Hakuto-R Mission 1

Last updated
Hakuto-R
Maquette de Hakuto-R IAC 2022.jpg
Full-size model of Hakuto-R
Mission type Technology demonstration
Operator ispace
COSPAR ID 2022-168A OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
SATCAT no. 54696
Website ispace-inc.com/m1
Spacecraft properties
SpacecraftHakuto-R M1
Spacecraft type Lunar lander
Manufacturer ispace
Launch mass1,000 kg (2,200 lb)
Dry mass340 kg (750 lb)
Start of mission
Launch date11 December 2022, 07:38 UTC
Rocket Falcon 9 B1073.5
Launch site CCSFS, SLC-40
Contractor SpaceX
End of mission
Last contact25 April 2023, 16:40 UTC
Moon lander
Landing site Atlas crater (attempted). 47°34′52″N44°05′38″E / 47.581°N 44.094°E / 47.581; 44.094
Hakuto-R Mission 1 logo.png
Hakuto-R Mission 1 patch

Hakuto-R Mission 1 was a failed private Japanese uncrewed lunar landing mission built and operated by ispace, which was launched in December 2022 for an attempted lunar landing in April 2023.

Contents

This first Hakuto mission was primarily a technology demonstrator and carried the Emirates Lunar Mission. [1] Travelling approximately 1,400,000 kilometres (870,000 mi), it is the furthest a privately-funded spacecraft has traveled. [2] Communication with the lander was lost during the final seconds of its April 2023 descent. [3]

Background

The project began with engineer Andrew Barton in 2008, who sought to win the Google Lunar X Prize by landing a privately-funded rover on the Moon, and gathered an international group of professionals to create White Label Space. [3] Takeshi Hakamada would found ispace in 2010 as a Japanese branch of White Label Space. [3] Many of the professionals abandoned the project by 2013, though a group of Japanese members sought to continue with the project, which was renamed from White Label Space to Hakuto, based on the white Hare of Inaba in Japanese mythology. [3] [4] By 2017, ispace had secured $90 million in funding and though no teams in the Google Lunar X Prize ever launched before the 2018 deadline, the Hakuto team would continue. [3] In April 2022, iSpace was placed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, receiving a 65% increase in its share price within two weeks. [3]

Lander specifications

The Hakuto-R lander was measured at 2.3 metres (7.5 ft) tall by 2.6 metres (8.5 ft) wide, with a total weight of approximately 1,000 kilograms (2,200 lb) with its payload and fuel. [5] To perform a stable landing, the lander was equipped with four landing legs and a main thruster. [5]

Mission

Selenochromatic Image (Si) of Lacus Somniorum area Aldo Ferruggia - Lacus Mortis.jpg
Selenochromatic Image (Si) of Lacus Somniorum area

Hakuto-R Mission 1 was launched on 11 December 2022 aboard a Falcon 9 rocket, [6] separating from the rocket 47 minutes later at a distance around 970 kilometres (600 mi) away from Earth. [3] Inside the spacecraft were payloads from the Emirates Lunar Mission rover Rashid in a partnership with the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC), along with Tomy and JAXA's Sora-Q transformable lunar robot. [2] [7] [8] The lander also housed another payload, a music disc featuring the song ‘SORATO’ by the Japanese rock band Sakanaction, which was initially released in 2018 as a part of the Team Hakuto campaign for the Google Lunar X Prize. [9]

Using data collected from a previous lunar scanning mission, ispace determined that the mission would attempt a landing in the Atlas crater in the Mare Frigoris region of the Moon; three other backup locations were selected, like those in Lacus Somniorum, Sinus Iridum and Oceanus Procellarum, among others. [5] [10] In an effort to conserve fuel, the mission used a slower path to approach the Moon, entering lunar orbit in March 2023. [5]

Landing attempt

After a five-month travel time, the mission traveled 1,400,000 kilometres (870,000 mi), further than any privately-funded spacecraft, to attempt a lunar landing on 25 April 2023. [2] [11]

During the official live-stream, [12] among the four possible landing locations, the site in Lacus Somniorum was initially shown in the animation, saying it was based on real-time telemetry from the lander; that later turned out to be misleading, since the telemetry coming from the lander was not reliable, and the actual attempted landing site was near Atlas crater, as had been decided initially. [13] [14] [15]

Communication with the lander was lost during the final moments of descent to the lunar surface at 16:40 UTC (00:40 JST) on 25 April. [3] Analysis determined that the lander plummeted uncontrollably when the propellant was exhausted. This happened because the onboard computer wrongly assumed the radar altimeter was faulty, and ignoring its data, misjudged the actual altitude of the spacecraft and kept hovering 5km above the surface of the Moon. [3] [16] [17] [18]

