2023-04-25 21:53:56
The Japanese Hakuto-R mission, which should have landed on the lunar surface on Tuesday, has not contacted the control center that follows it from Earth, with which the fate of this private probe is uncertain.
The Ispace company, responsible for the project, released a statement in which it stated that “for the moment, the Hakuto-R mission control center in Nihonbashi (Tokyo) has not been able to confirm the success of the Lunar Lander”the ship that was to explore the surface of the satellite.
The mission should have reached its destination at 12:40 p.m. in Argentina according to the countdown that might be seen in the live broadcast offered by the Japanese company. In the absence of news, Operations specialist engineers “continue to work to confirm the current status of the lander. More information on his status will be announced as it becomes available,” the statement added.
It was expected that the signal from the probe might take a few minutes to be received, but time passed without news from the device and the tension in the room increased, so the company decided to momentarily cut off the live broadcast until more details.
About 20 minutes later, Ispace resumed the connection and a spokesman reported that they had had communication with the spacecraft until moments before the moon landing but it was finally lost. “We cannot certify the landing on the lunar surface”said.
The team continues to investigate the status of the mission, although the same spokesperson highlighted as a success that they established a connection with the ship in the last moments before landing, however “now we lost communication”indicated.
“We will never give up”
Despite the serious faces of the team and the public who followed the landing in person, the spokesman assured: “We are very proud because we have achieved many things in this mission, such as having obtained data a few moments before the moon landing”.
“This is a great achievement for the two future missions”, he declared, and thanked all the employees who have contributed to this mission since the company’s inception and their families, as well as client shareholders and other stakeholders. “We will carry on, we will never give up.”
The Japanese company Ispace is the first private company in the world that had programmed to land a ship on the Moon. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) sent a similar mission in collaboration with NASA last November although communication with it was also lost a day following its launch.
Descent in Atlas
The Hakuto-R lunar probe was launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral last December. This one, regarding 2.3 meters high and 2.6 long, carries a small exploration robot developed by JAXA and by the Japanese company Tomy, as well as a lunar vehicle designed by the United Arab Emirates.
The Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center of the United Arab Emirates also echoed the uncertainty, writing on its Twitter account that Ispace “announces that it will continue to investigate the communications of the Hakuto-R lander”.
The ship began to descend from an altitude of one hundred kilometers above the Moon and was scheduled to landing in Atlas, an 87 kilometer crater in the lunar northern hemisphere.
The objective of the first Hakuto-R mission is to test the descent technologies and maneuverability of its devices and It will be considered successful if it manages to maintain communications and operability thereof following landing; will have to wait.
Founded in 2010, Ispace defines itself as a company “global” whose vision is to “expand the planet” and “expand the future” through concrete actions such as offering high-frequency, low-cost transport services between the Earth and the Moon. The firm has offices in Japan, Luxembourg and the United Statesand has joint projects with NASA and the European Space Agency.
Hard week
The fate yet to be determined of this Japanese mission comes to complete a difficult week in space exploration.
On April 20, SpaceX’s large Starship rocket, which was to carry out its first integrated test flight, exploded over the skies of Texas minutes following takeoff.
This launcher from the company of Elon Musk it is slated to one day return astronauts to the Moon for the first time in more than half a century.
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