Japanese firm to attempt historic lunar landing
A Japanese space start-up will attempt on Tuesday to become the first private company to put a lander on the Moon. If all goes to plan, ispace's Hakuto-R Mission 1 lander will start its descent towards the lunar surface at around 11:40pm Hong Kong time. It will slow its orbit some 100 kilometres above the Moon, then adjust its speed and altitude to make a "soft landing" around an hour later. Success is far from guaranteed. In April 2019, Israeli organisation SpaceIL watched their lander crash into the Moon's surface. ispace has announced three alternative landing sites and could shift the lunar descent date to April 26, May 1 or May 3, depending on conditions. "What we have accomplished so far is already a great achievement, and we are already applying lessons learned from this flight to our future missions," ispace founder and CEO Takeshi Hakamada said earlier this month. "The stage is set. I am looking forward to witnessing this historic day, marking the beginning of a new era of commercial lunar missions." The lander, standing just over two metres tall and weighing 340 kilogrammes, has been in lunar orbit since last month. It was launched from Earth in December on one of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets after several delays. So far only the United States, Russia and China have managed to put a robot on the lunar surface, all through government-sponsored programmes. However, Japan and the United States announced last year that they would cooperate on a plan to put a Japanese astronaut on the Moon by the end of the decade. The lander is carrying several lunar rovers, including a miniature Japanese model of just eight centimetres that was jointly developed by Japan's space agency with toy manufacturer Takara Tomy. (AFP)