The Japanese company Ispace wanted to land on the moon with a moon lander. The mission apparently failed.
The unmanned moon mission of the Japanese start-up company Ispace has apparently failed. The lunar lander “Hakuto-R” probably crashed during a “hard landing” on the lunar surface, said Ispace founder Takeshi Hakamada on Wednesday. Prior to this, radio contact with the probe had broken off.
The Japanese lunar lander Hakuto R should have touched down on the moon at around 6.40 p.m. on Tuesday. It would have been the world’s first private moon landing. In a live stream, the company showed how the employees were looking forward to the landing.
But then there were long faces: As Takeshi Hakamada, founder and head of Ispace, finally announced, contact with the lander was lost. The technicians would continue to try to restore the connection, Hakamada had said around 7:10 p.m. It was initially unclear what caused the loss of contact.
The Ispace lander should have left its orbit around the moon at around 5:40 p.m. During the landing sequence, the vehicle should brake-fire and fire its main propulsion system to reduce its speed.
The lander, 2.3 meters high and 2.6 meters wide with the landing legs extended, was carrying international cargo, including a small United Arab Emirates rover and an even smaller two-wheeled robot. It was developed by the Japanese state space agency Jaxa and the Japanese toy manufacturer Tomy.
The goal: the development of lunar resources
At the planned landing time, Hakuto R should then touch down in an area called the Atlas Crater.
According to its own statements, Ispace’s goal is to advance the development of lunar resources and to build a business with the transport of goods to the moon. For 2024, the company is planning another use of a moon lander with its own rover. A larger vehicle is scheduled to start in 2025.
Hakuto means “white rabbit” in Japanese – in Japanese mythology, it lived on the moon. The “R” stands for the English word reboot, restart. Two American competitors, Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines, are also planning moon missions in the near future.
