[Kyodo News, June 27]The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced on the 27th that it tried to restore communication with the probe “SLIM” that landed on the lunar surface in January from the 21st to the 27th, but failed to confirm the signal. Since communication was not restored during the attempt in May, JAXA believes that “the possibility of future communication is very low.” SLIM’s activity period of about 5 months, which exceeded expectations, is expected to end here.

SLIM was developed to verify the “precision landing” technology for landing at a target location on the lunar surface. It was originally expected to work for several days after landing, but in fact it overcame the extremely cold nights of minus 170 degrees Celsius and successfully achieved “overnight” three times, which was not anticipated in the design.

The lunar surface alternates between day and night approximately every two weeks. Since the temperature can reach 110 degrees during the day, the probability of malfunction increases each time SLIM goes through hibernation and resumes work.

JAXA said: “Future plans have not yet been determined. All target data were acquired before the first overnight stop, and there was no adverse effect on the results.”

SLIM landed about 55 meters from the target location on January 20, successfully achieving the world’s first precision landing. However, due to the inverted landing, there was a temporary problem of power generation, and its scheduled mission was completed at the end of January. (End)