NASA finds the remains of the Hakuto R spacecraft on the surface of the Moon

Japanese investigation Hakuto-R crashes on the moon When attempting to land near Atlas crater on April 25. NASA’s Lunar Orbiter (LRO) passed over the crash site on the 26th. This is what it saw.

New lunar mission, new landing fails. After Israel’s Beresheet and India’s Chandrayaan 2, private company ispace’s Hakuto-R lander ended its four-month journey in the worst way: with “rock braking,” Skylab radio says.

Now, the LRO team has located a change on the lunar surface near the site where the Japanese spacecraft was scheduled to land. Imagery and comparisons released by NASA show at least four distinct pieces of debris and changes in lunar soil consistent with a small crater or different parts of Hakuto R’s body.

The debris will be analyzed further in the coming months as the LRO re-circles the area under new lighting conditions and viewing angles.

Hakuto-R is hopefully launched on December 11, 2022 It became the first commercial vehicle to successfully land on the moon. how Beresheet, from an Israeli organization SpaceILAnd He didn’t get it.

The Japanese spacecraft was scheduled to land in the Atlas crater, in the northeastern quadrant of the moon, after four and a half months, but the controllers of The mission lost contact with the ship during a landing maneuver, shortly after it unexpectedly increased speed. With the ship they are lost Emirati traveler Rashid W Sora-Q the little robot from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, who were with her.

The future of the Japanese company ispace

ispace had planned Launch your mission by 2024. It consists of a lander similar to the Hakuto-R, but with an internally designed rover. Task 3 It is scheduled for 2025 under NASA’s CLPS program, which has awarded Team Draper (a group of companies that includes the American subsidiary of ispace) $73 million to fly payloads to the Moon.