posted 11-29-2022 07:58 PM               

HAKUTO-R Mission 1

Let’s go to the moon

The first mission will perform a soft landing on the moon. This will be the first privately-led Japanese mission to land on the lunar surface.

Going to the moon is not easy. In order for Mission 1 of the HAKUTO-R program to succeed, various hurdles have to be overcome.

The Series 1 Lander has been optimized for light weight, small size and reliability, aiming to succeed in the first commercial lunar landing.

We are bringing government and private payloads to the moon.

posted 12-11-2022 08:01 AM               

From ispace (via Twitter):

Our HAKUTO-R M1 lunar lander is on its way to the Moon!

Thank you to all who joined us in witnessing this historic moment, not only for our company, but also for development of the cislunar economy. And a big thanks to the SpaceX team and Elon Musk, too!

posted 12-12-2022 11:39 AM               

ispace HAKUTO-R Mission 1 Lander Status

ispace announced today (Dec. 12) that it was able to successfully establish a stable attitude for its HAKUTO-R Mission 1 lunar lander, as well as confirm stable power supply in orbit. It was further confirmed that there were no deficiencies in the lander's core systems, and that initial critical operational conditions were achieved.

The Series 1 Lander used for "HAKUTO-R" Mission 1 was successfully launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 2:38 a.m., Saturday, December 11, 2022 (U.S. Eastern Time) and inserted into its scheduled orbit.

After separation, ispace's Mission Control Center successfully established the following items:

• Stable communications with the spacecraft.
  
• Stable attitude of the lander.
  
• Stable power supply in orbit.
  
• Confirmation that there were no deficiencies in the lander's core systems.
  
• Confirmed the completion of initial critical operational conditions.

After a final check-out of customer payloads, Success 3 of the mission milestones will be achieved. ispace will share updates on HAKUTO-R Mission 1 as they become available.

posted 01-02-2023 09:25 AM               

ispace Successfully Carries Out Second Orbital Control Maneuver

ispace, inc., a global lunar exploration company, announced today that its HAKUTO-R Mission 1 lunar lander has successfully carried out its second orbital control maneuver in accordance with its mission operations plan.

The maneuver was carried out shortly after midnight on Jan. 2, 2023 (Japan Standard Time) and operations were managed from ispace's mission control center located in Nihonbashi, Tokyo. This orbital control maneuver is the second maneuver to occur while the lander has been traveling to the moon. The first orbital control maneuver was completed on December 15, 2022.

The second maneuver was carried out at a greater distance from Earth and lasted for a longer period than the first maneuver, verifying the company's capability to carry out orbital maneuvers under various conditions.

As of Jan. 2, 2023, the lander has traveled approximately 1.24 million kilometers from the Earth and is scheduled to be at its farthest point of approximately 1.4 million km from the Earth by Jan. 20, 2023. Once the lander reaches its farthest point from Earth, a third orbital control maneuver may be performed, depending on its navigational status.

Since its launch on Dec. 11, 2022, the lander has maintained stable navigation in accordance with the mission plan. Once the lander has navigated deep space for one month, it will have achieved Mission 1 Milestone Success 5, at which an announcement is expected to be made.

posted 01-11-2023 07:50 AM               

ispace Completes Success 5 of Mission 1 Milestones

HAKUTO-R M1 Lunar Lander Navigates in Deep Space for One Month

ispace, inc., a global lunar exploration company, announced today (Jan. 11) that its HAKUTO-R Mission 1 lunar lander has successfully completed Success 5 of its Mission 1 Milestones by completing a month-long stable navigation and nominal cruise in deep space.

Above: The above diagram approximates the position of the M1 lander and is for visualization purposes only. Actual position, distances and scale of spacecraft and stellar bodies may differ. (ispace)

The HAKUTO-R Mission 1 lander, which was successfully launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Dec. 11, 2022, completed its first orbit control maneuver on Dec. 15, 2022, followed by a second orbital control maneuver on Jan. 2, 2023. The completion of these operations as part of the mission plan, including multiple orbital control maneuvers, over a period of one month is considered highly significant because it increases confidence in future Mission 1 flight operations and provides crucial data that will be incorporated into plans for Mission 2 and Mission 3.

