ispace: probe made images before fateful landing; see – 04/26/2023 – Science

The Japanese lunar module from ispace was scheduled to land on the moon this Tuesday (25), but the venture probably didn’t work out. A few days earlier, however, the probe made images when it had not yet started its descent to the lunar soil. They were disclosed in the live transmission that the company made of the operation.

The spacecraft had two cameras attached to its structure: one from ispace itself and another from Canadian company Canadensys. Both equipment had been making experimental records since December, when the Japanese probe was launched. Had it landed properly, new photos would have been taken directly from the Moon.

One of the photos captured while still in orbit was of the solar eclipse that occurred last Thursday (20). The phenomenon was restricted to Oceania and, partially, to a portion of Southeast Asia. Of the mixed type, this eclipse is considered rarer, as it can be seen in full, when the Moon completely covers the Sun, or annular, which consists of partial coverage of the star.

As a rule, viewing an eclipse can only be one of these two types. In the case of the mixed one, a person can observe it as if it were total or ringlike, depending on where he is located within the maximum zone of the phenomenon.

With the ispace image, it is possible to see a black dot under the Earth at the moment the phenomenon happened. “We took this picture during a solar eclipse. It’s very interesting to see this kind of phenomenon not [da nossa perspectiva]but from the orbit of the Moon,” said one of the ispace employees in the live broadcast.

Another image captured by the spacecraft was a video of the surface of the Moon. As explained during the broadcast, a small yellowish part at the bottom of the video is from the probe itself.

The rest of the capture shows the lunar soil. One can observe illuminated parts and others covered with shadows. It is only possible to see these differences so clearly at an altitude of 100 km, which was where the spacecraft was located before landing, because the Moon has no atmosphere.

Finally, a third photo shows part of the Moon and, in the background, the planet Earth.

After all, landed or not landed?

ispace’s goal was to perform a soft landing on the surface of the Moon and become the first private company to do so. Had the procedure gone as planned, Japan would have become the fourth nation to achieve the feat – the other three being the US, Russia and China, all by public agencies.

But, in the final moments of the operation, ispace lost contact with the probe. The company investigated what could have happened and, after a few hours, admitted that most likely the Hakuto-R, as the mission was called, performed a forced landing.

The soft landing was the ninth step out of ten, as seen below.