SLIM had reached the lunar surface but JAXA was still waiting for confirmation when the commentary portion of the webcast ended.
An upcoming press conference (to be streamed on the same video embedded above) may provide more details.
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 52965 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 01-19-2024 10:04 AM
NASA's Deep Space Network appears to be receiving data from either SLIM or one of its two small rovers (LEV-1), or perhaps both.
Blackarrow Member
Posts: 3743 From: Belfast, United Kingdom Registered: Feb 2002
posted 01-19-2024 11:29 AM
A quarter of the way through the 21st century, and 58 years after the first soft landing on the Moon, I struggle to understand why Japan can (apparently) place a spacecraft on the Moon, but couldn't provide at least intermittent imaging, if not actual live video. It would certainly have provided instant answers to some of the lingering questions.
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 52965 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 01-19-2024 11:35 AM
JAXA release
Results of the Small Lunar Landing Demonstrator (SLIM) lunar surface landing
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has confirmed that the Small Lunar Lander Demonstrator (SLIM) landed on the moon at 0:20 a.m. on January 20, 2024 (Japan Standard Time). Communication has been established after landing.
However, the solar cells are not generating electricity, so we are currently prioritizing data acquisition from the lunar surface.
In the future, we will proceed with detailed analysis of the obtained data. We will keep you updated on the future situation.
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 52965 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 01-19-2024 11:40 AM
quote:Originally posted by Blackarrow: ...but couldn't provide at least intermittent imaging.
SLIM was designed as a small technology demonstrator, not a full-fledged moon lander. The cameras on the lander were dedicated during the descent to providing the data necessary to autonomously navigate its way to the surface. The bandwidth available for communications to Earth was reserved for propulsion and instrument telemetry.
The imagery collected during the descent and after landing (by the ejected rovers) are among the top priorities for transmitting back to Earth before the lander's batteries die in several hours.
Blackarrow Member
Posts: 3743 From: Belfast, United Kingdom Registered: Feb 2002
posted 01-19-2024 12:08 PM
Surely a camera is a camera: if it's on and providing an image, then that image is part of the data being transmitted. I can understand the idea of cameras recording images for later playback (because of bandwidth issues), but that doesn't seem to be what you're saying.
The idea of a "camera" which provides "data" during descent, but not an image, reminds me of the imaging photopolarimeters on Pioneers 10 and 11, but that was almost back in the Stone Age.
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 52965 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 01-19-2024 01:03 PM
The cameras ("smart eyes") were not providing data back to Earth, but to the computers on board SLIM. The images were then analyzed by computer to estimate the spacecraft's altitude, attitude and speed. It was that data, generated by the computer, that was then transmitted back to Earth.
The camera feeds were also being recorded on board SLIM for later transmission, but there were no live images being sent during the descent.
thisismills Member
Posts: 566 From: Michigan Registered: Mar 2012
posted 01-19-2024 07:38 PM
I was excited that telemetry information including inertial, roll, pitch, yaw, and thurster data was shared on screen during the broadcast.
My interpretation of the last few moments of the landing was a possibility that the lander was not in the expected orientation on the surface when it settled. Based on that, my guess was that the stated power/battery charging issue could be because the solar arrays were covered up or pointing away from the sun.
I'll be interested to read more about the historic flight in the reports to follow.
Blackarrow Member
Posts: 3743 From: Belfast, United Kingdom Registered: Feb 2002
posted 01-20-2024 10:57 AM
I can't help thinking that the spacecraft's "novel" technique of descending vertically, then twisting into a more horizontal orientation for a two-point landing was simply asking for trouble, and trouble it found.
However, I don't want to sound too harsh: the descent to a soft(ish) landing seems to have worked well, and I'm reminded of the technique NASA used to place rovers "Curiosity" and "Perseverance" safely on Mars. How many of us really believed the "Skycrane" would work? But it did. Twice.
Many of us are probably guilty of thinking that a novel technique which doesn't work is "rubbish" but if it does work it's "brilliant and inspired."
