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ispace will make its second attempt at an uncrewed moon landing Thursday.
A private space exploration company based in Japan, ispace, wants to see people living on the moon by 2040. They have plans to eventually build a city on the lunar surface that would house a thousand people and welcome thousands more for tourist visits.
But first, they need to land a probe on the Moon's surface successfully. In April 2023, their first attempt fell short of that goal after they lost communication with their first lander during the mission's final moments.
On Thursday at 3:17 p.m. ET, ispace will make its second attempt at an uncrewed moon landing with its lunar lander called Resilience.
After a nearly five-month journey from the Earth to the moon that began with a January 15 launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9, the lander is scheduled to touch down in an area of the moon known as the "Sea of Cold," part of the Mare Frigoris region.
The company said there are three alternative landing sites should conditions change, which would postpone the landing to another date and time.
The RESILIENCE Lunar Lander seen integrated into the SpaceX Falcon 9 Launch Vehicle Adapter 7 days before the planned launch, in the Payload Processing Facility, U.S. Space Force Station, Fla. (Photo: Business Wire)
Associated Press
The Resilience is part of ispace's Hakuto-R Mission 2 and is currently orbiting the Moon in preparation for Thursday's landing. If all goes as planned, the spacecraft will fire its main engine and slow itself down in the moon's thin gravity before touching down softly at its landing site.
Powered by solar panels, the spacecraft is carrying a mix of commercial and scientific payloads, including a water electrolyzer to test the ability to generate hydrogen and oxygen from lunar water, a food production module for growing algae as a potential food source and a deep-space radiation probe. The mission is expected to last about two weeks.
If ispace is going to establish a colony on the moon, it will need to identify an ample supply of ice or water, which it will convert into fuel for a future lunar fueling station. The ability to produce fuel on the moon will enable the company to transport people back and forth between the Earth and the moon.
After landing, a small rover called Tenacious will deploy to explore the lunar surface, collect soil samples and transmit HD video and telemetry back to Earth. The rover is also carrying a tiny art installation: a red-painted "Moonhouse" sculpture by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg is mounted to the front of the vehicle.
"Our goal is to build the cislunar economy, one in which the Moon and Earth are economically and socially connected. We view the success of the lunar landing as merely a stepping stone toward that goal. We strongly believe that this endeavor and its long-term success will contribute to making life on Earth sustainable for all humanity," ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada said in a statement.
