A Japanese lunar lander apparently malfunctioned and crashed on the moon Tuesday.
iSpace, the company which initially launched the lunar lander, said it lost communication with the lunar lander — official name the Hakuto-R Mission 1 — during its descent to the moon’s surface on April 26, according to a press release from iSpace.
The lunar lander was scheduled to land on the moon at 11:40 a.m. CDT, but after it lost communication with the lunar lander, it determined that the mission was not able to be completed.
“Based on the currently available data, the HAKUTO-R Mission Control Center in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, confirmed that the lander was in a vertical position as it carried out the final approach to the lunar surface,” the press release reads.
“Shortly after the scheduled landing time, no data was received indicating a touchdown. iSpace engineers monitored the estimated remaining propellant reached at the lower threshold and shortly afterward the descent speed rapidly increased. After that, the communication loss happened.”
“Based on this, it has been determined that there is a high probability that the lander eventually made a hard landing on the Moon’s surface.”
iSpace scientists are analyzing data to determine what happened and said it would make changes to “improve the technological maturity” of subsequent planned missions in 2024 and 2025.
“Although we do not expect to complete the lunar landing at this time, we believe that we have fully accomplished the significance of this mission, having acquired a great deal of data and experience by being able to execute the landing phase. What is important is to feed this knowledge and learning back to Mission 2 and beyond so that we can make the most of this experience,” Takeshi Hakamada, iSpace founder and CEO, said via Fox Business.
iSpace is a Japanese company that develops low-cost robotic spacecraft with a focus on exploration and transportation missions, according to its website.