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Japan\u2019s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) has been resurrected, over a week after the probe ran out of electricity following its troubled lunar touchdown on January 20th, leaving it upside-down and its solar panels pointing in the wrong direction. On Monday, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced<\/a> that communication with the SLIM spacecraft had been re-established, and operations to hunt for clues about the Moon\u2019s origins had resumed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n JAXA had predicted that a change in sunlight direction could allow the probe\u2019s battery to be recharged from its awkwardly angled solar panels. It\u2019s unclear how long this power will last \u2014 the agency previously said that SLIM was not designed to survive a lunar night, which will next occur on Thursday. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Images of the lunar surface<\/a> taken by SLIM\u2019s multi-band spectral camera before the spacecraft\u2019s power was initially disabled were released on January 25th. Today, JAXA released another image of the \u201ctoy poodle\u201d rock formation photographed by SLIM.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n While the mission faced some issues with its landing position after one of the SLIM spacecraft\u2019s main engines failed causing it to tumble over, the successful soft landing makes Japan the fifth nation to land a spacecraft on the moon, alongside the US, China, India<\/a>, and the former Soviet Union, according to Reuters<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n