Category Archives: Japan

Wednesday / 11 September 2024

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Commercial Missions Aiming for 2024 Lunar Touchdown

Firefly has potential mid-November launch for its 1st Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) mission under ~US$93M NASA award, of Blue Ghost lander with 10 NASA payloads to Mare Crisium at 18.56°N, 61.81°E; Intuitive Machines may launch December with its 2nd lunar mission IM-2, under ~US$47M NASA CLPS award, of Nova-C lander with drill / mass spectrometer / solar panels / Caltech Lunar Trailblazer, to Shackleton connecting ridge in South Pole region; Outside of CLPS, ispace of Japan Hakuto-R Mission 2 of Resilience lander NET December will take micro-rover ~26x32x54 cm with HD camera, regolith-acquiring shovel to further NASA-led Artemis program; all 3 projects expect to launch aboard SpaceX Falcon 9

 

Credits: Intuitive Machines (L), Firefly Aerospace (R)

Tuesday / 14 May 2024

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ispace Projects Significant Demand of Lunar Services, ISRO Targeting Shiv Shakti with Chandrayaan-4

Japan first commercial lunar lander company ispace projecting 138% increase in year-on-year net sales, growing to JPY¥4,033M (US$25.8M) in FY2024 possibly buoyed by international orders for lunar landers and robots, especially from USA, which may mitigate expected JPY¥12,465M ($79.8M) loss, with ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada (R) characterizing business environment as ‘quite positive‘ in light of USA-Japan Artemis agreement; Nilesh Desai, director of Space Applications Centre (SAC) in Ahmedabad, declares Shiv Shakti point (Statio Shiv Shakti by IAU designation, 69.373°S, 32.319°E) will be destination of Chandrayaan-4, building on successful Chandrayaan-3 mission, possibly returning sample closer to MSP than any previous NET 2028

 
Credits: ispace, ISRO, SAC

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 26-29 Apr 2024

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Japan SLIM Moon Lander Defies Expectations by Operating on 4th Lunar Day

JAXA controllers maintaining delicate balance on operational period which began 23 April, timing command / transmission with day-long interval to avoid overheating amid temperatures exceeding 100°C; Reactivation following 3rd lunar night (with temps near -170°C) was earlier in lunar day than previous cycles, resulting in brightest landscape / shortest shadows imaged during mission thus far; Near-equatorial location (13.3160°S, 25.2510°E) of SLIM lander mitigates temperature flux in comparison to near-polar site of Intuitive Machines Odysseus, which functioned 1 lunar day; Both Odysseus and SLIM contain lithium-ion batteries, however SLIM utilizes bespoke pouch cells, whereas Odysseus has COTS cells

 
Credits: JAXA

Tuesday / 16 April 2024

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ispace Japan and USA, Luxembourg Subsidiaries Preparing for Second and Third Moon Landing Missions

Resilience lunar lander being readied at Tsukuba JAXA facility as micro rover (1 of 5 manifested payloads to be delivered on HAKUTO-R Mission 2 NET Q4 2024), progresses to flight model build phase following successful testing of qualification model by ispace Luxembourg affiliate; Micro rover is key equipment for fulfillment of NASA regolith purchase under which both ispace Japan and USA were awarded precedent-setting $5,000 contracts; ispace USA also partnering with Draper on APEX 1.0 lander under CLPS contract, and will work with Raytheon subsidiary Blue Canyon Technologies to deploy 2 ‘Venus class’ cis-lunar relay satellites during NET 2026 mission

Pictured: (L-R) ispace-U.S. CEO Ron Garan, ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada, Ispace-Europe engineer; Credits: ispace

Weekend Edition
Fri-Mon / 12-15 Apr 2024

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Japan Astronauts to Join 2 Artemis Lunar Surface Missions, Perhaps Becoming First Non-Americans on Moon

Building on prior agreements under which a Japan Astronaut will join a Gateway mission in lunar orbit (JAXA is to provide life support and power for I-Hab module and deliver supplies via HTV-XG spacecraft), USA and Japan are increasing lunar cooperation to include 2 opportunities for JAXA crewmembers to join Artemis Moon landings; In exchange Japan is to provide pressurized lunar rover designed to accommodate 2 astronauts for MSP sojourns up to 30 days on Artemis mission 7 and beyond over 10 year nominal lifespan

