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Photo credit: Space
Tokyo-based ispace announced Monday that its lunar lander Hakuto-R is on track to reach the moon in late April.
Ispace launched the lander on board a Falcon 9 in December; Since then, the spacecraft has traveled approximately 1,376 million kilometers, the furthest journey into space by a privately funded, commercially operated spacecraft. The company expects all orbital maneuvers in space to be completed by mid-March, followed by insertion into lunar orbit in late March.
Ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada said during a media briefing Monday that the flight provided operational data that would inform later missions. “We’ve acquired tons of data and know-how” about the lander and its subsystems, he said. “They are very viable assets for ispace.”
This includes information on the lander’s structural performance during launch and deployment, as well as the performance of thermal, communications and power subsystems.
“It’s almost impossible to accept everything perfectly before the mission,” Hakamada said. “It is inevitable to face non-nominal events.” Previously unanticipated events on the mission include higher-than-expected thermal temperatures and brief, unexpected problems with communications after the lander lifted from the Falcon 9 from was used. The thermal issues did not affect operation.
The company is planning two more missions, aptly named Mission 2 and Mission 3, scheduled for 2024 and 2025, respectively. Mission 2 will be the next technical demonstration of the Hakuto-R lander system and also a test of an ispace “Micro Rover” that will collect data on the lunar surface. Ispace’s ultimate goal is to boost the lunar economy, primarily through resource exploration and extraction; Both the lander and rover will be important sources of information as the company plans future missions.
The company will also send commercial payloads to the lunar surface for Mission 2 from companies such as Takasago Thermal Engineering Co., Euglena Co. and the Department of Space Science and Engineering at Taiwan’s National Central University.
Ispace has other plans for Mission 3. This mission is being developed in conjunction with aerospace company Draper, General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems, and Systima Technologies, a division of Karman Space and Defense. Ispace is acting as a design agent and subcontractor for this mission. The companies were awarded a $73 million contract by NASA as part of the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program to deliver science payloads to the moon. Ispace plans to ship commercial payload customers in addition to scientific payloads. The companies currently negotiating definitive payload service contracts are AstronetX, ArkEdge Space, Aviv Labs and CesiumAstro.
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