[ti:Japanese Spacecraft Regains Power after Moon Landing]
[by:www.21voa.com]
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[00:00.04]Japan's space agency says a spacecraft
[00:04.24]that landed on the moon earlier this month
[00:07.64]has regained power and is continuing its mission.
[00:12.64]Officials from the Japan Exploration Agency (JAXA)
[00:18.56]said Monday they had successfully reestablished
[00:22.80]communication with the SLIM moon explorer.
[00:27.52]SLIM touched down on the moon on January 20.
[00:31.84]But the spacecraft landed the wrong way up.
[00:36.40]Its solar equipment was unable to see the sun.
[00:40.92]JAXA said SLIM was likely able to regain power
[00:46.20]because of a change in the sun's direction.
[00:49.92]After the landing, JAXA
[00:52.28]used the spacecraft's battery power
[00:55.68]to gather as much data as possible
[00:58.92]about the touchdown and the surrounding area.
[01:03.20]The power was then turned off to wait
[01:06.48]for the sun to rise higher in the lunar sky.
[01:10.72]Mission officials have said the explorer
[01:14.56]landed within 55 meters of its target
[01:18.96]near the lunar equator.
[01:21.08]It also landed in between two craters
[01:25.28]in an area covered in volcanic rock.
[01:28.76]JAXA said these results demonstrated progress
[01:34.36]in what it calls "pinpoint" landing technology.
[01:39.24]Past moon missions generally aimed to hit flat areas
[01:45.00]at least 10 kilometers wide.
[01:48.60]But the ability to land on very exact targets
[01:53.40]is expected to help support future space vehicles
[01:58.16]traveling to the moon and other places.
[02:02.08]The main purpose of the mission was to test the possibility
[02:07.16]that spacecraft can land on very specific targets.
[02:12.04]But SLIM is also capturing images
[02:15.88]and released two small explorers.
[02:19.28]The explorers are designed to examine mineral-rich
[02:23.44]rocks and collect data on the moon's development.
[02:28.20]JAXA has not named a specific date
[02:32.32]for when SLIM will end its operations on the moon.
[02:36.56]But the agency has said in the past
[02:40.28]that the lander was not designed to survive a lunar night.
[02:45.56]The next lunar night begins on Thursday.
[02:50.08]The mission made Japan the fifth country in the world
[02:54.48]to successfully land on the surface of the moon,
[02:58.12]after the United States, the Soviet Union, China and India.
[03:04.56]I'm Bryan Lynn. 更多听力请访问21VOA.COM