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 52965 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 01-20-2024 11:37 AM
From what JAXA's commentators said, the topple (as planned) was also to allow SLIM to land at its intended landing site: on the slope of a crater.
A traditional four-legged lander would not be able to touch down and remain standing at what could be a significant angle. But it is the crater's slope that held the best chances of finding exposed olivine.
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 52965 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 01-22-2024 11:35 AM
From the JAXA SLIM team (via X):
Thank you very much for your warm support for SLIM from home and abroad! We want to let you know what happened next.
After landing on 1/20 0:20 JST, power from the solar cells could not be confirmed. At a battery level of 12%, the battery was disconnected (as planned) to avoid being unable to restart for a recovery operation due to over-discharge. SLIM therefore powered down at 01/20 2:57 JST.
According to the telemetry data, SLIM’s solar cells are facing west. So if sunlight begins to shine on the lunar surface from the west, there is a possibility of generating power, and we are preparing for recovery. SLIM can operate with power only from the solar cells.
Until power was switched off after landing, the technical and image data acquired during the landing descent and on the lunar surface were successfully transmitted. We’re currently conducting a detailed analysis, and are relieved to see that we obtained a lot of data.
We are preparing to announce the status of SLIM and current results at the end of the week. Although the attitude after landing did not go as planned, we are glad we could achieved so much and are happy to have landed successfully. We’re also excited to analyse the data.
Blackarrow Member
Posts: 3743 From: Belfast, United Kingdom Registered: Feb 2002
posted 01-22-2024 12:26 PM
...the attitude after landing did not go as planned.
It seems that SLIM did not so much topple as topple over. However, it will be interesting to see if the robustness of the design will allow the spacecraft to return to life as the afternoon sun hits the solar panels.
I note that imaging data has been transmitted back to Earth. If the images are of sufficient quality, it would be in JAXA's interests, from an international PR point of view, to release one or more ASAP, to prove that they really did make it to a soft landing. I sincerely hope such a step is not (yet again) being stymied by proprietary interests.
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 52965 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
LEV-2 (SORA-Q) on the moon successfully completed the mission of automatically driving to image the SLIM spacecraft and understand its landing status, and sent images to the ground via LEV-1.
mercsim Member
Posts: 256 From: Phoenix, AZ Registered: Feb 2007
posted 01-25-2024 07:33 AM
That photo is fascinating. A tiny rover about the size of a softball was ejected just before landing. It unfolded and was able to drive around for up to two hours. Its job was to take that photo. Tomy has made an operational full scale toy controlled by an app.
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 52965 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
JAXA made this rendering of its SLIM lander, its nose in the dirt. Notice just the one main engine nozzle on top. The other engine failed about 50m above the Moon during descent, and the navigation cameras caught its nozzle falling to the lunar surface.
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 52965 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 01-26-2024 07:19 PM
NASA release
NASA's LRO Spots Japan's Moon Lander
On Jan. 19, 2024, at 10:20 a.m. EST, the JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) landed on the lunar surface. Five days later, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft passed over the landing site and photographed SLIM.
LRO acquired the image at an altitude of about 50 miles (80 km). Bright streaks on the left side of the image are rocky material ejected from the nearby, relatively young Shioli crater.
Japan is the fifth nation to complete a soft landing on the lunar surface.
Above: NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this image of the JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) SLIM lander on the Moon's surface on Jan. 24, 2024. SLIM landed at 13.3160 degrees south latitude, 25.2510 degrees east longitude, at an elevation of minus 2,992 feet (minus 912 meters). The image is 2,887 feet wide (880 meters), and lunar north is up (LROC NAC frame M14607392143L). (NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University)
Above: A composite image dividing the before image from after. Features that are the same in both images disappear, highlighting the changes in surface brightness from the rocket plume. The image is 2,887 feet wide (880 meters), and lunar north is up. (NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University)
Blackarrow Member
Posts: 3743 From: Belfast, United Kingdom Registered: Feb 2002
posted 01-28-2024 02:14 PM
SLIM landed at 25 deg. E, and we are now several days past full Moon, so sunlight must be falling on the solar panels. I think JAXA would have been quick to tell us (and rightly so) if SLIM had revived, so it's probably safe to conclude that SLIM is dead and not "just resting." I would be happy to be proved wrong.
