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Category: lunar landing

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  • Another commercial startup just flubbed a moon landing

    Following its failed attempt to achieve a successful landing on the moon in 2023, there were high hopes that Japanese startup ispace would succeed on its second attempt early on Friday local time. But it wasn’t to be.

    Similar to its first attempt two years ago when it attempted to become the first commercial company to achieve a fully successful soft landing on the moon, the Tokyo-based mission team lost contact with its Resilience lander in the final stages before touchdown on the lunar surface.

    In a statement on the Hakuto-R Mission 2 delivered on Friday Tokyo time, ispace explained that following the initiation of Resilience’s landing sequence, mission controllers were unable to establish communications with the vehicle. 

    It said that as of 8 a.m. local time on June 6, the team had determined that it is “unlikely that communication with the lander will be restored” and “therefore it has been decided to conclude the mission.”

    Elaborating on the lander’s final moments, ispace said that commands to execute the landing sequence were transmitted at 3:13 a.m. Tokyo time.

    “The Resilience lander then began the descent phase. The lander descended from an altitude of approximately 100 km to approximately 20 km, and then successfully fired its main engine as planned to begin deceleration. While the lander’s attitude was confirmed to be nearly vertical, telemetry was lost thereafter, and no data indicating a successful landing was received, even after the scheduled landing time had passed.”

    It added that the laser rangefinder used to measure the distance to the lunar surface experienced delays in obtaining valid measurement values. “As a result, the lander was unable to decelerate sufficiently to reach the required speed for the planned lunar landing. Based on these circumstances, it is currently assumed that the lander likely performed a hard landing on the lunar surface.”

    It said that after communication was lost with Resilience, a command was sent to reboot the it, but a connection could not be established.

    “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. 

    The company said it’s now seeking to convince its backers that it can work through the issue and go again.

    The failure of ispace’s second lunar landing attempt is yet another reminder of the challenges faced by commercial lunar missions, many of which have failed to make a successful soft landing on the moon.

    A breakthrough came earlier this year, however, when Texas-based Firefly Aerospace became the first commercial firm to achieve a fully successful soft landing, with its Blue Ghost Mission 1 lander. Blue Ghost operated for a couple of weeks, supporting various science experiments before finally losing power. 

    With space technology advancing and launch costs reducing, private firms are increasingly interested in reaching the moon, primarily to explore opportunities for mining resources.

  • How to watch a historic moon landing on Thursday

    After failing to nail a lunar landing in 2023, ispace is once again vying to become the first commercial company in Japan to successfully perform a soft landing on the moon. It’s also set to deploy the first European-built lunar rover.

    The Tokyo-based startup is aiming to perform a controlled touchdown of the Resilience lander near the moon’s North Pole in the region known as Mare Frigoris. 

    Resilience, part of ispace’s Hakuto-R Mission 2, was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on January 15.

    Besides demonstrating ispace’s lunar transportation capabilities, the mission will also test several advanced communication systems, and deploy a number of science payloads. It will also deliver to the lunar surface a micro-rover, called Tenacious. The vehicle will collect soil samples and conduct experiments during its two-week exploration. As part of a cultural program for the mission, Tenacious will drop off a miniature wooden cottage artwork called Moonhouse, designed by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg.

    The mission marks ispace’s second attempt at a lunar landing, following an earlier one that ended in failure in April 2023 when the lander lost contact with the mission team during its final descent.

    The following year, Texas-based Intuitive Machines performed a successful lunar landing in February 2024, though soon after touchdown, the Odysseus lander tipped to a 30-degree angle. Despite the unexpected development, all of its instrument payloads remained functional, and the mission was deemed a success for the private firm.

    And then in March this year, another commercial company, Texas-based Firefly Aerospace, became the first commercial firm to achieve a fully successful soft landing on the moon when its Blue Ghost Mission 1 lander remained stable and upright following touchdown. The lander operated for about two weeks before losing power due to the onset of a lunar night. 

    Interest in moon exploration among private firms has increased in recent years due to advances in technology, lower launch costs, government partnerships, and the prospect of mining lunar resources, all factors that are making our nearest neighbor an exciting new commercial and strategic frontier.

    How to watch

    A livestream of ispace’s attempted landing will begin at 2:10 p.m. ET on Thursday, June 5, which is 3:10 a.m. Japan time on Friday, June 6. 

    The ispace team is currently targeting around 3:15 p.m. ET (4:17 a.m. Japan time) for the landing, though this could change. For the latest updates, be sure to check ispace’s X account.

    You can watch the landing attempt via the video player embedded at the top of this page. 

  • Blue Ghost’s moon landing shown in dramatic new footage

    When the Blue Ghost lander reached the lunar surface on March 2, Firefly Aerospace become the first commercial company to fully succeed in a soft moon landing at the first attempt.

    A week on, and a team at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia has just released first-of-its-kind footage of a lunar lander’s powerful engine plumes interacting with the moon’s surface, captured as the Blue Ghost touched down.

    The remarkable video was recorded by the lander’s Stereo Cameras for Lunar-Plume Surface Studies (SCALPSS) 1.1 instrument, which is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.

    The sequence starts around 91 feet (28 meters) above the lunar surface, with lunar dust beginning to kick up when the lander descends to about 49 feet (15 meters). The SCALPSS 1.1 technology comprises six cameras, four with a short focal length and two with a long focal length. The long-focal-length cameras started recording at a higher altitude, before the dust started to react, to give scientists some useful before-and-after data.

    Michelle Munk, SCALPSS principal investigator, described SCALPSS as a “key step in gathering fundamental knowledge about landing and operating on the moon,” adding that the technology “is already providing data that could inform future missions.”

    The work is particularly important as NASA and its commercial partners move toward increasing the frequency of lunar landings as part of the Artemis program.

    The Blue Ghost mission, which will end on Sunday, has a number of objectives, including studying lunar regolith, testing new technologies for future missions, and conducting various scientific experiments, including the observation of Earth’s magnetic field from the moon. The Firefly team also hopes it will inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers.

    Want to see another video of the Blue Ghost touching down last week? Then check out this footage captured by a different camera on the lander.