A Japanese space exploration company, ispace, announced that its Resilience lunar lander has likely crashed on the moon after losing communication shortly after beginning its descent. The mission, named Mission 2 SMBC x HAKUTO-R Venture Moon, aimed to achieve a successful landing but faced a critical telemetry error that prevented essential descent calculations. CEO Takeshi Hakamada emphasized the need for swift analysis of the mission's telemetry to determine the cause of the crash. This mission follows another failed attempt earlier in 2023, demonstrating persistent challenges in lunar exploration for private enterprises.
According to the company's early findings, the laser rangefinder Resilience used to calculate the distance to the surface of the moon was operating on a delay, an error that likely prevented the lander from slowing down for a successful landing.
Given that there is currently no prospect of a successful lunar landing, our top priority is to swiftly analyze the telemetry data we have obtained thus far and work diligently to identify the cause," ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada said.
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