A live feed provided by the private company ispace showed the spacecraft’s altitude suddenly falling to zero following an hour-long descent from lunar orbit.
It later emerged that the lander, named Resilience, was likely able to come to a rest almost vertically, though communication was completely lost.
At a news conference after the failure was confirmed, ispace’s CEO, Takeshi Hakamada, said, “We really wanted this mission to succeed, but we were unable to pull off the landing.
“Along with the spirit of the name Resilience, we will analyse the issues that caused this and keep pressing forward for the future.”
The lunar mission was ispace’s second attempt to land on the moon, following a crash landing in 2023 caused by a suspected software problem.
The Japan Times reports the team now believe the fresh mission ended in a “hard landing” due to an issue with the laser range finder, which measures the distance to the lunar surface.
If successful, Resilience would have landed in the Mare Frigoris region of the northern hemisphere of the near side of the moon. It was carrying several payloads, including a water electrolyser and a food production experiment.
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It significantly also carried a rover called Tenacious that was equipped with a shovel to collect lunar regolith.
The sample was due to be sold to NASA for US$5,000 as per an agreement announced in 2020 that aims to establish a precedent for the ownership of space resources.
“Our goal is to build the cislunar economy, one in which the moon and Earth are economically and socially connected,” Hakamada said previously.
The mission would also have been of particular interest to Australia’s ELO2 consortium, which is heading the Roo-ver project to collect regolith with its own lunar rover.
ELO2 beat rival AROSE in December to be tasked with building Australia’s upcoming lunar rover.
The federal government granted both groups $4 million in 2023 to design an initial prototype for a rover that will be developed to explore the moon’s surface.
It’s hoped that it will be able to collect lunar regolith or moon soil that will eventually be turned into oxygen to support a permanent NASA base.
Regolith can both become oxygen that humans can breathe or aid the production of rocket fuel necessary to support the launch of a rocket from the moon to Mars and beyond.
ELO2 comprises organisations, including universities, SMEs, and those in the mining sector. In particular, the University of Adelaide is responsible for the rover’s ongoing testing.
Inovor provided the electrical power system, and BHP provided expertise in excavation.
Adam Thorn
Adam is a journalist who has worked for more than 40 prestigious media brands in the UK and Australia. Since 2005, his varied career has included stints as a reporter, copy editor, feature writer and editor for publications as diverse as Fleet Street newspaper The Sunday Times, fashion bible Jones, media and marketing website Mumbrella as well as lifestyle magazines such as GQ, Woman’s Weekly, Men’s Health and Loaded. He joined Momentum Media in early 2020 and currently writes for Australian Aviation and World of Aviation.
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