The crash site was later identified by the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter team. [13]

Impact Site of the HAKUTO-R Mission 1 Lunar Lander [13]
Ratio image of the Hakuto-R Mission-1 impact site.png
Ejecta field around impact site
Hakuto-R Mission-1 impact site blink animation of before and after states 01.gif
Before and after image of the impact site
Hakuto-R Mission-1 impact site blink animation of before and after states 02.gif
Before and after images of the impact site

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atlas (crater)</span> Lunar impact crater

Atlas is a prominent lunar impact crater that is located in the northeast part of the Moon, to the southeast of Mare Frigoris. Just to the west is the slightly smaller but still prominent crater Hercules. Northeast of Atlas is the large crater Endymion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moon landing</span> Arrival of a spacecraft on the Moons surface

A Moon landing or lunar landing is the arrival of a spacecraft on the surface of the Moon, including both crewed and robotic missions. The first human-made object to touch the Moon was Luna 2 in 1959.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lunar lander</span> Spacecraft intended to land on the surface of the Moon

A lunar lander or Moon lander is a spacecraft designed to land on the surface of the Moon. As of 2024, the Apollo Lunar Module is the only lunar lander to have ever been used in human spaceflight, completing six lunar landings from 1969 to 1972 during the United States' Apollo Program. Several robotic landers have reached the surface, and some have returned samples to Earth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rover (space exploration)</span> Space exploration vehicle designed to move across the surface of a planet or other celestial body

A rover is a planetary surface exploration device designed to move over the rough surface of a planet or other planetary mass celestial bodies. Some rovers have been designed as land vehicles to transport members of a human spaceflight crew; others have been partially or fully autonomous robots. Rovers are typically created to land on another planet via a lander-style spacecraft, tasked to collect information about the terrain, and to take crust samples such as dust, soil, rocks, and even liquids. They are essential tools in space exploration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hakuto</span> Japanese aerospace team

Hakuto (ハクト) or formerly White Label Space (ホワイトレーベルスペース) was a team formed in early 2008 by a group of experienced space professionals inspired by the challenge of the Google Lunar X PRIZE to develop a robotic Moon exploration mission.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lunar rover</span> Vehicle that travels on the Moons surface

A lunar rover or Moon rover is a space exploration vehicle designed to move across the surface of the Moon. The Apollo program's Lunar Roving Vehicle was driven on the Moon by members of three American crews, Apollo 15, 16, and 17. Other rovers have been partially or fully autonomous robots, such as the Soviet Union's Lunokhods, Chinese Yutus, Indian Pragyan, and Japan's LEVs. Five countries have had operating rovers on the Moon: the Soviet Union, the United States, China, India, and Japan.

The (Japanese) Lunar Exploration Program is a program of robotic and human missions to the Moon undertaken by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and its division, the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS). It is also one of the three major enterprises of the JAXA Space Exploration Center (JSPEC). The main goal of the program is "to elucidate the origin and evolution of the Moon and utilize the Moon in the future".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Arab Emirates Space Agency</span> Government Agency

The UAE Space Agency (UAESA) is the space agency of the United Arab Emirates government responsible for the development of the country's space industry. It was created in 2014 and is responsible for developing and regulating the space sector in the UAE.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Smart Lander for Investigating Moon</span> Japanese lunar lander mission (2023–2024)

Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) was a lunar lander mission of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The lander's initial launch date in 2021 was postponed until 2023 due to delays in its rideshare, the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM). On 6 September 2023 at 23:42 UTC, XRISM launched, and SLIM separated from it later that day.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2022 in spaceflight</span>

The year 2022 witnessed the number of launches of SpaceX's Falcon rocket family surpassing the CNSA's Long March rocket family, making the United States the country with the highest number of launches in 2022 instead of China. This year also featured the first successful launch of Long March 6A, Nuri, Angara 1.2, Vega C, Kinetica-1, and Jielong-3. National space agencies' activities in this year is also marred by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, leading to tension between Roscosmos and Western space agencies, threats of ending collaboration on the International Space Station (ISS), and delays on space missions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Commercial Lunar Payload Services</span> NASA program contracting commercial transportation services to the Moon

Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) is a NASA program to hire companies to send small robotic landers and rovers to the Moon. Most landing sites are near the lunar south pole where they will scout for lunar resources, test in situ resource utilization (ISRU) concepts, and perform lunar science to support the Artemis lunar program. CLPS is intended to buy end-to-end payload services between Earth and the lunar surface using fixed-price contracts. The program achieved the first landing on the moon by a commercial company in history with the IM-1 mission in 2024. The program was extended to add support for large payloads starting after 2025.

