Man, that thing keeps chugging! Great news for JAXA, I wonder what additional science they're getting out of it. I know that we would have used any extra time for further downlink. So much data, such little bandwidth!

I recently watched a documentary about the ongoing Voyager missions[1], and this same tactic (turning instrument heaters off to save power, hoping the instruments still produce useful data) continues to be used with success.

In that documentary, it was remarked by one of the engineers that scientists often designed these instruments to be more robust than what was expected.

[1]: https://www.itsquieterfilm.com/

Here's a paper about the batteries they used, but I don't see any mention of temperature testing below 0°C:

https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/tjsass/66/6/66_T-22-48/...

Can someone help me understand - besides batteries, why does extreme cold negatively impact other electronics?

Does anyone else find it strange that craters on the moon can reach a temperature lower than absolute zero, according this article anyway? =)