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Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Science
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NASA moon orbiter spies grave of crashed Japanese lunar lander (image)
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has imaged the crash site of Resilience, a moon lander built and operated by the Tokyo-based company ispace. Resilience tried to touch down on June 5 in the center of Mare Frigoris (Sea of Cold), a volcanic region interspersed with large-scale faults known as wrinkle ridges. Mare Frigoris formed over 3.5 billion years ago as massive basalt eruptions flooded low-lying terrain, according to Mark Robinson, a lunar scientist for the company Intuitive Machines who is based in Phoenix, Arizona. Later, the wrinkle ridges formed as the crust buckled under the weight of the heavy basalt deposits. Shortly after Resilience's landing sequence, the ispace Mission Control Center was unable to establish communications with the spacecraft. The team determined that Resilience had likely been lost, a conclusion that was firmed up a few hours later. Also lost on landing was the Tenacious microrover, a small wheeled vehicle developed in Luxembourg by ispace's European subsidiary. Tenacious carried a piece of artwork on its front bumper — Mikael Genberg's "Moonhouse," a small replica of the red-and-white homes famous in Sweden. Related stories: — Private Japanese spacecraft crashes into moon in 'hard landing,' ispace says — Japan's Resilience moon lander aces lunar flyby ahead of historic touchdown try (photo) — Japan's Resilience moon lander arrives in lunar orbit ahead of June 5 touchdown Resilience left some telltale marks when it slammed into the moon on June 5, and LRO noticed them. "The dark smudge formed as the vehicle excavated and redistributed shallow regolith (soil); the faint bright halo resulted from low-angle regolith particles scouring the delicate surface," Robinson, the principal investigator for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, told Inside Outer Space. The crash spot is roughly 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) from the landing site that ispace mapped out, to one decimal place, on its webpage. One decimal place in lunar latitude and longitude equals 19 miles (30 km), Robinson said. Resilience was ispace's second moon lander. The company's first such probe also crashed during its touchdown try, in April 2023. Scott Manley has more details on the Resilience crash; check out his video here.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Crashed lander looks back at Earth from the moon
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Resilience, a lunar lander built and operated by the Japanese company ispace, was part of the Hakuto-R Mission to deploy a "Moonhouse," a tiny colorful art piece, on the moon, while also exploring its surface features using its Tenacious rover. After launching on Jan. 15 from Florida's Space Coast on Hakuto-R Mission 2, ispace's Resilience lander arrived in lunar orbit on May 6. The lander then deftly shifted its path to an orbit just 62 miles (100 kilometers) above the moon's surface. On May 27, Resilience took this photo, with a view of Japan being blocked by the clouds on Earth's surface, according to an ispace tweet. Resilience hovers over the moon in its lunar orbit, aiming for the Mare Frigoris ("Sea of Cold") on the moon's near side, as a landing site. With Resilience, the Japanese company ispace hoped to be one of the first to land a private spacecraft on the moon. Unfortunately, its first mission, in April 2023, ended in failure as the crashed during its touchdown attempt. Undeterred, ispace — in collaboration with other agencies like NASA and JAXA — designed and tested Resilience as part of the Hakuto-R Mission 2 (the R stands for "reboot"). Resilience carried five payloads, including a small 11-pound (5 kilograms) rover named Tenacious, which would have been used to collect lunar samples, according to NASA. Unfortunately, the landing for Resilience, scheduled on June 5, 2025, came to an abrupt halt when telemetry data from the lander stopped coming in right before the soft landing, leaving the world wondering what happened to Resilience. A few hours later, ispace announced that Resilience likely crashed on the moon, bringing an end to the mission. You can read more about Resilience and ispace's other missions as the company tries to return to the moon.
Yahoo
08-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Japanese Lunar Lander Crashes In Second Failed Mission
A private Japanese lunar lander crashed during an attempted touchdown on the moon Friday. This marks the second failed mission for the Tokyo-based global lunar exploration company, ispace. The lander, named Resilience, lost communication less than two minutes before its scheduled landing in Mare Frigoris, a flat, crater-filled region on the moon's northern near side. A preliminary analysis indicated the laser system for measuring altitude malfunctioned, causing the lander to descend too fast. 'Based on these circumstances, it is currently assumed that the lander likely performed a hard landing on the lunar surface,' ispace said in a statement. 'This is the second time that we were not able to land. So we really have to take it very seriously,' CEO and founder Takeshi Hakamada told reporters, per Associated Press. He apologized to contributors and added that the mission was 'merely a stepping stone' to a larger lander planned for 2027 with NASA involvement. 'Engineers did everything they possibly could' to ensure success, he said minutes before the attempted landing. The 7.5-foot Resilience, launched in January from Florida on a SpaceX rocket, carried an 11-pound, four-wheeled rover named Tenacious, built by ispace's Luxembourg subsidiary. The rover, equipped with a high-definition camera and a shovel for NASA to collect lunar soil, was designed to operate for two weeks during the moon's daylight period. It also carried a toy-size Swedish-style red cottage, dubbed Moonhouse by artist Mikael Genberg, for placement on the lunar surface. The mission's $16 million payload included scientific instruments from Japanese firms and a Taiwanese university. The failure follows ispace's first lunar crash in 2023, caused by inaccurate altitude readings. 'Truly diverse scenarios were possible, including issues with the propulsion system, software or hardware, especially with sensors,' Chief Technology Officer Ryo Ujiie said at a press conference. Jeremy Fix, chief engineer for ispace's U.S. subsidiary, noted last month that the company, with a mission cost less than the first's $100 million, lacks 'infinite funds' and cannot afford repeated failures. 'We're not facing any immediate financial deterioration or distress because of the event,' CFO Jumpei Nozaki said, citing investor support. However, space shares faced heavy sell orders and were poised for a 29% drop. As of Thursday, their market capitalization was over 110 billion yen ($766 million). The crash marks another setback in the commercial lunar race, which began in 2019. U.S. firms Firefly Aerospace and Intuitive Machines achieved successful landings in March, though Intuitive's lander toppled in a crater. Japan's space agency, JAXA, landed its SLIM probe last year, joining Russia, the U.S., China, and India as the only nations with successful robotic lunar landings. 'Expectations for ispace have not faded,' Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba posted on X, reported Reuters. Ispace remains committed to NASA's Artemis program, with plans for a third mission in 2027. 'NASA increasingly needs private companies to improve cost efficiency for key missions with limited budgets,' Hakamada said, referencing proposed U.S. budget cuts. Two U.S. companies, Blue Origin and Astrobotic Technology, aim for moon landings by year's end following Astrobotic's 2024 failure.
