Latest news with #moonexploration
CNA
3 days ago
- Business
- CNA
Japan's ispace aims for historic lunar landing with Resilience lander
TOKYO: Japanese company ispace is set to attempt the lunar touchdown of its uncrewed spacecraft on Friday (Jun 6), two years after its failed inaugural mission, in a bid to become the first company outside the United States to achieve a moon landing. Tokyo-based ispace hopes to join U.S. firms Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace, which have accomplished commercial landings amid an intensifying global race for the moon that includes state-run missions from China and India. Resilience, ispace's second lunar lander, is expected to touch down on Mare Frigoris, a basaltic plain about 900km from the moon's north pole, at 4:17am Friday local time (1917 GMT Thursday) following an hour-long descent from lunar orbit, according to the company. In 2023, ispace's first lander crashed into the moon's surface due to inaccurate recognition of its altitude. Software remedies have been implemented, while the hardware design is mostly unchanged in Resilience, the company has said. NEW ATTEMPT AFTER PAST SETBACK Resilience carries a four-wheeled rover built by ispace's Luxembourg subsidiary and payloads worth a total of US$16 million, including scientific instruments from Japanese firms and a Taiwanese university. If the landing is successful, the 2.3m-high lander and the microwave-sized rover will begin 14-day exploration activities until the arrival of a freezing-cold lunar night, including capturing images of regolith, the moon's fine-grained surface material, on a contract with the US space agency NASA. Later on Friday, ispace will host a press conference about the outcome of the mission, according to the company. Shares in ispace more than doubled earlier this year on growing investor hopes for the second mission, before calming in recent days. Resilience in January shared a SpaceX rocket launch with Firefly's Blue Ghost lander, which took a faster trajectory to the moon and touched down successfully in March. Intuitive Machines, which last year marked the world's first touchdown of a commercial lunar lander, made its second attempt in March but the lander Athena ended on its side on the lunar surface just as in the first mission. Japan last year became the world's fifth country to achieve a soft lunar landing after the former Soviet Union, the US, China and India, when the national Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) achieved the touchdown of its SLIM lander, yet also in a toppled position. Despite President Donald Trump's proposed changes to US space policy, Japan remains committed to NASA's Artemis moon program, pledging the involvement of Japanese astronauts and technologies for future lunar missions. Including one in 2027 as part of the Artemis program, ispace plans seven more missions in the US and Japan through 2029 to capture increasing demands for lunar transportation.
Washington Post
4 days ago
- Business
- Washington Post
Private Japanese lunar lander heads toward a touchdown in the moon's far north
A private lunar lander from Japan is closing in on the moon , aiming for a touchdown in the unexplored far north with a mini rover. The moon landing attempt by Tokyo-based company ispace on Friday Japan time is the latest entry in the rapidly expanding commercial lunar rush.
CNA
09-05-2025
- Science
- CNA
GPS on the moon: Spanish firm launches lunar navigation system
MADRID :Spanish technology company GMV has unveiled a GPS-like navigation system for the moon that aims to make lunar missions as intuitive as a drive across town with apps such as Google Maps or Waze. Called LUPIN, the project is part of a programme by the European Space Agency to test new positioning, navigation and timing techniques as interest in lunar surface exploration picks up again, whether for scientific research, potential mining opportunities or even future tourism. "With this software, we bring Europe closer to establishing a presence of humans on the moon and, potentially, this would be a stepping stone towards Mars exploration or human presence on Mars," Steven Kay, the project's director, told Reuters. The new technology was put to the test in the otherworldly landscapes of Fuerteventura - one of Spain's Canary Islands - where GMV conducted field trials with the prototype in a part of the Earth that bears some resemblance to the lunar surface. By using signals similar to GPS from moon-orbiting satellites, LUPIN would allow rovers and astronauts to pinpoint their location on the moon in real time. Currently, navigating the Earth's largest natural satellite is difficult, as spacecraft on its surface have to rely on complex calculations and data relayed from Earth - which is neither quick nor precise. "Communication depends on direct visibility with Earth or the use of relay satellites in lunar orbit, which create communicative shadow zones and latency times that hinder immediate decision-making," GMV said in a statement. The lack of real-time updates on changes in the moon's terrain caused by recent impacts or lunar dust movements also hinder ground trips on the satellite. The company wants to combine existing lunar cartography with information gleaned from moon-orbiting satellites targeting dark spots, such as the lunar south pole and the "far side", the area generally in shadow. "We want these rovers to map the surface of the moon in a fast and safe way so that astronauts can return in a few years, work there and set up permanent bases," said GMV's head of strategy, Mariella Graziano.
