The private Japanese spacecraft Hakuto-R, operated by Ispace, reached the lunar surface, but contact with its control center was lost after attempting a landing in the crater region. The landing clip was later uploaded to YouTube.
Hours later, Ispace communicated that confirmation of success or failure remained elusive and subsequently confirmed the vehicle was lost.
The lunar module was slated to land on April 26 at 1:40 am Japan time (April 25 at 19:40 Moscow time). When signals could not be reestablished 20 minutes past the planned touchdown, mission leaders deemed the attempt unsuccessful and pledged to investigate the cause.
The company’s chief executive, Takeshi Hakamada, stated that contact with the vehicle was lost during the descent.
“We maintained a connection up to the moment of landing, but then it disappeared. We must acknowledge that a successful landing on the lunar surface did not occur,” he was quoted as saying. Bloomberg reported this account.
According to Hakamada, the link with the module was cut off just before it touched the Moon, leading experts to consider the possibility that the craft was dropped or damaged severely.
landing acceleration
Ispace noted that, an hour before the planned landing, Hakuto-R in lunar orbit had completed the necessary procedures, firing its engine to brake and reduce speed.
Yet it was reported that control room personnel lost contact with the device when it stood about 10 meters above the surface, moving at roughly 25 km/h. In the final moments, the system accelerated, and contact with the module persisted until the end. Khaleej Times summarized the timeline in this phase.
“Given the circumstances, it seems highly likely the module executed a hard landing on the Moon,” Ispace stated, adding that communication with Hakuto-R would most likely not be restored.
The company now intends to gather all available flight data to substantially boost technology readiness for a second mission planned for 2024 and a third in 2025. The head of Ispace noted that, despite the mission’s failure, a large amount of data was collected and valuable experience gained.
In response, Hiroshi Yamakawa, head of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, pledged ongoing support for the project and collaboration with Ispace and other private space initiatives.
Mission objectives
The Hakuto-R was envisioned as the first commercial module to land on the Moon. Previously, only nations—the United States, the Soviet Union, and China—had achieved a lunar landing.
The mission launched to space aboard an Falcon-9 rocket from SpaceX, with the launch taking place on December 11, 2022. The ascent rolled out from Cape Canaveral, and the path to the Moon spanned about three months, with the spacecraft spending several weeks in lunar orbit.
Ispace selected Atlas Crater as the primary landing site because it aligned with the module’s testing objectives, the research aims of the MBR Space Center mission, and other customer requirements, according to company statements.
The main task involved searching for water at the landing site and testing technologies for future lunar missions. Hakuto-R carried a suite of scientific instruments, two lunar rovers, and additional payloads, as reported by Bloomberg.
The payloads included the Japanese mini rover Sora-Q and the four-wheeled Rashid rover, a collaboration with the United Arab Emirates. Rashid measures about half a meter in length and weighs roughly 10 kilograms, far lighter than the Chinese Yutu-2 rover that is exploring the Moon’s far side.
The lunar rover was designed to operate for one lunar day (about 14 Earth days) and was intended to be guided by artificial intelligence algorithms capable of autonomously identifying interesting surface features. The probes aboard the rover were also meant to gauge temperature and charged particle densities that influence dust movement on the lunar surface.