TOKYO – The HAKUTO-R moon mission of Japanese lunar exploration company ispace (“i” as in iPhone) is now underway.
After a successful launch of the lunar lander by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on December 11, Mission Control in Tokyo has confirmed the stable operation of the spacecraft’s communications, power supply and other core systems.
Hakuto is the white rabbit that lives on the moon. Next year is the Year of the Rabbit. The Hakuto-R spacecraft is scheduled to land on the moon in April 2023.
The R stands for Reboot of the Hakuto name used in the Google Lunar XPRIZE competition, which was created to promote the development of lunar business models and “inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers, space explorers and adventurers.” There was no winner when the competition ended in 2018, but ispace is now in business.
This is the first of three moon missions planned by ispace:
- Mission 1 is Japan’s first private-sector mission to the moon. If it gets there ahead of both Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C and Astrobotic Technology’s Peregrine, it will be the first privately owned spacecraft to land on the moon. The lander carries two rovers, one from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and one from the United Arab Emirates.
- Mission 2, now scheduled for 2024, aims to deploy a rover for surface exploration and the collection of data on the moon.
- Mission 3 will be to “increase the frequency of lunar landings and rover expeditions to transport customer payloads to the moon. Our landers will deploy swarms of rovers to the lunar surface to pioneer the discovery and development of lunar resources, enabling the steady development of lunar industry and human presence on the moon.”
Technical goals include:
- Acquisition of information about the lunar surface for future manned missions and the development of a lunar base using mass spectrometers, radiation dosimeters, thermometers and excavation drills.
- Demonstration of robotic construction, communications, resource and transport technologies using batteries, material verification, 3D printers and actuators.
- Exploitation of the moon’s microgravity for pharmaceutical and life sciences R&D using cell culture, electrolysis and crystallization devices.
- Acquisition of images of the lunar surface for use in education, entertainment, art and industrial public relations.
The company aims to collect imaging, telemetry, environmental, resource and other data that will be of use to space agencies, universities, research institutions and private-sector customers in lunar mission planning and surface development.
Exploiting Japanese micro-precision engineering, its landers and rovers should enable cheap and reliable commercial transport to the moon.
Three of ten Mission 1 milestones have now been reached: launch, separation of the lunar lander from the launch vehicle and establishment of stable telecommunications connecting the lander to Mission Control Center and to onboard electric power and other crucial operations.
Next to come will be completion of initial maneuvers; verification of propulsion, guidance, control and navigation systems in deep space; insertion into lunar orbit; landing; and achieving a steady system state on the lunar surface – again including telecommunications and power supply.
The three missions will contribute to NASA’s Artemis Program, which, in partnership with the JAXA and the European and Canadian space agencies, aims to reestablish a human presence on the moon and facilitate missions to Mars.
JAXA will provide equipment and cargo resupply services for the Artemis Gateway space station that will be placed in orbit around the moon. A Japanese astronaut will be posted there.
The company ispace is also part of a group led by Draper that has been awarded a contract from NASA to provide payload delivery services to the Moon by 2025. In addition, it has a contract to deliver lunar regolith – dust, broken rocks and other materials found atop the solid rock of the moon – to NASA.
It is a participant in PROSPECT, a European Space Agency program that aims to extract water at the south pole of the moon.
A private Japanese company, ispace, inc, was established in 2010 to design and build lunar landers and rovers for the purpose of developing resources on the moon. Headquartered in Tokyo, it also has offices in the United States and Europe. Shareholders include the Development Bank of Japan and several Japanese investment funds and corporations.
Founder and CEO Takeshi Hakamada, a former management consultant, studied aerospace engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Executive Chief Engineer Nozomu Iwata worked on satellite systems at Mitsubishi Electric for 25 years. Outside directors include co-founder Tohru Akaura of the Incubate Fund and senior executives of Nikko Securities, Innovate Space Carrier Inc and IHI Aerospace.
Do not confuse Japan’s ispace, inc, with China’s iSpace, the rocket brand of Beijing Interstellar Glory Space Technology Co, Ltd.
The corporate goal of ispace is to construct a sustainable Earth and Moon commercial ecosystem consisting of:
･Marketing support for space content industries
･Sale and survey of moon surface data
･High-frequency lunar transport
･Payload development for lunar orbiting and landing
･R&D for space resource development
Whether the moon turns out to be a treasure trove of resources or primarily a stepping stone to Mars and the asteroid belt, the moon missions of ispace should make a significant contribution to Japan’s space systems development and the adaptation of equipment and instruments to the hostile environment of the moon and other destinations beyond.
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