A space startup in Japan will seek to become the first private firm to deploy a lander on the Moon on Tuesday. If all goes as planned, ispace’s Hakuto-R Mission 1 lander will begin its descent to the lunar surface at 1540 GMT.
It will slow its orbit 100 kilometres above the Moon, then modify its speed and altitude to make a “soft landing” one hour later.
Success is far from certain. SpaceIL, an Israeli firm, witnessed their lander fall into the Moon’s surface in April 2019.
ispace has announced three alternate landing sites and has stated that the lunar descent date could be moved to April 26, May 1, or May 3, depending on weather conditions.
“What we have accomplished thus far is already a great achievement. And we are already applying lessons learned from this flight to our future missions.” said ispace founder and CEO Takeshi Hakamada earlier this month.
“The stage has been set. I am looking forward to seeing this historic event. Which will usher in a new age of commercial lunar missions.”
The lander, which stands little more than two metres tall and weighs 340 kilogrammes. Which has been in lunar orbit since last month.
After repeated delays, it was launched from Earth in December on one of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets.
Only the United States, Russia, and China have succeeded in landing a robot on the moon’s surface. All through government-sponsored missions.
However, Japan and the US stated last year that they would work together to place a Japanese astronaut on the Moon by the end of the decade.
The lander is carrying various lunar rovers, including an eight-centimetre-tall Japanese model built in collaboration with toy producer Takara Tomy.
The United Arab Emirates, whose Rashid rover is aboard the lander as part of the country’s developing space programme. It is also keeping a careful eye on the expedition.
The Gulf country is fresh to the space competition. But it has already launched a spacecraft into Mars orbit in 2021. It will be the Arab world’s first Moon mission if its rover successfully lands.
Hakuto, which means “white rabbit” in Japanese, alludes to Japanese folklore of a white rabbit living on the Moon.
The project was one of five finalists in Google’s Lunar X Prize competition. Which aimed to land a rover on the Moon before a 2018 deadline that never came.
ispace, which has only 200 employees, has stated that it “aims to extend the sphere of human life into space and create a sustainable world by providing high-frequency, low-cost transport services to the Moon.”
The mission, according to Hakamada, lays “the groundwork for unleashing the Moon’s potential. And transforming it into a robust and vibrant economic system.”
The company predicts the Moon will have a population of 1,000 people by 2040, with an additional 10,000 visitors each year.
It intends to launch a second mission, tentatively slated for next year. That will include a lunar landing as well as the deployment of its own rover.
