The Japanese SLIM probe has disconnected its battery while waiting to be recharged and reactivated.

The Japanese SLIM probe, which landed on the lunar surface shortly after midnight on the 20th, switched off its battery and entered power mode less than three hours later. “sleep mode” after failure of solar cellsawaiting recharge and reactivation, the Japan Aerospace Agency (JAXA) said today.

The SLIM (Smart Lunar Exploration Lander) landed on Earth’s natural satellite at 00:20 local Japanese time on Saturday (15:20 GMT on Friday the 19th). Japan in the fifth country in the world to land a spacecraft on the moon.

After the moon landing, the power of the solar panels could not be confirmed. “At 12% charge level the battery turned off. (as planned) to prevent the recovery operation from being unable to restart due to excessive load,” JAXA explained this Monday on its social networks.

The probe turned off at 2:57 local Japanese time on the 20th (17:57 GMT on Friday, the 19th), the aerospace agency said.

According to spacecraft telemetry data, SLIM’s solar cells face west. “If the light of the Sun begins to shine on the lunar surface from the west, “There is potential for energy production and we are preparing for recovery.” devices in this case, JAXA noted.

The SLIM probe operates solely on the energy of these cells.

In its first public statement on SLIM’s status since the post-landing press conference, JAXA said today that prior to the planned power outage, the probe was capable of successfully transmitting technical data and images acquired during its descent and after landing on the Moon. .

“We are currently conducting a detailed analysis and are relieved to see that we have obtained a lot of data,” he wrote on the X Network profile.

JAXA has scheduled a press conference for this Thursday the 25th “to announce SLIM status and current results.”

The organization’s emergence after the dawn lunar landing took place in an atmosphere of distress, despite the success of the landing, given that a power failure made it difficult for the probe to carry out another minor part of its mission, taking images that would be used in Artemis Lunar Exploration Project.

“Although the position (of the vehicle) after landing was not as planned, “We are happy that we were able to achieve so much and happy that we landed successfully.”JAXA reported on Monday, where they again showed “enthusiasm” about analyzing the data.

SLIM’s main goal was to make a “spot” or pinpoint/localized landing within a 100-meter radius around Scioli Crater, near the lunar equator, a precision hitherto unprecedented. Conventional lunar landings currently have a margin of several kilometers.

The space agency had already indicated that it would take about a month to determine whether its accuracy targets had been met, although it was optimistic in this regard given that the descent, route and timing of the operation had worked out as planned, and was now reviewing details.