As of Jan. 11, 2023, the lander has traveled approximately 1.34 million kilometers from the Earth and is scheduled to be at its farthest point of approximately 1.4 million km from the Earth by Jan. 20, 2023. Once the lander reaches its farthest point from Earth, a third orbital control maneuver may be performed, depending on its navigational status. Since its launch on Dec. 11, 2022, the lander has maintained stable navigation in accordance with the mission plan.

During the next stage of navigation, the M1 lander will utilize gravitational forces to complete all deep space control maneuvers and prepare for an orbital insertion. The completion of these maneuvers, currently projected for late March, will signify the achievement of Mission Milestone 6, at which point an announcement is expected to be made. Subsequently, Success 7 of the Mission Milestones, the lunar orbit injection, is scheduled to take place soon thereafter.

posted 03-21-2023 09:54 AM               

ispace Completes Success 7 of Mission 1 Milestones

HAKUTO-R Mission 1 Lunar Lander Successfully Enters Lunar Orbit

ispace, inc., a global lunar exploration company, announced today (March 21) that its HAKUTO-R Mission 1 Lunar Lander is now safely orbiting the Moon following a lunar orbit insertion maneuver, thereby successfully completing Success 7 of its Mission 1 Milestones.

The Mission 1 Lander performed its first lunar orbit insertion maneuver in accordance with the mission operation plan, at 10:24 (JST), on March 21, 2023, under the direction of ispace engineers at the HAKUTO-R Mission Control Center in Nihonbashi, Tokyo. After a controlled burn from the lander's main propulsion system lasting several minutes, the maneuver was successfully completed.

In general, all orbital control operations for Mission 1 have been completed as planned following launch. While the lander has performed multiple deep space maneuver operations, this maneuver represents the longest burn performed by the propulsion system during the mission. These functions during the approximately three-month period verify that the lander performs as designed and demonstrates the high operational capability of ispace engineers to perform long-term mission operations.

The achievement demonstrates ispace's ability to successfully deliver spacecraft and payloads into a stable lunar orbit. The successful insertion of the lander into lunar orbit is an important step toward the establishment of a payload transportation service, as it demonstrates that ispace is capable of transporting customer payloads to orbit around the Moon. Future ispace missions will involve deployment of satellites into lunar orbit.

Currently, ispace is in active negotiations with a number of global companies regarding future lunar missions, many of which have identified demand not only for lunar landings but also for transportation to orbit around the Moon.

During Mission 3, two relay satellites are planned to be injected into lunar orbit to establish communications with the landing site on the far side of the Moon. The valuable data and know-how gained from today's operation is being incorporated into mission planning for Mission 3 in order to enhance technical reliability.

The completion of all lunar orbital maneuvers prior to the beginning of the landing sequence—Success 8 of the Mission 1 Success Milestones—is scheduled to be announced around late-April 2023. The lunar landing, Success 9, is then scheduled to take place around late-April 2023. Specific information on date and time of the landing will be announced in the future.

posted 04-11-2023 09:16 PM               

ispace Announces Earliest Scheduled Lunar Landing Date for HAKUTO-R Mission 1

ispace, inc. announced today (April 11) that the earliest scheduled landing date for the HAKUTO-R Mission 1 Lunar Lander is set for Tuesday, April 25, 2023, at 16:40 UTC (12:40 p.m. EDT or 1:40 a.m. on April 26 Japan Standard Time).

As of April 11, 2023, the Mission 1 lander is orbiting the Moon in an elliptical orbit with an altitude of about 100 km at the perilune (periapsis) and about 2300 km at the apolune (apoapsis). After insertion into lunar orbit, the lander's onboard camera successfully photographed and acquired images of the Moon.

