Latest news with #lunarlanding
Fast Company
5 hours ago
- Science
- 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.
Gizmodo
11 hours ago
- Science
- Gizmodo
Private Japanese Lander Crashes Into the Moon in Second Failed Attempt
A private Japanese spacecraft crashed into the Moon while attempting the country's first commercial lunar landing on Thursday, June 5, the company has confirmed. This is the second failed moon mission for Tokyo-based ispace, which launched the Resilience lander aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket in January. ispace lost communication with Resilience less than two minutes before its scheduled landing on the Moon, the Associated Press reports. In a statement released this morning, the company explained that the spacecraft's descent initially went smoothly. But once it reached an altitude of roughly 12 miles (20 kilometers) above the lunar surface, mission control lost telemetry with the lander. After trying and failing to regain contact, ispace concluded that Resilience had most likely crash landed on the lunar surface, ending the mission. '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,' said Takeshi Hakamada, founder and CEO of ispace, in the statement. Based on currently available data, it appears that the source of the mishap was a malfunction of the laser device that measures the distance between Resilience and the lunar surface, ispace stated. As a result, the lander failed to sufficiently slow down to make its planned soft landing. Resilience launched aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket on January 15, and entered lunar orbit on May 6, according to NASA. The 2,200-pound (1,000-kilogram), prism-shaped lander carried five payloads, including a tiny rover called Tenacious, a water electrolyzer experiment, an algae-based food production module, and a deep space radiation monitor. But perhaps most interesting—or at least, most unusual—was the adorable miniature house Resilience aimed to establish on the lunar toy-sized white-trimmed red cottage, appropriately named 'the Moonhouse,' was designed by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg. On his website, Genberg states that he has been dreaming of putting a little house on the Moon for 25 years. Sadly, however, this whimsical work of art was unable to fulfill its destiny. The demise of Resilience is reminiscent of ispace's first attempt to land a spacecraft on the Moon in April 2023. That mission also ended in a crash landing after the lander ran out of propellant while approaching the surface. ispace is one of several companies aiming to provide commercial payload transportation services to the Moon. But so far, only Firefly Aerospace has achieved a fully successful private lunar landing. The company launched its Blue Ghost lander on the same Falcon 9 rocket that ferried Resilience to the Moon in January. Despite two consecutive failures, ispace aims to launch two more Moon missions in 2027. The company will debut the larger, upgraded Apex 1.0 lander for these missions, but whether it proves to be more capable than Resilience remains to be seen. 'We know it's not going to be easy,' ispace director and CFO Jumpei Nozaki told reporters during a press conference a few hours after the mission failure, according to 'But it's hard. It has some meaning and significance of trying.'
The Independent
17 hours ago
- Science
- The Independent
Japanese company's lunar landing fails in commercial rush to moon
Ispace, a Tokyo -based company, declared its private lunar lander mission a failure after losing communication with the lander during its attempted touchdown on the moon. Communication ceased less than two minutes before the scheduled landing, and a preliminary analysis suggests the laser system for measuring altitude malfunctioned, causing the lander to descend too fast. CEO Takeshi Hakamada apologised for the failed mission, which carried a rover with a shovel for lunar dirt collection and a Swedish artist's toy-size red house. The mission, named Resilience, aimed for a flat area in Mare Frigoris (Sea of Cold) a long and narrow region full of craters that stretches across the near side's northern tier. The lunar landing was part of a growing trend of private companies targeting the moon, with more failures than successes, including previous crashes by ispace and Intuitive Machines.
NHK
20 hours ago
- Business
- NHK
Japan firm's second attempt to put lander on moon fails
Tokyo-based venture firm ispace says its second attempt to touch down a lunar lander on the surface of the moon ended in failure. It had aimed to become the first private Japanese company to successfully complete a lunar landing. The CEO of ispace, Hakamada Takeshi, said: "We concluded it was difficult to complete our second mission to touch down on the moon's surface. So, we decided to end it." The lander started its descent after 3 a.m. on Friday, Japan time. It was scheduled to touch down on a crater-less area in the moon's northern hemisphere at 4:17. But ispace announced about 15 minutes later that it had yet to establish communication with the lander. The firm held a news conference and revealed that the lander was not able to slow down to the scheduled touchdown speed. The company's CEO said the lander was likely to have had a hard landing. Hakamada also said: "It's our duty to thoroughly use the lessons from this failure for the next time. We want to continue maintaining the current trend of lunar exploration and activities in Japan. A rocket carrying the craft lifted off from the US state of Florida in January. The lander entered orbit about 100 kilometers above the moon in late May. The first lunar landing attempt by ispace failed in 2023. It later overhauled the lander's control system and changed the touchdown target for the second mission. Only two US firms have successfully performed lunar landings.
NHK
a day ago
- Business
- NHK
Japanese firm yet to establish communications with lunar lander
A Tokyo-based venture company says it has yet to establish communications with its lunar lander that attempted to touch down on the Moon. It is aiming to become Japan's first private firm to have a craft successfully land on the lunar surface. The company, ispace, made the announcement shortly after 4:30 a.m. on Friday, Japan time. That was about 15 minutes after the spacecraft's planned landing time. The lander started to descend toward the lunar surface after 3 a.m. and was scheduled to touch down on a crater-less flat area in the Moon's northern hemisphere. The target landing site is part of the region called Mare Frigoris. A rocket carrying the craft lifted off from a launch site in the US state of Florida in January. The lander entered orbit about 100 kilometers above the Moon in late May. The company had failed in its first lunar landing attempt in 2023. It later overhauled its lander's control system and changed the touchdown target for the second attempt. Competition in lunar exploration has been intensifying. A US space exploration company became the first private firm to have an uncrewed lander successfully perform a lunar touchdown last year. Another US company followed suit in March this year.
