Japan's Moon lander makes it through another lunar night

Japan's Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) has woken up again, having survived three lunar nights. A post on social media from the lander's X account confirmed that once more, SLIM had defied the odds and snapped a picture of the lunar surface using its navigation camera. SLIM was revived a few weeks ago, after a …

[Michael Hoffmann]

Name it Granny Weatherwax!

"I aiten't dead!"

[John Robson]

Hats off

Another night - that's so far beyond the planned, or expected, lifetime.

I wonder how it would have fared had it not lost an engine on the way down.

[MachDiamond]

Re: Hats off

"I wonder how it would have fared had it not lost an engine on the way down."

With it working after the problems it's had, they should do another right away with improvements to keep from having the same issues.

I've always found that the second one of something I make goes much faster and is far less expensive. Mk1, Rev0 is nearly always lacking.

[Gene Cash]

This is actually a hell of a useful first. What have they done different in the design, and how can everybody learn from it? Is it different battery chemistry? Or insulation? Or I don't know, something as simple as different capacitor chemistry?

[KittenHuffer]

I have a theoretical answer ....

.... but it requires that the batteries are spherical! The requirement for a vacuum has already been provided!

[I ain't Spartacus]

Re: I have a theoretical answer ....

Do you mean Japan has spherical sheep based baaattery technology?

Or are ewe referring to their insulated ram?

[Spherical Cow]

Re: I have a theoretical answer ....

Perhaps I can be of assistance?

[I am David Jones]

Re: I have a theoretical answer ....

Obligatory: https://xkcd.com/669/

[Charlie Clark]

I'm sure JAXA will only be too pleased to tell us all in due course. They really deserve more credit than they're getting for this but they're just not misanthropic or narcissitic enough! Yes, it tipped over but it got "within a gnat's crotchet" of the intended landing site.

I would have thought that if they can keep stuff dry enough, most components will be fine because they're solid. Maybe they already managed to squeeze a solid-state battery in?

[Andy The Hat]

" if they can keep stuff dry enough,"

Are you expecting rain...? :-)

[BristolBachelor]

Have you heard of a bi-metalic strip? When you cool something down to -150°, you find that the thermal expansion differences really show.

[lowwall]

Made in Japan

My old Honda never failed to start despite spending its whole life in Wyoming and Minnesota. If you've never had the pleasure of a Minnesota winter, let's just say lunar night would be a doddle.

[MachDiamond]

It has to be recognized

when someone achieves milestones like this. For mankind to be able to use the moon, there's a need for the tech that can survive the harsh lack of an environment.

[HelpfulJohn]

Re: It has to be recognized

There *is* an "environment", it's just not very full of stuff.

It does have "air" of a sort, and intermittent precipitation of rocks and ices as well as fluxes of solar gases and, of course, the rocky bit underfoot but it's slightly lacking in trees, grasses, cats and cafés. For humans able to get there and to build permanent stations, it would have been a far more benign environment than an English Winter in the 1980's.

Luna is colder, true, but it's a dry cold and easily insulated against. :)

Somewhere, deep in the rock, it's even nicer. Or it could have been.

It's sad that we'll never really know.

[Blackjack]

Someone should make a videogame about this, were you are a moon lander that has to survive as many nights as possible...

[Andy The Hat]

-150C? Pah! My mum's freezer is colder than that - I needed to wear a tauntaun just to open the door!