Japanese Aerospace Firm Poised to Land Spacecraft on the Moon
A Japanese aerospace firm called Ispace is set to put a spacecraft on the Moon this week. Resilience, the star of Ispace's HAKUTO-R Mission 2, has spent nearly six months circumnavigating Earth and the Moon in preparation for its final descent. If all goes well, the spacecraft will touch down on the lunar surface Thursday afternoon.
Resilience was a travel companion to Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander, which successfully touched down on a volcanic feature called Mons Latreille on March 2. Together, the landers launched via a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Jan. 15. But while Blue Ghost took just a month and a half to reach its target, Ispace wanted Resilience to stop and smell the roses along the way. The lander completed a lunar flyby before leveraging the Moon's gravity to initiate a slow, fuel-efficient path toward lunar orbit, which it entered on May 6.
Now Ispace mission control is triple-checking that its lander is prepared for its final descent. On May 28, Resilience completed a lunar orbital control maneuver that perfected its trajectory, according to the company on Wednesday morning. The adjustment shortened Resilience's projected landing time by seven minutes, placing touchdown at 3:17 p.m. EST on Thursday, June 5. Ispace will live stream the landing globally; you can watch the English version here.
Mare Frigoris is outlined in blue. Credit: NASA
Resilience will land near the center of Mare Frigoris, which translates to "Sea of Cold." While the surface of the Moon can top 120 degrees Celsius (250 degrees Fahrenheit) during the day, this 1,500-kilometer lunar sea lies in the Moon's far north, which receives less solar radiation and stays relatively cool. Mare Frigoris's flat terrain and proximity to the north pole make it an ideal landing spot, especially because Ispace will need to maintain line-of-sight radio communication as Resilience deploys its many payloads.
Among the payloads are a food production experiment from the Japanese biofuel firm Euglena Co., a deep space radiation probe from Taiwan's National Central University, and Ispace's own Tenacious micro rover, which will independently explore the landing site. Resilience will also place Moonhouse, a sculpture by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg, on the lunar surface.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Bloomberg
an hour ago
- Bloomberg
Watch SpaceX Launch Crew to ISS
SpaceX launched its Dragon capsule carrying astronauts from the US, Japan, and Russia to the ISS, after an initial scrub. Caroline Hyde and Ed Ludlow cover the launch and its technical and geopolitical significance on "Bloomberg Tech." (Source: Bloomberg)
News24
an hour ago
- News24
NASA and SpaceX launch four-member crew to ISS for research expedition
NASA and SpaceX launched a four-member international crew to the ISS on Friday. The Crew-11 astronauts will spend six months conducting research and simulating Moon landing scenarios for the Artemis programme. The mission occurs as the ISS approaches its final decade of operation. NASA and SpaceX launched a four-member crew to the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday for the latest research expedition to the orbiting laboratory. American astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japan's Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov lifted off at 11:43 aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule mounted on a Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The capsule, named Endeavour, has previously flown four NASA missions as well as a private mission. The Crew-11 mission marks the 11th crew rotation mission to the ISS under NASA's Commercial Crew Program, which was created to succeed the Space Shuttle era by partnering with private industry. As part of their six-month stay, the Crew-11 astronauts will simulate Moon landing scenarios that could be encountered near the lunar South Pole under the United States-led Artemis programme. Using handheld controllers and multiple display screens, they will test how shifts in gravity affect astronauts' ability to pilot spacecraft, including future lunar landers. Continuously inhabited since 2000, the ISS functions as a vital testbed for research that supports deeper space exploration - including eventual missions to Mars. Among Crew-11's more colourful cargo items are Armenian pomegranate seeds, which will be compared to a control batch kept on Earth to study how microgravity influences crop growth. The ISS is set to be de-commissioned after 2030, with its orbit gradually lowered until it breaks up in the atmosphere over a remote part of the Pacific Ocean called Point Nemo, a spacecraft graveyard. Dmitry Bakanov, the head of Russia's space agency Roscosmos has been holding talks with NASA's acting administrator Sean Duffy this week about the station's future. When US-Russia relations nosedived at the start of the Ukraine war, Russia threatened to pull out of ISS cooperation early. But on Thursday, Bakanov confirmed Russia remained committed to de-orbiting in 2030.
Miami Herald
3 hours ago
- Miami Herald
‘Eyeless' animals and ‘fairy' creatures: See this week's new species discoveries
The summaries below were drafted with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists in our News division. All linked stories were reported, written and edited by McClatchy journalists. Unique creatures, odd animals and new species are being discovered across the planet. Some are found lurking in remote corners of the world, while others have been hiding right under our noses. Learn more about some recent new species discoveries: In the dark waters of an underground river in southeastern China, researchers discovered the Wanlan cavefish, a new species with a 'large hump' and 'eyeless' appearance. This golden-brown fish was found in Guizhou Province and is named after the town of Wanlan where it was first discovered. | Published July 28 | Read More | Off the coast of Tokyo, the deep-sea submersible Shinkai 6500 discovered a new species of limpet, Bathylepeta wadatsumi, at depths of over 19,000 feet. Named after the god of the sea from Japanese mythology, this 'mythical' creature was found attached to volcanic rock, marking the deepest discovery of this animal group. | Published July 28 | Read More | In a shallow roadside pond in India's Western Ghats, researchers found a new species of 'fairy shrimp' named Streptocephalus warliae. This ethereal creature, known for its upside-down swimming, was discovered on the Jawahar plateau and is named in honor of the indigenous Warli tribe. | Published July 28 | Read More | In the forests of Madagascar, researchers discovered the Arne Hartig dwarf gecko, Lygodactylus arnei, distinguished by its vibrant orange belly. Found in Baie De Baly National Park, this arboreal gecko is named after wildlife photographer Arne Hartig for his contributions to gecko exploration. | Published July 30 | Read More | In the forests of French Guiana, researchers identified Pristimantis fouqueti, a new species of rain frog known for its color-changing ability and 'high-pitched' calls. Found in the tree canopies, this frog is named after Antoine Fouquet for his contributions to amphibian systematics. | Published July 31 | Read More | McClatchy News continues to follow rare animals, new behaviors and even new species. Check back for the latest stories.
