Posts Tagged: slim

Japan’s SLIM lunar lander made it to the moon, but it’ll likely die within hours

Japan has become the fifth country to successfully land on the moon after confirming today that its SLIM lander survived its descent to the surface — but its mission is likely to be short lived. JAXA, the Japanese space agency, says the spacecraft is having problems with its solar cell and is unable to generate electricity. In its current state, the battery may only have enough juice to keep it running a few more hours.

Based on how the other instruments are functioning, JAXA said in a press conference this afternoon that it’s evident SLIM did make a soft landing. The spacecraft has been able to communicate with Earth and receive commands, but is operating on a low battery. It’s unclear what exactly the issue with the solar cell is beyond the fact that it’s not functioning.

There’s a chance that the panels are just not facing the right direction to be receiving sunlight right now, which would mean it could start charging when the sun changes position. But, JAXA says it needs more time to understand what has happened. LEV-1 and LEV-2, two small rovers that accompanied SLIM to the moon, were able to successfully separate from the lander as planned before it touched down, and so far appear to be in working condition.

JAXA says it’s now focusing on maximizing the operational time it has left with SLIM to get as much data as possible from the landing. SLIM — the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon — has also been called the “Moon Sniper” due to its precision landing technology, which is supposed to put it within 100 meters of its target, the Shioli crater. The agency is planning to hold another press conference next week to share more updates.

Though its time may be running out, SLIM’s landing was still a major feat. Only four other countries have successfully landed on the moon: the US, China, India and Russia. The latest American attempt, the privately led Peregrine Mission One, ended in failure after the spacecraft began leaking propellant shortly after its January 8 launch. It managed to hang on for several more days and even reached lunar distance, but had no chance of a soft landing. Astrobotic, the company behind the lander, confirmed last night that Peregrine made a controlled reentry, burning up in Earth’s atmosphere over the South Pacific.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/japans-slim-lunar-lander-made-it-to-the-moon-but-itll-likely-die-within-hours-195431502.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

The Honor Magic Vs2 is a slim and lightweight foldable with the power you need

Just a few weeks after launching the Magic V2 which goes on sale in early 2024, Honor is back with another take on the foldable phone. This time it’s the Magic Vs2, a phone that packs in the power you need with the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset, weighing in at just 229g, with a […]

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Official specs and renders leak for Samsung’s slim n’ sleek Galaxy Watch3

Here we have another Samsung leak but this time about its upcoming Tizen-powered Galaxy Watch3 smartwatch that will be unveiled during the online-only Unpacked event on August 5th. This latest leak on Samsung’s wearable shines a light on the Galaxy Watch3’s specifications and gives us a plethora of renders to ogle at. We’ve embedded the […]

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[Review] Tile Slim, Tile Mate, and Tile Pro make Tile’s lineup just a little bit better

Tile announced a refresh to their line of products, bringing some slight design changes and better functionality to the Tile Mate, Tile Pro, and Tile Slim. Each of these is made for different use cases, with differeing shapes and ways to stick them to your stuff. We got a chance to play with the entire […]

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External battery sticks to your phone to offer a slim and stylish package

A new external battery from Schosche uses magnets to stick to your phone, allowing you to quickly attach it when you want to use it and detach it when you don’t. To do this, the battery requires a small adhesive magnet to be stuck to your phone.

The post External battery sticks to your phone to offer a slim and stylish package appeared first on Digital Trends.

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