The Hakuto-R lander, from the Japanese ispace, probably ended up destroyed during the attempt to land on the Moon this Tuesday (25). According to a company statement, communication with the lander was lost, and they could not confirm the success of the mission.
After executing the landing sequence, Hakuto-R should have landed in the lunar crater Atlas around 1:40 pm, Brasilia time, but this does not appear to have happened. “Shortly after the estimated time of landing, no data was received indicating that the lander successfully landed,” ispace wrote in a statement.
“Today, ispace, with Hakuto-R, became the first private company to attempt to land on the Moon, but unfortunately, the landing could not be carried out,” confirmed Hiroshi Yamakawa, president of the JAXA space agency. When analyzing the lander’s propellant, the company’s engineers found that the remaining amount of the compound reached the minimum limit, and the lander’s movement speed increased rapidly during the descent.
Afterwards, communication was lost. “Based on this, it has been determined that there is a high probability that the lander eventually made a ‘hard landing,'” they wrote, indicating that the Hakuto-R hit the ground at high speed. They are now looking at the telemetry data they were able to collect towards the end of the run sequence, which should help them determine what happened.
Despite the fact that the landing did not take place, ispace considers that it achieved good results until the final stage, and will use them in the development of new lunar missions. “We are already developing Mission 2 and 3, and we have laid a foundation to maintain that continuity,” added Takeshi Hakamada, founder and CEO of ispace.
Had it managed to land, Hakuto-R would operate for approximately 10 days on the lunar surface. Inside, it carried a payload from Japan and the Rashid rover, developed by the United Arab Emirates to study rocks and soil on the Moon.
Source: ispace
