Another day, another rocket launch by SpaceX and another spacecraft heading for the moon. All of those sound familiar these days.
SpaceX has already launched the Falcon 9 rocket more than 50 times this year. NASA’s Artemis I, an uncrewed test flight that is a precursor to future astronaut missions, is close to returning to Earth after It revolves around the moon. CAPSTONE, a small CubeSat sponsored by NASA, is still orbiting the moon after its launch in June. robot South Korean orbiter, Danorito the moon in August.
But the moon lander, which was lifted by a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Sunday, is not a NASA mission. Instead, it’s known as the M1, and it’s from a small Japanese company, Ispace. Payloads on the M1 include a rover from the United Arab Emirates and a small two-wheeled Transformer-like robot for the Japanese Aerospace Agency.
While the mission lifts off at 2:38 a.m. ET, you’ll have to wait until April to see if these robotic explorers make it there, potentially becoming the first cargo successfully flown to the lunar surface by a private company.
What is Ispace and what sends it to the moon?
The company began as a competitor for the Google Lunar X Prize, a competition that offered a $20 million prize for the first private spacecraft to land on the moon, travel 500 meters and transmit video from the lunar surface.
At the time, the Japanese group, known as Team Hakuto, was focused on developing a rover, and was to rely on a competing team from India to ride to the surface of the moon. If that worked, the two rovers would race to see which could go 500 meters first.
However, the The Lunar X Prize has expired before either team gets to the launch pad. An Israeli competitor, SpaceIL, launched its craft in 2019, however The lunar lander crashed on the surface of the moon.
The group known as Team Hakuto has evolved into Ispace, attracting significant investment, and the company plans to launch a series of commercial moon landings in the coming years.
The payloads in Sunday’s mission include the Rashid lunar module from the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center in Dubai. a two-wheeled lunar robot from the Japanese space agency JAXA; NGK Spark Plug Solid State Battery Test Module; an artificial intelligence flight computer; and 360-degree cameras from Canadensys Aerospace.
As a relic of the Lunar X Prize’s legacy, it also bears a plaque inscribed with the names of people who provided crowdfunding support and a music disc with a song performed by Japanese rock band Sakanaction.
The Japanese company’s lander isn’t the only passenger on Sunday’s flight. The secondary payload on Falcon 9 is a small NASA mission, the Lunar Flashlight, which aims to enter an elliptical orbit around the moon and use an infrared laser to explore the deep, dark craters in the moon’s polar regions.
Why is it taking so long for Ispace to reach the moon?
Like so many recent lunar missions, M1 is making a circuitous, energy-efficient trip to the moon and won’t touch down, in the Atlas crater in the moon’s northern hemisphere, until late April. The fuel-efficient route allows the mission to pack more payload and carry less fuel.
Who are the other moon visitors?
As part of the Artemis I mission, NASA’s Orion spacecraft traveled to and then orbited the Moon. It will return to Earth later Sunday, with a splash in the Pacific Ocean.
A small NASA-funded mission called CAPSTONE has recently arrived to explore an orbit where NASA plans to build a lunar base where astronauts will stop on their way to the moon.
And while it hasn’t arrived yet, the moon will receive a third new visitor next month. Danuri, a South Korean space probeThey were launched in August and are scheduled to enter lunar orbit on December 16. The spacecraft will help develop technology for future Korean missions, and it also carries scientific instruments to study the moon’s chemical composition and magnetic field.
Are other companies trying what Ispace is doing?
NASA program called Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPSHe was looking forward to sending experiments to the lunar surface. The first two missions, from Intuitive Machines of Houston and Astrobotic Technology of Pittsburgh, plan to launch next year after significant delays. The Intuitive Machines lander, which can be launched as early as March, can beat Ispace to get to the moon because it uses a fast six-day trajectory.
Because it is not a US company, Ispace could not participate directly in the NASA program. However, he is part of a team led by Draper Technologies in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that won the CLPS mission from NASA. This mission is scheduled to launch in 2025.
