Japan’s Second Attempt at a Lunar Landing Fails
Ispace, a Japanese company specializing in spacecraft, has attempted yet again to land its craft on the moon. 5 hours after the planned landing time, 3:17 ET on Thursday, the crew located at Ispace headquarters in Tokyo admitted that they weren’t able to contact the Resilience spacecraft after its rough landing.
Ispace’s first attempt at a lunar landing in 2023 met a similar fate. It failed to land, like its counterpart, Resilience. After launching in January, Resilience took a 4-5 month journey to the moon before entering orbit and attempting contact. Ispace’s Resilience spacecraft landed on the northern hemisphere of the moon, on the region called the Mare Frigoris, otherwise known as the Sea of Cold. Sadly, as the landing sequence commenced for Resilience, contact was lost.
On the outside, the Resilience spacecraft had a similar structure to the Mission 1 spacecraft. But inside, it held different payloads such as a water electrolyzer experiment(a material that separates water into hydrogen and oxygen), a deep-space radiation probe (an instrument used to test radiation), and even a small rover called Tenacious. Tenacious was constructed by one of Ispace’s European companies.
When asked in a news conference, officials from the company claimed that the craft may have descended too fast, causing it to crash. The officials said this was because the laser instrument used to detect the altitude of the craft may have been slow in sending measurements, which is probably why the officials had a delay in getting info on the craft’s height. But there is no clear reason as to why the Resilience spacecraft was destroyed. Takeshi Hamada, chief executive of Ispace claimed that “At this point, we do not know clearly about the cause”. “We want to keep talking to NASA, but that will also depend on NASA, so we won’t know yet,” Mr. Hakamada continued.
Because of a second failed mission, NASA might reconsider using a larger model designed by Ispace to venture to the dark side of the moon. The challenge will be led by Draper Laboratory of Cambridge, Massachusetts. This mission is only just a part of a bigger goal; which is to tap into entrepreneurial companies so the lunar missions will become cheaper. This large mission is scheduled for 2027, and entrepreneurs are sure that after spacecraft is cheaper, space travel will soon change the world.