Above: This image was captured by ispace cameras on March 26, 2023, at an altitude of about 2,000 km from the Moon. The image shows the eastern rim of the Moon, and craters Petavius, Vendelinus, and Langrenus. (ispace)

The lander is scheduled to perform multiple orbital control maneuvers to reach 100 km circular orbit around the Moon to complete Success 8 of the Mission 1 Milestones.

At approximately 15:40 on April 25, 2023 (UTC), the lander is scheduled to begin the landing sequence from the 100 km altitude orbit. During the sequence, the lander will perform a braking burn, firing its main propulsion system to decelerate from orbit. Utilizing a series of pre-set commands, the lander will adjust its attitude and reduce velocity in order to make a soft landing on the lunar surface. The process will take approximately one hour.

Should conditions change, there are three alternative landing sites and depending on the site, the landing date may change. Alternative landing dates, depending on the operational status, are April 26, May 1, and May 3, 2023.

"To all of our supporters and everyone who has been looking forward to the day when we will land on the Moon, I am pleased to announce the scheduled landing date for Mission 1," said Takeshi Hakamada, Founder and CEO of ispace. "What we have accomplished so far is already a great achievement, and we are already applying lessons learned from this flight to our future missions. I would like to once again express my heartfelt thanks to those who have worked so hard on this mission, including the engineers who are carrying out the long-term operations since our launch back in December. The stage is set. I am looking forward to witnessing this historic day, marking the beginning of a new era of commercial lunar missions."

The completion of all lunar orbital maneuvers prior to the beginning of the landing sequence — Success 8 of the Mission 1 Success Milestones — is scheduled to be announced in late-April 2023.

posted 04-25-2023 01:26 PM               

Status of ispace HAKUTO-R Mission 1 Lunar Lander

ispace, inc., a global lunar exploration company, announced today (April 25) that the HAKUTO-R Mission 1 Lunar Lander was expected to land on the surface of the Moon at 1:40 am JST on April 26, 2023 [12:40 p.m. EDT or 1640 GMT on April 25]. At this time HAKUTO-R Mission Control Center in Nihonbashi, Tokyo has not been able to confirm the success of the Lunar Lander.

ispace engineers and mission operations specialists in the Mission Control Center are currently working to confirm the current status of the lander. Further information on the status of the lander will be announced as it becomes available.

posted 04-25-2023 07:48 PM               

Status Update on ispace HAKUTO-R Mission 1 Lunar Lander

ispace, inc., a global lunar exploration company, issued an update on the status of the HAKUTO-R Mission 1 Lunar Lander.

The HAKUTO-R Mission 1 Lunar Lander was scheduled to touchdown on the surface of the Moon at approximately 1:40 a.m. JST [12:40 p.m. EDT or 1640 GMT on April 25]. As of 8:00 a.m. JST, April 26, 2023, the communication between the lander and the Mission Control Center was lost, although it was expected even after the touchdown, and it has been determined that Success 9 of the Mission Milestones is not achievable.

Based on the currently available data, the HAKUTO-R Mission Control Center in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, confirmed that the lander was in a vertical position as it carried out the final approach to the lunar surface. Shortly after the scheduled landing time, no data was received indicating a touchdown. ispace engineers monitored the estimated remaining propellant reached at the lower threshold and shortly afterward the descent speed rapidly increased. After that, the communication loss happened. Based on this, it has been determined that there is a high probability that the lander eventually made a hard landing on the Moon's surface.

To find the root cause of this situation, ispace engineers are currently working on a detailed analysis of the telemetry date acquired until the end of landing sequence and will clarify the details after completing the analysis.

