Japan's private space firm ispace faced heartbreak on Friday as its lunar lander Resilience crash-landed during its second bid to touch down on the moon. The mission, launched from Florida in January, was billed as a key milestone in the emerging commercial space race.
Flight controllers lost contact less than two minutes before the scheduled landing in Mare Frigoris, or Sea of Cold, after a seemingly smooth descent from lunar orbit. A preliminary analysis suggests a laser-based altitude sensor glitch led Resilience to descend too rapidly, resulting in a hard landing.
Resilience, a 2.3-meter carbon fiber lander carrying the 5-kilogram rover Tenacious, aimed to scoop lunar soil for NASA and deploy a tiny Swedish-style red cottage as an art installation. CEO and founder Takeshi Hakamada expressed regret to everyone involved, calling the outcome "a serious moment for our team" and vowing to press on with future missions.
This is ispace's second moon setback. In 2021, its inaugural lander also crashed, giving birth to the name Resilience for its successor. Meanwhile, the private lunar landscape has been littered with mixed results: Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost scored the first private moon landing in March, while Intuitive Machines crashed its lander near the south pole just days later.
The latest mission came in under the $100 million price tag of ispace's first shot. Next up for the company is a larger lander slated for 2027 with NASA collaboration. Others in the private moon race include Blue Origin and Astrobotic Technology, both targeting landings by the end of the year.
As private ventures push beyond Earth's orbit, each crash and success offers data-driven lessons. With more than half a dozen companies vying for lunar footprint, the path to the moon remains as challenging as it is exciting for a new generation of space explorers.
Reference(s):
cgtn.com