ispace Inc. is a publicly traded Japanese company developing robotic spacecraft and other technology to compete for both transportation and exploration mission contracts from space agencies and other private industries. ispace's mission is to enable its clients to discover, map, and use natural lunar resources.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intuitive Machines Nova-C</span> Lunar lander developed by Intuitive Machines

The Intuitive Machines Nova-C, or simply Nova-C, is a class of lunar landers designed by Intuitive Machines (IM) to deliver small payloads to the surface of the Moon. Intuitive Machines was one of three service providers awarded task orders in 2019 for delivery of NASA science payloads to the Moon. The IM-1 lunar lander, named Odysseus, was launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on 15 February 2024, reached lunar orbit on 21 February, and landed on the lunar surface on 22 February. This marked the inaugural Nova-C landing on the Moon and the first American spacecraft to perform a soft landing on the Moon in over 50 years. It is the first spacecraft to use methalox propulsion to navigate between the Earth and the Moon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emirates Lunar Mission</span> United Arab Emirates Lunar Mission

The Emirates Lunar Mission was the first mission to the Moon from the United Arab Emirates.

Sora-Q is a miniature Lunar rover designed and made by Japanese space agency JAXA, toy manufacturer Tomy, Sony, and Doshisha University.

Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost, or simply Blue Ghost, is a class of lunar landers designed by Firefly Aerospace to deliver small payloads to the surface of the Moon. The first Blue Ghost mission is planned to launch in 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hakuto-R Mission 2</span> Lunar landing mission by Japanese ispace

Hakuto-R Mission 2 is a robotic lunar landing mission planned for December 2024. Developed by ispace, the lander will deliver a new micro rover manufactured by the company, and other payloads. Like Hakuto-R Mission 1 this mission will serve as a technology demonstration, with the final goal of providing reliable transportation and data services on the moon. The lander is named Resilience.

References

  1. ↑ "NASA – NSSDCA – Spacecraft – Details". nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2023-04-25.
  2. 1 2 3 Alamalhodaei, Aria (25 April 2023). "Watch ispace attempt to land on the moon for the first time". TechCrunch .
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Chang, Kenneth (2023-04-25). "Live Updates: A Japanese Company Attempts the 1st Private Moon Landing". The New York Times . ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-04-25.
  4. ↑ The Japanese Space Bots That Could Build Moon Valley Sarah Scoles, Wired 14 May 2018
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Watch Japan's ispace attempt moon landing with Hakuto-R lunar lander". New Scientist . 25 April 2023. Retrieved 2023-04-25.
  6. ↑ Swift, Rocky (13 April 2023). "Japan's ispace launches commercial moon lander, in potential world first". Reuters.
  7. ↑ Rabie, Passant (12 December 2022). "SpaceX Launches Moon-Bound Private Japanese Lander Following Delays". Gizmodo . Retrieved 15 December 2022.
  8. ↑ "ispace、2022年末頃の打ち上げに向け、フライトモデル組み立ての最終工程に着手 Hakuto-Rのミッション1と2の進捗報告を実施". ispace. Retrieved 2023-04-29.
  9. ↑ "Ispace Announces Mission 1 Launch Date".
  10. ↑ "ispace Announces Mission 1 Launch Date". ispace. Retrieved 2023-04-27.
  11. ↑ "A private moon lander will make history when it touches down on April 25. Here's how to watch it live". Space.com . 24 April 2023.
  12. ↑ ispace Hakuto-R Mission 1: Landing Live Stream, 25 April 2023, retrieved 2023-04-27
  13. 1 2 3 Speyerer, Emerson (May 23, 2023). "Impact Site of the Hakuto-R Mission 1 Lunar Lander". lroc.sese.asu.edu. Retrieved 2023-05-23.
  14. ↑ "2022年、月の映像データはこの場所にやってくる。 民間月面探査プログラム「Hakuto-R」 Mission Control Centerを開設". ispace. Retrieved 2023-04-27.
  15. ↑ "ispace Announces Mission 1 Launch Date". ispace. Retrieved 2023-04-27.
  16. ↑ "Status Update on ispace Hakuto-R Mission 1 Lunar Lander". ispace. Retrieved 2023-04-26.
  17. ↑ "Japan Spacecraft Believed to Have Crashed on Moon During Landing". Bloomberg.com. 2023-04-25. Retrieved 2023-04-27.
  18. ↑ 日本放送協会. "月面着陸 開発の民間企業が会見 "途中で燃料がつきて落下か"". NHKニュース. Retrieved 2023-04-27.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.