It all looked so good in the livestream of the Japanese company ispace: The steadily approaching lunar surface from the point of view of the descending and decelerating lander, the speed and altitude above the surface at the top right of the screen, both numerical values decreasing quickly and as expected. In between, there is always a simulated view of the lander. Then, shortly before landing, the announcement that the transmission would be interrupted for touchdown in the Atlas crater, then the signal would first have to be checked before the successful landing would finally be announced.
Then the video of the stream, which was supposed to show the first commercial moon landing, switched to a pre-produced film that included scenes of the construction and testing of the Hakuto-R lunar lander – and stayed on that film as the minutes passed and the success story was a long time coming.
When the ispace team finally got back in touch, the first glance at the petrified faces of the engineers quickly showed that something had gone wrong. "We have to assume that we did not succeed in successfully completing the landing on the lunar surface," Takeshi Hakamada, CEO of ispace, announced in faltering English.
The engineers would now continue to investigate the causes. What is clear, however, is that the team is proud to have achieved so much. They would have received data from the landing and could now use it for the development of the follow-up missions. Because they would continue: "We will keep going, never quit [our] lunar quest".
The Israeli Beresheet probe also failed in 2019
Hakuto-R was launched on December 11 with a Falcon rocket from Space-X and would have made space history with a successful landing. Not only would Japan have landed on the moon as the fourth nation. The company, which originally emerged from the "Google's Lunar X Prize" competition, would also have won the race with other companies for the first commercial moon landing. In 2019, the Israeli Beresheet probe had already failed with the attempt. Also on board Hakuto-R was a small UAE rover weighing about 10 kilograms.
A number of companies are currently working on establishing a commercial transport service to the moon, which NASA in particular will use as a "Commercial Payload Service" as part of its Artemis project. For the planned construction of a future lunar base, these companies would bring experiments and materials to the moon as service providers.
If you are currently following the commercial and national lunar plans, it almost seems as if the reconquest of the Earth's satellite is something of a routine task before Mars can be set in its sights as the next target. The failed landing now reminds the public once again that, despite all the current space euphoria, it must not be forgotten what major technological challenges the advance into the wider solar system beyond Earth orbit entails – even in 2023.