@elizabethtasker Thanks for the translation, really a great success! Also our observations with the Dwingeloo @radiotelescoop of the amateur radio on LEV-1 were a success: we got good recordings, with better SNR than the Wakayama data that was shown in the press conference (not strange, we have a bigger dish). Here's some audio. It's inverse Morse (quiet means 'on').
Also, I hate the formatting of the official JAXA press releases. But HQ posted it SO LATE we didn't have a chance to put a nicer formatted version on the ISAS website.
However, that will appear, along with my translated slides from the press conference today, which read like the newest action blockbuster.
Not kidding about SLIM landing on its head... here is picture! This was taken by LEV-2 (SORA-Q) that adorbs transformer robot carried by SLIM that looks like a ball and then springs open to roll wild across the lunar surface and take photos as the mood takes it.
Clearly, it found this pretty funny and it autonomously selected this shot to send back to Earth.
There's a press release here that HQ can't be bothered to post the English.
Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems to be its side, not its head. At first I was quite puzzled about how did it land in this position, but after seeing this depiction of the landing, I noticed that the thrusters are on the side. Maybe the rover can bump the lander in the desired position.
I've already done this maneuver several times in Kerbal Space Program.
(jokes apart, I hope that some sun will hit the solar panels anyway)
@elizabethtasker Google translate does a creditable job translating JAXA's release. Nothing like an actual translation, but a fair fraction of the information is available. Hoping for the best on the solar exposure!
@astrocurator From the point of news coverage, I think that makes matters worse, and should put more pressure on to release the English simultaneously. If there was no news that leaks through the language barrier, JAXA could publish the English release late and it'd still be "new news". But since it's out in Japanese, and that is readable--heaven forbid--OUTSIDE Japan, no big news site is going to cover a day old (or more) story.
@astrocurator It's like telling everyone you're preparing a delicious dinner then only serving the domestic media fresh food, while leaving the cold, rancid leftovers for the international press... and then complaining no one outside Japan likes your cooking! ("Oh the international media aren't very interested in JAXA missions")
I feel... if you're not ready to send out the English release, you're not ready to send out ANY release.
@astrocurator To be fair, ISAS (under our Deputy DG Fujimoto) does understand the importance of simultaneous EN/JPN coverage, and we've been able to make things a lot better and faster on all the media we control. But really big events still go to HQ who... don't prioritise getting the simultaneous news out, often wasting work we've put together in advance by posting it a day late. I want to smack the lot of them.
@elizabethtasker she also asked me about you and she’s declared that she wants to work for JAXA and send robots to the moon too, so we’ll see! Might need a few more years to work on that 😅
@pippa Incidentally, the group that built this little robot (LEV-2/SORA-Q) is a toy maker. It's Takara-Tomy (in collaboration with JAXA). They're very famous in Japan, and are perhaps most famous outside Japan for building the "transformers". LEV-2 also transforms, like like the transformers, from a closed ball into a little rover with wheels and a camera.
@elizabethtasker i can't find where in the press release it says the engine dropped off. It mentions it lost thrust in one of them. Is there more detail in the Japanese version?
@phenakistoscope It was said during the press conference. I have done the translation for the slides for this, but they're not posted yet. Hopefully later today...
@tsturm If we can power up again, the multi-band camera will take a stack more images. These are science-y but they're still nice images of the lunar surface. I think the rovers LEV-2 and LEV-1 will send back more photos independent of SLIM which might be more entertaining as they're mobile! Although their life expectancy is probably quite short.
@elizabethtasker I know that scientists want to primarily get their science data back and are mildly annoyed by the general public's cry for "MOAR PHOTOZ!", but I for one am just permanently fascinated by the fact that we can get pictures from outer space to our desktops and phones. It will never be enough photos. 😅
@elizabethtasker@tsturm
Do the rovers have solar cells to charge their batteries?
If yes, then they should have been sending data every day since landing.
If not, then their batteries would have exhausted within a few hours after landing.
Arrgh! Real life missions are not supposed to follow writers advice for heros (whatever the worst thing that could happen to them right now -other than dying- Do That)
@elizabethtasker I read that as "engineers" and thought you meant that, mid landing, one of the landing engineers went "alright, that's it for me today" and walked out of mission control center.
@mattwilcox There are somewhat limited reasons for why there'd be a lack of solar power 🤣 But fortunately, not completely upside down (where the solar panels would be covered)
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