By SHOKO TAMAKI/ Staff Writer
April 12, 2023 at 18:18 JST
An image of the moon captured on March 26 via a camera installed in the lunar lander of ispace Inc., which was around 2,000 kilometers from the Earth's satellite at the time (Provided by ispace Inc.)
A space startup company is seeking to make one giant leap by becoming the first private firm to successfully land on the moon, with the target date set for April 26.
Tokyo-based ispace Inc. announced on April 12 that it plans for its lunar lander under its moon exploration Hakuto-R program to touch down on the surface at 1:40 a.m. on that date.
If successful, it would mark the first time a private company has accomplished the feat.
The unmanned lunar lander, which was launched on Dec. 11 last year from Florida, is in a stable orbit around the moon, according to ispace.
The company aims to land on a site called the “Sea of Cold,” but there are three other potential landing areas.
The landing could also come on the evening of April 26, May 1 or May 3, depending on the operational conditions of the lunar lander, ispace officials said.
Seven items are aboard the lunar craft, including a moon exploration robot created by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and major toy company Tomy Co., and a lunar rover developed by the United Arab Emirates.
After the lander touches down on the moon, the items will be deployed on the lunar surface to see if they can successfully transmit data to Earth.
The moon is around 380,000 kilometers from Earth.
However, taking into account such factors as gravity’s impact on the Earth, the moon and the lunar lander, the spacecraft did not travel directly to Earth's satellite to save fuel.
Instead, the lunar lander traveled on a wide trajectory to a point around 1.38 million kilometers from Earth and is now in orbit after a return approach to the moon.
The company is planning to launch a second lunar lander in 2024.
Under the second mission, a lunar craft will transport items such as a water electrolyzer to use on the moon’s surface and a food production module that are being developed by private companies, as well as a new lunar rover that ispace is developing.
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