What Caused Japanese Moon Lander's Crash? Engineers Trace Problem to Laser Tool

Private Japanese firm ispace, which failed at its second Moon landing in June, has revealed what caused its HAKUTO-R lander to crash on the lunar surface. In an update released on June 24, ispace revealed that investigations pointed out to an anomaly in the Laser Range Finder (LRF) which measures distance of the lander from the surface.

"The analysis identifies an anomaly in the Laser Range Finder (LRF) that resulted in the hard landing, narrowed down the most likely causes of the anomaly, and completed the consideration of countermeasures and analysis of the impact on subsequent missions," ispace said in a statement.

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ispace attempted its second-ever Moon landing with the lander named Resilience on June 6, more than two years after its first mission. The mission team lost contact with Resilience, according to telemetry data, when it was several metres above the surface and it was suspected that the lander made a hard landing.

In a press conference, the team revealed after the suspected crash that the acquisition of valid measurements from the LRF was delayed and that the lander was unable to decelerate to the necessary speed for a lunar landing. A few hours later, after multiple attempts to establish contact with Resilience, ispace confirmed that the mission is over.

In the latest update, ispace said that the LRF anomaly may have originated from high deterioration in its performance during the flight. "This information, including implementing countermeasures and improvements, will be incorporated into planning future missions," the company said adding that reviewing and expanding the lander's testing using data from Mission 2 will raise the development costs of Mission 3 and 4 by $10 million.

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(Image: ispace)