Ispace loses contact with Resilience vehicle during lunar landing attempt
Resilience, a lander built by Japanese-based company Ispace, lost contact with mission control during its attempt to land on the moon.
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Fast Company
3 hours ago
- Fast Company
Japan's ispace fails second private moon landing attempt
A Japanese company trying to land a spacecraft on the moon Friday said that the unmanned lander is believed to have crashed into the lunar surface. The Tokyo-based private space exploration company ispace reported that its Resilience lunar lander successfully initiated its descent onto the moon, but lost communication shortly afterward. Resilience made its descent from 100 kilometers above the moon's surface to 20 kilometers normally and its main engine fired to initiate the deceleration process before ispace's connection to the spacecraft's telemetry went dark. Five hours after initiating the landing sequence and attempting to remotely reboot the craft, mission control determined that regaining the connection wasn't possible and declared an end to the mission, known as Mission 2 SMBC x HAKUTO-R Venture Moon. A crash landing upends the mission According to the company's early findings, the laser rangefinder Resilience used to calculate the distance to the surface of the moon was operating on a delay, an error that likely prevented the lander from slowing down for a successful landing. Given those findings, ispace concluded that its signature spacecraft 'likely performed a hard landing on the lunar surface.' 'Given that there is currently no prospect of a successful lunar landing, our top priority is to swiftly analyze the telemetry data we have obtained thus far and work diligently to identify the cause,' ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada said, adding that the company would issue a detailed report on its findings. The failed lunar mission follows ispace's first attempt in 2023, which also ended with a bang. That craft, the Hakuto-R lunar lander, free-fell out of the sky for 5 kilometers before smashing into the lunar surface after onboard sensors miscalculated its altitude. The lunar south pole in the spotlight With interest in Mars on the upswing, humanity's drive to get back to the moon seemed to have waned in recent decades before a recent flurry of new lunar excitement. In 2023, India became the fourth nation to successfully land on the moon, joining the U.S., the former Soviet Union, and China. The following year, Japan joined their ranks when the country's JAXA space agency nailed a historic pinpoint landing on the moon, but pulled the feat off accidentally upside-down. For national space agencies, the spirit of scientific exploration isn't the only thing putting the moon back in focus. The moon's icy south pole is believed to house water frozen in shadowed craters, a resource that would prove invaluable for future human activity on the moon, or even as a hydration waystop for space exploration beyond it. That context is useful for understanding why manned moon missions are back on the docket for NASA, which wants to establish the first 'long-term presence' on the lunar surface and plans to put humans back on the moon in 2028, optimistically. China has its own plans to send astronauts to the moon by 2030, the first stepping stone toward its goal of establishing a lunar research station. Private partnerships power the new space race Lunar interest isn't just waxing among national space agencies. Private spaceflight companies around the globe have scrambled to get into the mix, with some like ispace sending their landers up with a ride from SpaceX rockets. Firefly Aerospace, based in Austin, Texas, made history of its own in March when its Blue Ghost lunar lander reached the lunar surface, making it the first private company to soft land on the moon. A lunar lander from Houston-based Intuitive Machines followed closely behind but touched down at an odd angle, preventing the solar panels that power it from recharging to carry out its mission objectives. Both lunar missions carried equipment for NASA through a program known as Commercial Lunar Payload Services, an initiative that will allow the agency to conduct scientific research through private moon missions. Between global powers with designs on lunar ice and a lucrative web of public-private partnerships, the moon is the next big prize in the space race – one we're going to be hearing a lot more about in the coming years.
Skift
4 hours ago
- Skift
NASA Faces Steep Budget Cuts, One Space Meeting Has Already Been Scrapped
The White House has proposed the largest single-year budget cut to NASA in U.S. history. As a result, space science and exploration are taking a hit — and so are the cornerstone conferences that support these efforts. NASA is facing a proposed 24% budget cut. The financial uncertainty is already hitting the events sector. The International Space Station Research and Development Conference, planned for July in Seattle, has been canceled just two months out. 'The International Space Station National Laboratory, in close consultation with NASA, has determined that the current regulatory and budgetary environment does not support holding the International Space Station Research and Development Conference in 2025,' said the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space. The event, held annually for over a decade, spotlighted research aboard the station and offered updates on NASA's work. NASA Puts Lunar and Planetary Science Conference at Risk The uncertainty doesn't end there. NASA has announced it will no longer fund or seek partners for the 2026 Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, a fixture of the planetary science calendar. NASA still send staff and participate but expects outside organizations to cover all costs. The conference organizer says it intends to host the 57th event next year. Some doubt that will happen. 'The lead time it takes to find a venue, speakers, sponsors, and all that goes into it may prohibit a 2026 gathering from happening,' said Paul Byrne, a planetary scientist at Washington University in St. Louis, who hasn't missed a Lunar and Planetary Science Conference since first attending as a graduate student in 2007. 'This meeting is vital. It's the lifeblood of our community. Plus, it's an extremely important resource for early career scientists,' Byrne said.'This is the go-to meeting, and if it goes away it is an indicator of the crises we are facing.' These cancellations follow a broader trend. NASA's Science Mission Directorate has steadily pulled back support for community-led meetings and workshops.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Japanese Aerospace Firm Poised to Land Spacecraft on the Moon
Update: Sadly, the spacecraft crashed into the Moon on Friday, June 6. Our original story follows below. A Japanese aerospace firm called Ispace is set to put a spacecraft on the Moon this week. Resilience, the star of Ispace's HAKUTO-R Mission 2, has spent nearly six months circumnavigating Earth and the Moon in preparation for its final descent. If all goes well, the spacecraft will touch down on the lunar surface Thursday afternoon. Resilience was a travel companion to Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander, which successfully touched down on a volcanic feature called Mons Latreille on March 2. Together, the landers launched via a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Jan. 15. But while Blue Ghost took just a month and a half to reach its target, Ispace wanted Resilience to stop and smell the roses along the way. The lander completed a lunar flyby before leveraging the Moon's gravity to initiate a slow, fuel-efficient path toward lunar orbit, which it entered on May 6. Now Ispace mission control is triple-checking that its lander is prepared for its final descent. On May 28, Resilience completed a lunar orbital control maneuver that perfected its trajectory, according to the company on Wednesday morning. The adjustment shortened Resilience's projected landing time by seven minutes, placing touchdown at 3:17 p.m. EST on Thursday, June 5. Ispace will live stream the landing globally; you can watch the English version here. Mare Frigoris is outlined in blue. Credit: NASA Resilience will land near the center of Mare Frigoris, which translates to "Sea of Cold." While the surface of the Moon can top 120 degrees Celsius (250 degrees Fahrenheit) during the day, this 1,500-kilometer lunar sea lies in the Moon's far north, which receives less solar radiation and stays relatively cool. Mare Frigoris's flat terrain and proximity to the north pole make it an ideal landing spot, especially because Ispace will need to maintain line-of-sight radio communication as Resilience deploys its many payloads. Among the payloads are a food production experiment from the Japanese biofuel firm Euglena Co., a deep space radiation probe from Taiwan's National Central University, and Ispace's own Tenacious micro rover, which will independently explore the landing site. Resilience will also place Moonhouse, a sculpture by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg, on the lunar surface.
