Three governments have landed spacecraft on the Moon - but no private company has managed to do so in the history of human space exploration.
A Japanese company is attempting to change
that and become the first.
Tokyo-based company ispace fired its lander
off on a five-month journey to lunar orbit back in December.
It was launched on a SpaceX rocket, which was
also carrying the United Arab Emirates' first lunar rover and a toy-like robot
from Japan that’s designed to roll around in the Moon's grey dust.
On Tuesday, flight controllers will direct
the craft - named Hakuto (Japanese for white rabbit) - to descend from 100 km
high and land.
The 7-foot lander will transport the UAE's
mini lunar rover and the Japanese robot.
The UAE's rover's wheels have European Space
Agency-designed panels, so when the rover touches down it will be the first
European technology to make contact with the lunar surface.
"The invitation to contribute to the
Rashid rover's wheel-based Material Adhesion and Abrasion Detection experiment
was an offer we couldn’t refuse," said Aidan Cowley of ESA’s ExPeRT
(Exploration Preparation, Research, and Technology) team, developing new
technologies for human lunar and planetary exploration, based at the European
Astronaut Centre in Germany.
"This is a chance to touch the Moon for
real, to see how material technologies that we have already been working on
behave in the actual lunar environment. So we will see how they interact with
the regolith as the wheels make contact with the surface, as well as enduring
wider lunar conditions".
Only three governments have successfully
landed on the Moon: Russia, the United States, and China. An Israeli non-profit
tried to land on the moon in 2019, but its spacecraft was destroyed on impact.
Israel still called the mission an
"amazing success" for reaching the Moon and coming so close to
landing.
Hakuto took a long, roundabout route to the
Moon following its December liftoff, beaming back photos of Earth along the
way.
Ispace designed its craft to use minimal fuel
to save money and leave more room for cargo. Its route was therefore a slow,
low-energy one to the Moon, flying 1.6 million km from Earth before looping
back and intersecting with the Moon.
By contrast, NASA’s Orion crew capsule with
test dummies took five days to reach the Moon last November.
The ispace lander will aim for Atlas crater
in the northeastern section of the Moon’s near side, more than 87 kilometers
across and just over 2 km deep. With its four legs extended, the lander is more
than 2.3 m tall.
Post a Comment