Europe's efforts in lunar resource commercialization faced a significant setback when the Tenacious rover, the first of its kind from Europe, lost contact during its landing attempt. This incident represents the second failure of the HAKUTO-R lunar program, which is spearheaded by Japan's ispace. The European Space Agency supported this mission, emphasizing its impact beyond Japan. If successful, Tenacious would have gathered lunar soil samples for NASA and showcased Europe's capabilities in space resource ownership and exploration.
"I think this will be very helpful to nail down what it means to commercialize space resources and how to do this on a larger scale, both in terms of volume and of global participation and coordination," ispace-EUROPE CEO Julien Lamamy told TechCrunch on the eve of the landing attempt.
Had Tenacious' Luxembourg-based operators managed to drive it around on the Moon, the rover would have captured video and gathered data. One of its missions would have been to collect lunar soil, called regolith, as part of a contract with NASA.
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