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 52965 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 01-28-2024 04:53 PM
Looks like you posted too soon, Geoffrey.
We succeeded in establishing communication with SLIM last night and have resumed operations!
We immediately started scientific observations with MBC, and have successfully obtained first light for 10-band observation. The figure below shows "toy poodle" [a rock] observed using the first light multi-band observation.
An earlier released, labeled image showing the nicknames JAXA has given to the surface features:
Blackarrow Member
Posts: 3743 From: Belfast, United Kingdom Registered: Feb 2002
posted 01-29-2024 10:43 AM
Yes, my pessimism seems to have been misplaced. I still find it a little puzzling that this didn't happen earlier: the sun must be well past "high noon" at SLIM's landing-site. Perhaps the solar cells needed fairly direct illumination, rather than a very oblique view of the sun.
At first I thought this might have been like the last death-rattle of Philae on Comet 67P, when it briefly resumed contact, but a new image certainly suggests that SLIM is back (at least for a while).
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 52965 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 01-31-2024 01:42 PM
From JAXA (via X):
From 10pm last night (1/30) to 9am today (1/31) Japan Standard Time, we conducted multiband observations using a spectroscopic camera. Last night, new"Labradors, Dalmatians, Papillons, and more were added to the group as a result of detailed analysis of the images and additional imaging results, and we are also conducting second observations of some of the objects.
Per journalist Andrew Jones, the sun has now set over SLIM at Shioli crater.
That should be it for the spacecraft, as it doesn't have a radioisotope heater unit usually need to survive the cold lunar night.
I imagine there will be attempts to reawaken SLIM during the next lunar day (early Feb 15), but these will again need to wait for late in the solar day due to the attitude of the spacecraft after the suboptimal landing, so late February.
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 52965 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 02-26-2024 09:20 AM
From JAXA's SLIM team (via X):
Last night [Feb. 24], a command was sent to SLIM and a response received, confirming that the spacecraft has made it through the lunar night and maintained communication capabilities!
Communication with SLIM was terminated after a short time, as it was still lunar midday and the temperature of the communication equipment was very high. Preparations are being made to resume operations when instrument temperatures have sufficiently cooled.
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 52965 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 03-28-2024 11:18 AM
From JAXA's SLIM team (via X):
Last night [March 27], we received a response from SLIM, confirming that the spacecraft made it through the lunar night for the second time! Since the sun was still high and the equipment was still hot, we only took some shots of the usual scenery with the navigation camera.
According to the acquired data, some temperature sensors and unused battery cells are starting to malfunction, but the majority of functions that survived the first lunar night was maintained even after the second lunar night!
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 52965 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 04-24-2024 10:44 AM
From JAXA's SLIM team (via X):
Last night (the night of April 23rd), we were able to successfully communicate with SLIM which had started up again, and confirmed that SLIM had survived for the third time.
Here is a photo of the surface of the moon taken last night with the navigation camera. As this photo was taken at the earliest age of the moon so far after the overnight awakening, the moon is bright overall and the shadows are very short.
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 52965 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 05-28-2024 11:55 AM
From JAXA's SLIM team (via X):
We tried again on the night of the 27th, but there was no response from SLIM. As the sun went down around SLIM on the night of the 27th, it became impossible to generate electricity, so unfortunately this month's operation will end. Thank you very much for the many supports you have given us since the previous day's post.
We plan to try operating it again next month when we expect to be able to generate sufficient power from the solar panels. Since the power was turned off overnight, we hope that the whole system will be reset and restarted.
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 52965 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 08-26-2024 09:43 AM
From JAXA's SLIM team (via X):
Notice of the end of SLIM operations:
The SLIM Project attempted to communicate again on August 22nd and 23rd, but received no response from SLIM. As a result, it was determined that there was no prospect of communication being restored in the future, and so at around 10:40pm on the 23rd, the Project sent a command to halt SLIM's activities, shutting down the signal.
posted 01-19-2024 12:27 AM
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