Category Archives: ispace

Friday / 29 Sep 2023

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Japan National and Commercial Moon Landers in Transit and Under Construction

2.7-m long JAXA ‘Moon Sniper’ Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) on low-energy transit expected to reach lunar orbit NET Dec, with final 100-m2 target landing area near Shioli crater (13.3°S, 25.2°E) between Jan – Feb 2024, with imager / data link tested from 100,000-km with Earth photo and LEV rover to be activated for checks imminently; ispace working towards Mission 2 launch NET 2024 with flight model (based on Series 1) under construction at Tsukuba Space Center while Mission 3 with APEX 1.0 lander being developed with Draper now set for NET 2026; LUPEX collaboration with JAXA providing launcher / rover and ISRO providing lander to launch NET 2025

Pictured: ISRO / JAXA LUPEX team in India; Credits: JAXA, ispace

Tuesday / 2 May 2023

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Streak of Moon Lander Crashes Prompts Questioning

As ispace works to determine root cause of fueling-related M1 crash, observers are left to ponder why landing on Moon has eluded all efforts in 21st Century, save for CNSA CLEP sequence Chang’E 3-5; SpaceIL Beresheet (2019) IMU failure led to ill-timed reset command, cutting main engine; ISRO Chandrayaan-2 (2019) suffered software error with similar result; JAXA OMOTENASHI (2022) semi-hard impactor lost comms with Goldstone Deep Space Station; Generally, low gravity / atmosphere and dust are challenging factors; Budget for testing / fuel margin may also contribute to lunar landing difficulty

Credits: ispace, SpaceIL / IAI, ISRO, JAXA
 

Tuesday / 25 April 2023

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Hakuto-R Mission 1 to Be First Independent Moon Landing if Successful, with CLPS Companies Not Far Behind

ispace targeting Hakuto-R M1 landing NET 25 April 16:40 UTC 12:40 EST, 06:40 HST (26 April 01:40 JST, 00:40 CST), with landing sequence initiation & live stream starting 1 hour prior; Astrobotic Peregrine delayed from 4 May NET June / July, following Centaur V test-stand explosion; Intuitive Machines working towards similar timeframe for Nova-C launch, including the pioneering ILOA Astronomy from the Moon payload ILO-X, being spoken on by Director Steve Durst at 2023 International Conference of Deep Space Sciences in Hefei, China 25 April 10:40 CST

Credits: ispace, Deep Space Exploration Laboratory, ILOA

Friday / 14 April 2023

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ispace Set to Land HAKUTO-R, Aiming to Operate First Commercial Lander on Moon as Stock Surges

HAKUTO-R M1 lander is currently in 100 x 2,300 km elliptical lunar orbit as mission controllers prepare to execute maneuvers, circularizing orbit at 100 km ahead of 25 April at 15:40 UTC landing sequence initiation / touchdown in Atlas Crater (47.5°N, 44.4°E) 1 hour later at 16:40 UTC; Alternative landing sites within Lacus Somniorum, Sinus Iridium and Oceanus Procellarum may be targeted 26 April, 1 May and 3 May; Meanwhile on Earth ispace shares on Tokyo Stock Exchange make strong debut going from ¥254 (US$1.92) to ¥1,201 ($9.06)

Pictured: (T-B) ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada, ispace CFO Jumpei Nozaki; Credits: ispace

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 7-10 April 2023

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Lunar Orbital and Surface Missions Ongoing and Soon to Commence in Q2, Q3 2023

While CNSA Chang’E-3 and 4 continue surface operations and NASA / Advanced Space Capstone 145 days into 6-month primary mission; ispace HAKUTO-R operates from lunar orbit as ground controllers maintain comms during Moon occultations while preparing for landing this month; Astrobotic launching NET 4 May on ULA Vulcan Centaur; Intuitive Machines Nova-C launching on SpaceX F9 NET June; Luna-25 to launch NET 13 July via Soyuz-2.1b; JAXA SLIM postponed NET Aug pending H3 failure review due to H2A upper stage shared components

Pictured: ispace ground controller Ponglert Rattanachinalai; Credits: NASA, LinkedIn, ispace, Roscosmos, Canadensys

