ispace: Japanese Company Targeting Lunar Landings

ispace Selected for Lunar Rover Deliveries

ispace, a company headquartered in Tokyo, has been chosen to transport rovers originating from both Canada and Japan to the Moon. These deliveries will utilize SpaceX rockets for launch.

The company intends to employ its recently unveiled Hakuto-R lander for these two distinct missions, currently slated for launch in 2022 and 2023.

Canadian Missions

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has designated three private Canadian firms, each with unique scientific objectives, to be carried aboard the lander.

Mission Control Space Services, Canadensys, and NGC represent the initial recipients of awards under the CSA’s Capability Demonstration program.

This program is a component of the Lunar Exploration Accelerator Program (LEAP), which the Canadian government introduced in February 2020. LEAP allocates $150 million over five years to bolster in-space demonstrations and scientific endeavors from Canadian private industry.

International Rover Contributions

The ispace lander will also deliver the United Arab Emirates’ “Rashid” rover, developed by The Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC). This rover weighs approximately 22 pounds.

“Rashid” will be outfitted with an artificial intelligence flight computer provided by Mission Control Space Services. This AI will leverage deep-learning algorithms to identify lunar geological features as the rover navigates the lunar terrain.

Canadensys will receive imagery captured by cameras aboard the lander, documenting key moments throughout the mission.

Furthermore, ispace will gather lunar imagery data to facilitate the demonstration of NGC’s autonomous navigation system.

ispace’s Perspective

“We are honored that all three of the companies awarded by CSA have each entrusted ispace’s services to carry out their operations on the lunar surface,” stated Takeshi Hakamada, founder and CEO of ispace.

“This demonstrates the confidence CSA has placed in ispace over the years, and acknowledges our strong position within the North American market.”

Japanese Collaboration

In addition to the Canadian and UAE rovers, ispace will transport a transformable lunar robot payload for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). This mission will also involve operational tasks and the collection of lunar data.

The data acquired during Mission 2 will contribute to the design of a future crewed pressurized rover.

JAXA’s lunar robot will have a diameter of approximately 80mm before transformation and will weigh around 250 grams. The mission is scheduled for 2023. Financial details of the agreements were not disclosed by ispace.

JAXA explained that images of regolith behavior and lunar surface views, captured by both the robot and the lander’s camera, will be transmitted to mission control via the lander.

This data will be used to evaluate the localization algorithm and assess the impact of the regolith on the performance of the crewed pressurized rover.

Hakuto-R Lander Background

ispace first revealed the design of its Hakuto-R lander in July 2020. The Hakuto project originated from the Google Lunar XPRIZE competition.

This competition challenged teams to successfully land a lunar rover on the Moon, have it travel 500 meters, and transmit photos and video back to Earth.

Despite the efforts of five finalists, including Hakuto, no team achieved a launch, and the competition concluded in 2018 without a winner.

Deployment and Assembly

The MBRSC and JAXA rovers will utilize different deployment methods from the landers, though specific details were not provided by Hakamada during a media briefing.

The landers are currently being assembled in Germany, with the assembly phase recently initiated, according to Hakamada. He expressed confidence in meeting the established schedule.

Long-Term Objectives

ispace has identified the utilization of water resources on the lunar surface as a key long-term goal. The company aims to enhance its capabilities to support resource utilization activities in the future, Hakamada noted.

Broader Lunar Initiatives

This mission is one of several lunar endeavors launching on SpaceX rockets. NASA selected SpaceX in April to transport humans to the lunar surface as part of the Artemis project, with a total contract value of $2.89 billion.

Additionally, SpaceX will carry payloads from Firefly Aerospace for its lunar lander mission in 2023.