Pictured: (Clockwise) USA President Joe Biden, Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Japan Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Masahito Moriyama, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson
Credits: JAXA, NASA

Friday / 29 March 2024

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SLIM Awakens for 3rd Lunar Day of Operations

JAXA team working at Sagamihara Campus SLIM control room are ebullient as their 2.4-m tall lunar lander reactivates yet again, enduring 2 cold nights on the Moon with temperatures below -130°C at mid-latitude landing site (-13.3160°, 25.2510°); Landscape imagery being taken via navigation camera currently amid high temperatures near 100°C with Sun relatively high overhead (necessary to power solar panels in off-nominal orientation); JAXA reports systems are mostly functioning aside from some temperature sensors and battery cells; Lunar day ends for SLIM on 30 March; SLIM team to present at Tanegashima Space Center open house 21 April

Credits: JAXA

Friday / 22 March 2024

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JAXA and Intuitive Machines Anticipate Possible SLIM and Odysseus Awakenings

2 landers currently in hibernation mode on lunar surface may reactivate in the coming days; JAXA SLIM resting within mid-latitude Mare Nectaris near Shioli crater (13.31°S, 25.25°E) may resume operations for a 3rd time since 19 Jan landing however JAXA operators caution repeated severe temperature cycles affect likelihood of late March restart; Intuitive Machines VP Trent Martin confirmed Odysseus (80.13°S, 1.44°E) in sunlight at 24th AAS Goddard Space Science Symposium currently ongoing and that IM is listening for signal; IM cash on hand stands at US$54.6M with $268.6M contract backlog

Credits: JAXA, IM

Tuesday / 27 Feb 2024

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Japan and USA Lunar Landers Are Transmitting Data From Lunar Surface

JAXA SLIM is once again functioning on the Moon following 1 lunar night and ~½ lunar day, imaging surrounds 55m east of target landing site (13.3160°S, 25.2510°E) with multiband spectroscopic camera; JAXA hopes to gain additional field of view relative to first observation campaign conducted 30-31 Jan (JST) via new commands for analysis and publication in Japanese Society for Planetary Sciences; Intuitive Machines Odysseus continues to operate from within unnamed 1-km diameter crater with 12° slope at 2,579 meters elevation, ~1.5km from target landing site (80.13°S, 1.44°E), sending imagery and data — albeit at reduced bit rate following orientation anomaly; Power loss may force end of operations morning of 27 Feb (CST) with reactivation possible next lunar day (mid-March)

 

Credits: Intuitive Machines, JAXA
 

Tuesday / 30 Jan 2024

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SLIM Awakens, Resumes Mission to Characterize Lunar Surface

The motorcycle-sized SLIM lunar lander is collecting solar energy and conducting spectral analysis of regolith near 13.3160° S, 25.2510° E landing site after 10 days of uncertainty following off-nominal descent caused by loss of 1 (of 2) 500 N main engine resulting in a flipped landing orientation requiring westward sun; Despite this adversity, SLIM did achieve 1.4 m/s soft-landing within ~55 m of precision targeted site and is set to continue collecting data until end of lunar day, ~31 Jan UTC (began ~16 Jan) within 10 spectral bands via Multiband Spectroscopic Camera (MBC); Landscape image (L) generated by completing 257 low-res images reveals first light including protuberance dubbed ‘toy poodle’

Credits: JAXA, Ritsumeikan University, University of Aizu

Tuesday / 23 Jan 2024

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Japan Celebrates Becoming 5th Nation to Soft Land on Moon as Efforts to Extend Surface Operations Continue

JAXA has met its minimum success criteria for SLIM mission by landing softly on the lunar surface, however operations were suspended when battery level reached 12% at 02:57, Jan 20 JST (17:57 on 19 Jan UTC) just hours after landing due to attitude anomaly which left solar panels oriented westward; Prior to battery disconnection, JAXA ‘obtained a lot of data‘ and hopes to receive more if lander can be reactivated as Sun moves west toward the end of the current lunar day (~30 Jan); While not designed for lunar night survivability, ‘if the spacecraft survives the -200°F night, then in two weeks’ time, it could revive again‘ per ISAS Director General Hitoshi Kuninaka

Credits: JAXA