Lunar faceplant
On January 19, Japan became only the fifth country to successfully pull off a soft landing on the Moon. Its lander, dubbed SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon), performed a precision targeted landing, coming to within 180 feet (55 meters) of its intended location. Unfortunately, however, SLIM didn’t land exactly right, tipping over onto its head and temporarily rendering its solar panels useless. The lander did manage to come back from the dead one week later owing to some fortuitous sunlight, allowing the mission to continue. The image above was taken by Sora-Q, one of two tiny robots ejected to the surface during the landing.
