JAXA’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) may have snapped its last image before going dormant on the lunar surface. To see if that is truly the case, the team will need to wait for just over 2-weeks for optimal lighting and temperature conditions before it can possibly be revived.
If this is truly the last image it captured, JAXA would consider the SLIM mission a success, as since Monday, it has analyzed rocks around the Shioli crater with a multi-band spectral camera. This spot was chosen by the team in hopes of learning more about the Moon’s formation, as it could have been created after a massive meteor collided with Earth.
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Last night (January 31st to February 1st), we sent a command to turn on the probe’s communication device just in case, and when there was no response, we confirmed that SLIM had entered a dormant state. This is the last scene taken by SLIM with its navigation camera before dusk,” said the JAXA Team.
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