Japanese spacecraft loses contact with lander
TOKYO: Japan's hopes of achieving its first soft landing on the Moon by a private company were dashed Friday when the mission was aborted over lost contact with the Resilience spacecraft during a daunting final descent.
Tokyo-based ispace had hoped to make history as only the third private firm -- and the first outside the United States -- to achieve a controlled touchdown on the lunar surface with its robotic lander.
But it decided to end the mission as 'recovery of communication with the lander is unlikely', CEO Takeshi Hakamada told reporters.
Resilience began falling during the landing attempt, and mission control fired the engines to slow it down, he said.
'We confirmed that the lander's position moved to almost vertical', but 'after the planned landing time we were not able to receive data that confirms its landing'.
The failure comes two years after a prior mission ended in a crash.
Touchdown had been scheduled for 4:17 am Japan time on Friday (1917 GMT Thursday) on the Mare Frigoris region of the Moon's northern hemisphere.
But the mood in mission control turned sombre, and around 15 minutes after the scheduled time, announcers on a livestream said attempts to communicate with the lander would continue.
They signed off with the message: 'Never quit the lunar quest.'
On board the lander were several high-profile payloads: Tenacious, a Luxembourg-built micro rover; a water electrolyzer to split molecules into hydrogen and oxygen; a food production experiment; and a deep-space radiation probe.
The rover also carried 'Moonhouse,' a model home designed by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg.
- Lunar soil -
The mission had also aimed to collect two lunar soil samples and sell them to NASA for $5,000.
Though the samples would remain on the Moon, the symbolic transaction is meant to strengthen the US stance that commercial activity -- though not sovereign claims -- should be allowed on celestial bodies.
To date, only five nations have achieved soft lunar landings: the Soviet Union, the United States, China, India, and Japan.
Now, private companies are joining the race, promising cheaper and more frequent access to space.
Last year, Houston-based Intuitive Machines became the first private enterprise to reach the Moon. Though its uncrewed lander touched down at an awkward angle, it still managed to complete tests and transmit photos.
Then in March this year, Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost -- launched on the same SpaceX rocket as ispace's Resilience -- aced its lunar landing attempt.
Despite their rocket ride-share, Resilience took longer to reach the Moon than Blue Ghost, and ispace was now hoping for its own moment of glory, after its first mission resulted in an unsalvageable 'hard landing' in 2023.
Landing on the Moon is highly challenging as spacecraft must rely on precisely controlled thruster burning to slow their descent over treacherous terrain.
Intuitive Machines' second attempt at a Moon landing ended in disappointment in late March.
Its spacecraft Athena, designed to touch down on a spot called the Mons Mouton plateau -- closer to the lunar south pole than any previous mission -- tipped over and was unable to recharge its solar-powered batteries.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
6 hours ago
- The Star
Ispace aborts Moon mission
Space setback: Hakamada (centre) waiting with members of his team for news of the expected landing on the Moon by the company's Resilience craft, in Tokyo. — AFP The country's hopes of achieving its first soft touchdown on the Moon by a private company were dashed when the mission was aborted after an assumed crash-landing, the startup said. Tokyo-based ispace had hoped to make history as only the third private firm – and the first outside the United States – to achieve a controlled arrival on the lunar surface. But 'based on the currently available data ... it is currently assumed that the lander likely performed a hard landing', the startup said yesterday. 'It is unlikely that communication with the lander will be restored' so 'it has been decided to conclude the mission', ispace said in a statement. The failure comes two years after a prior mission ended in a crash. The company's unmanned Resilience spacecraft began its daunting final descent and 'successfully fired its main engine as planned to begin deceleration', ispace said. Mission control confirmed that the lander's positioning was 'nearly vertical' – but contact was then lost, with the mood on a livestream from mission control turning sombre. Technical problems meant 'the lander was unable to decelerate sufficiently to reach the required speed for the planned lunar landing', ispace said. To date, only five nations have achieved soft lunar landings: the Soviet Union, the United States, China, India and most recently Japan. Now, private companies are joining the race, promising cheaper and more frequent access to space. On board the Resilience lander were several high-profile payloads. They included Tenacious, a Luxembourg-built micro rover; a water electrolyser to split molecules into hydrogen and oxygen; a food production experiment; and a deep-space radiation probe. The rover also carried 'Moonhouse' – a small model home designed by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg. 'I take the fact that the second attempt failed to land seriously,' chief executive officer Takeshi Hakamada told reporters. 'But the most important thing is to use this result' for future missions, he said, describing a 'strong will to move on, although we have to carefully analyse what happened'. Last year, Houston-based Intuitive Machines became the first private enterprise to reach the Moon. Though its uncrewed lander touched down at an awkward angle, it still managed to complete tests and transmit photos. Then in March this year, Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost – launched on the same SpaceX rocket as ispace's Resilience – aced its lunar landing attempt. The mood ahead of yesterday's attempt had been celebratory, with a watch party also held by ispace's US branch in Washington. After contact was lost, announcers on an ispace livestream signed off with the message: 'Never quit the lunar quest.' The mission had also aimed to collect two lunar soil samples and sell them to Nasa for US$5,000 (RM21,150). Though the samples would remain on the Moon, the symbolic transaction is meant to strengthen the US stance that commercial activity – though not sovereign claims – should be allowed on celestial bodies. — AFP
