Japan’s space M1 Lander Failed in the First Moon Landing

On December 11, 2022, a Japanese lunar landing mission called Hakuto-R M1 was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which was likely to land on the moon by the end of April.

An animation based on real-time telemetry data showed the M1 lander getting as close to the lunar surface as 90 meters (295 feet) at about 1:40 a.m. Japan time on April 25.

A private lunar exploration company called Japan Ispace Inc. announced that they failed to achieve the first commercial moon landing as they lost communication with their Hakuto-R Mission 1 lander when it unexpectedly fastened up and probably crashed on the lunar surface.

The company added that it may be that the lander’s altitude measurement system made an error in estimating the distance to the moon’s surface as it got closer.

And according to Chief Technology Officer Ryo Ujiie’s statement in a news conference on Wednesday, the lander went into a free fall towards the lunar surface as it was running low on fuel to fire up its thrusters.

Ispace, which is striving to send payloads like rovers to the moon and sell related data, was recently announced on the Tokyo Stock Exchange two weeks ago, and a flurry of excitement about its prospects has since increased the value of its shares by about seven times.

But as a result of disappointment, the stock remained untraded for the whole day, and it finished down 20% at a forced closing price.

During its first mission, the M1 lander successfully completed eight out of ten space mission objectives, which will provide useful information for its second mission scheduled to launch in 2024, in which M1 will carry Ispace’s own rover.

Beginning in 2025, it will collaborate with the US space laboratory Draper to send NASA payloads to the moon with the goal of establishing a permanently staffed lunar colony by 2040.