Japan's 'lander' achieved the feat of surviving the second night on the Moon

The SLIM ship continues to surprise the scientific community with its ability to overcome one challenge after another .

Unlike Earth, night on the Moon is no small challenge for all human exploration efforts. Temperature is the main cause, which can drop to as low as -253⁰C , which is colder than some planets like Pluto.

For spacecraft not equipped with a special heating system, they will not be able to survive the harsh moonlit night. However, somehow, there are still spacecraft that can overcome the above challenge.

Japan's unmanned exploration spacecraft (SLIM) is one of these, successfully overcoming not just one, but two harsh nights on the Moon. On Twitter, scientists called this a "miracle" , especially since this ship is not in the most ideal state, nor does it have a special system to protect against temperature.

The SLIM ship is not dead yet

That is the status line posted by the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) on its personal page. Mission team members announced the news in a post with a photo taken by the lander's navigation camera as evidence.

Previously, the SLIM spacecraft successfully landed on the Moon for the first time on January 19. Immediately, the ship encountered its first challenge, when it collapsed, and almost capsized because the landing did not go as planned.

Because of this problem, the ship's solar panels were facing the wrong direction, and could not get the required level of energy. However, the SLIM ship is still capable of deploying autonomous vehicles to serve scientific research.

When night fell, the ship was put into standstill mode. At this time, few people believed in the ship's ability to survive. That's because the spacecraft is not designed to survive the cold night, and last up to 2 weeks on the Moon.

A miracle happened when the angle of the Sun changed, causing the ship to "resurrect from the dead", and continue to make scientific observations of the crater where it landed using high-resolution cameras. High.

Japan's SLIM lunar probe captured this view of the landing site shortly after surviving the second lunar night. The mission team posted the photo on March 27 (Photo: JAXA).

The spacecraft also responded to signals from JAXA engineers, showing that its communications functions were still operating normally despite the cold night on the Moon.

International experts admired Japan when their ship showed its extraordinary ability to survive on the Moon, despite encountering problems that almost no spacecraft would expect.

Then on March 28, the ship made people go from one surprise to another, surviving the second night on the Moon.

"We received a response from SLIM, confirming that the spacecraft had passed the second moonlit night. Since the Sun was still high in the sky and the instrument was still warm, we only took some landscape photos typically using a navigation camera ," the JAXA mission team said.

According to the data obtained, some of the ship's temperature sensors and batteries have now begun to malfunction, but the majority of functions that remained after the first moonlit night are maintained even after the second night.

Now that the scientific missions have been completed, how many more days the SLIM ship can survive are recognized as "unprecedented" achievements , and can bring lessons for the mission. upcoming.

Surviving the moonlit night: A challenge that has baffled science for decades

The Moon's day/night cycle (also known as the lunar calendar) at most locations on the surface consists of 14 days of illumination by the Sun, and then 14 days of cold, continuous darkness. price.

Due to the lack of a temperate atmosphere, temperatures on the Moon's surface can range from 120⁰C during the day, and -180⁰C at night . Particularly, in some permanently shadowed regions (PSR) on the Moon, temperatures can drop to lower than -240⁰C.

All those pros and cons add up to create one of the most demanding environmental challenges that future lunar expeditions will face.

To overcome this and achieve a long stay means any creature, or machine, must face the harsh environment of the Moon.

Dean Eppler, a lunar scientist at NASA, says surviving the harsh night on the Moon is key if we want to stay on the Moon for longer than 2 weeks (the Moon's daylight hours). ).

Accordingly, hiding, such as staying at stations, or deactivating equipment. at this time may still be the best decisions for scientific activities and survival.

This is also the solution used by many expedition ships that are not equipped with a radioactive heating unit (RHU). Typically, Japan's SLIM ship, or India's Chandrayaan-3 ship.

The SLIM ship is not inherently equipped with mechanisms to survive the harsh Moonlit night. (Photo: JAXA).

Most commonly, RHUs used on space missions convert heat generated from the natural decay of radioactive isotopes of plutonium or polonium into electrical energy.

This process will eventually warm the spacecraft's equipment, or simply help it survive very cold temperatures.

If not equipped with this part, the spacecraft's ability to "wake up" when night passes will be a big question mark, because then many parts necessary for operation may be frozen. .

Fortunately, we have made the necessary preparations.

According to Noah Petro, a scientist from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, thanks to technologies that reproduce the environment (such as temperature, radiation.), people have a mature understanding of technical requirements. magic to operate throughout the moonlit night.

Artemis mission technologists are trying day and night to solve the problem that astronauts encounter in the dark of the Moon.

They have successfully created clothing materials that can withstand pressure, not freeze and break. Along with this is ensuring that the upper parts of the suit system do not become too hot to the point of causing severe heat stress to the crew member.

In addition to the main suit, other parts such as gloves, boots, backpacks, mobile life support systems. will all have special designs to maintain operational capabilities.

Now, perhaps all we need is a mission that can demonstrate and apply all that knowledge, to make it history.