Week 35, 2024: Japan's First Lunar Lander Officially Ends its Historic Mission
SLIM about to arrive in lunar orbit, 2023-Dec-25
Around 22:40 JST (13:40 UTC) of 23 August 2024, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has officially terminated operations of the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) mission when it failed to reestablish contact with the probe, three months since its last known transmission with Earth (April 28th)
Launched alongside the XRISM observatory in 6 September 2023, it took more than three months for the probe to arrive on lunar orbit. It made its landing attempt on 19 January 2024 near Shioli Crater, making Japan the fifth country to successfully land on the Moon. Although designed to survive for only one lunar day (14 days), it continued to send back data to Earth for another three months (April 28th) until the spacecraft eventually failed due to the harsh environment of the lunar surface.
The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon mission is available for download as an addon for Celestia here
Source: JAXA
Highlights of the SLIM mission (2023–2024)
Launch of XRISM and SLIM aboard the H-IIA rocket, 6 Sept 2023
Animation of SLIM's trajectory to the Moon, Sept-Dec 2023
Craters on the Moon as seen by SLIM in orbit, 2024-Jan-15
SLIM upside down on the lunar surface as seen by LEV-1, 2024-Jan-25
SLIM landing site (13.316°S 25.251°E) as seen by Chandrayaan-2, 2024-Mar-16