For Mission 1, it has been determined that Success 9 of the Mission 1 Milestones, successfully landing on the Moon and establishing communications, is no longer achievable. Despite this, the mission has already achieved Success 1 through Success 8. In addition, while attempting the completion of Success 9, the Mission Control Center was able to acquire valuable data and know-how from the beginning to nearly the end of the landing sequence, which will enable a future successful lunar landing mission. It is strongly believed that this is a great leap forward to future lunar exploration and an important milestone to advance space development by the private sector toward the next level not only in Japan but also the world.

ispace will continue to make the most of the data and know-how acquired during the operation and landing sequence through Success 8, aiming to dramatically improve the technological maturity of Mission 2 in 2024 and Mission 3 in 2025.

"Although we do not expect to complete the lunar landing at this time, we believe that we have fully accomplished the significance of this mission, having acquired a great deal of data and experience by being able to execute the landing phase. What is important is to feed this knowledge and learning back to Mission 2 and beyond so that we can make the most of this experience," said Takeshi Hakamada, Founder and CEO of ispace. "To this end, we are already developing Mission 2 and Mission 3 concurrently and have prepared a foundation that can maintain this continuity. I would like to thank once again all the employees who have contributed to this mission from its inception to the present, all the families who have continued to support it, and all the shareholders, HAKUTO-R partners, customers, suppliers, and many others who have continued to believe in ispace's vision. We will keep moving forward."

"Today, ispace's HAKUTO-R" Mission 1 became the first private company to attempt to land on the Moon, but unfortunately, the landing could not be realized, said Hiroshi Yamakawa, President of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). "As a fellow Japanese space enthusiast, I am proud of ispace's challenge and respect the efforts of everyone involved. ispace will analyze the data obtained from this mission and use it as a foundation for the next mission. JAXA will continue to make steady progress together with ispace, the industry and organizations challenging space, and our international partners, and will contribute not only to space exploration activities but also to the sustainable development of human society."

"The Mission underpins the successful cooperation between ESA and ispace. Such collaboration schemes between new space companies and space agencies open up exciting opportunities for the future of lunar exploration and other domains. Accounting for new space approaches is also a central element of ESA's agenda 2025. I'm convinced that the HAKUTO-R Mission 1 is only the beginning of many fascinating projects and activities to come," said Josef Aschbacher, Director General of the European Space Agency.

"ispace has already accomplished a tremendous feat by entering lunar orbit and attempting a fist landing. What they are trying to do is so complex and at the cutting edge of technology that success is not guaranteed at the first attempt. The experience and unique expertise gained by the team will help make the next mission a success," said Marin Sion, CEO of ArianeGroup.

Draper released the following statement: "The historic maiden commercial mission of ispace inc.'s M1 HAKUTO-R achieved numerous significant first-time achievements, but ultimately fell short of its goal of landing safely on the Moon. M1 HAKUTO-R experienced an anomaly, ending the mission prematurely. Though the mission did not achieve its ultimate goal, by successfully reaching cislunar space and orbiting the Moon, the mission represents an important step forward for the international space economy. Draper serves on ispace's team for the M1 HAKUTO-R mission and will collaborate on missions M2 and M3. We look forward to our ongoing partnership with ispace, both now and in the future."

posted 05-26-2023 09:56 AM               

ispace Announces Results of the "HAKUTO-R" Mission 1 Lunar Landing

Landing Anomaly Identified for Future Mission Improvements

ispace, inc., a global lunar exploration company, announced today (May 26) that it has reviewed and completed the analysis of the flight data from its HAKUTO-R Mission 1 landing sequence on April 26, 2023. The flight data was obtained by operations specialists at ispace's Mission Control Center in Nihonbashi, Tokyo.

The analysis reveals that the lander fully completed the entire planned deceleration process, slowing to the target speed of less than 1 m/s in a vertical position at an altitude of approximately 5 kms above the lunar surface. Although the lander did not complete a soft landing, the cause has been identified and improvements are being incorporated into Mission 2 and Mission 3.

