Japan-based company is poised for its moon-landing attempt

CNN

a day ago

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Title: Ispace's CEO is "very confident" success is on the way
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Takeshi Hakamada, who founded Ispace in 2010 and serves as the company's CEO, told CNN last month that he is far more optimistic about today's landing attempt than he was going into Ispace's first landing attempt in 2023.
'I'm very confident, more confident than (during) Mission 1,' Hakamada told CNN in May.
Hakamada added that he's not a very emotional person, so cold feet and sleepless nights aren't necessarily part of his pre-landing routine.
'I'm not the person emotion so much. I don't feel any peace or joy sometimes — most of the times,' Hakamada, who says he was inspired to puruse an aerospace career by the 'Star Wars' movies, told CNN. 'The importance of this space business is keep going.'
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Title: Reslience is carrying science — and art
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Tucked alongside a molecule-splitting science experiment and radiation monitor, Resilience is carrying a couple lighthearted pieces of commemorative art.
One includes commemorative coin-sized plates designed by UNESCO and US-based Barrelhand that will 'transport and safeguard 275 distinct languages and cultural treasures on the lunar surface.'
Another is from Swedish artist Mikael Genberg, who contributed a miniature red house dubbed the 'Moonhouse.' Genberg has been aiming to put a red house on the lunar surface for more than two decades.
'They wanted to send something to the moon, so there was a good coincidence,' Ispace chief financial officer Jumpei Nozaki told CNN in January, noting that Ispace's European branch in Luxembourg found out about the art piece and worked to put it on the Resilience lander.
The pieces may join a slew of other novelties, art pieces and curiosities that have been part of past lunar missions.
A Jeff Koons sculpture series called 'Moon Phases,' for example, flew on the Odysseus lunar lander from Houston-based Intuitive Machines last year, becoming the first 'authorized' work of art on the moon.
The Moonhouse on board Resilience aims to be an 'expression of humanity's ability to achieve the seemingly unattainable through boundary-crossing thoughts and collaborations and maybe a symbol of humanity's eternal and collective striving; a perspective on existence and (an) eye towards Earth,' according to a web page about the art project.
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Title: Here's how (another) failed landing attempt could affect Ispace
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Ispace's roots began in the Google Lunar XPrize, which in the 2010s challenged the private-sector to put robotic landers on the moon for a $20 million grand prize. The compeititon ended in 2018, however, with no winner.
'That was very good program for me to start things here,' Ispace CEO and founder Takeshi Hakamada told CNN in May. 'We survived the Lunar XPrize and and then that created credibility for the next fundraising (effort).'
After the competition folded, Ispace kept going, bringing on new investors. And just before its first lunar landing attempt in 2023, the company went public, listing on Tokyo's stock exchange.
When Ispace's first landing attempt failed in 2023, crashing to the moon due to a software issue, the company's stock price shed more than half its value.
And Ispace could face some significant financial struggles if today's landing attempt is unsuccessful, Ispace chief financial officer Jumpei Nozaki told CNN in January.
'If we do not successfully land on the moon, maybe there are going to be some very strong headwinds against us. It will be reflected to our share price immediately,' Nozaki said.
Still, Nozaki added, the company raised money last year around the world, including from one US investor, that should keep the company funded through a third lunar landing attempt.
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Title: Resilience is aiming to land farther north than other recent missions
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We're in the midst of renewed space race, with both the public and private sector eager to send robots to further explore the lunar surface.
The modern moon dash was largely kicked off by China, which safely landed its first Chang'e spacecraft in 2013 — roughly 40 years after any vehicle, crewed or uncrewed, had soft-landed on the lunar surface.
Much of the lunar exploration focus has been on the south pole, as the region is expected to be home to vast stores of water ice that can be converted to drinking water or fuel for rockets. But the vehicles that have made soft landings so far have explored a variety of regions.
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Title: Soft landing on the moon is still really hard. Here's why
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All lunar landing attempts — even missions such as this with no humans on board — bring with them an element of risk and awe.
Success is far from guaranteed. Overall, more than half of all lunar landing attempts have ended in failure, tough odds for a feat humanity first pulled off nearly 60 years ago.
While technology has advanced in the past five decades, the fundamental challenges of landing on the moon remain the same. Here's what Resilience has had to overcome — and what it has yet to face.
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Title: What went wrong during Ispace's last lunar landing attempt
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Ispace's first lunar lander, referred to by its model name, Hakuto-R, made a dramatic crash landing on the moon in 2023.
When the estimated landing time came and went, and mission controllers had spent about 10 minutes troubleshooting why the lander hadn't sent a signal, it was safe to assume the golf-cart-size vehicle had not made a gentle touchdown, Ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada, told CNN.
A NASA satellite later photographed the crash site.
Ispace then spent weeks poring over the data, trying to pinpoint what went wrong.
'Almost everything performed perfectly — propulsion system, communication system, and also structure,' Ispace chief financial officer Jumpei Nozaki told CNN in January about the first Hakuto-R mission. 'The issue was the software and the altitude measurement has some issue.'
Essentially, Hakuto-R had miscalculated its altitude, and the vehicle ended up running out of fuel before touching down on the surface.
This time around, executives are far more confident. A software patch is in place. And mission controllers are hoping to get confirmation of a smooth touchdown within a minute or so after the 3:17 p.m. ET expected landing time.
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Title: Here's what to expect during today's moon-landing attempt
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Resilience, a spacecraft built by Tokyo-based Ispace that could redeem the company after a failed moon-landing attempt in 2023, is ready to make its final descent to the lunar surface.
Ispace has broken down its mission in to series of 10 goals or anticipated 'successes.' Resilience has already notched through the first eight of those steps.
All that's left is the landing sequence and the harrowing moment of touchdown.
Here are the key moments to watch out for:
• During the touchdown attempt, Ispace will confirm it has started the 'lunar landing sequence' — the final steps the Resilience lander will need to tick through in the moments before the vehicle leaves it circular orbit around the moon and begins its touchdown attempt.
• There a several critical phases within the sequence. The vehicle will begin to change its orientation and start the braking process, aiming to slow down Resilience's speed.
• Resilience's targeted touchdown time is 3:17 p.m. ET. The lander is aiming for a spot within Mare Frigoris — or the 'Sea of Cold' — which lies in the moon's far northern reaches.
• If all goes according to plan, Ispace should confirm the vehicle is safely on the surface within a minute or so after touchdown, the company's CEO, Takeshi Hakamada, told CNN.
• Ground controllers will then conduct a series of health checks to make sure the lander, its science instruments and all other components are functioning as intended.
• The first image from the lander is expected within the first 12 hours after the spacecraft reaches the surface, perhaps sooner. (Take note: Every lunar landing mission has to deal with limited bandwidth to beam data back to Earth. Sometimes, visuals are not the highest priority.)