Japan’s moon lander beats predictions, survives second lunar night

Japan’s moon lander surprised scientists by surviving a second bone-chilling lunar night, which lasts a total of 14 days. Undeterred by freezing temperatures, the lander responded to a signal from Earth on February 26.

The Japanese space agency said the lunar probe was not designed to survive the lunar night. India’s recent lunar mission Chandrayaan-3 also successfully landed on the moon but could not wake up from the 14-day slumber on the moon.

The lunar mission is Japan's first. The spacecraft made a historic precision touchdown on Jan. 20, though it landed the wrong way up, with its solar panels initially unable to see the sun and was turned off after a brief communication with Earth.

But on the eighth day, it started working, allowing it to successfully reestablish communication with the command center at JAXA on Earth.

The spacecraft had landed about 55 meters (60 yards) away from its target, near the Shioli crater, a region covered in volcanic rocks. It's the most precise landing compared to previous moon missions that typically aimed for flat areas at least 10 kilometers (6 miles) wide.

The landing made Japan the world's fifth country to reach the moon, after the United States, the Soviet Union, China and India.

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