Japan's Space Exploration Agency (JAXA) has ended operations of the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) that it landed on Earth's sole natural satellite in January.

JAXA pulled the plug last Friday and [1]announced the end of the mission on Tuesday.

SLIM landed on the Moon on January 19 and used its autonomous systems to pick a landing spot just ten meters from its targeted location. That part of the mission was a success, as JAXA wanted to pioneer self-landing tech so that future craft can find themselves a safe touchdown location rather than having to rely on other assets.

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While SLIM landed on target, the craft quickly struck trouble. Its solar panels gathered less energy than expected because the lander [3]came to rest on its side and sustained damage. JAXA shut it down with enough energy left in its batteries to allow a reboot.

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Then SLIM got lucky and caught some rays. It was able to [6]send home images and data. The space agency was chuffed by that – and the success of some other experiments – but warned SLIM was unlikely to survive a lunar night.

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SLIM defied the doubters by surviving two of them, waking in [11]February and again in [12]again in April . On both occasion, SLIM sent more data and pics home.

Some of the info gathered by the lander was captured by its Multi-Band Camera, which performed spectral observations in ten wavelength bands on ten rocks – a better outcome than expected.

But JAXA has been unable to contact the craft since April 28, leading to last Friday's decision to end the mission.

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SLIM's landing made Japan just the fifth nation to achieve a soft touchdown on Luna. JAXA previously rated the mission a "minimum success" on account of the sideways landing. However, the announcement of the craft's demise notes that by surviving three lunar nights and snapping ten rocks, the mission exceeded expectations. ®

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[1] https://global.jaxa.jp/press/2024/08/20240826-1_e.html

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[3] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/26/jaxa_slim_photo/

[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zs1PZc30cxbrKPzl1qwqeQAAARE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

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[6] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/29/japan_lander_wakes_up_takes/

[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/19/japan_space_junk_retrieval/

[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/11/jaxa_m365_zeroday_attacks/

[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/14/jaxa_sparc_satellite_crop_advertising/

[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/28/iss_shelter_russian_satellite_breakup/

[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/27/jaxa_slim_moon_lander_awakens/

[12] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/02/jaxa_slim_awakens/

[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zs1PZc30cxbrKPzl1qwqeQAAARE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/