The Star
6 hours ago
- The Star
This is the phishing scam that gets an identity theft expert in the US 'really, very angry'
Digital thieves are nothing if not persistent and innovative. They keep finding new ways to try to part you from your money. Phishing – where thieves pose as trusted entities or send legitimate looking emails or messages to trick you into giving them access to your accounts – is a widespread method. And it is constantly evolving. 'We've seen phishing go through the roof,' said Eva Velasquez, the CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center, a San Diego-based national nonprofit. But knowledge is power. So here are three emerging phishing threats to look out for, according to Internet safety experts. All three threats target key parts of people's digital lives: email attachments that lead to fake login pages, multi-factor authentication trickery and deceptive calendar invites. Spending a few minutes reading these pointers could help you avoid getting your ID or money stolen and save you countless hours of dealing with the fallout. HTML attachments that open fake login pages Imagine a busy professional who is in email action mode. In the past 30 minutes on a Saturday morning, he has filled out emailed liability waivers for his seven children's summer camps, filed an expense report for work, answered a secure portal message from the veterinarian about his sick puppy's prescription, skimmed 182 email subject lines and paid five bills from his email inbox, including a car insurance premium and his beloved cheese-of-the-month club. Amid this flurry of inbound emails, ads, invoices and secure messages, he is working on autopilot: opening messages, skimming, clicking and signing in. What a perfect opportunity. Scammers are taking advantage of user distraction – and their trust – by sending emails with HTM or HTML attachments. When clicked, those open a browser file that looks like secure, familiar login page. These pages might look like secure invoice viewers, file-sharing services like DocuSign or Dropbox, or sign-in pages to platforms including Microsoft 365. 'Once the user enters their credentials, they are sent surreptitiously to the attacker's server,' said Vlad Cristescu, the head of cybersecurity with ZeroBounce, a Florida company that helps businesses lower their rate of bounced marketing emails. Why this method is especially insidious: 'There isn't a clickable link in the email, so standard email security filters (which scan for malicious URLs or attachments like PDFs and ZIPs) may not catch it,' Cristescu added. To prevent this, he added, companies should 'restrict HTML attachments unless essential, and users should treat unfamiliar HTML files the same way they'd treat a suspicious link – don't open it unless you're absolutely sure of the sender.' If you do receive incoming communication with an HTML link or attachment, don't engage, said Velasquez, with the ITRC. 'Don't click on links, people. That's the big, overarching message,' she said. Instead, go to the source: call the phone number on the back of your credit card, visit the bank in person. Multifactor authentication tricks If you are one of the many people who uses multifactor authentication, take note. Multifactor authentication is still very helpful and should be used. But Cristescu flagged one way that scammers are taking this tool – which is designed to make people's online accounts more secure – and using it to slither in. As a refresher, multifactor authentication is an added layer of protection that prevents data thieves from logging into your accounts if they have your username and password. It helps ensure that you're the one who typed in your password when you log in, and not some scammer in the Philippines or Poughkeepsie. To use multifactor authentication, you typically download an app, such as Google Authenticator or Microsoft Authenticator. You register your sensitive online accounts, such as Facebook, bank or email, with that app. Then, every time you log into a registered website, the authenticator app generates a new, random code that you enter after your password as a second layer of verification. With the rise of this protection, a new threat has emerged: Scammers who have your username and password can send log-in requests to your authenticator app. Next, the scammer can pose as an IT expert from your workplace and ask you to approve the log-in request. If you fall for it, then boom – the scammer is in. This technique 'exploits a user's frustration and trust in IT. If you're receiving multiple (authenticator) prompts you didn't initiate, that's not a glitch – it's an attack,' Cristescu said. He recommends pausing, never approving these unexpected requests and flagging the interaction with IT. Velasquez added that if you get an authenticator notification and you didn't just log in yourself, 'That is a huge red flag. Stop and address it. Don't ignore it.' Anytime you interact with IT, be sure you're the one initiating that contact, she added. If someone from IT calls or emails you, disconnect and reach back out using a trusted method, such as the same phone number you always dial. Fake calendar invites A third technique data thieves are using is calendar invites. 'I just get really very angry about this one,' Velasquez said. 'It is super hard to detect.' Here's what to look out for. If you use an online calendar like Google calendar or the native iPhone calendar app, you might receive an invitation to an event you didn't see coming. Sometimes these meetings are legitimate. Sometimes, they are not. Scammers 'are now sending meeting requests with malicious links embedded in the invite or 'join' button. These invitations sync directly into calendars and often go unquestioned,' according to ZeroBounce. Scammers use calendar invites because they have 'built-in credibility – they're not usually scrutinised like emails,' Cristescu said. Look for meeting requests from unknown senders and vague event names like 'Sync' or 'Project Review,' he added. In some jobs or roles, meetings routinely get added to calendars by other people –clients, prospects, coworkers, bosses, peers. 