NASA probe can give clues to the end of the ispace spacecraft – 04/27/2023 – Science

A NASA probe called LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, in free translation) may be a means to find out what happened to the Japanese module that probably fell apart on the lunar soil. The equipment must have created a new crater on the Moon, and the power of the LRO’s cameras can register this impact when it passes by the place of the probable impact.

The module that must have left marks on Earth’s natural satellite is from ispace. The company tried to perform a light landing of the probe on the Moon last Tuesday (25). If everything had gone as planned, it would be the first undertaking of its kind undertaken by a private entity.

But the plan went wrong in the last moments: contact with the probe was lost and, until now, it is not known for sure what happened, but ispace has already reported that the most likely occurrence was a forced landing of the module.

Doubts about what may have happened can be clarified with the use of another spacecraft that already orbits the Moon, the LRO. Coupled to the probe are cameras that constantly record the lunar surface in a resolution considered high for this type of equipment.

NASA’s goal with the probe is to create a broad map of the Moon, explains Rodolfo Langhi, a professor in the department of physics and meteorology at the Faculty of Sciences at Unesp and coordinator of the university’s astronomy observatory. “Her goal was to accurately map the surface of the Moon as if it were, rather than a Google Earth, a Google Moon.”

Due to the quality of the cameras, the spacecraft would be the most suitable in an attempt to check what happened to the Hakuto-R, the name of the Japanese mission. If the Japanese spacecraft did indeed make a forced landing, it is expected that the lunar soil will present a new crater.

“The crash site will produce a small crater, probably a spot”, says Álvaro Penteado Costa, a professor at Unicamp’s Institute of Geosciences and researcher in planetary geology and meteoritic craters.

The material scattered by the shock should also be seen. This point actually helps to identify whether a crater is recent. “You can see that it’s a new crater because of the clear patch of material that spreads out”, continues Costa.

But if someone expects to see the smallest details as if it were an image recorded by a state-of-the-art smartphone, NASA’s probe will probably fall short. Cássio Barbosa, an astrophysicist at FEI, explains that it will not be possible to see much besides the crater stains and the ejected material.

As for Costa, some more specific details may be noted. “[Se a nave] If it shatters, the pieces will scatter, they won’t be together. That will show.”

Another more remote possibility is that the smooth landing of the Japanese spacecraft actually took place. Or it may even have had an impact, but not so intense as to ruin the equipment with pieces of it everywhere.

In cases like this, the NASA probe should also help. Barbosa explains that, in less drastic situations, the crater will not be seen, but other elements will. “If it was a soft landing and you lost contact, which probably shouldn’t have happened, it will be possible to see a dark spot in contrast to the sun and shadows”, he summarizes.

When?

The efficiency of the cameras is proven to visualize the possible effect of the collision of the Japanese spacecraft with the Moon. The instrument has even been used in similar cases. When an Indian probe also tried to land on the surface of the natural satellite, but had a disastrous end, experts saw the images of the crater generated by the impact some time later.

But the big question is when will it be possible to see what happened to the Japanese probe. In this case, it is necessary to wait for the moment when the LRO will pass by the landing site – the Atlas crater, which was where the ispace spacecraft should have settled down – and wait for the release of the new images.

The period for the new passage can take days or even weeks, since NASA does not change the route of the equipment. For Costa, a contact between ispace and the American agency may even occur to at least release the images more quickly – normally, new records are not made available at the same time they are made.

Even with the cooldown period, there’s no need to worry about missing any details of the shock because of the passage of time.

“Since there is no rain, wind, water, vegetation on the Moon, there is nothing to modify its landscape, it will not deteriorate the way the impact of this probe was”, says Langhi.

He explains that even today it is possible to see some details of the Apollo missions. The trail of the jeep used by the astronauts on the first trip of man to the Moon, for example, is still visible in the images of the region they transited. If even today the remnants of that passage that occurred decades ago are still there, the marks of the Japanese probe in the lunar soil must remain, so to speak, forever.