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 3-6 March 2023

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ispace HAKUTO-R M1 Nearing Moon / Attempt at 1st Commercial Landing, M2 and M3 to Advance ‘Cislunar Ecosystem’

Now on Moon-bound trajectory <800,000km from Earth (having reached distance of 1,376,000km in fuel efficient route), Hakuto-R lander team managing higher than expected thermal loads while working toward 6th ‘mission success milestone’, clearing way for Lunar Orbital Insertion by mid-March, landing on Moon late-April; M2 (NET 2024) Structural Thermal Model under construction in Japan, flight model build to start NET April in Germany; M3 (NET 2024) with Draper under US$73M NASA CLPS contract to carry AstronetX astronomical imager L-CAM; ispace mission control located in Tokyo with subsidiary offices in Luxembourg and Denver CO

Pictured: (T-B) ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada, ispace CTO Ryo Ujiie; Credits: ispace, Canadensys

Tuesday / 17 Jan 2023

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3 Commercial Moon Landers: ispace Hakuto-R, Astrobotic Peregrine, Intuitive Machines Nova-C

First wave of independent Moon missions (following SpaceIL Beresheet attempt 2019) targeting lunar surface are underway / preparing for launch including ispace Mission 1 with Hakuto-R nearing furthest point from Earth (1,400,000 km) on ~5 month low-energy trajectory NET 20 Jan; Astrobotic Peregrine Mission 1 to make 7-58 day transit (3-33 cruise + 4-25 lunar orbit, dependent on launch date) NET Q1 on ULA Vulcan Centaur rocket, currently en route from Decatur AL via Mississippi barge to CCSFS; Intuitive Machines IM-1 to launch on SpaceX F9 from KSC also NET Q1 on ~6-day direct transfer

Credits: ispace, IM, Astrobotic, NASA

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 13-16 Jan 2023

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As ispace Progresses Towards Moon, Significance of Planned First Lunar Mining Transaction Grows

Hakuto-R lander currently ~1,340,000km from Earth while ispace Mission Control working to execute series of deep space control maneuvers by late March in preparation for orbital insertion and first commercial soft landing in Atlas Crater (47.5°N, 44.4°E) NET late April; In addition to gathering environmental data and demonstrating various technologies, Hakuto-R Mission 1 to set precedent on commercial resource extraction by gathering regolith for sale to NASA under US$5,000 contract; Transaction sanctioned under US Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act of 2015, Japan Space Resources Act of 2021

Credits: ispace, MBRSC

Tuesday / 3 Jan 2022

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ispace HAKUTO-R Mission 1 Lunar Lander on Stable Course to Moon as 3rd Trajectory Burn Approaches

~1,250,000 km from Earth, HAKUTO-R maintaining nominal trajectory on fuel efficient path to Moon following 2nd correction maneuver 2 Jan with 3rd possibly to be conducted as craft reaches farthest point of journey (1,400,000 km) NET 20 Jan; ‘Milestone 5’ to be reached at 1-month of operations date (Jan 11); Innovative SORA-Q spheroid rover among payloads on M1 – designed by Doshisha University & Takara Tomy toy company with Sony dev board / Arm processor core for JAXA; SORA-Q to collect data on locomotion in 1/6 G for future human-capable pressurized lunar vehicle

Pictured: Yosuke Yoneda, Kenta Hashiba of TOMY Company; Credits: ispace, Takara Tomy, JAXA

New Year Holiday Edition
Fri-Mon / 23 Dec 2022 – 2 Jan 2023

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2023 Moon Roster Full of Independent and National Touchdowns Following 2022 Orbital Activity

At least 6 attempts to robotically land on the lunar surface are slated for 2023, after a year that saw Capstone DRHO insertion, Danuri near 100 x 100 km desired polar orbit (refining current 109 x 8920 km via 4 additional orbital maneuvers), Artemis 1 flyby / DRO; Hakuto launched on Dec 11 as Orion splashed down, now on 1-month cruise to next TCM targeting April landing; Landers Nova-C and Peregrine launching NET Q1, SLIM April, Chandrayaan-3 June, Luna-25 July, while Chang’E-3 lander / LUT, Chang’E-4 Yutu-2 rover continue only current operations on Moon

Credits: NASA, ispace, IM, Astrobotic, ISRO