'I have gotten these repeatedly,' said Velasquez, with the ITRC. 'Depending on your lifestyle and your job and how you work, these are going to be particularly challenging. They are real calendar invites. The problem is they have malicious software embedded in them – so when you click on portions of them, 'Click to join,' it's like opening an attachment (or) clicking on a suspicious link. It's the same principle.' Cristescu, with ZeroBounce, shared this tip: 'Treat those just like a phishing email. Disable auto-accept where possible and review every invite manually before clicking anything.' Never stop questioning what lands in your inbox or calendar, Cristescu added. 'Always verify the sender's email address, ensure that any link you click matches the legitimate domain, and look out for subtle red flags like spelling errors or unusual formatting.' A big picture pointer 'All three of these (scams) are so common that it has probably happened to every single person reading the article – at least one of them. That's how ubiquitous these are,' Velasquez said. She shared this broader thought: It's less important to know how to respond to each scenario and more important to pause, be skeptical, double check. It's important to be ever more sceptical, because AI makes it easier and easier for thieves to create convincing ruses, Cristescu and Velasquez both said. AI 'really helps with making these phishing offers look and sound so much more legitimate,' Velasquez said. 'And with the amount of data that is out there from public sources and from data breaches, it's very easy to see what relationships people have.' Where you bank, where you do business – that is all fodder for someone to create a copycat page designed to trick you into logging in. Adopt an 'investigator mindset,' Velasquez said. Use this helpful reminder: the acronym STAR, which stands for Stop. Think. Ask questions or ask for help. Reassess. – The San Diego Union-Tribune/Tribune News Service
The Sun
8 hours ago
- The Sun
Trump-Musk showdown threatens US space plans
WASHINGTON: SpaceX's rockets ferry US astronauts to the International Space Station. Its Starlink satellite constellation blankets the globe with broadband, and the company is embedded in some of the Pentagon's most sensitive projects, including tracking hypersonic missiles. So when President Donald Trump threatened on Thursday to cancel Elon Musk's federal contracts, space watchers snapped to attention. Musk, the world's richest person, shot back that he would mothball Dragon -- the capsule NASA relies on for crew flights -- before retracting the threat a few hours later. For now, experts say mutual dependence should keep a full-blown rupture at bay, but the episode exposes just how disruptive any break could be. Founded in 2002, SpaceX leapfrogged legacy contractors to become the world's dominant launch provider. Driven by Musk's ambition to make humanity multiplanetary, it is now NASA's sole means of sending astronauts to the ISS -- a symbol of post-Cold War cooperation and a testbed for deeper space missions. - Space monopoly? - The company has completed 10 regular crew rotations to the orbiting lab and is contracted for four more, under a deal worth nearly $5 billion. That's just part of a broader portfolio that includes $4 billion from NASA for developing Starship, the next-generation megarocket; nearly $6 billion from the Space Force for launch services; and a reported $1.8 billion for Starshield, a classified spy satellite network. Were Dragon grounded, the United States would again be forced to rely on Russian Soyuz rockets for ISS access -- as it did between 2011 and 2020, following the Space Shuttle's retirement and before Crew Dragon entered service. 'Under the current geopolitical climate, that would not be optimal,' space analyst Laura Forczyk told AFP. NASA had hoped Boeing's Starliner would provide redundancy, but persistent delays -- and a failed crewed test last year -- have kept it grounded. Even Northrop Grumman's cargo missions now rely on SpaceX's Falcon 9, the workhorse of its rocket fleet. The situation also casts a shadow over NASA's Artemis program. A lunar lander variant of Starship is slated for Artemis III and IV, the next US crewed Moon missions. If Starship were sidelined, rival Blue Origin could benefit -- but the timeline would almost certainly slip, giving China, which aims to land humans by 2030, a chance to get there first, Forczyk warned. 'There are very few launch vehicles as capable as Falcon 9 -- it isn't feasible to walk away as easily as President Trump might assume,' she said. Still, the feud could sour Trump on space altogether, she added, complicating NASA's long-term plans. SpaceX isn't entirely dependent on the US government. Starlink subscriptions and commercial launches account for a significant share of its revenue, and the company also flies private missions. The next, with partner Axiom Space, will carry astronauts from India, Poland, and Hungary, funded by their respective governments. - Private power, public risk - But losing US government contracts would still be a major blow. 'It's such a doomsday scenario for both parties that it's hard to envision how US space efforts would fill the gap,' Clayton Swope, deputy director of the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told AFP. 'Both sides have every reason to bridge the disagreement and get back to business.' Signs of a rift emerged last weekend, when the White House abruptly withdrew its nomination of e-payments billionaire Jared Isaacman -- a close Musk ally who has twice flown to space with SpaceX -- as NASA administrator. On a recent podcast, Isaacman said he believed he was dropped because 'some people had some axes to grind, and I was a good, visible target.' The broader episode could also reignite debate over Washington's reliance on commercial partners, particularly when one company holds such a dominant position. Swope noted that while the US government has long favored buying services from industry, military leaders tend to prefer owning the systems they depend on. 'This is just another data point that might bolster the case for why it can be risky,' he said. 'I think that seed has been planted in a lot of people's minds -- that it might not be worth the trust.'
