Emily and Chris tune in to JAXA’s livestream of SLIM — the Smart Lander for Investigating and Moon — as it attempted to slick the landing on the lunar surface on Friday 19 January 2023. We were prepared for success and champagne, or failure and lessons-learned. What we didn’t expect was … ambiguity, uncertainty and WE ARE STILL CHECKING THE STATUS SO PLEASE WAIT. Did SLIM and its fabulous little transformer rovers make it to the Moon OK or not?! Join us for all the anticipation, the wonder, and the confusion in this special syzygy episode.

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Syzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.

On the web: syzygy.fm | Instagram & Threads: @syzygypod

Things we talk about in this episode:

• JAXA’s SLIM mission

• YouTube livestream recording and press conference

• Update article from 3 days later

• Mission success!

• The SLIM Rovers LEM 1 and LEM 2

• Buy your own LEM-2 rover! (Or buy us one, we’d love you forever!)

• Upcoming missions to the Moon

• India’s Chandrayaan-3 landing

• Israel’s failed moon landing

• Moss Piglets on the Moon?