ispace: Japanese moon lander carrying UAE's Rashid rover may have crashed on lunar surface
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The first attempt by the Japanese startup ispace inc (9348.T) to soft-land a rover on the lunar surface appears to have failed, indicating that the Hakuto-R Mission-1 lander had most likely crashed on the Moon's surface, after attempting a fast landing with the UAE's Rashid rover.
Flight controllers on the ground made the announcement 20 minutes after the scheduled landing time at 16:40 GMT on Tuesday, April 26. The communication outage prompted the startup to declare that the spacecraft had failed to land.
No landing data received so far
The Hakuto-R Mission Control Center in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, confirmed that communication with Hakuto-R was lost just moments before the tense landing sequence. The lander could be seen descending towards the lunar surface for the touchdown (about 295 feet, or 89 meters above the lunar surface) in the live animation. It was programmed to land autonomously on the surface, however, no data indicating a touchdown was received minutes after the planned landing.
The mission control center has been investigating the matter using telemetry data collected until the landing sequence to determine what caused the communication failure prior to the final landing moments.
Despite the unfortunate ending, the private company stated that the lander accomplished eight out of ten mission objectives and provided valuable data (from launch to landing sequence) that could aid in the next landing attempt, which is expected to take place in 2024.
ispace will continue to make the most of the data and know-how acquired during the operation through Success 8, and landing sequence, including aspects of Success 9, aiming to dramatically improve the technological maturity of Mission 2 in 2024 and Mission 3 in 2025. (2/3)
— ispace (@ispace_inc) April 26, 2023
“Although we do not expect to complete the lunar landing at this time, we believe that we have fully accomplished the significance of this mission, having acquired a great deal of data and experience by being able to execute the landing phase. What is important is to feed this knowledge and learning back to Mission 2 and beyond so that we can make the most of this experience,” said Takeshi Hakamada, Founder and CEO of ispace, in an official statement.
No private company has achieved this feat
The mission was launched in December 2022 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and took nearly four months to reach its destination. In March, Hakuto-R successfully performed a lunar insertion maneuver. It was orbiting the moon, about 62 miles(100 kilometers) above the surface, in preparation for the final landing. During its journey through the lunar orbit, the spacecraft also captured a stunning image of Earth peeking out from behind the moon.
We’ve received another incredible photo from the camera onboard our Mission 1 lander!
— ispace (@ispace_inc) April 24, 2023
Seen here is the lunar Earthrise during solar eclipse, captured by the lander-mounted camera at an altitude of about 100 km from the lunar surface. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/pNSI4lPnux
The lander was planned to land at the Atlas Crater on the southeastern edge of Mare Frigoris ("Sea of Cold"). After landing, Hakuto-R was supposed to deploy two science instruments to study the lunar soil, geology, and atmosphere. It weighed around 749 pounds(340 kilograms) and stood over 78 inches(two meters) tall. The lander also carried other payloads, including a rover designed by the UAE and JAXA's SORA-Q transformable lunar robot.
To date, no private company has soft-landed a rover on the Moon. Previously, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and a private Israeli company had attempted, but both failed to land a rover on the Moon. Only the United States, Russia, and China have accomplished this historic feat.
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