Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Slim spacecraft has come back to life after being shut down for a week due to a power problem.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) said it had restored contact with the lander on Sunday, summing up that the fault had been fixed.

Its solar cells are working again after a change in lighting conditions allowed it to catch sunlight, the agency said.

It could not generate power when it landed on the moon on January 20 as the craft’s solar power receptors were far from the Sun.

With the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (Slim) spacecraft, Japan became the fifth country to reach the Moon after the US, the former Soviet Union, China and India.

The spacecraft ran on battery power for several hours before experts decided to turn it off to allow for potential recovery of electricity when the angle of sunlight changed.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Jaxa shared a photo taken by Slim of a nearby rock that she called a “poodle-toy.”

The spacecraft will analyze the composition of the rocks in its search for clues about the moon’s origins, Jaxa said.

Slim landed on the edge of an equatorial crater known as Shioli, 55 meters from its target in a crater.

Jaxa described it as an “unprecedented precision landing”.

Landing technology could enable future exploration of the Moon’s hilly poles, which are considered potential sources of fuel, water and oxygen, the agency said.