Space Crash: Japanese Firm Fumbles Moon Landing, Yet Again!
Japanese lunar mission concludes unsuccessfully for the second time, as spacecraft crashes into moon's surface. - Japanese Lunar Expedition Faces Another Unsuccessful Attempt by Local Firm
Hey there! Let's talk about the latest lunar debacle. A Japanese private company, ispace, took another tumble in its endeavor to land on the moon. Their lander, dubbed "Resilience," appears to have crashed onto the lunar surface after failing to slow down properly during descent.
This is not the first time ispace has faced such a setback. They attempted their first mission in 2023 but ended up with a face-plant much like this one. However, in 2024, the U.S. firm Intuitive Machines managed to bag the first commercial moon landing in history with "Odysseus." A second U.S. private company followed suit with another landing on the lunar surface a year later.
Moon missions are not exactly a walk in the park. ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada shared, "We aim to catch up with the U.S. companies as swiftly as we can."
So, what went wrong this time?
ispace'sResilience, equipped with a rover and experiment equipment, blasted off from Cape Canaveral's U.S. spaceport on January 15 for its lunar escapade. However, contact with the lander was lost during its descent to the lunar surface, leading ispace to terminate the mission.
The company faced a similar issue in its earlier attempt with the lander "Hakuto-R" in 2023. They lost communication shortly after the intended landing time, suspecting that the lander plummeted onto the lunar surface due to an error in altitude calculation[1][2].
ispace is currently combing through telemetry data to pinpoint the root cause of this latest fiasco. Their next attempts, slated for 2027, offer fresh opportunities to rectify these issues and nail that elusive lunar landing.
- It might be worthwhile for ispace to collaborate with scientists and engineers in the field of space-and-astronomy and technology to analyze the telemetry data and develop a more effective environment-friendly community policy for lunar landings.
- As the global community continues to advance in space exploration, it's essential for ispace to emphasize the importance of environment preservation while also harnessing technology to ensure successful moon landings in the future.
