ispace: lack of fuel may explain landing failure – 04/27/2023 – Science

The lack of fuel may explain why the ispace probe was unable to complete the light landing on the moon, said one of the company’s directors this Wednesday (26).

“Apparently he [o módulo] went into free fall towards the surface [da Lua]as it was running out of fuel to power its thrusters,” chief technology officer Ryo Ujiie told a news conference.

The company also raised the point that, as the probe approached the Moon, the altitude measurement system incorrectly calculated the distance to the surface.

The problems may explain the reasons why ispace lost contact with the probe, called Hakuto-R, seconds before landing on lunar soil. It was very close that the spacecraft did not reach its goal of reaching the surface of Earth’s natural satellite without compromising its structure. Data from previous moments of the end of the information coming from the equipment indicated about 90 m of altitude and speed below 40 km/h.

After the loss of contact, the company continued its attempt to collect information from the probe. Hours later, however, ispace admitted that a crash landing likely occurred.

The hypothesis that it was not possible to perform a smooth landing is also reiterated by the simple fact that contact was not resumed. In view of the company’s attempts, if the spacecraft had landed as planned, it was expected that contact would happen again.

The failure in the operation made ispace’s goal of being the first private organization to perform a soft landing on the Moon go down the drain. Only the US, China and Russia have achieved this feat, but all through public agencies.

Failure to land on the Moon, however, is common. Initiatives in recent years by countries such as Israel and India have also failed to achieve the goal.

The landing failure was also bad for ispace’s business. Until the afternoon of this Thursday (27), the company’s share price had already fallen by about 25%.

Even so, the company is now preparing for a new mission that should take place in 2024. According to Takeshi Hakamada, the director of ispace, the problems seen on the flight this Tuesday (25) should bring lessons learned for the new attempt next year.