Japan's private lunar lander mission ends in failure, again
What's the story
Japan's first privately funded lunar mission, led by the Tokyo-based company ispace, has ended in disappointment again.
The spacecraft, dubbed "Resilience," was supposed to make a soft landing on the Moon's Mare Frigoris region today at 4:17am JST (12:47am IST).
However, communication with the lander was lost less than two minutes before its scheduled landing time, marking the second failure for ispace.
Mission failure
'Unlikely to regain contact with the lander'
After the communication blackout, ispace confirmed that it was unlikely to regain contact with the lander.
"Given that there is currently no prospect of a successful lunar landing," said ispace founder and CEO Takeshi Hakamada, "our top priority is to swiftly analyze the telemetry data we have obtained thus far and work diligently to identify the cause."
Descent details
Details of the Resilience lander
The Resilience lander, which stands 2.3m tall and weighs about a ton when fully fueled, was launched on January 15 atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
It reached lunar orbit on May 6 and began its descent toward Mare Frigoris.
The landing sequence began at around 3:13am JST today (11:43pm IST, June 5), with the lander descending from an altitude of some 100km to about 20km before firing its main engine for deceleration.
Mission details
Lander to deploy several payloads on the Moon
The Resilience lander was to transmit images of its landing site within hours and deploy a micro rover, Tenacious, over the weekend.
The mission also included a deep-space radiation probe from Taiwan's National Central University and an algae-growing experiment provided by Malaysia-based Euglena Co.
A technology demonstration from Takasago Thermal Engineering Co., Japan, was also planned to produce hydrogen and oxygen from moon water.
Future missions
Plans to launch 2 more moon missions in 2027
Despite the setback with Resilience, ispace has ambitious plans for future lunar exploration.
The company intends to launch two more moon missions in 2027, using a larger two-ton lander called Apex 1.0.
This comes after learning from the failures of its attempts at lunar landings.
In April 2023, ispace's first lunar lander crashed on the Moon due to a software error that miscalculated its altitude during descent over uneven terrain.