Japanese lunar exploration company ispace will attempt to become the first commercial company to land on the Moon with their Mission 1 (M1). The launch window is currently set for November 9-15, 2022 and will fly on a SpaceX Falcon 9. Two Canadian payloads will be onboard, including the first AI demonstration computer.
The M1 lander, part of ispace’s HAKUTO-R lunar exploration program, will be carried on a SpaceX Falcon 9 launching from Cape Canaveral with a launch window currently set for November 9-15, 2022 . The lander is carrying a variety of both commercial and governmental payloads, including two rovers and NASA equipment under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, to the surface of the Moon. It will land on the Moon approximately three to four months after launch, at Lacus Somniorum.
In a news release, ispace said that “final functional testing of the flight model at the IABG mbH Space Centre in Germany has been completed,” and that the lander “is now being prepared for transport to the launch site in Florida.” After launch, M1 will be operated by ispace at the HAKUTO-R Mission Control Center (MCC) in Tokyo. The MCC “will monitor the lander’s attitude, temperature, and other conditions, send commands and data to the lander, and receive images and video data during transit to the Moon as well as from the lunar surface, using ESA’s ground station network.
As heard in a 2017 SpaceQ podcast conversation with ispace CTO Kazuya Yoshida, ispace has been tightly focused on the possibility of in-situ resource utilization and resource extraction from the lunar surface. Originally they were vying for the lunar XPRIZE, managing the Prize’s “Hakuto” team. After that contest ended, they continued development, growing their team from 20 during the XPRIZE contest to over 200 today across its three offices in Japan, Luxembourg, and the United States.
Takeshi Hakamada, Founder and CEO of ispace, said that “for me this is a milestone on the road to realizing our vision, but I am already proud of our results. I look forward to watching the launch alongside all of our employees and those who have supported us.” In an earlier news release, Hakamada also said that “we believe Mission 1 will be the turning point in the commercial space exploration,” and that “the technical data and experience gained from Mission 1 are extremely important for future lunar missions around the world.”
They are already planning a second trip to the Moon, HAKUTO-R Mission 2, in 2024.
Two Canadian companies have already been confirmed to be involved in the ispace launch, after having been selected by the Canadian Space Agency as part of their Lunar Exploration Accelerator Program (LEAP).
Ottawa’s Mission Control Space Services will be sending a payload featuring an AI-based demonstration flight computer. The flight computer will be working alongside the United Arab Emirates’ Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) on MBRSC’s “Rashid” lunar rover. It will, according to ispace, “harness deep-learning algorithms in an edge-computing architecture to recognize geological features in visual images as the rover drives around the lunar surface after it is deployed from ispace’s lander.”
Canadensys has also confirmed their involvement. In an email exchange with SpaceQ, Canadensys CEO Christian Sallaberger confirmed that they would be providing a multi-camera vision system that will fly on the ispace mission, which would be providing deployment imaging both for the MBRSC rover and for the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)’s “transformable lunar robot.”
Sallaberger stated that “we are pleased to be cooperating with our Japanese and UAE partners on the exciting ispace HAKUTO-R mission, and look forward to its launch next month from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and its subsequent operation on the lunar surface in early 2023.”
While ispace is currently slated to be the first commercial mission to land on the Moon, it is only one of several private companies vying to transport payloads to the Moon. US companies Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines, for example, are planning missions to the Moon themselves in the near future.
Astrobotic is planning to send their first “Peregrine” lander early next year, after requesting ULA delay the launch, and are contracted to carry the ESA’s LandCam-X landing sensor camera to the Moon on their Griffin Mission 1 in 2024, as well as to carry NASA instruments through CLPS program.
Houston-based Intuitive Machines is also under contract with NASA to carry NASA equipment on their Nova-C lander through CLPS, and will be launching on a Falcon 9 sometime in early 2023.
Interestingly, though, the ispace launch also puts it in the same window as the NASA Artemis I mission, after its delays due to technical issues and Hurricane Ian. Artemis is slated to launch on November 14th, with backup windows of November 16th and November 19th. Considering the ispace window is between the 9th and 15th, the two lunar missions could launch within days of each other.
Even if both launch near-simultaneously, Artemis will reach the Moon first. Post-launch, Artemis will be in orbit around the Moon in days, while ispace will take months. Still, NASA’s return to the Moon may well end up being quickly followed by the entrance of the private sector en masse. ispace and Hakuto would be carrying the banner; and even though the XPRIZE contest is long over, HAKUTO and ispace will still be able to finally claim a victory of sorts.