The Hakuto-R lander attempted to land on the Moon in April, but was unsuccessful due to an incorrect altitude calculation. ispace, the company responsible for the lander, has been investigating the outcome of the mission, and found that the edge of a lunar crater caused confusion in the system that calculated the altitude for the landing.
In a statement, company representatives explained that the crater caused the lander’s on-board computer to conclude that the altitude measurement was wrong. Therefore, the device took into account the calculation based on the expected altitude at that moment of the mission, that is, it considered that the Hakuto-R was lower; however, his actual altitude was different.
“While the lander estimated that its own altitude was zero, or that it was on the lunar surface, it was later determined that it was at an altitude of approximately 5 km above the surface of the Moon,” ispace wrote. After arriving at the scheduled time for landing, he continued to descend at low speed.
Then the Hakuto-R’s propulsion system ran out of fuel. “At that moment, the lander’s controlled descent stopped, and we believe it free-falled to the Moon’s surface,” they added. Had it landed, Hakuto-R would have been the first private lander to descend to the lunar surface.
According to ispace, the failure was the result of “insufficient consideration of the topography around the landing site, partially caused by the change of location a few months before the launch of the mission”. Originally, Hakuto-R was going to land in Lacus Somniorum, a flat region on the Moon; then the company decided to take it to the Atlas crater.
The company also highlighted that, despite not being able to land, they completed eight of the nine mission objectives. “Mission 1 demonstrated great technical reliability, as our lander reached the lunar surface shortly before landing,” said Takeshi Hakamada, CEO of ispace, in the statement. “Now, we were able to identify the problem during landing and we have a very clear picture of how to improve our future missions”, he concluded,
Source: ispace; Via: New York Times, Space.com
