SLIM, Small Japanese lunar lander Options

[kymani76]

With today's images and article by Andrew Jones I am finally in position to offer landing map.
Article reports 25.24889E, 13.31549S as landing site, I get 25.253834E, 13.31406S from LRO NAC image M1249381781LC.

Close up with navigational images. Grid at 10m.

[kymani76]

3D view looking SE towards Cyrillus crater edge, roughly the same direction as the one from the LEV-2 photo released today.
SLIM really landed on a pronounced slope!

I also came across a photo with few rocks labeled.

[propguy]

That's an extremely scenic bit of (Lunar) terrain!

Any ideas about why the nozzle broke off?

Didn't Akatsuki also break a nozzle (I know, different time/place)?

P

I did some digging and it may be the same engine (or at least a 2nd/3rd generation of the Akatsuki main engine). Akatsuki did use a 500 N ceramic engine and from the SLIM press kit they mention the same attributes for their main engine. Akatsuki failed due to a stuck fuel side pressurization check valve. No way to know if this was a similar issue (but one thing I know after 37+ years of prop experience is we usually overkill issue issues that occur on previous missions, so most issues are new ones). Sadly the Akatsuki failure put big dampers on development and use of ceramic larger thrust engines and this failure may have the same effect. Lets hope in the current position that SLIM can still produce power when the arrays are illuminated and recover some of their mission.

[Phil Stooke]

Trying to understand the viewing geometry in the surface images. This image shows a composite of the MBC image and the LEV-2 image to maximize viewing of the horizon (incidentally, although this LEV-2 image was relayed to Earth via the LEV-1 hopper, it seems that LEV-1 did not obtain any images). Below is an LROC view from Quickmap showing approximately the field of view of that composite. A prominent crater below the distant horizon ridge is discernable in the composite as a very bright spot on the right side of the lander (high sun LROC images show it has bright ejecta).

Also, a shadow-filled crater half visible on the left edge of the LEV-2 image is seen in Jake's map just to the east of the lsnding site.

Phil

[MichaelJWP]

Oh wow! From LEV-2. (edited - originally wrote LEV-1).

Not to cast doubt, but this image looks strange in that the background beyond the close up ridge looks a bit out of focus, depth of field fair enough, but the horizon ridge appears sharp, yet pixellated.
As well as that, the background looks brownish compared to the monochrome foreground.
Wondered if any pic experts couid explain? (there are a few sceptics on social media claiming it's not real)

- Michael

[nprev]

Such "skeptics" are more accurately characterized as "conspiracy theorists". Per Forum rule 1.9 such nonsense is not a permissable area of discussion.

[Phil Stooke]

I have learned a few things about the multispectral camera image. What we have seen so far is a low resolution monochrome survey of the field of view available to the instrument. It consists of 257 individual small frames. A total of 333 were supposed to be taken but the sequence was cut short to be sure it could all be transmitted. If SLIM is revived as the sun reaches its solar panel, a set of 10-band multispectral images will be taken of specific targets identified in the existing image. Those targets are presumably the six rocks identified by names (breeds of dog) in one image.

Phil

(EDIT: I corrected the numbers of frames)

[marsbug]

Having read the above reminder of rule 1.9 I should probably be clear that I am asking because I'm interested in the technology of the LEV-2 mini rover and where it might go from here: My own searching has thrown up precious little on the specifics of the LEV-2 cameras, and how they are oriented and operate - except that control board for them was designed with maximum energy efficiency in mind, by Sony. Does anyone have any directions or links to a more detailed break-down of them? EDIT: I'm aware that the rover was made by TOMY, a toy manufacturer, but I've not found anything in the way of technical material on their website.

[MichaelJWP]

Such "skeptics" are more accurately characterized as "conspiracy theorists". Per Forum rule 1.9 such nonsense is not a permissable area of discussion.

Quite rightly so, but I was more interested in technical reasons (such as compression artifacts etc.) informing why the photo might look like that, not to discuss conspiracy nonsense.

[climber]

LRO found SLIM : https://x.com/nasascienceaa/status/17508963...fWw235ADkQ7vfxA

[Explorer1]

Wrong link? It's discussing the retroreflector from the Vikram lander.

[climber]

Still working alright for me, don’t know what to do about it, sorry…

[tolis]

LRO found SLIM : https://x.com/nasascienceaa/status/17508963...fWw235ADkQ7vfxA

A story has just appeared at the LROC website.

[Explorer1]

The post is from January 18th

I found it on the LROC website: https://www.lroc.asu.edu/posts/1358
Looks like some exhaust kicked up, but still hard to resolve anything.

[kymani76]

SLIM being imaged by LRO allows me to make a minor correction, it turns out the lander is about 10m to the south of the previous estimate.
In rounded numbers I get 25.254, -13.315 for long/lat of the landing coordinates, a slight difference from the estimate of 25.251, -13.316 reported in LRO release.
SLIM is visible, but is just a few pixels across in size.