On Tuesday, April 25th, the Japanese lunar exploration company, ispace, attempted a historic touchdown on the Moon’s surface, only to lose communications at the last minute. Takeshi Hakamad, Founder and CEO of ispace, said the belief is that the landing on the lunar surface could not be completed. After a challenging five-month journey to the Moon, the HAKUTO-R Mission 1 Lunar Lander was scheduled to land in the Atlas Crater’s northeastern sector at 16:40 UTC (10:10 p.m. IST).
However, the signal from the lander was lost right before touchdown. This was a heartbreaking moment for ispace and the team after years of anticipation, as well as the coming together of two nations, Japan and the United States. No private spacecraft has ever made a soft landing on the Moon other than those operated by the US (NASA), Russia (Roscosmos), and China (China National Space Administration).
In the previous successful attempts of lunar landings, India’s Vikram lander and Israel’s non-profit organization SpaceIL’s Beresheet had both crashed due to inaccurate trajectory and speed data. In contrast, the M-1 lander was able to make communication with the establishment until its last moments, which has been seen as a remarkable achievement. This feedback from the M-1 lander is being used for the upcoming Mission-2 and Mission-3, planned to be launched in 2024 and 2025 respectively.
The M-1 lander is around 7 feet tall and carried mini robotic rovers, payloads, a test module for a battery, an AI flight computer, and 360-degree cameras from Canada, US, the United Arab Emirates, and Japan. Its journey began with the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida on December 11, 2022.
ispace Co-Founder and CEO Takeshi Hakamad is extremely proud with the fact that the organization could successes many parts of its mission and will continue to push forward and make means for upcoming missions. Following Mission 1, two more robotic flights will be executed to the surface of the Moon in order to help the NASA’s Artemis Programme and carry payloads. ispace, a team that was first established by Takeshi Hakamad over a decade ago and competed for the Google Lunar Xprize as Hakuto, has now grown and expanded its goals. The main purpose of the organisation is to create an economically viable ecosystem around the Moon.
The company is continuing to gain recognition for its innovative and impressive feats, and is on its way to make a positive impact on the space industry.