On April 26, 2023, at 00:40 Japan Standard Time, the lander began the descent sequence from an altitude of approximately 100 kms above the lunar surface. At the end of the planned landing sequence, it approached the lunar surface at a speed of less than 1 m/s. The operation was confirmed to have been in accordance with expectations until about 1:43 a.m., which was the scheduled landing time.

During the period of descent, an unexpected behavior occurred with the lander's altitude measurement. While the lander estimated its own altitude to be zero, or on the lunar surface, it was later determined to be at an altitude of approximately 5 kms above the lunar surface. After reaching the scheduled landing time, the lander continued to descend at a low speed until the propulsion system ran out of fuel. At that time, the controlled descent of the lander ceased, and it is believed to have free-fallen to the Moon's surface.

The most likely reason for the lander's incorrect altitude estimation was that the software did not perform as expected. Based on the review of the flight data, it was observed that, as the lander was navigating to the planned landing site, the altitude measured by the onboard sensors rose sharply when it passed over a large cliff approximately 3 kms in elevation on the lunar surface, which was determined to be the rim of a crater. According to the analysis of the flight data, a larger-than-expected discrepancy occurred between the measured altitude value and the estimated altitude value set in advance. The onboard software determined in error that the cause of this discrepancy was an abnormal value reported by the sensor, and thereafter the altitude data measured by the sensor was intercepted. This filter function, designed to reject an altitude measurement having a large gap from the lander's estimation, was included as a robust measure to maintain stable operation of the lander in the event of a hardware issue including an incorrect altitude measurement by the sensor.

One major contributing factor to this design issue was a decision to modify the landing site after critical design review completed in February 2021. This modification influenced the verification and validation plan despite numerous landing simulations carried out before the landing. ispace as the mission operator maintained overall program management responsibility and took into account the modifications in its overall analysis related to completing a successful mission. It was determined that prior simulations of the landing sequence did not adequately incorporate the lunar environment on the navigation route resulting in the software misjudging the lander's altitude on final approach.

The analysis reveals that the cause of the lander's failure to make a soft landing was due to the software, especially in the phase just prior to landing. This information will be incorporated into software design, as well as upgrades and expansion of the scope of preparatory simulations of the landing sequence for our future missions, including Mission 2 and Mission 3, to improve the accuracy of landing sequences.

Based on the fact that communications will not be reestablished with the lander, it has been concluded that the completion of the Mission 1 Milestones Success 9 (completion of the lunar landing) and Success 10 (establishment of stable conditions after landing), could not be achieved, and customer payloads could not be operated after the landing.

"Mission 1 demonstrated a great deal of technical reliability, as our lander reached the lunar surface just prior to landing. Now, we have been able to identify the issue during the landing and have a very clear picture of how to improve our future missions. While it is unfortunate that we were not able to fully meet the expectations of all our stakeholders, including our customers, all of us at ispace are proud of what we accomplished in Mission 1 and are very positive about what we can accomplish," said Takeshi Hakamada, Founder and CEO of ispace. "We have already begun work on Mission 2 and Mission 3. We are prepared to face the challenges and make every effort to improve. We will ensure that the valuable knowledge gained from Mission 1 will lead us to the next stage of evolution. We believe that this is our commitment and our duty to all our stakeholders. 'Never Quit the Lunar Quest' In this spirit, we will continue to move forward."

During Mission 1 the HAKUTO-R lunar lander completed Success 1 through Success 8 of the Mission 1 milestones. The lander was able to withstand the harsh mechanical environment of both the launch and deployment phases without sustaining damage to any of its elements. It then withstood a lengthy deep space cruise demonstrating its flight readiness. In addition, the lander performed well through multiple orbit control maneuvers, indicating that it can be operated in Mission 2 using the same Series 1 model as in Mission 1, without the need for any major modifications. The thermal design, communications, and electric power demonstrated functionality as planned, and based on analysis of the flight data, a more efficient operation can be achieved in Mission 2. At this time, there are no changes to the launch schedule for Mission 2 (scheduled for 2024) and Mission 3 (scheduled for 2025).