On the twentieth of last month, Japan's exploration spacecraft 'SLIM', which became the world's fifth spacecraft to successfully land on the moon, began normal operation of its solar panels after 10 days. This panel didn’t work on the time of landing, raising concerns that the mission could be shortened.

Sharp officially announced on the twenty ninth that it had confirmed that Slim's solar cell was operating normally.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced on the twentieth that on account of an issue with Slim's landing angle, sunlight doesn’t reach the panel, and the mission may end early because it is working on limited battery power. Nonetheless, he also explained that there’s a possibility of development depending on the moon's orbit.

Ultimately, the reason is that Slim's lunar activity cycle was normalized on account of normal operation of the solar panel.

The skinny film compound solar panel mounted on Slim was developed by Sharp. It’s a structure by which solar cells are sealed with a skinny film. Not only is it light in weight, but it surely also has the advantage of with the ability to be mounted on curved surfaces.

The output per panel is 20.9 watts (W), and a complete of 26 panels can output 540W. The entire weight is just about 1kg, which could be very light in comparison with the load of a typical 500W solar panel weighing over 20kg.

Sharp said, “We’ll proceed to advance research and development of space solar cells and contribute to satellite exploration and space exploration projects, including JAXA.”

Reporter Lee Yu-seon energy@aiitmes.com