Ispace admits failure when trying 1st private moon landing – 04/25/2023 – Science
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Japanese company ispace admitted its attempt to make the first private moon landing failed on Tuesday after losing contact with its Hakuto-R Mission 1 (M1) lander, concluding it likely crashed on the lunar surface. .
In a statement released in Japan, as early as this Wednesday (26) by local time, the company stated that it believes the spacecraft may have made a “forced landing”.
The spacecraft launched in December from Cape Canaveral, Florida (USA) on a SpaceX rocket, and completed 8 of the 10 mission objectives in space (see below). According to the CEO and founder of ispace, Takeshi Hakamada, this will provide valuable data for ispace’s next landing attempt in 2024.
The M1 module appeared ready to land autonomously around 1:40 pm (Brasília time). After getting within 90 meters of the lunar surface, it showed a live animation of the lander’s telemetry.
At the expected moment of landing, the engineers at Mission Control looked anxious as they waited for the M1’s signal confirmation, but that confirmation never came.
“We lost communication, so we have to assume we failed to complete the landing on the lunar surface,” Hakamada said in a live broadcast from the company, as mission control engineers in Tokyo continued to try to regain contact with the lander.
“Our engineers will continue to investigate the situation,” he said. “At this point, what I can say is that we are very proud that we have already achieved a lot during this mission.”
The orbital insertion operations — when the probe became the first private spacecraft to orbit the Moon — were successful, with the capture of several images along the way.
The automated descent into the Atlas crater, in the northeast region of the near lunar hemisphere, proceeded as scheduled, reducing the altitude from 100 km to practically zero, as well as the speed of 6,000 km/h.
Much of the process was also done without telemetry, as the spacecraft passed behind the natural satellite, but it was perfectly in line with expectations.
THE TEN STEPS OF THE HAKUTO-R MISSION
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Finalize launch preparation
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complete the launch
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Establish contact and command between the mission control center and the module
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Complete the module’s first maneuver
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Operation of a module flight for one month
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Test maneuver control before inserting the module into Moon orbit
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Insert the equipment into the orbit of the Moon
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Perform module control maneuvers already in orbit of the Moon
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Final landing on the surface of the Moon (Failed this Tuesday)
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Deliver the payload the module carries and establish a stable telecommunication system on the lunar surface (Failed this Tuesday)
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