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Resilience, a Private Japanese Spacecraft, Crash-Landed on the Moon
A Japanese spacecraft has probably crashed on the Moon, the second failed landing attempt for Tokyo-based private firm ispace. The HAKUTO-R Mission 2 (M2) lander — also called Resilience — began its landing sequence from a 100-kilometre-altitude orbit at 3.13am local time on 5 June. The craft was due to land near the centre of Mare Frigoris (Sea of Cold) at 4.17am. The ispace team said at a press conference that it lost contact with M2 when the craft was 192 metres above the Moon's surface and descending faster than expected. An attempt to reboot M2 was also unsuccessful. [Sign up for Today in Science, a free daily newsletter] M2 didn't receive measurements of the distance between itself and the lunar surface in time to slow down and reach its correct landing speed, the team said. 'It eventually slowed down, but not softly enough,' says Clive Neal, who studies the Moon at the University of Notre Dame in Indianapolis, US. He speculates that the failure was probably caused by a systems issue that wasn't identified and addressed during the M1 landing attempt. 'It's something that I believe will definitely be fixable, because getting that close means there's a few tweaks that are going to be needed for the next one,' he adds. If M2 had successfully landed on the lunar surface, the mission would have been the second time a commercial company had achieved the feat and a first for a non-US company. ispace's Mission 1 (M1) probably crashed during a landing attempt in April 2023. Lunar landings are challenging. When M1 crashed, Ryo Ujiie, ispace's chief technology officer said the telemetry — which collects data on the craft's altitude and speed — estimated that M1 was on the surface when it wasn't, causing the lander to free fall. Speaking to Nature last week, Ujiie said the company had addressed the telemetry issue with M2 and modified its software. 'We also carefully selected how to approach the landing site,' he added. Had M2 landed successfully, the craft would have supplied electricity for its cargo, including water electrolyzing equipment and a module for food production experiments — developed by Japan-based Takasago Thermal Engineering and biotechnology firm Euglena. A deep space radiation probe made by Taiwan's National Central University, and the 54-centimetre Tenacious rover were also be on board. The rover, created by ispace's European subsidiary in Luxemburg, was going to be released from the lander to collect imagery, location data and lunar sand known as regolith. Tenacious also carries a small red house made by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg. The craft launched on 15 January from Cape Canaveral, Florida, onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The rocket was also carrying the Blue Ghost Moon lander — developed by Firefly Aerospace, an aerospace firm based in Texas — which landed on the Moon on 2 March. M2 took a longer path to the moon than Blue Ghost, performing a lunar flyby on 15 February and spending two months in a low-energy transfer orbit before entering lunar orbit on 7 May. Ujiie says the path was slower because it was a low-energy trajectory, meaning that less fuel was used to move between Earth and lunar orbit. Richard de Grijs, an astronomer at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, says there will likely be more private companies trying to land their own crafts on the Moon. 'It seems that the big government players like NASA are quite keen to partner with commercial companies,' he says, because they can develop and launch crafts more cheaply than government bodies. He also expects that more missions will be launched in clusters, like the launch of M2 and Blue Ghost. This article is reproduced with permission and was first published on June 6, 2025.
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Private Moon City Dreams Stumble After Another Failed Landing
Before humanity can vacation or settle on the moon, we need to land there safely—and that's proving harder than it sounds. A private Japanese space firm's second attempt to place a probe on the lunar surface has failed, bringing its ambitious dream of a 1,000-person moon colony another step back. The company, ispace, lost communication with its Resilience lander Thursday, ABC News reported. The loss happened mere moments before its scheduled touchdown in a region of the moon known as the Sea of Cold. After months in space and years of preparation, the mission is officially over with no objectives met. The lander, which launched on Jan. 15 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, had spent nearly five months in transit before the high-stakes descent. It marks the company's second failure. In 2023, ispace lost its first lander in the final moments of its descent. Engineers are now combing through telemetry data to identify what went wrong this time. 'Given that there is currently no prospect of a successful lunar landing, our top priority is to swiftly analyze the telemetry data we have obtained,' said founder and CEO Takeshi Hakamada. Resilience was carrying commercial and scientific payloads, including a water electrolyzer to extract hydrogen and oxygen from lunar ice, a deep-space radiation probe, and an algae module to explore potential food sources. If it had landed, it would've also deployed a rover called Tenacious, which was equipped with a miniature sculpture titled 'Moonhouse.' The ultimate goal is to mine water on the moon and convert it into fuel, enabling frequent lunar transport and, eventually, habitation. It's a bold vision, but until ispace proves it can land on the moon, the dream remains out of reach. 'We strongly believe this endeavor and its long-term success will contribute to making life on Earth sustainable for all humanity,' said Moon City Dreams Stumble After Another Failed Landing first appeared on Men's Journal on Jun 6, 2025
