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Japan's moon lander wasn't built to survive a weekslong lunar night. It's still going after 3

Summary by Ground News
Japan’s first moon lander has survived a third freezing lunar night, Japan’s space agency said Wednesday after receiving an image from the device three months after it landed on the moon. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said the lunar probe responded to a signal from the earth Tuesday night, confirming it has survived another weekslong lunar night. Temperatures can fall to minus 170 degrees Celsius (minus 274 degrees Fahrenheit) during a lunar night, and rise to around 100 Celsius (212 Fahrenheit) during a lunar day. The probe, Smart Lander for Investing Moon, or SLIM, reached the lunar surface on Jan. 20, making Japan the fifth country to successfully place a probe on the moon. SLIM on Jan. 20 landed the wrong way up with its solar panels initially unable to see the sun, and had to be turned off within hours, but powered on when the sun rose eight days later.

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The Japanese SLIM probe, which landed on the Moon in the second half of January, is still working. It has already passed the third lunar night, although it was not designed to tolerate night temperatures on the Moon reaching minus 130 degrees Celsius, the Japanese space agency JAXA said in the middle.

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The spacecraft exceeded all expectations.

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Phys.org broke the news in United Kingdom on Wednesday, April 24, 2024.
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