Background on ispace and the Mission
ispace, a private Japanese company, embarked on a mission to land the Resilience probe on the Moon. The company launched the Resilience alongside the American robotic spacecraft, Blue Ghost, from Firefly Aerospace. However, only Blue Ghost successfully landed without any issues.
The Failed Landing Attempt
On Friday, ispace announced the termination of their mission after losing contact with the Resilience during its descent phase. The probe was intended to land around 19:17 GMT on Thursday.
Takeshi Hakamada, ispace’s CEO, explained during a press conference that Resilience left its lunar orbit to begin the descent, dropping from an altitude of approximately 100 km to around 20 km. The probe then fired its engine to reduce speed.
“We confirmed that the landing module’s position shifted, becoming almost vertical. Subsequently, telemetry was lost, and we couldn’t receive any data confirming the landing after the scheduled time,” Hakamada added.
He further stated that it is highly likely the probe experienced a “rough” landing.
“After losing communication, we attempted to restart the module, but failed to re-establish contact. Consequently, we decided to end the mission,” Hakamada concluded.
ispace’s Previous Attempts and the Select Club
Two years ago, ispace had attempted a mission that ended in an accident. Landing on the Moon is complex due to the lack of atmosphere, rendering parachutes ineffective. Spacecraft must rely on thrusters for descent with extreme precision.
Hakamada had expressed confidence in their preparations prior to the mission, stating that ispace had “learned from Mission 1 and the current journey to the Moon.”
Only two American companies, Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace, have successfully landed devices on the Moon without failure. Before them, only a handful of countries, including the Soviet Union in 1966, had achieved this feat. Japan joined the exclusive club in January 2024 by successfully landing a spacecraft from its local space agency.
The Resilience probe was launched in January from the United States alongside Blue Ghost. However, the two spacecraft did not follow the same trajectory and thus took different amounts of time to reach the Earth’s natural satellite.
Blue Ghost successfully landed in early March without incident. The Japanese probe carried a rover, scientific instruments developed by other companies, a “Moonhouse” designed by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg, an electrolyzer to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen, a food production experiment, and a deep space radiation probe.
The mission also intended to collect two lunar soil samples and sell them to the US space agency NASA for $5,000 each.
Key Questions and Answers
- What was the mission of ispace? ispace aimed to land the Resilience probe on the Moon, carrying various scientific instruments and experiments.
- Why did the mission fail? The Resilience probe lost contact during its descent phase, likely due to a rough landing, and could not be re-established.
- Who else has successfully landed on the Moon? Only two American companies, Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace, have achieved this feat before ispace.
- What was the purpose of collecting lunar soil samples? ispace intended to sell these samples to NASA for $5,000 each.
