Japan Moon lander survives lunar night

TOKYO, Feb 26 (AFP): Japan's Moon lander has produced another surprise by waking up after the two-week lunar night, the country's space agency said Monday.
The unmanned Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) touched down last month at a wonky angle that left its solar panels facing the wrong way.
As the sun's angle shifted, it came back to life for two days and carried out scientific observations of a crater with a high-spec camera, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said.
It went to sleep again as darkness returned and, since it was "not designed for the harsh lunar nights", JAXA had been uncertain whether it would reawaken.
"Yesterday we sent a command, to which SLIM responded," JAXA said on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday.
"SLIM succeeded in surviving a night on the Moon's surface while maintaining its communication function!"
It said communications were "terminated after a short time, as it was still lunar midday and the temperature of the communication equipment was very high".
But it added: "Preparations are being made to resume operations when instrument temperatures have sufficiently cooled."