Weird & Interesting science, take 2

[robkelk]

JAXA schedules August launch for 'Moon Sniper'

The first thing I though of was a Bubblegum Crisis / Sailor Moon crossover... but, no, it's a lunar lander that's supposed to be able to land more accurately than other landers, hence the "sniper" part of the name.

Well, the lander successfully made touchdown yesterday, bringing the number of nations to soft-land on the Moon up to five.

On the downside, the rover's solar cells aren't working. Thus, the Smart Lander for Investigating the Moon has a much shorter life than expected. JAXA plans to turn it off and turn it on again; maybe that will help.

And now we know why: the rover landed the wrong way up.



Photo taken by the second rover... which communicates with Earth via the first rover, so...