The operation of Japan's lunar probe SLIM comes to an end, concluding a journey full of twists and turns

On August 26, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) released news that the operation and mission of the lunar probe SLIM had completely ended on August 23.

The journey of the SLIM probe has been full of hardships. In the early morning of January 20 this year, it successfully landed on the surface of the moon, achieving the world's first precise landing. It had established communication with the ground. However, problems continued thereafter. Since May, JAXA has been unable to establish communication with SLIM. From May to August, although the agency tried many times to restore communication, all attempts ended in failure. In the end, JAXA judged that communication could not be restored and sent an instruction to stop the operation of SLIM at 22:40 on the 23rd Japan time.

The initial mission of the SLIM probe was to verify precise landing technology and explore the origin of the moon. Although it toppled over on its side in a "headfirst" posture due to the loss of power of its engine when landing, and the solar panels were not facing the sun, resulting in inability to generate electricity normally, it still obtained all target data before spending the first lunar night. On May 27, the research team had confirmed through the ***ysis of the lunar surface rock data obtained by SLIM that there is olivine in it, which provides an important clue for studying the origin and chemical composition of the moon.

However, the continuous inability to solve the communication problem has made the future of the probe full of uncertainties. JAXA had stated in June that the possibility of restoring communication is very low and it may be permanently lost in contact. Now, with the issuance of the instruction to end the operation, the mission of the SLIM probe has officially come to an end. This incident has also left a deep mark on Japan's path of space exploration and at the same time triggered a global reconsideration of the reliability of space probes and communication technology. In the future, Japanese space agencies may learn from this experience and continue to move forward in the field of space exploration.