The Hakuto-R mission will make an attempt to land on the Moon soon after traveling for five months to get there via a looping yet fuel-efficient route. Ispace, a Tokyo-based company, was established in 2010 as a part of the ambitious Google Lunar XPrize competition. It has since distinguished itself as one of a new wave of businesses specializing in commercial lunar services. So, we can understand why it does strive for success.
Among the company’s goals is to provide high-frequency, low-cost, and as comfortable as possible lunar transportation services by designing and producing lunar rovers and landers. Lunar resources are also in Ispace’s plans in order to market them to others in the long run. Quite impressive, isn’t it?!
The event will be live-streamed on YouTube today (April 25) at 11:40 am ET (15:40 UTC).
Lunar landing details
The Commercial Lunar Payload Services Program of NASA, which hires private businesses to deliver payloads to the Moon, is one of the organizations supporting Ispace’s first commercial lunar landing effort.
As the spacecraft is now in a circular orbit, the landing attempt will begin at a height of around 100 kilometers right above the lunar surface. Initially, the spacecraft’s main engine will be fired to perform a perfect braking maneuver. That will be followed by an incredible pre-programmed series of orders that will cause the lander to smoothly change its attitude with regard straight to the Moon’s surface. Finally, it will decelerate in order to achieve a gentle landing. It ought to take an hour to complete the operation.
What are your thoughts on commercial lunar trips?
Using a Falcon 9 rocket, the Hakuto-R program’s inaugural flight took place back in December 2022. The best thing so far is that, along with Tomy and JAXA’s SORA-Q transformable lunar robot, the lunar lander is also carrying the Rashid rover from the United Arab Emirates and numerous other payloads.
Tiesha loves to share her passion for everything that’s beautiful in this world. Apart from writing on her beauty blog and running her own beauty channel on Youtube, she also enjoys traveling and photography. Tiesha covers various stories on the website.