Japan's lunar craft lands successfully but can’t generate solar power

Japan on Saturday becomes the 5th nation to soft land on the Moon. Earlier, JAXA’s SLIM lander touched down on the lunar surface - however in an orientation that does not allow its solar panels to generate power.The spacecraft has deployed 2 small rovers but lander is quickly dying.The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said its Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) landed the moon’s surface at around 12:20 a.m. (1520 GMT Friday) and re-established communication with earth, but its solar panels were not able to generate electricity, possibly because they are angled wrong.
“SLIM is now operating only on its battery, and we are prioritising the transfer of its data onto earth”, Hitoshi Kuninaka, the head of JAXA’s space lab, told a press conference.Dubbed the “moon sniper”, SLIM attempted to land within 100 metres (328 feet) of its target, versus the conventional accuracy of several kilometres, a technology JAXA says will become a powerful tool in future exploration of hilly moon poles seen as a potential source of oxygen, fuel and water.It will take up to a month to verify whether SLIM had achieved the high-precision goals, JAXA has said.
The failure caused widespread delays in Japan’s space missions, including SLIM and a joint lunar exploration with India, which in August made a historic touchdown on the moon’s south pole with its Chandrayaan-3 probe.JAXA has twice landed on small asteroids, but unlike with an asteroid landing, the moon’s gravity means the lander cannot pull up for another try, its scientists said. Three lunar missions by Japanese startup ispace, Russia’s space agency and American company Astrobotic have failed in the past year.Only four nations – the former Soviet Union, the United States, China and India – and no private company have achieved a soft landing on the moon’s surface.